Cosmic coincidence?
N.B. mayor, 3 council members have birthdays within 5-day span
BY JENNIFER AMATO
Staff Writer

Womack

NORTH BRUNSWICK - Most voters believe the decision to put elected officials into office lies in their own hands - but could it actually be in the stars?

Mayor Francis "Mac" Womack and Councilmen Ralph Andrews, Bob Davis and Carlo Socio all have birthdays within five days of one another, but one area astrologer feels there's no correlation between their birthdays and their rise to elected office.

Steven Joseph Sinopoli, the founder and president of The Academy of Astrology in New Jersey, said that compatibility and personality analysis is most dependent on time of birth, not the birth date.

"Rising signs are very important in a horoscope. That is predicated always on the time of birth," he said. "When you have a time of birth, you can contribute to the persona of the individual."

Womack was born on Aug. 24, 1956, at 5:30 a.m. in Greenville, S.C., making his rising sign Leo. He is, therefore, skillful, has initiative and drive, and is inventive with a powerful expansion of the mind. He is also sensitive, especially with family.

Socio

"We can term him as a pretty expansive guy, very knowledgeable, honest, because whenever you have the sun and Jupiter together there's always that honesty that prevails," Sinopoli said.

Andrews was born on Aug. 21, 1951, in Franklin under the sign of Leo.

"There's an ego here that is very strong, very competitive," Sinopoli said in describing the intense fire in the councilman's chart.

Although Andrews should exhibit enthusiasm and drive, the fixed planets in his chart cause stubbornness and a need to do things one's own way.

Davis was born on Aug. 25, 1945, in Brooklyn, N.Y., under the sign of Virgo, which is a sign that lends itself toward servitude, according to Sinopoli. He is a sensitized individual with constant changes in mood and temperament.

"Councilman Davis is the type of guy who has a great deal of changeability and sort of a duality or duplicitous type of nature," the astrologer said.

Socio was born on Aug. 23, 1971, at 10:30 a.m. in Summit. Sinopoli said that Socio tends to be analytical, amiable, stubborn and tenacious due to the presence of several fixed signs. He can also take on a Scorpio-type nature, being secretive with detective-like skills and a fondness for research.

Davis

"He's his own man, he does his own thing, he has the drive and the initiative and depends very little on others, so he does have that drive," Sinopoli said.

All four councilmen agreed their descriptions were accurate, noticing how their personalities play off one another.

"We are a very cohesive team and we work together, but it's something to have four strong personalities and it takes some [cooperation] to get things done," Socio said about his August counterparts.

Of the other council members who do not share August as a birth month, Councilman Bob Corbin was born on Nov. 12, 1944, and both councilwomen, Rhonda Lyles and Cathy Nicola, were born in separate months in the same year.

Corbin is described as being extremely tenacious, honest, imaginative but sometimes indecisive. However, he believes that Scorpios tend not to make rash decisions, which can be misinterpreted as indecisiveness, and that he is more easygoing than cutthroat.

Andrews

For Lyles, the rising sign of Aries is most prominent on her birth date of July 16. She can be indecisive, calm, sensitive, slightly moody, aware of family conditions, creative and service-oriented, Sinopli said.

Nicola, born at 6 a.m. on April 17 in the rising sign of Taurus, can be competitive yet sensitive, with a necessity to do things at her own pace. "Taurus rising is more involved with economics, a money person, one who deals with money. But the fact that Mercury, the sun and Venus are in the Twelfth House means in astrology a very sensitive position," Sinopoli said.

Andrews said the makeup of the council is effective because the councilwomen are community-based, Davis is a fiery, exuberant individual, Socio lacks shyness, and Womack is the statesman, holding the group together, which was pinpointed by Sinopoli.

"We all get along real well. We're fairly respectful of each other. I don't know, [maybe] what we do with our birthdays has to do with making up who we are," Andrews said. "I'm certainly not one to argue with the stars. If that's what the stars say, the stars must be right. ... To come together this way, it may be meant to be. I don't know."

Additionally, the two men who sit on the panel but are not involved with decision-making votes are Township Attorney Ron Gordon and Business Administrator Robert Lombard, who were both born in January but four years apart.

So what does astrology hold for the Township Council of North Brunswick?

"What we have here ... is a vast amount of different personalities. Two people can be born on the same day, [but] that doesn't mean they have the same personality. Even twins do not have the same personality, because they are minutes apart," Sinopoli said. "In astrology, every four minutes equals one degree and one degree by solar motion is a year, one degree by lunar motion is a month. ... Where you are on your birth day surely is going to set a precedent for the year ahead, so that's the complexities of astrology."

Since many skeptics do exist in society, the council is unsure if the stars actually brought them to the board, but they enjoyed learning about their personality characteristics.

"Now that this has been brought up, it's kind of fun to look back and think about it, because in a way it does make some sense," Socio said. "Whether it's a coincidence or just the way it is, it's wild."