Way to go, Phil! I completely agree with your sentiments of the lack of communication from our town government during this crisis, as I am sure most residents do. Can't wait to see the response(s)!

thank you Chief Crosson as I so concur with your opinions of our local officials...

Well said. We realize this is a crisis, but communication was nonexistant for far to long, leaving us all nothing but whatever we could find on facebook to keep us informed. We also need to know that our officials are fighting for us as hard as those of other towns.

Bravo Mr. Crosson! It is very sad & disappointing that those we are supposed to be able to trust & depend on don't seem to care about anyone but themselves. I too, thank & commend our FD, EMS & PD for a fantastic job. I & several others have also emailed mayor Petillo (as well as all Counsil members, County & state officials such a Congress members, Freeholders & the Governor himself) with the same response you've gotten. NONE!

Well said.... I would have thought our area would have learned something from last year but it does not seem so. What they need to learn is under promise - over deliver. All I have seen is over promise - under deliver. I also agree that there was ZERO communication. I had and still have no idea what is going on. I still have no power. If you tell me I will not have power for 4 weeks I can prepair for that, when you tell me I WILL have power in a few hours in my section of town and it does not happen, leaves me depressed. We need honesty not lies, we are all adults here and can deal with the bad news. I do not believe in bashing anyone and I will not bash our mayor, I just thing she does not have the ability to lead our communinty in the time of an emergency.

Also, the next town meeting needs to be held at a larger hall to accomodate the number of residents that seem to want to attend. If the high school is not open by then, they should prepare St Jude Parish Hall for the crowd. If they don't have the meeting at a larger hall, then we will all know why they left it to remain at the borough hall. God forbid the mayor & town council get bashed by too many people in person over this communication fiasco (and I'm NOT talking about JCP&L!!)! What ever happened to caring about the community that you lead? It was sadly forgotten by our borough's government. This situation WILL NOT be easily forgotten by so many!

I wholeheartedly agree with Philip's comments and observations. Our mayor is our official voice and she has failed us.
Now at 14 days without power while the Governor and JCPL are stating we are restored
, we need to be our own voice and go directly to the NJ BPU and call Christies office to let him know we are still in the dark.

Thank you!

Well Said! <3

Well said!!! Thank you!!

well said. Mayor- we all await your response. Cert memebers- EXCELLENT JOB!!!!
kudos to police

She did give us a bed bug update from shelter. I'm sure power update is coming.

Philip, thank you for summing up our frustrations. Please post her response when it comes. LOL. I called Christie's office today and left a message in the general mailbox about what is really going on here. 609-292-6000. I urge you all to call as well. If our local administration will not look out for us, we need to be our own voice.

Excellant communication from someone on the front lines that can validate the experiences. Thank you for sharing this and best of luck to you and yours ...

MIA Mayor - I find it sad that not only do you not respect/support the community that elected you, you also have no clue what professional courtesy is. What time on tuesday when you return from your vacation would you like me to show up to accept your resignation letter? i've already written it just need your signature ...

Very well said Phil!
The mayor and council in this town should be up in arms with JCPL as that is what is occuring by the leadership in the towns all around us and it is working. Sparta held a emergency council meeting a few days after the storm to appropriate funds to allow their DPW to work overtime and cut down trees so that JCPL could start restoring power to their residents. Guess what, the majority of Sparta had power by LAST weekend. There were a few towns that did this instead of just placing cones on roads for 14 days. Could our council have had some sort of emergency meeting and perhaps thought of doing something similar to this or something else to perhaps expedite the chance of having power again delivered to the town? The answer to that is simple, yes...did they do anything; the answer to that everyone already knows.

LEADERSHIP - the position or function of a leader, a person who guides or directs a group.an act or instance of leading; guidance; direction.

I have heard about how the mayor has been up to the shelter serving food,etc; that is not part of the definition I have attached above. That is called voluntering which is a fantastic thing for anyone to do, but perhaps she could send her husband to serve food and she could chase after JCPL and other local county officials. This would be acting more like a LEADER AND A MAYOR!!!!!!

Thank you Philip. You certainly made your point and your request is very reasonable. We were promised our power back on Sunday at the latest. Here it is 4:20 PM and still no power. More and more promises broken...The shelter is supposed to be closing today. Where are those folks going to go if there is still no power?

The message is too long, she probably never got to the end of it. The others copied probably didn't read it at all since it was not addressed to them. The fact that it was from a republican or a police chief of some other town should not matter to the mayor at all.

If your want to communicate with someone who is busy, keep the message to a few sentences.

Phil expressed what we are all feeling, perception is everything and the overwhelming perception is we have lacked leadership during this crisis.. I know other towns have had their leadership using everything at their disposal, fire halls open for showers daily updates from other than the superintendent of schools, door to door checks and information handed out..etc...etc..etc....Phil just said out loud and publicly what we are all thinking, he is a life long respected resident and I for one would love to see in run for Mayor and win

Bravo Phil you letter says it all!! Sadly though I don't think you will get any response. The only time they will understand is when we vote them out!!!

Got power back on west end ave ya hoo

Well said....If I was mayor, my main breaker in my house would be in the off position until power was restored to every street in my community. Lead by example. COOLIDGE TRAIL STILL DARK MAYOR

Phil for mayor!

I would love to see that too!

Well said Chief Crosson...and thank you!

Well, I've been in defense of the mayor assuming that people were taking out their anger and any frustration on her, being the target. Keeping in mind that she's never dealt with a disaster of this proportion,,,I agree there is room for growth. With that said, an official with more experience than I probably can see the objective picture better. I just don't know. People? Lets all settle down. Breathe

Nothing to settle down for, our mayor failed us. We need a new municipal government and we need to give JCP&L the boot. This is the third time in 14 months that they have failed us.

Thanks Phil, I would love to have you as our mayor. You have my vote. Again thank you for reaching out.

To be fair do you think with all that was going on the Mayor should have been sitting down in her office answering emails? If she was doing that every would tear her apart for that.

Well said Philip. Thank you all that helped out in our time of need. Vermont trial has power as of 8pm

To be fair Chief, who are you kidding? Maybe we should be checking your records in Chatham. Let's see all the OT and comp time that you have put in for over the last 2 weeks. What did you do for your neighbors out of the kindness of your heart? While the mayor of Hopatcong and several council members spent the last 2 weeks running everywhere and being true leaders, you were collecting a sizable public salary complaining about what you do not have. Personally I am glad that you have aligned with free spending Democrats like Mara Modes, it is obvious that you are more interested in your own welfare and nobody else.

Jessica, of course you are right, she shouldn't have taken the time to respond to the many, many emails she was receiving. You are right to say (in not so many words) that it would have been time away from her real responsibilities as mayor. There are so many other things that she could have been doing, instead, from her desk to help all of her citizen through this time of major crisis (and I do not mearly suggest only the issues with JCP&L). Some examples that I will cite here are: #1 plan emergency town meetings (more than just one) to address the public on all issues at hand (power & otherwise); #2 continual updates to everyone regarding power restoration, including updated iteneraries of what was done and when by each town official to assist in this matter, as well as the exact responses they received; #3 continually advising where to get potable & non-potable water; #4 timely communication on where to get gas (this would have been extremely helpful when we were all experiencing the shortages); #5 where to dispose of your garbage since there was no pickups allowed due to road closures; and the list goes on and on.....and on, still.

And I know that a lot of this information, along with other information she, herself, should have been distributing, eventually appeared on the Hopatcong Police FB page, and maybe she thinks this is not part of her job description, but when we are all in crisis mode, it is her DUTY to keep us all informed of important matters, no matter how small they may seem to her. Communication (which we all know is key) from Hopatcong's government has been seriously lacking to its townspeople in a HUGE way and has become a disaster in itself. We all, obviously, use social media to connect on the web, however, there are still many residents who do not/can not do that, so how does the information reach them? What ever happened to caring about the community that you lead? It was sadly forgotten by our borough's government in our greatest time of need. This situation WILL NOT be easily forgotten by so many!

And, to add......I would definitely vote for Phil for Mayor!

No what she should have been doing was handing her job, which is to run the town in good times and bad times.

It was important for the Mayor to be at the shelter. This was a voting poll location and she impressed the clueless by being there and insured that Bunce and Gallant got enough votes to beat out the 2 opposition council candidates. Her Pastor was there too and he gave a sermon at the shelter. A member of this congregation told me the Pastor told them to vote all Republican. So the Mayor achieved her objective by being present at the shelter - her favored council members were re-elected. So that is all that matters. Funny after the elections the shelter did not need spiritual counseling by the former Norwegian Cruise Line Chaplin. Nice letter but Hopatcong is filled with lemmings and the inteligent people of Hopatcong don't speak up nor attend Town Meetings. I do attend Town Meetings and protest what I see that is wrong but I only have 5 min and I am laughed off. We have a Town Attorney that represents the BIG MONEY landholders of Hopatcong that get special concessions and BIG Real Estate TAX exemptions but no one cares because it is all legal. No one puts up a fight. We are so agreeable to a town wide tax reassessment. No one supported my protest at the Town Meeting. So this JCP&L drama will pass too - Hopatcong people just complain and forget and Pastor K knows how to round up his Bible folks to support the Mayor & co when the votes count. It's a done deal. They won the election and your letter is just an annoyance in their grand scheme of things.

I couldn't agree more. Cannot wait to hear a response.

Jessica, the mayor had time to work on getting a FB page together so residence can get informed. Really??? We are without power unable to retrieve information on a FB page from the mayor. However, this does tell me that the mayor had time to listen or read this email from a concerned citizen of this town.

Very sad to here this. I am truly sorry for the residents here in this beautiful place.
Please let me know if I can help with ANY hazard trees in this area. I have moved my crew and Equiptment here across country from Seattle WA to help. I have been through 2 major hurricanes growing up on Kauai.
425-830-8820

While I agree with much of the sentiment expressed in Phil's letter, I find it odd that Patch has chosen to title this article "Chatham Police Chief Says Email to Hopatcong". Was this e-mail written in Phil's professional capacity as a law enforcement officer and employee of Chatham township? No, I did not think so. If I was Phil's employer I am not sure I'd be pleased with this headline.

To be clear, I am not criticizing Phil, but rather Patch for how they have chosen to spin this e-mail.

Back to the topic of communications from the municipal government; what happened to the reverse 911 phone calls after the storm? We received several of these calls immediately before the storm but known after. Aside from the near daily updates from the Borough Schools (nice work), we received no broadcast phone calls from the municipality after the storm. Also the Hopatcong Borough Facebook page was a disappointment (and that is being generous). Why was the Borough website not better utilized for communications? Thanks to the Hopatcong Police Department for their Facebook and its regular updates.

Michele, unfortunately the Towm meetings are held in a tiny space & I feel that's because they DON'T want too many of us residents to attend . You're getting 5 minutes then laughed off because that's all they allow. I've been to a meeting & maybe it was you that called out the BS before myself & another could. They need to hace mtgs held in a large area such as a school's gymnasium or someplace large like that, they also need to allow more than 5 minutes. Maybe it should be 5 minutes per person. There was definitely a huge lack of communication. I do hope that if Chief Crosson is able to run for Mayor, I would certainly vote for him, as would my husband & several others I know. As a Chief of Police he may not have the time. I do hope he will seriously consider running.

Why did the police dept., the mayor and JCP&L think that we all could see their facebook pages when we had no power? I for one could not and I found it very frustrating.

Thank you Phil for expressing what many of us have been feeling. I agree with the poster above that the next Council meeting needs to be at a large facility. To my mind, our town government both those elected and those employed largely failed the populace at large. Communication was/is the greatest failure but it was not the only one. What needs to happen is a post-sleep calm, reasoned review of what happened (the good the bad and the ugly) and a re-write of the disaster plan(s) to FIX it for next time. What form the next time will take, none of us know, but each of us and the Borough need to be much better prepared.

The only place I saw the Mayor was at the HS.
I guest the council was out running with the JCP&L people that no one could fine.