The Rochelle Park Democratic Party is defending the local GOP after they voted to oust Mayor Perrin Mosca last week amid arguments over the Pride flag being hung at the township’s municipal building.
Three Republican township committee members from the small New Jersey town joined the lone Democrat, Linda Boniface, to vote Mosca out of office last week after a heated meeting about the flag.
In an email to Timcast News, the Rochelle Park Democratic Party claimed that “he was NOT removed for his stance on the Pride Flag, he was censured for trying to overturn the vote and for calling residents ‘bad Catholics.'”
The email continued, “It had to do with his abusive behavior behind closed doors. He allegedly verbally and physically threatened the other members of the Committee, and that is what led them to remove him as mayor and for asking for his resignation.”
Despite the Democratic Party’s attempt to shield the local GOP, Republican Municipal Chairman Frank Valenzuela said that the reason Mosca was ousted was that he “embarrassed the township and brought its governance to a screeching halt, threatening two decades of progress” during the flag debate, according to a report from the Daily Voice. He also accused the former mayor of using “his position to create a negative atmosphere guided by his personal ideals versus what is best for the residents of Rochelle Park.”
Timcast News spoke to Mosca by phone on Wednesday to find out more about what happened.
Mosca said that on May 10, he was working late and did not arrive at the township meeting on time. He teaches physics, chemistry, and forensic science at Lyndhurst High School and coaches the girls’ basketball team.
Nothing about Pride flags or anything significant was on the agenda, so he told them they could start without him.
Before he arrived, Boniface, the Democrat member, raised the issue of hanging the Pride flag for June. The board knew that Mosca vehemently opposed it but allowed a vote anyways without him present. Ultimately, two out of the three Republicans present voted in favor of allowing it to hang.
Timcast News asked Mosca if he thought the committee deliberately rushed a vote to avoid his opposition.
“That’s how it felt,” Mosca said.
The year before, the committee had decided that their policy would be only to fly government flags on the building — making the vote even more of a blindside.
“For the next meeting, I reached out to the Republicans and asked why they did this, knowing I am against it,” Mosca said. “The year before, we decided there should be no flags for any specific group. No private flags on public property. That was our policy.”
One of the Republican members that voted against the raising said she would support him at the next meeting if he tried to have the decision rescinded. Another member claimed that the mayor would need to show there is division over it, which there was not at the meeting. Mosca pointed out that there was no division because nobody knew it would be thrown onto the agenda at the last minute.
On May 24, the committee met again — and things became heated.
“It was like a pretty crazy meeting,” Mosca said. “So at the end of the meeting, I asked for a motion to rescind the Pride flag decision and just put up American flags and government flags. That was it. I asked for a resolution to do that and didn’t get any support. They wouldn’t even second the motion for me. They just sat there and did nothing. It’s unbelievable.”
When asked about the claims made by the Democratic Party, Mosca said that he did yell at one of the members during a closed session because they had insulted his wife. He added that it was not uncommon for closed sessions to get heated.
Mosca’s wife had made waves when she brought a flag of her own to the meeting.
Boniface had placed a large pride flag on her desk, so Mosca’s wife pulled out a large Our Lady of Guadalupe flag, which she brought up to her husband, and he draped from his.
After he did so, a lawyer for the town told them that all flags had to be removed. He did not say anything when it was just the Pride flag.
“He didn’t make her take it down before that. It’s an attack on Christians and Catholics in this country. That’s what it is. That’s what triggered them to say that we needed to take the flags down,” Mosca said. “People say that I shouldn’t talk about religion, but I’m going to because that’s how I feel. It’s against my personal beliefs. Why should I be forced to talk to my children about that stuff? I want to do it on my own time and when they are old enough to understand.”
In the following video of the meeting, Mosca puts up the Catholic flag at 20:38. Comments for and against the pride flag begin at 34:50, and his wife speaks at 1:34:03.
Mosca skipped the meeting on Wednesday as he refused to enter the building as long as the Pride flag hung.
“I’m not going to that municipal building until that flag’s down,” Mosca said. “For me personally, I can’t be sitting underneath that flag.”
“I have six kids. My wife’s pregnant with her seventh. She’s due in a couple of weeks. I’m doing this for my kids. I homeschool my kids, but I know what they’re doing in New Jersey in the school system. I know what they’re trying to do. They’re trying to indoctrinate these kids, and I’m against this entire thing. For me personally, this is about saving our children.”
He was censured and removed as the mayor during that meeting.
During the call, Mosca pointed to a town in Michigan with an entirely Muslim city council that just banned the Pride flag from being hung at the city hall.
“Where’s the uproar over there?” Mosca asked.
Supporters of the Pride flag being hung have argued that it is on a “community flag pole” because it was paid for partially by donations from residents. However, Mosca says that the township had to pay for the rest that was not raised.
“It’s really not a community flagpole. It’s a town’s flagpole that the community gave some money towards,” Mosca said.
Mosca is up for reelection in November and has said he will continue to fight for the flag to be removed.
