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Prospect Park mayor wins party line
Wednesday, April 5, 2006
By PAUL BRUBAKER
HERALD NEWS
PROSPECT PARK – Passaic County Democratic political support is lining up behind
Mayor Mohamed Khairullah in the upcoming June primary, which supersedes the
local party leader's backing of National Guardsman Herb Perez in the mayoral
race.
"Mohamed Khairullah has the party line and I am asking the borough leader who
she is going to appoint to run with him," county Democratic Party Chairman John
Currie said Monday.
Meanwhile, Khairullah announced that Capt. Frank Franco will be promoted to the
police chief's position that has been vacant for nearly five years.
While neither Currie nor Khairullah said they had entered into an agreement,
there were indications that the two decisions were not coincidental.
"A deal has been brokered to the satisfaction of all parties involved," said
Aref Assaf, president of the American Arab Forum.
"The fact that the chairman took initiative has avoided a second Sami Merhi
[situation] in Prospect Park," Assaf said, referring to the Lebanese-born
businessman from Totowa who was awarded, and later stripped of, the party's
endorsement for a freeholder run.
Comments Merhi reportedly made in 2002 – that he could not see a comparison
between those who attacked the United States on Sept. 11, 2001, and Palestinian
suicide bombers – led Governor Corzine and Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., to
withhold their support, which ultimately influenced the county Democratic
Committee.
Khairullah, who is Syrian, said neither he nor Councilman Adnan Zakaria, who is
Circassian, was notified that Borough Council President Esther Perez, also the
borough's Democratic leader, was conducting candidate interviews on March 18.
On March 20, Perez announced she was running for reelection on a slate that had
the county committee's "blessing," which included mayoral challenger Herb Perez,
to whom she is not related.
Also on the ticket with Herb Perez were Councilman Hassan Fahmy and National
Guardsman Thomas Jefferson.
Herb Perez and Jefferson were removed from their council seats by former Mayor
Will Kubofcik last July because of the meetings they had missed while they were
deployed overseas.
Kubofcik resigned in October because he and his family moved to Bloomingdale.
Khairullah was later appointed by the council to serve the rest of Kubofcik's
term.
Herb Perez did not return a telephone call seeking comment.
In a letter to Currie and a petition to Esther Perez signed by borough and
county committee members, Khairullah protested what he called an exclusionary
process.
"What was done was done in secret meetings without being open to me or
Councilman Zakaria," the mayor said. "Not to have an open process in the country
of Democracy is a shame."
Esther Perez said she was only following the procedures that were taught to her
by the previous borough party leader, Kubofcik, and that she intended to draft
bylaws for the borough Democratic Committee.
She has said the issue that led to her break with Khairullah was his
unresponsiveness to her suggestions to appoint Franco as police chief.
As Herb Perez announced his candidacy for mayor on March 20, he said that he
would appoint Franco to the post, which has been vacant since George Faso
retired in 2001.
Filling the chief's position was an idea Currie said he supported.
"To hold a person in a position for that long makes me think that there's
something wrong in that town," Currie said. "You don't do that to a human being
that's doing the job. You either make him or replace him."
Sheriff Jerry Speziale and members of the New Jersey Association of Chiefs of
Police had expressed similar sentiments to him about Franco in recent months,
Currie said.
But Khairullah said his intention to appoint Franco as chief on April 10 was
"absolutely not" part of a deal with Currie for the county committee's political
support.
The mayor has adopted a conciliatory stance as the possibility of a split
Democratic Party looms over the borough's 1,139 registered party members.
"I hold no grudges. As mayor, I have a responsibility to bring unity to this
party," Khairullah said.
E-mail: brubaker@northjersey.com
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