Everyone wave and say "Hi Nancy!"
Keady to leave Asbury Park council
By Nancy Shields COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU December 2, 2008
ASBURY PARK City Councilman James Keady said Wednesday he will
step down from the council at the end of this month, six months
before his four-year term is up, and will not seek re-election.
Keady, 37, who directs the nonprofit Educating for Justice company,
won his first term on the five-member City Council in 2005. He often
criticized the waterfront redevelopment plan, which had been put in
place about three years before he was elected.
Deputy Mayor James Bruno said Wednesday that he, Mayor Kevin Sanders
and Councilmen John Loffredo and Ed Johnson will all run together in
their re-election bids for new terms in the spring. It will be the
third terms for Sanders, Bruno and Loffredo and the second full term
for Johnson.
Bruno said the ticket would not have run with Keady if he had sought
office again. At times during his tenure on the council, Keady has
been able to work with the other members. But at other times, he has
been the outsider, not accepted by, or accepting of, his colleagues
because of strong differences in how best to govern and how best the
city could recover from years of poverty and economic instability.
Keady, whose first child was born last summer, said he's stepping
down six months before his term is up in part because of his new
role in parenting and in part because his traveling schedule for his
company has been more hectic, with many trips in the U.S. and abroad.
"There are only 24 hours in a day, and something had to give," Keady
said.
City Clerk Stephen Kay said the council will have 30 days after Dec.
31 to appoint someone to fill Keady's post. Otherwise it will stay
vacant until the May 12, 2009, city election of all five seats.
Bruno said he and his council colleagues plan to appoint someone who
will run with them in the spring. He said he's aware that the
council has been all male since Councilwoman Kate Mellina stepped
down shortly before her term was to end in 2005. Bruno said finding
a female candidate will be considered.
"We haven't discussed a fifth person," he said. "But now it's
happening a little faster."
The filing deadline for next year is March 19.
Keady thanked his supporters in a post on a local Asbury Park blog
Wednesday. And then he turned to those who may have opposed him.
"For those of you who at times disagreed with my policy decisions, I
also thank you, because I know that you did so out of your love for
Asbury Park, and I deeply respect that," the councilman said.
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