County freeholders rarely divided, according to report

BRIDGETON - Rarely does a resolution which comes before the Cumberland County freeholder board divide the freeholders.

Some critics of Cumberland County's all-Democrat freeholder board point to this lack of diversity in its voting record as a negative.

With Republican Tom Sheppard's election win this week, there will be at least one voice from the opposing political party come January.

Will this translate into more disagreements when it comes down to voting on issues?

Does it really matter?

Statistics released recently by the Cumberland County Democratic Organization show the county freeholder board - both past and present - rarely clashes in voting on resolutions.

A report by Louis J. Magazzu, master's student and son of Cumberland County Freeholder Director Lou Magazzu, looked at three recent years of voting statistics by the county freeholder board. Those years are 1999, 2002 and 2008.

In those three years, in which two of the freeholder boards were controlled by Democrats, at least 98 percent of resolutions passed without dissent.

In 1999, out of 741 resolutions and three ordinances, only three resolutions failed to receive a unanimous pass.

The all-Democrat freeholder board in 1999 consisted of Freeholder Director Doug Fisher, Magazzu, Jennifer Swift, Bruce Peterson, Chuck Griffiths, Donna Pearson and Robert Smith.

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