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O’Scanlon: Local Governments ‘Defying’ Murphy have Higher Obligation to Residents

Senator Declan O’Scanlon

Senator Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth) said today that local governments have a right and obligation not to turn on the residents they are sworn to serve, at the behest of a higher level of government.

Speaking about Asbury Park’s resolution passed on Wednesday allowing the City’s restaurants to open for indoor dining on June 15, in defiance of Governor Murphy’s Executive Order 152, O’Scanlon said:

“At some point, if a higher level of government attempts to force a lower one to turn on the very people both took an oath to serve, it becomes the right, in fact the obligation, of the lower level to refuse to comply,” said O’Scanlon. “Unless the Governors of the 49 other states have abandoned science, it is now painfully obvious that the Murphy administration has abandoned common sense.”

“Week after week I’ve warned the administration that its random, illogical, nonsensical, and economically devastating slow-roll reopening “plan” was so destructive that it ran the risk of fostering rebellion. And here we are. The Murphy administration has micro-managed itself into irrelevance. Government fosters compliance with credibility. The Murphy administration abandoned the credibility, and now faces the loss of compliance.” O’Scanlon continued.

“This frustration has been building for more than a month. As time went on and more businesses began to fail, the seeds of skepticism, frustration, and resistance took root. The administration had no explanation for the bizarre, illogical conflicts in which businesses it allowed to open and those it forced to remain closed. The micro-managed, unworkable regulations for even the activities it permitted to reopen – from parks to day-care centers to golf courses to to-go cocktails – sapped the faith anyone had that folks running things knew what they were doing.”

“Local government officials and desperate businesses were forced to watch as cars drove by their shuttered establishments across the bridges into Pennsylvania, Delaware and even New York. Those cars carried with them thousands of precious customers, untold millions of dollars and, for many businesses, their last hope of survival. Protecting the people we took an oath to serve is an obligation superior to any obligation to comply with orders from a higher level of government that run counter to our oath.” O’Scanlon concluded.

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Posted: June 11th, 2020 | Author: | Filed under: 13th Legislative District, COVID-19, Declan O'Scanlon, Monmouth County News, New Jersey | Tags: , , , , | 2 Comments »

2 Comments on “O’Scanlon: Local Governments ‘Defying’ Murphy have Higher Obligation to Residents”

  1. Susan Goodman said at 1:19 pm on June 11th, 2020:

    Thanks Declan..for standing up for our small businees and demanding that Governor Murphy uses Science. He is killing small businesses and devestating families, with no science to support. We need more representatives like Declan O’Scanlon

  2. May it not be long said at 2:17 pm on June 11th, 2020:

    before “ the mask” is a distant memory, for us all..sigh..absurdly, could make one think of the phrases: shoes optional, shirts optional, masks optional, etc…