At the May 31 council meeting Mayor Hsueh demonstrated how gifted a politician he is. When faced with opposition to his plan for Nash Park, he got a number of Democratic committee members to bash me for having the temerity to ask him questions. When that didn’t have the intended effect, he pulled the ultimate political weapon and accused opponents of being racist. That essentially silenced council members and cut off the debate. Who wants to be accused of being racist no matter how unfair the charge may be?
Mr. Hsueh, when 60 percent of West Windsor council is Asian, your accusation of racism only shows how weak your argument is. Time and again you have shown that you would rather malign the person asking questions than engage in an honest debate about your policies. Let me answer some of the accusations made against me.
Why raise objections at the last minute? Given the size of the project, it must have been in the works for at least a year. However, the mayor waited exactly 12 days before the ceremony to announce it. The question should be, why did you keep it secret for so long?
It has been done before. This argument falls apart even upon cursory examination. The project was negotiated in secret. Only the mayor knows how much the gift is worth, the identity of the donors, and what if anything was promised in return. Show me one other project in West Windsor negotiated by a single individual (even if it happens to be the mayor) where the terms of the agreement were kept secret before the deal was signed.
At the council meeting, all council members admitted that they had no idea about the cost of the project, the donor(s), and what conditions were attached. The people castigating me are demanding that the township sign a contract whose terms are unknown.
But “it’s legal.” This is the saddest of all arguments. The standard in West Windsor should be higher than “I can find a way to get around the law.” At the same meeting the council enacted an ordinance to give away the stones at the Grover Farm. Is it the mayor’s position that the stones at the Grover Farm are more important than a park in the center of West Windsor? Is it his position that he can strike any deal on behalf of the township without disclosing the terms as long as he can get the township attorney to bless it?
One of the mayor’s supporters asked council to look at the optics of the meeting. The optics were that only the mayor knows how much the gift is worth, the identity of the donor(s), and what if anything was promised in return. No written record of it has yet been provided to council.
These are valid questions that should have been addressed before moving forward. It is very unfortunate that the integrity of people asking questions is being attacked and the mayor has resorted to charges of racism.
Hemant Marathe
Vice President,
West Windsor Council
