Since Councilmember Brenda Kalivianakis has been lecturing the town lately on “good governance” and “civility,” a deep-dive of her actions is warranted.

Her missteps began immediately, unfortunately. She almost derailed the well-researched detox ordinance approved by the Planning and Zoning Commission. All she had to do was approve the tough ordinance, as she promised she’d do during the campaign.

Next, she created unnecessary drama by accusing town residents of incivility when she found a GPS tracker on her car. She even offered a reward for the culprit! Turns out the tracker belonged to the company she bought the car from, it was old, and had been deactivated long ago. No apology followed to town residents.

Next, just after the Mountainside rezone was voted down by the Council in a 5-2 vote, Kalivianakis attempted to persuade Councilmember Hannah Toth to start a revote process to overturn the Council’s vote, despite Kalivianakis’ promises to Mountainside neighbors that she was against the development. Does that sound like good governance?

Then, on June 20, 2023, right before a two-month summer recess, Kalivianakis voted with the liberal bloc to reinstate the code enforcement sign police, punishing small businesses, despite having voted with the majority on Feb. 9, 2023, to pause temporary sign code enforcement until a less restrictive sign ordinance was adopted, and thus breaking one of her top campaign promises.

Finally, she’s now resorted to patronizing the Democratic Club Facebook page, with one Democratic Club member commenting, “Brenda is a legend in her own mind.” When confronted by her actions, she gets defensive and plays victim. At this point, Kalivianakis may succeed in uniting people on one point: she is untrustworthy.