Resident Accuses School Board Member Of Ethics Violation

Should a school board member abstain from a personnel vote when that member has had business dealings with the person?

Brick Township resident George Scott says the answer to that is yes -- or that at least, it should be.

At Thursday’s Brick Township Board of Education meeting, Scott challenged board member Michael Conti on the issue, saying Conti should have abstained from voting to make Richard Caldes the district’s interim superintendent on the basis of Conti’s business dealings with Caldes.

Scott also said at the meeting that he would likely file an ethics complaint against Conti -- who is a candidate for the Township Council -- with the state School Boards Association.

Conti, a mortgage broker for Assured Mortgage LLC in Manasquan, was the broker who wrote the contract for Caldes’ home loan in February, Scott said and Conti confirmed.

Caldes was named interim superintendent in May, after Superintendent Walter J. Uszenski and former administrator Andrew Morgan were arrested and charged with theft in a scheme that prosecutors say improperly provided full-time taxpayer funded daycare to Uszenski’s grandson.

Scott brought the issue up during public comment at the end of what already had been a contentious meeting, asking Conti if he had written mortgages for Caldes as well as teachers in the Brick school district.

Conti, who said he is a salaried employee and does not receive a commission based on the amount of any mortgage written, said he has written mortgages for a number of people, including Caldes, and that when he has been in the midst of a mortgage transaction with someone who works for the district, he has abstained on votes involving those people. A number of his business referrals come from people he knows through the district and through his years as a Brick Township resident, including his high school classmates, he said.

When Scott asked if Conti had voted on Caldes’ appointment as interim superintendent, Conti said he had, saying the mortgage transaction was completed before the situation arose.

“I abstained when he was named educational specialist,” Cont said.

But Scott pressed further, calling Conti’s vote on Caldes for interim superintendent an ethics problem

“When you have gained by a business transaction (with the person) you should abstain,” Scott said.

Scott asked board attorney Jack Sahradnik to weigh in, but Sahradnik refused to do so at the meeting.

“I would not render an opinion without getting all the facts first and checking the law,” Sahradnik said, adding that the board meeting was the first time he had heard of the situation.