Ocean Gate Mayor Responds To Stipend Increase Controversy

by Patricia A. Miller

Where were you on Oct. 29, 2012?

That’s the question Mayor Paul J. Kennedy has for Councilman Chris Theodos, who has called for restitution after the state Local Finance Board fined the mayor $700 related to stipends he receives from the borough.

He knows where he was.

He was hunkered down in Borough Hall for three nights. He was with emergency service workers that dark night and the following morning, rescuing residents who had not heeded the evacuation order. He found an aging borough generator and managed to get it started. At midnight, he would go out and refuel the generator to keep the borough sewer pumping station going.

Republican Paul Kennedy is not just mayor in this tiny borough on the Toms River. He is also the acting administrator, acting personnel director, acting ADA coordinator, acting insurance administrator and unofficial acting public works director. He takes no salary as mayor and receives no benefits. He is seeking his third term as mayor.

The state Local Finance Board received a complaint about the multiple positions Kennedy holds in the borough, Local Finance Board Chairman Thomas Neff said.

“The taxpayers are suffering because of this illegal conduct which forced us to notify the state ethics board,” Theodos said in a press release.

None of the acting positions were advertised to the public, and the potential for conflict exists and a “reasonable expectation” that Kennedy’s judgment could be impaired by serving as mayor and administrator, according to the board’s preliminary ruling.

The Local Finance Board also said that Kennedy had neglected to include Ocean Gate and Ocean County as sources of income on his 2012 and 2013 financial disclosure statements, in violation of state statues. Kennedy said he inadvertently omitted the information.

Kennedy neglected to include the Borough of Ocean Gate and the County of Ocean as sources of income on his 2012 and 2013 Financial Disclosure Statements, in violation of N.J.S.A. 40A:9-22.6(a)(1),

finanDemocrat Theodos - who was appointed to the Borough Council in February and is running against Kennedy in the mayoral election - claims Kennedy owes the borough $100,000 in restitution for the stipends.

“The only remedy for this conduct is to reimburse the taxpayers every cent of that money,” Theodos said in a letter to Kennedy. “Failure to do so immediately will result in costly and protracted litigation. However, fairness demands nothing less.”

Borough Council members voted 4-2 over the past three years to appoint Kennedy to the positions.

“I take my oath if office very, very seriously and I feel I have done nothing ethically wrong at all,” Kennedy said. “I’m denying all charges.”

The former paid borough administrator was “let go” in 2006, which saved the borough $85,000 in salaries and benefits, Kennedy said.

Kennedy did all of the “acting” positions for free from 2007 through 2011. In 2012, the Borough Council voted to give him a $15,000 stipend for performing all the jobs. In 2013, the council upped the stipend to $20,000, with no pension or other benefits. In 2014, the stipend increased to $50,000, with no pension or benefits.

“I also started to over see the public works department in July of 2011 and have been doing that as well,” the mayor said. “In 2014 council voted to give me a $50k stipend for handling all the roles I have been doing.”

His workload increased “immensely” after Superstorm Sandy hit Ocean Gate hard on Oct. 29, 2012.

Kennedy’s full-time job as a carpenter with Ocean County pays roughly $40,000 for a 40-hour work week.

“I currently am still able to perform all the tasks needed to make Ocean Gate a financially sound town,” the mayor said.

He estimated he usually works between 30 to 50 hours a week for the borough.

Ocean Gate has a population of just over 2,000 and only a handful of ratables. So most of the financial burden falls of the taxpayers.

Since Kennedy requested a hearing on the preliminary findings, the state Department of Community Affairs will have no comment on the matter, said Tammori C. Petty, communications director for the state Department of Community Affairs.

The matter will be referred to the Office of Administrative Law, Petty said.

“The DCA does not comment on matters that are litigation,” Petty said.

The state has not made a final determination on the matter and won’t until after the hearing is over, Kennedy said.

The mayor calls Theodos’ statements “purely political.”

“He had no right whatsoever to send that press release out as a councilman, on borough letterhead and representing the council as a whole,” Kennedy said. “There has been no action on the governing body’s part on this issue. None. Anything to get elected.”