This writer served on the Englewood City Council thirty years ago when there was still a functioning local Republican Party and there were still elected Republican Council members. The controlling Democratic majority was regularly subjected to partisan criticism from within the Council, in public meetings, and in the press. Partisan controversy is indeed a normal condition in most Bergen County communities where both parties are represented on their governing bodies. In Englewood, however, with negligible exceptions, all mayors and council members have been Democrats in recent decades. Where there have been significant issues dividing the community, they have tended to be reflected in shifting divisions within the Democratic Party.

At the present time, there is what appears to be a larger division in the local Democratic Party than ever before, to the point where it resembles an old-fashioned inter-party confrontation. To attend a City Council meeting and observe the conduct of Mayor Wildes and Councilman Drakeford, an outside observer would be amazed to be told that they and the other council members are nominally all Democrats. What is going on?

As is often the case in political controversy, the fundamental dividing issue is control. As of January, 2006, with a change in one City Council seat (in the First Ward), control of the Council, and of the local government, shifted from a group associated with Bergen County Democratic boss Joe Ferriero to a group opposed to his control. Political control means the ability to award contracts, to make appointments, to nominate candidates for office, and in general to reward your friends and punish your enemies. It is not gladly relinquished.

Then, in order to govern effectively, the controlling majority in this atmosphere may need to use some of the old techniques. These include: 1) working closely together to agree on its positions before confronting the opposition, 2) careful counting of votes before introducing controversial legislation, 3) patience in the face of clearly unfair partisan attacks.

The power center of the Ferriero faction is in Englewood’s Fourth Ward. Wildes as Mayor and Drakeford as Councilman received Independent challenges in the, respectively, 2006 and 2007 elections, and both were reelected with significant Fourth Ward support. The voters in the Fourth Ward have apparently been convinced that Wildes and Drakeford represent their best interests, and that those interests are somehow different from those in the other three wards. Issues such as the possible reinstatement of former Police Chief Bowman have been irrationally inflamed in order to reinforce this notion.

An objective observer would note that Wildes has never demonstrated support for any interest except his own political advancement, and that most of the irresponsible development which so disturbs many residents took place when the City Council was under Drakeford’s control.