NJ mayor uses fat shot to lose weight, uses taxpayer dollars to promote new look

✅Irvington mayor's weight loss is praised in a township mailing

✅A challenger calls it a taxpayer-funded campaign piece

✅An ethics complaint filed

IRVINGTON — The Democratic mayor of this township lost 90 pounds after taking a trendy weight-loss injection — and used taxpayer dollars to let residents know.

It's the latest questionable expense by this municipality, which has faced scrutiny from state fiscal investigators.

"Mayor Tony Vauss' 90-pound transformation is igniting Irvington's wellness resolution," the four-page mailer's headline says with pictures of a slimmer mayor outlining how a routine doctor visit led to getting his diabetes under control over the course of a year.

He accomplished the weight loss by taking Mounjaro, an injectable medication meant for Type 2 diabetes, like Ozempic and Zepbound.

The literature mentions services offered by Irvington's Department of Health and Senior Services that can help residents do the same thing, but it was mostly filled with color photos of the mayor.

Vauss' challenger in the non-partisan May 12 primary, Paul Inman, told NBC New York that the mailer looks like a political. He already filed an ethics complaint after the municipality mailed a different promotional announcement.

The municipality, meanwhile, denies wrongdoing.

"Why would it inherently be a misuse of taxpayer resources for a municipality to communicate information to the taxpayers who fund it?" township attorney Ramon Rivera told NBC New York. "Why is sending information to residents about township matters being framed as self-evidently improper?"

Struggling municipality under the microscope for spending

Vauss has been the mayor for more than 10 years in this township of 60,000 people.

The median household income is 40% below the state median. About 1 in 4 children and 1 in 5 senior citizens live in poverty. The state provides the municipality with $13 million in aid, and its school district received $179 million from state taxpayers, with an additional $10 million increase proposed for next year. Even with that assistance, the average property tax bill increased by 14% last year to $10,680.

Inman filed a complaint with the state ethics committee about another mailer attacking the state comptroller's 2025 report, which said the township wasted $632,000 from a settlement meant to help communities hit by the opioid crisis. The township used the money to hold a music concert.

“These funds are supposed to be lifelines for communities overwhelmed by the opioid epidemic – not a slush fund to host concerts and throw parties,” then-acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh said.

In response to the State Comptroller's Office's investigation, Irvington filed a lawsuit that claims the report defames local officials.

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