As elected officials they mixed like oil and vinegar.

In public and private they rarely missed a chance to trade insults, calling each other “liar,” “reckless” and “a disgrace.”

It seemed their jobs became a constant balancing act between public service and stealing the spotlight from the other.

But on Tuesday night the pair finally stood on common ground for the first time in years, placed there by voters who ousted them from office.

Mayor Bill Laforet will leave office in near-historic fashion. Council President Robert Hermansen with a whimper.

With Tuesday’s vote, Laforet became the county’s first public official in decades to be recalled from office. On the other side of the ballot, Hermansen found himself the odd man out in a crowded council race in which six candidates vied for four seats. Of the contenders, Hermansen had the most experience.

When the dust settled on Wednesday, there was no love lost between the two as they reflected on Tuesday’s election. The results were disappointing, they said, but each found a silver lining in the other’s defeat.

The mayor called it “pure justice.”

Hermansen responded: “I had no problem going out so long as he went out too.” He said. “The real winner last night was the Township of Mahwah.”

The election put an end to their contentious seven-year relationship in which Laforet and the Township Council clashed on everything from spending to personnel decisions, but the arguments escalated last year when Hermansen became council president.

For John Roth, a former councilman who voters selected to replace Laforet as mayor, Tuesday's vote represents a departure from that friction.

“The voters sent a message that we want to stop the acrimony, stop the fighting, and behave civilly,” Roth said. “There’s always going to be a natural tension between the mayor and council. But it’s a healthy tension, and if you manage it civilly then better ideas come out."

The discord began almost immediately after Laforet, a longtime Democrat who ran as an Independent, won his first mayoral race in 2011. The political newcomer touted himself as a lifelong Mahwah resident and local business owner who enjoyed support from the township’s blue-collar groups, emergency service volunteers and police.

During the first few years of his term, Laforet and the council butted heads over a few policies, notably a plan to privatize recycling, a department controlled by Laforet’s political foe Ed Sinclair, who challenged him for mayor in 2012. The council voted down the proposition in 2013.

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Weeks later, a new controversy erupted when the council discovered that Laforet approved $500,000 in overtime expenditures for the police budget without notifying the governing body.

The following year, Hermansen won a seat on the Township Council. He arrived as a former Republican freeholder who had experience in government, but carried a reputation as someone difficult to work with.

It wasn't long before Hermansen devoted his speaking time at public meetings to needle Laforet as an incompetent leader, prompting a rebuttal from the mayor.

“Everything changed when you came over from the county,” Laforet said to Hermansen during a 2016 council meeting.

Hermansen responded: “That’s because you were the mayor.”

A turning point came last summer, when Laforet faced backlash after criticizing the council for adopting regulations that allegedly discriminated against Orthodox Jews in Rockland County, New York. The measures banned out-of-state residents from local parks, and a proposed ordinance would have effectively banned an eruv, a Jewish religious boundary built throughout the community.

The state Attorney General's Office filed a civil rights lawsuit accusing the township of discrimination, but several residents remained in favor of the laws, believing they would help stave off an incursion of Orthodox Jews into Mahwah.

Town meetings became raucous, filling with hundreds of residents who feared a possible population explosion that could lead to issues with the school system, high-density housing and overcrowding.

Laforet and Hermansen stood at the center of the controversy, each eager to point fingers at who should shoulder blame for the lawsuit.



The mayor targeted the council, who he said should step down. But Hermansen said the mayor was an early supporter of the park ban and accused him of changing his tune when the state got involved, and because it was politically expedient. .

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The feud continued when Laforet criticized the council for pressing forward with other ordinances while under investigation by the attorney general. Laforet — in protest — declined to sign ordinances that cracked down on neighborhood soliciting and banned certain park activities. Both laws were passed amid tensions between Mahwah residents and communities of Orthodox Jews in New York State.

In response, Hermansen led a "no confidence" vote in the mayor that six of the council's seven members supported.

The ordeal helped spark a recall effort against the mayor, started in January by a group of residents who accused Laforet of siding against the township by making statements that undermined its legal position and supporting groups that accused Mahwah of anti-Semitism.

On Tuesday, the recall proved successful, with 4,330 residents voting in favor of ousting the mayor, and 3,950 voting against.

“It took seven years for people to catch onto his antics,” Hermansen said.

Laforet, however, defended his decision to push back against what he saw as anti-Semitic fervor in the town.

“I have no regrets for what I've done, in standing up for the rights of human beings," he said Tuesday night.



