MAYOR JAMES REMOVES VOLUNTEER FROM GLOUCESTER CITY TREE COMMISSION
Thursday, April 07, 2011
By Bill Cleary
Two public figures, Gloucester City Mayor William James, and John Schmidt, once friends are now at odds because of comments made by Schmidt on ClearysNoteBook three months ago.
Photo: John Schmidt at Gov. Christie's Town Hall meeting in Gloucester Township
In February the mayor’s vehicle, a black hummer, parked in front of his home, was keyed. The vandal (s) who committed the crime was never identified or arrested.
A day or two after it happened Schmidt wrote an anonymous comment on ClearysNoteBook referring to an article about the Compost/Recycling facility to be built in Gloucester City. Using the alias Brooklawn resident Schmidt wrote:
This is bs. Our mayor and council have worked so hard to keep our town a nice little community. I do hope Terri can do something and shove it in Mayor James face. For our sake and for the Gloucester's sake this man needs to go. I heard someone keyed his car which I find funny. See mayor what goes around does start to come around. To all Brooklawn residents we need to fight this, go to Gloucester's council meetings and ours, oh wait your not allowed to speak at their meetings in Gloucester.
Schmidt is studying political science at a college in Washington D.C. He is one of 9 candidates running for one of the three seats that are up for grabs on the Gloucester City School Board. He holds the title of Chairman of the Gloucester City Tree Commission, a position he has held since 2009. He is a member of the Gloucester City Democrat Club.
According to Schmidt, the mayor was his grammar school basketball coach at St. Marys. Schmidt said he worked to get James elected when he first ran for office in 2006.
Schmidt admits he became a vocal critic of the mayor after his administration announced cuts in the fire department in the spring of 2010. Schmidt said in December 2010 the mayor approached him at a Democrat Club meeting and hinted that if he remained silent he might have a shot at being named a Democrat County committeeman. “I took this offer as a bribe to keep my mouth shut. The more I thought about it the more upset I became. I was wrong to write the comment. But I was frustrated. I am human.”
The mayor sent Schmidt a letter on March 24 that reads in part,
“It has come to my attention through information received during an ongoing criminal investigation being conducted by the Gloucester City Police Department that you admitted sending the anonymous comment (see above) to Cleary’s notebook website for posting.
“The creation of this e-mail and the attempt to post it online confirms the fact that you advocate, find humor in and applaud criminal acts committed upon elected officials in particular the Mayor of the City of Gloucester City.
“Realizing and respecting your First Amendment Right to Freedom of Speech, I still have grave concerns as to your integrity and your mindset as it relates to representing this administration or the City of Gloucester City in any forum, whether it voluntary or advisory in nature. Behavior such as this, conducted by a volunteer City representative is a direct negative reflection upon all of our truly dedicated advisory and volunteer committee members and it can not and will not be tolerated.
‘Mr. Schmidt is hereby removed from the Gloucester City Shade Tree Committee and he is further advised that he will not be considered for any future positions of responsibility by this administration.”
The letter was signed, William P. James, Mayor, Gloucester City
Schmidt said he was appointed by resolution to the Tree Committee for a one year term and the mayor has no power to remove him. “Former Mayor Kilcourse gave me that information.” He went on to say that he had resigned from the committee via a letter sent March 18, because, “I just don’t have the time.”
Schmidt continued, “For the most part I am a supporter of Republican Governor Chris Christie, and Republican Assemblyman Domenick DiCicco Jr. The fact that I filed a lawsuit against the City for violating OPRA and because I reached out to the other side of the isle the mayor has it out for me.”
Schmidt said he found it odd that the mayor waited until now to release his letter to the public suggesting the mayor was trying to defame him. “I am running for a position on the school board. The election is just two weeks away. And now this letter comes out.’
The OPRA lawsuit against the City and the School Board was filed by Schmidt and Michael Walters on March 3 in Camden County Superior Court.
A snippet of Schmidt’s reply to the mayor is below.
My comment, which I made, was out of frustration and anger, anger at you for what I thought was an attempted bribe by you on December 17, 2010 when you told me to stop listening to what the firefighters were saying, that they steal from the city, and that if I was quiet things would be fine. It was even implied to me that there was a spot for me in the election the next year for the Democrat County Committee. I want you to know that I do not support the actions of the person who keyed your car and I could have better worded my thoughts. However, in no way do I support criminal acts of any kind whether it is vandalism, robbery or political corruption. However, as a student of American government, I do find it funny to some extent, in the United States of America, democracy has come to this, where people have no voice in their government and that should not be the case. This is the 21st century yet we are operating as if we were in the 18th century.
The full text of Schmidt’s letter
Note from Bill: At the time of this posting the mayor had not responded to my request for a statement about Schmidt's allegations.