Activist arrested at fort reuse meeting
Wants veterans, environment, homeless in the plans
BY SUE MORGAN
Staff Writer

Gerald Tarantolo Mayor of Eatontown

Environmental and peace activist Tom Mahedy was arrested last week after persistent questioning of members of the panel charged with charting the future of Fort Monmouth once it ceases operation as a military base.

"Will you take a vow of nonviolence?," a question directed at the new executive director of the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Planning Authority (FMERPA), apparently was the final straw that led to Mahedy being removed from the Sept. 26 meeting and his subsequent arrest on disorderly conduct charges.

Mahedy said in an interview last week that the challenge he offered to members of the state-sanctioned authority during the public portion of the panel's meeting did not warrant his arrest by police officers stationed inside the council chambers at Eatontown Borough Hall, where the most recent session took place.

A Wall Township resident and U.S. Navy veteran, Mahedy said he is frustrated by the public-private authority's move to limit speakers from the general public to a three-minute window.

What Mahedy has to say about preserving the Earth and assisting military veterans and the homeless who rely on services now offered at Fort Monmouth's medical facilities and shelters cannot be said in three minutes, he insists.

"Three minutes is too short," said Mahedy, who faces charges of disorderly conduct stemming from his arrest by Eatontown police. "I wanted to challenge that. I did.

"It's frustrating to try to convey complex ideas or a vision in that time," he continued. "[The authority] doesn't seem to be open to those ideas."

During the nearly three-hour-long meeting, Mahedy addressed the authority three times about how he believes the 1,126-acre U.S. Army base ought to be reinvented once it is shut down by the Pentagon in September 2011.

Each time, he spoke beyond the three-minute limit, much to the obvious chagrin of authority Chairman Robert Lucky.

On Mahedy's second go-round at the microphone, Lucky bluntly ordered the activist to sit down.

"You've had more to say than some of the members on this committee," Lucky said.

During his third time at the microphone, Mahedy asked the authority members to step down from their appointed posts and allow an organization he has formed, the Fort Monmouth Earth Renaissance Peace Alliance, which shares the FMERPA acronym, to take their places.

"You've shown very clearly you're not interested in my vision," Mahedy said.

He then asked the authority's newly hired executive director, Frank Cosentino, who was sitting in the front row, to "take a vow of nonviolence."

It was at that point that Eatontown Police Officer John DiGiovanni approached Mahedy, advised him that his time was up and told him to sit down. Mahedy refused and continued addressing the authority.

DiGiovanni then took the microphone away from Mahedy, placed it back in its stand, and led the speaker out of the chambers, even as he continued to talk.

Once outside, DiGiovanni and Officer Ryan Hennelly told Mahedy twice to leave the building or face arrest, according to Eatontown Police Chief George Jackson.

"He was advised to leave the building two times or he would be arrested," Jackson said. "He said, 'I'm not leaving.' "

DiGiovanni decided to arrest Mahedy and charge him with disorderly conduct, but did not handcuff him, Jackson said.

"[Mahedy] did not resist arrest," Jackson said.

Mahedy was then processed at police headquarters and released with a municipal court summons for today, the chief said.

On Friday, Mahedy recalled that the officers did say they would arrest him if he refused to leave borough hall.

"I said that I wanted to continue talking," Mahedy said. "I wanted to finish my statement. That's when I was taken downstairs [to police headquarters]."

Eatontown Mayor Gerald Tarantolo, an authority member, said that he summoned the two officers to the council chambers after Mahedy had spoken twice and each time refused to sit down when Lucky asked him to do so.

Lucky supported that move, said Tarantolo, who said he called on police because his home municipality was hosting the authority meeting.

It was more than Mahedy's challenging the three-minute limit that bothered Lucky and Tarantolo.

"[Mahedy] began to verbally attack some of the members on the authority," Tarantolo said in an interview last week. "He questioned our motives for what we are doing."

The authority has been charged by the state government with finding new uses for Fort Monmouth's infrastructure after it closes and attracting new jobs to the base to replace those that will be lost when the installation's mission shifts to the Aberdeen (Md.) Proving Ground under the federal Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) process.

Mahedy is incorrect in stating that the authority has not considered the peaceful aspects or environmental aspects that Fort Monmouth could be used for, Tarantolo said, pointing to the panel's recent discussions about the future of both the Patterson Army Health Clinic and the Veterans Affairs Hospital and its outreach to homeless prevention organizations.

Mahedy's call that the authority members remove themselves from the panel without any evidence that they had violated their charter was the last straw, Tarantolo said.

"I felt [Mahedy] overstepped his bounds," Tarantolo said. "He became very abusive and we had him removed.

"We did allow him to exceed the time limit," the mayor continued. "He went on double the time limit. Then he began making derogatory remarks when he didn't have any data to support what he was saying."

Mahedy said his request that the authority step down and allow his grassroots group to serve was more symbolic, and not meant to be taken literally by authority members.

What Mahedy was actually trying to do was convince the authority to "go the opposite way" and not pursue uses that would promote war and violence.

"If they can't consider peace and nonviolence, then they should step down," Mahedy said, adding that he believes the authority could do that.

Mahedy said he is concerned by what he perceives as the authority's favoritism toward the Patriots Alliance, a coalition of military contractors who work at the post.

When Lucky agreed at a meeting in August to form a subcommittee to work with the Patriots Alliance in their proposal for a transitional plan between Fort Monmouth and the Maryland base, Mahedy said he saw a red flag.

"To subsidize military contractors sends the wrong message," he said.

"I've seen how the military has worked with big business and exploited people and land."

The authority's choice of Cosentino, who most recently worked in land development, also troubles Mahedy.

"I called upon [Cosentino] to adopt a vow of nonviolence," Mahedy said. "At that moment, I was pulled away [by police]."

As to why he did not sit down when Lucky asked him to do so, Mahedy said he feels that he must stand up to a panel that has continued to disrespect his views and that has tried to intimidate and bully the public at large, especially with the newly instituted three-minute speaking limit.

"This whole structure is unjust," Mahedy said. "That corporations get first dibs and special treatment is unjust. Subsidizing military subcontractors is unjust. Their past treatment of me has been unjust."

Like the authority, Mahedy hopes to see new jobs at the fort that promote the environment and peaceful enterprises.

"I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings," he said. "I want to see people commit to healing and make sure the [veterans] hospital doesn't close down. It's a very serious situation."

In spite of the arrest, the public, including Mahedy, should not be intimidated to come to and speak at authority meetings, Tarantolo said.

"The public has every right to express themselves," said Tarantolo.

"But when you are in a meeting with the general public, you have to have some control over the process. We have arbitrarily set a three-minute rule."

Tarantolo maintained that the borough police treated Mahedy professionally and removed him "gently" from the room.

"[Mahedy] has every right to express himself, but he has to do it not in a disruptive way," Tarantolo said.

Mahedy said he will be back.

"I oppose war as a means of settling disputes," he said. "I want to try to present a vision that the people on the committee can consider for a new mission."