Dear Editor:
I’m sorry to hear Guttenberg Mayor Robert “Bob” Sabello isn’t running for reelection, but I can well understand his frustration with the job.
Here was a happily retired man who was asked to run for mayor by David Delle Donna, Javier Inclan and John Schwartz on their ticket for mayor and three council seats. They said he was the only one with enough experience and popularity to run for mayor and win.
Although they all won, Bob Sabello had to convince a lot of townspeople to vote for Dave Delle Donna. It seems Delle Donna isn’t very popular (he ran for and lost five elections in a row) and has reputation for being a know nothing windbag. But as Bob Sabello put it, you need three council votes to pass anything. So a lot of townspeople who wouldn’t ordinarily vote for him (myself included,) voted for him against their better judgment.
Apparently, these people thought Bob Sabello was too old to really do the job as mayor and wouldn’t be in the town hall often enough to know what was really going on. In other words, just a figurehead. Surprise! Surprise! Mayor Sabello is in his town hall office by 9 a.m. every day and doesn’t leave until 4 p.m. or later. This should put to rest any criticism about his being too old and addle brained to handle the mayor’s job.
But they also needed Bob Sabello’s knowledge, experience and political connections to help straighten out the big financial mess that would be left by Peter LaVilla’s administration. With a lot of time, effort, paperwork, telephone calls, etc., Mayor Sabello finally got it straightened out.
Then when everything was straightened out, they had the unmitigated gall, according to what I’ve heard, to ask Mayor Bob Sabello to step down from office so they could appoint David Delle Donna to finish out his term as mayor, thereby setting the stage for their reelection. They didn’t even want Mayor Sabello to get and enjoy the credit for his accomplishments. To me that’s brass, big time.
Instead of taking the easy way out, and having the town’s welfare in mind, Mayor Sabello declined their request and said he would finish out his term of office. He is also endorsing the Column “C” team for mayor and council seats in Guttenberg consisting of Thomas “Tom” Rizzi for Mayor, with Isora C. Bosch, Ivan Dominguez and Leonard Litof for the three Council seats in Guttenberg.
Harry T. Zollinger
Concerned Guttenberg resident