'Things have gotten out of hand': Red Bank mayor, councilwoman skip race after party split

RED BANK - Councilwoman Kathy Horgan said when her late husband, Drew, passed away, someone told her, “Doors will open for you, walk through them.” 

Horgan is now walking through another one. Horgan and Mayor Pat Menna have declined to run for reelection, citing power issues within the local Democratic Municipal Committee, run by Councilman Edward Zipprich. With their pending departure, he appears to have solidified control of the local Democrats, the dominant party in Red Bank politics.

Paperwork for a spot on the primary election ballot had to be filed to the borough clerk by Monday. Zipprich said the local Democratic Municipal Committee nominated Councilman Michael Ballard for mayor and Councilwoman Angela Mirandi and John Jackson for the two council seats up for grabs. Mirandi, Jackson and Ballard did not respond to requests for comment.

“I’ve served for 15 years. After a certain time, new blood is important so other people need to step up to the plate and run,” Horgan said. “However, yes, it’s part of my decision that things have gotten out of hand in Red Bank on the council, where it’s more about power than doing what’s best for the residents.”

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Menna echoed similar sentiments. He said the local Democratic Municipal Committee declined to recommend him, which could force him to run as an independent. 

“In a town like Red Bank, it’s difficult to win. I think I could win it, but it would be very hard.” 

How we got here

The Borough Council, which is all Democrats, has been split into two factions, with council members Zipprich, Ballard, Mirandi and Jacqueline Sturdivant usually voting together. Councilwomen Kathy Horgan and Kate Triggiano have voted with the majority at times, but at other times they have been opposed. In the borough's form of government, the mayor only votes in the event of a tie. 

The factions had been evenly split. In last year's primary race, voters in the Democratic primary split their choices and voted for Triggiano and Sturdivant, even though they ran on rival slates.

But earlier this year, Councilman Erik Yngstrom, who had often sided with Triggiano and Horgan, decided to quit, writing, “We have strayed far from this collaborative mindset and seem more focused on political gains and people trying to keep their perceived political power.”

Mirandi was chosen from a pool  of three candidates to fill the vacancy by the local Democratic Municipal Committee, which is chaired by Zipprich.  

By law, when there is a vacancy, the mayor nominates one of the three candidates, which would then be voted on by the Borough Council. 

Menna choose Stephen Hecht, but his nominee fell through due to larger faction not supporting Hecht’s nomination. After interrupting Hecht’s nomination three times, Ballard’s nomination for Mirandi was taken up, and Mirandi was voted onto council in a 3-2 vote. 

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After the vote, Horgan, a member of the Democratic Municipal Committee, said she and Triggiano were left out of the nomination process and later sued the local Democratic Municipal Committee, Zipprich and the borough for keeping certain members from voting. She said she did not see Mirandi’s resume before the vote took place. 

Menna said his decision not to run was based on the simple numbers in control of the council. 

“Even if I won, I still inherit a council that’s 4-2 and soon would be 5-1 against whatever," he said. " I don’t have the ability to suggest anything.”

Jonathan Maciel Penney, a former candidate for council with the Republican Party, said the local GOP has submitted placeholder candidates for the two council seats and the position of mayor, but are not releasing their names to the public yet. 

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Point of contention

A point of contention includes how the borough government is run. 

Zipprich, Ballard, Sturdivant and Mirandi have voted to keep power with the Borough Council and not give it to a separate business administrator. 

“We had an executive business administrator who took away all of the authority of the committee that the governing body was responsible for overseeing,” Zipprich said. He argued that the Borough Council should be given more responsibility and that the business administrator should have a diminished role.

Menna and Horgan disagree. 

Menna said that form of government is inefficient and “It leads to this type of polarization.” 

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He said, “I actually would favor a professional, not political administrator, to actually run the town. … The day-to-day operations should be run professionally without political interference. … (Currently) we have six different council people who basically run amok and do whatever they want to do. It creates a lot of confusion and turmoil.” 

Business Administrator Ziad Shehady resigned in April 2021 after three years in the job. Police Chief Darren McConnell stepped in as Red Bank’s interim business administrator.

Menna said he had commissioned a management enhancement report in 2018 to study the borough government. The report found low morale and poor communication issues. It found that the borough gave more power to elected officials in day-to-day government business and recommended a change in government, which a group of five elected charter study commission members are considering. 

The report said, “People cannot have eight different 'bosses' to report to.” 

Both Horgan and Menna said they hope the charter study commission will recommend a nonpartisan form of government. 

“I think we can say this nationwide, we’re becoming very disillusioned with the traditional parities, political parties, because it turns out to be more about power than actually making serious decisions and legislation,” Horgan said. 

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For Menna, this could be the end of more than three decades in Red Bank politics. He served on the council for 18 years before being elected mayor in 2006, succeeding Edward McKenna. He has won reelection three times since then. The mayor serves a four-year term.

Horgan's involvement in local politics started through her husband, Drew Horgan, an international expert on local governments, who traveled across the world with Kathy, working with municipal governments in Spain, Turkey and the former Yugoslavia before meetings of Red Bank’s borough government.

When her husband died, residents who knew Drew began contacting Horgan, asking her to serve on different local committees and volunteer with a few nonprofits. Fifteen years ago, Horgan won her first council seat. And for the next four elections, she continued to win three-year terms. 

She pointed to the Bellhaven Park project and the council’s work to get residents COVID-19 vaccine shots as some of her proudest achievements. She said “I have received hate mail at times, because you can’t please everyone. … It has been a wonderful experience, not always pleasant, could be frustrating, but I just never regret that I have served, that I ran and severed in town.” 

Horgan said she will run for a spot on the Monmouth County Democratic Committee, while Menna declined to specify what he will do next politically, but said, “You never say no.” 

Olivia Liu is a reporter covering transportation, Red Bank and western Monmouth County. She can be reached at oliu@gannett.com.