Noticias

Veteran Atlantic County Commissioner Ernest D. Coursey, Sr., who announced earlier this year that he would not seek re-election to a fifth term because of health issues, died early this morning.  He was 62.

He has been the lone Democrat in county government.

“I am terribly saddened by the passing of my friend Ernest Coursey. Ernest had a gifted political mind and a solid pragmatism to him that made him an effective public servant. He exemplified Otto von Bismarck’s maxim that ‘politics is the art of the possible,” said Atlantic County Democratic Chairman Michael Suleiman.  “The fact that he earned the respect of Republicans and Democrats alike, despite having strongly-held beliefs, is a testament to his many years of goodwill, constituent service, and dedication to Atlantic County. I will miss Ernest’s sense of humor, political savvy, and friendship. My thoughts and prayers are with his wife Leslie and their two sons.”

Coursey served as an Atlantic City councilman from the Third Ward from 1991 to 2002, serving a stint as council president.  He served as an aide to U.S. Senator Bob Torricelli and as a commissioner of the South Jersey Transportation Authority; Coursey was the deputy mayor of Atlantic City while Lorenzo Langford held the post.

He was elected freeholder, the precursor to county commissioner, and was re-elected in 2016, 2019, and 2022

In 2017, he was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for State Assembly in the 2nd legislative district, but finished third in a six-candidate primary with 3,852 votes; he trailed future Assemblyman John Armato (D-Buena) by 1,744 votes.

He announced last year that he would run on gubernatorial candidate Steve Fulop’s ballot slogan and not seek the support of the county organization.

His seat will be filled on an interim basis by the Atlantic County Democrats.

The post Ernest Coursey, four-term Atlantic county commissioner, dies at 62 appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

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A little phone etiquette to start the day.

Let me start the conversation with an honest and direct observation – we don’t use the telephone nearly enough and this has greatly reduced our personal connectivity, and that is a shame. This problem was remarkably impacted by Covid and five years later the aftereffects are not only felt but compounded along the way.

This shouldn’t be news to us, but far too many of us are content with texting as a total substitute for communicating, as opposed to by phone or God forbid, direct one on one physical conversations. This needs to change.

In lieu of the all-important face to face interaction, I suggest that you start picking up the phone and calling friends, allies, and family members that you can tolerate and even coworkers and clients. Nothing can replace a good ole fashioned conversation between two people.

As I stated before, Covid has somehow normalized texting and validated it as an official and acceptable means of communication. News flash – it isn’t an acceptable mode of communication, and it is a major problem, and  if we continue to rely upon this as our primary means of communication within our community, we will continue to lose real contact with the rest of the world.

And another thing, and I think Bill Murray and Scarlett Johansson can be put to good use here,  using text messages will invariably cause something to be lost in translation. The real problem with texting is that texting doesn’t allow the luxury of denoting humor, sarcasm, snark, or any emotion and far too many wars have started with a simple miscommunication.
Moving on, when we do place a telephone call or receive a call, there are some basic ground rules.

I shouldn’t have to give a tutorial about good manners to observe on the phone, except one – be absolutely crystal clear as to whom you are talking to or who else is privy to that conversation. Absent a friendly incursion by the FBI or some law enforcement agency, you should not have to worry about anyone else listening in to a conversation. Ready for a shock—more times than not, when you think you are having that private one on one conversation, there are more than two parties participating. You would be surprised how many times you are in the middle of a private conversation, and you suddenly discover that you are on a speaker phone and others are in the background. Or how about when you call someone and after 15 minutes into that call you hear a cough in the background or a whispering from a third party?  Not cool. But again, this happens more than you think.

The takeaway is that it is entirely unprofessional and creepy if you are on a private call, and you don’t disclose the presence of a third party. It doesn’t matter if it is a co-worker, an intern, parent , child, or amazon delivery person, you must disclose always when you are on speaker phone and when a third party is within earshot of the conversation.

The post The O’Toole Chronicles: Three is a Crowd appeared first on New Jersey Globe.

The margin of victory in the Democratic primary for Roselle Borough Council has dropped from three votes to two after a court-ordered recount was conducted today.

Incumbent Cynthia Johnson now leads 1,496 to 1,494 for her opponent, Cynthia Johnson.

The Union County Board of Elections conducted a hand count of 637 vote-by-mail ballots, 44 provisional ballots, and 155 ballot cards.  Additionally, the results of 63 voting machines from the at-large race were reloaded and compared to the results after a July 16 recheck.

Now, Johnson and her attorney, Alyssa Zara of King Moench, are expected to challenge the final results of the election in court.

The recount was conducted after a two-judge state appellate court panel overturned a decision by Superior Court Judge John Deitch to deny a recount earlier last month.

The reversal of the lower court ruling came after a recheck of machines found a discrepancy in the number of votes cast and the number that were actually counted.

“We conclude this factual discrepancy deserves some additional scrutiny since it might implicate a question of law,” wrote Appellate Court Judge Jeffrey Jablonski, who wrote the decision for himself and Judge Maria Berdote Byrne.  “To ensure the validity of the election, a recount is appropriate.”

There are no other candidates on the ballot in the at-large council race.

A conference with attorneys is set for Friday.

The post Recount drops Roselle councilwoman’s margin from three to two appeared first on New Jersey Globe.