Dominic Ferry, who backed out of the October 19 forum for Board of Education candidates, has declined an invitation to participate in a new online forum that the Brookdale School Community Association (SCA) also tried to organize.
Ferry called his action a “personal decision.”
Just hours before the original in-person forum was to have been held, Ferry told the Brookdale SCA that he could not participate in it because he had been in close quarters with two people who had tested positive for COVID but, when offered an opportunity to participate via Zoom, also declined that. Ferry told this reporter the next day that he had had taken two COVID tests after his exposure, and both were negative.
No Ferry supporters showed up at the October 19 event. Other residents did, and Mike Boone, the other candidate in this year’s BOE race, took questions from them. Boone agreed to participate in the new proposed forum as well.
The October 19 forum was to have been moderated by the League of Women Voters of the Montclair Area (LWVM) using questions submitted to the Brookdale SCA by Verona residents. The League cannot endorse candidates, but its national leadership released a statement in the wake of the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol calling for then President Donald Trump to be immediately removed from office and banned for running for federal office ever again. Since then, Republican candidates have skipped League-moderated debates in several races, most recently at a school board race in Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley. Verona’s BOE and Town Council elections are non-partisan, as are the SCAs, which exist at all Verona public schools.
Ferry, who does not have a campaign website or campaign social media presence, did answer questions from MyVeronaNJ early in October, on topics ranging from parental rights to supporting LGBTQ+ students and a party at his house at which underage drinking occurred. You can read his responses, and Boone’s, here.
Asked today whether he had an obligation to explain his candidacy to all potential voters, Ferry said by text that “I’ve spoken to 1000’s of registered voters over the past month and I will speak to hundreds more.” Verona has just under 13,000 registered voters.
Pressed for clarification as to whether he could represent all children of Verona and not just those of his supporters, he texted, “I pledge to represent students, parents, teachers, administrators, and taxpayers equally regardless of who they supported.”
Early voting began Saturday, October 28, at the Verona Community Center for the state legislature, Verona Board of Education and other Essex County races. Early voting hours are Monday through Saturday from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. and Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and they will continue through Sunday, November 5. Election Day is Tuesday, November 7.
Unfortunately, I have to vote no to the proposal for additional funds for Verona’s Open Space Fund. The town council did the right thing to purchase the two large tracts of land to manage the Fair Housing nightmare. If the council would use the additional funds to just pay down debt, I would totally support the measure. However, the town council continues to decide to update our current fields and parks. Even with grants that we receive, the taxpayer is still left with a tremendous burden, which we just continue to issue bonds for. Run the town, like you run your household. If debt gets too high, you cut down on additional debt and work to pay off/down the existing debt. Once under control and only after the debt is under control, do you consider spending additional funds. This is not to say that necessary repairs are not done for safety reasons, but redoing things to make them bigger and better can definitely be put on hold while the town’s finances improve. Martin Voda