"All I can say," Nunes, 58, said, venting his personal philosophy as well as his spleen, "is that politics is a revolving door. And sometimes the door may swing around and hit you . . . . If you want to leave it (the seat) empty, leave it empty. It makes more sense as an empty chair without one of you in it anyway!"
So it went: another rocky day in the borough of Pine Hill, with feisty, quick-tempered Nunes, as usual, in one corner, and an array of opponents in the other. Since the election of Nunes as mayor six years ago, Pine Hill has emerged on the political landscape as a hotbed of dissension and bickering. He was appointed to the council in 1982 and was the first Republican mayor elected in 20 years when he assumed office in January 1983.
Since that time, the borough has reeled from rapid-fire developments, including:
* The resignations of three Republican councilmen the last three months, all saying they were disenchanted with the way Nunes was running the borough.
* A ruling by a Superior Court judge that a harassment suit filed by the borough clerk against Nunes should be heard by a jury.
* A feud between the ambulance corps and the mayor over the use of a borough-owned car, which led to the refusal of the corps to answer calls for several days.
Such battles have gained so much attention that even Nunes seems frustrated.
"I have been put through a living hell," Nunes said in a interview last week about the Pine Hill political battles.
In addition to the more widely-known conflicts, Nunes has also been involved in verbal confrontations with the public safety director over Nunes' alleged interference with the Police Department; a well-publicized fight with a boyfriend of his stepdaughter and an argument with a Democratic councilman who charged that Nunes had threatened him with a nightstick.
