Mayor who bucked Christie has (a soft) last word

Randy Pace said he was treated like the "village idiot" for asking so many questions at Medford Township Council meetings when he began attending three years ago. But what he was inquiring about was no joke to him and other residents: no-bid contracts they viewed as paybacks for campaign contributions.

In January, after beating an establishment slate, the retired naval officer was sworn in as mayor of the township and found it a financial shambles. As he and his upstart council colleagues went about trying to fill Medford's $6 million budget hole, he encountered an unexpected adversary — fellow Republican Christopher J. Christie.

Pace drew the governor's scorn as he mounted an effort to increase the municipal tax 31 percent. Medford was one of only three towns statewide to hold a referendum this year on exceeding the state's popular 2 percent cap on municipal tax increases.

Reject the increase, Christie counseled residents in an April radio interview. Pace was furious. He said he wrote and called Christie's office to invite him to visit the Pinelands community of 23,000 people and see its unusually dire circumstances, but received no reply.

Voters in Lawrence Township and Demarest Borough apparently listened to the governor, rejecting tax increases by resounding margins.

Medford bucked the trend. The rookie mayor had pushed back against the high-profile governor and persuaded a heavily Republican town long resistant to tax increases that a rise had to be part of the solution this time.

So this month, as bleak revenue projections for the state made headlines and called into question Christie's promise of a sweeping income-tax cut, Pace could have gloated.

The "village idiot" again could have had the last word, but he did not.

"I'm sure he's doing the best he can," the mayor said of the governor. He did use the opportunity, however, to put in a plug for the home rule cherished in New Jersey. "He should stay out of our backyard," he said in an interview, urging Christie and the Legislature to defer to local governments trying to manage their own affairs.

Pace said he, too, hates tax increases. But he said that after laying off police officers and cutting parks and recreation programs, the council had to raise taxes to close a crippling budget gap inherited from previous councils that simply borrowed money or tapped one-time revenue sources.

"I'm in favor of living within our means," said Pace, 50, a father of five.

In exit interviews, many voters said they reluctantly voted for the tax increase after learning that the town could not even afford to continue trash pickup without new revenue. Several said they trusted their new officials. They went along with an increase amounting to $344 on the municipal portion of the tax bill for a home assessed at the township average of $333,000.

Pace, a transplant from Tennessee with a booming voice and traces of what he calls a "hillbilly accent," took office in January with two colleagues, Chris Buoni and Frank Czekay. They had toppled the endorsed GOP slate in a primary last year. Historically, the party organization picked the candidates, and no one opposed them.

The three are political neophytes, as are two other Republicans who joined the council this year.

Pace is not without critics.

"He never had a solution. He would just dig for things that were wrong. ... There was a lot of negativity," said Bob Martin, a former councilman often at the receiving end of Pace's cross-examination at meetings.

Martin admitted the former council had borrowed year after year instead of cutting services or raising taxes. But he said council members were just relying on the advice of the former town manager and other professionals.

Pace bristled at the criticism. He said he had repeatedly offered a solution: "Stop what you're doing."

Bill Layton, chairman of the Burlington County Republicans, said Pace was wrong to say county Republican Party patronage and pay-to-play had contributed to Medford's troubles. "The county has never run Medford," he said.

Layton also criticized the tax hike. "I don't believe as Republicans we should be raising taxes," he said.

Still, Layton said he respected Pace.

"I like Randy a lot. I think he's doing a good job; his heart is in the right place, and he's doing a yeoman's job with the cards he was dealt."

Deb Rulli, owner of Main Street Cigar downtown and a resident, said Pace "is an aggressive personality, and he has a lot to fix. … They left him with quite a mess."

Rulli said she hoped Pace would be in office a long time and would turn the town around.

Pace says his past prepared him for the job.

He spent 24 years on aircraft carriers in the Middle East and around the Mediterranean, 17 as a chief petty officer. The military honed his leadership skills, he said. He also holds up his mother as an example to him and his five siblings: "She gave a whole lot, and she felt very deeply."

Now retired, Marie Howe worked as a child advocate for a county court in Illinois and took temporary custody of hundreds of troubled and abused children awaiting juvenile hearings.

Speaking from her home in Wisconsin, Howe said she kept order by enforcing strict household rules. She said Pace was the one who got excellent grades and cared about school. "He made a point of knowing everything about everything."

Pace said he spent his childhood summers on "a dirt farm" his grandparents owned in Tennessee. He would ride the tractor, cut hay, and help with the cattle.

After he retired from the Navy, he and his wife, Patti, moved to New Jersey when she was offered an IT job that advanced her career. They chose Medford as their home in 2003 because of its "small-town atmosphere," he said.

At first, he was an active stay-at-home father, volunteering to work with children's sports organizations and the Boy Scouts. But as the children got older and he found time on his hands, he heard rumors of problems in the township government and decided to look into them.

A strict pay-to-play ordinance was passed soon after he and his slate took office. Budgets, employee salaries, and ordinances are posted on the township website. A review committee is examining past contracts and policies to get at the roots of the town's fiscal troubles.

Pace says he and the new town council are not done yet shaking things up.