Inconvenient truth

He was Middlesex Borough mayor for nearly four years. Then, he was indicted for using campaign funds for personal purposes and bilking private investors in a Ponzi scheme. He resigned, later pleading guilty and serving prison time before being paroled.

Those are all facts. They are unpleasant, but still facts about Ronald J. DiMura. 

Refusing to run away from those facts, Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk and the Borough Council have added DiMura’s portrait to the Wall of Mayors in the municipal courtroom, along with his successor, honorable former Mayor John Madden.

The two portraits were hung last week. Three audience members questioned borough officials about the decision at a council meeting last June. Even if there are no more meeting inquiries, it’s fair to assume the mayor and council might hear about the DiMura portrait when they are out and about town.

Commenting to Inside – Middlesex on Wednesday, Dec. 11, the mayor acknowledged there might be critics of the portrait decision, but he’s not going to dwell on it.

“I don’t want to change history,” Mikolajczyk said. “It is what it is.”

“We’re not looking to build a monument to (DiMura),” the mayor added. “We’re not sitting here saying he was a great guy.”

Next week will be the five-year anniversary of DiMura’s indictment and subsequent resignation. Middlesex’s town government crawled out from the financial wreckage he left and is now two mayoralties removed from his presence.

Some would argue the community has not moved on completely from the DiMura-inflicted political trauma. Serious differences of opinion over the portrait hanging would be an indication of that.

To the end, DiMura had his defenders in the Middlesex Borough Democratic Organization. He also had a few apparent mentors at the county level. The fact that he set up a Political Action Committee as part of the county Democratic money network suggests that was the case.

DiMura’s true patrons, it could be argued, were the 1,261 Middlesex Borough voters who backed him for mayor in 2015. That victory came despite Middlesex GOP efforts to red flag an ethics incident in the insurance industry years earlier.

Questions remain. Is DiMura’s 2015 mayoral election a sign that we, as voters, need to take our voting booth decisions more seriously? Did others who served with him – from both political parties – do enough to delve into and thwart his misdeeds?

Refusing to hang DiMura’s portrait might nudge his transgressions from collective memory, but not from reality. They happened. That will never change.

After the June audience objections, Mikolajczyk polled council members via email to see if they were on board with his portrait sentiment. According to the mayor, four council members agreed, one did not, and one did not respond. He did not say how specific councilmen voted.

Madden was ieft with the mess five years ago. He defeated the sitting mayor in the 2019 general election and took over municipal government a few weeks early after DiMura’s indictment and resignation.

When plans for the dual portrait hanging were announced early this year, Madden was diplomatic and shrugged it off. Most others would have opposed sharing the honor under the circumstances.

But Madden, like Mikolajczyk and others, saw there was nothing wrong with a dose of reality. Madden even suggested the creation of a more elaborate gallery at borough hall, complete with brief bios and other info about each of Middlesex’s mayors.

Mikolajczyk said there are currently no plans for a more elaborate tribute to the borough’s mayors.

Reminder

Subscribe to Inside – Middlesex. Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email. It is absolutely free.

Visit Inside – Middlesex on our new Facebook page.