Councilman Steve Boracchia gave a lengthy but calm and professional response to the resident who charged the councilman falsely claimed credit for protecting open space in the borough. “At best, Chiles had said, “their recent campaign claim is a gross exaggeration…at worst, it is insincere and misleading.”
Not so at all, said Boracchia, inviting verification before explaining in detail the role he played in preserving waterfront acreage on the Denholtz tract for public use as waterfront recreation for borough residents. He also provided several emails confirming what he said that clearly show the support. As video is posted at Committee to elect Stephen Boracchia, and Brian Boms | Facebook is available for those who want to hear it firsthand.
Last week, Chiles charged on the Democratic Club website that he had previously endorsed the GOP candidate for mayor and GOP candidates on her assurance they would protect the waterfront property, saying the Democratic incumbent had undermined efforts to do so. He said he was assured the GOP would do “everything within their power” to preserve the tract for a park.”
After the election, he said, they did nothing to protect the land so much as doubting if they even met with the developer for discussion. So, when the governing body finally retained acreage for waterfront use, he believes credit does not belong to them, but rather to the residents “who did everything they could think of to preserve this property and forcing a successful appeal of the planning board’s approval for development.”
Somehow, Chiles failed to mention that he was in contact with Boracchia from Aug 12 through November that year. That’s when Boracchia sponsored the ordinance at a workshop that Benson and he had worked on for the purpose of limiting the development. Boracchia said this came after Chiles invited him to meet via phone with his NWP attorney Kevin Asadi, to review the legal options. Boracchia also had the borough attorney, Jason Sena review the ordinance to be introduced. The documentation was made available to me in response to queries and full disclosure.
Emails also show that NWP knew that there were no longer any legal options, and the developer did conform his project as required, giving him the right to build the entire project as originally planned.
“Emails between us show that Mr. Chiles thanked me for my help and the minutes of the workshop also reveal he thanked the council as well for their support,” the councilman responded to questioning. “The record shows that even Mr. Chiles’ wife supported the ordinance during public comment.”
The week following the ordinance workshop, the developer called borough hall and told both the borough administrator and mayor he was willing to give approximately two acres to the town. At that point, NWP was able to step back in and handle the details, Boracchia said.
Boracchia also pointed out in his response to Chiles the numerous phone calls the pair had exchanged, and that it was he, Boracchia who had actually introduced the ordinance for public land preservation, but failed to have any support from the rest of the governing body initially.
“I never said I did this alone,” Boracchia said. “I always said his group did the heavy lifting and I had a small part in it, though important. Unfortunately, the initial lawsuit wasn’t successful and a lot of money was spent, but it appears that by working together the waterfront park did become a reality,” the councilman concluded..
