Dear Editor:
At Wednesday’s meeting of the Keystone Committee, Mayor Elwell employed a dishonorable political strategy aimed at tarnishing my reputation, a move he hopes will undermine the campaign of my daughter-in-law, Dawn McAdam, for election to the town council. By clear insinuation he claimed that when I ran for office in 1980, I had and concealed knowledge of contamination at the Keystone site.
The sole purpose for the meeting, as all residents in the Keystone area were advised in no uncertain terms, was to permit us to “ask questions of a technical nature” of the experts from the PMK Group who are conducting a long-term cleanup project, and who came prepared to update us as to their progress and future steps to be taken in this process. As in the past, covering several such meetings, we were informed that no questions or remarks of a political nature were to be raised, a reasonable request, given the nature of Wednesday’s meeting. Mayor Elwell, who in the past has repeatedly stressed that this condition be observed, was one of the first to abuse it.
While a neighbor was asking questions relative to the history of problems at Keystone, the mayor dragged my name into the conversation, suggesting that I was aware of the contamination during my run for office. Despite his past instructions to all that we not let this happen, he deliberately politicized this emotional issue at my expense for the purpose of damaging Dawn McAdam’s popular campaign. Of course, his ugly strategy will fail because the public will see through his desperate move.
As for myself, I unequivocally deny any such knowledge, and I leave it to the residents of Secaucus to draw their own conclusions based upon our friendship or acquaintanceship over the past 40 years. What suffers most from the mayor’s reckless remarks is the office he holds. He has truly demeaned that office!
I believe the Keystone Committee has been done irreparable damage by the mayor’s action, and I think it is time our council members dissolved this body and re-formed it. As I have suggested in the past, it should be comprised of both elected officials and private residents. In addition, the council members should give serious thought to enlisting a truly civic-minded individual who would be willing to chair this committee, preferably a layperson or a member of the clergy. Such a move would greatly enhance the credibility of this important body.
Charles McAdam