Ethics Board Members Asked to Recuse Themselves

(Hillsborough, NJ – Dec. 11, 2017) On Saturday morning, December 9th, the Hillsborough Ethical Standards Board, which had never met before, was sworn in to conduct a hastily announced hearing . It then received a brief 20-minute introduction to the law and procedures from its legal counsel that it would have to apply to evaluate the complaint before it, brought by several dozen residents against Councilwoman Gloria McCauley and Administrator Anthony Ferrera.

The video clips of the hearing, can be seen at http://bit.ly/mccauley-ferrara-ethics-complaint

Prior to the commencement of the hearing, the Board was asked to recuse itself because of the difficulty for it to remain impartial due to its admitted relationship(s) to the members of the Township Committee who appointed them, some of which the Board was also being asked to investigate and judge. The Board refused to recuse, despite a detailed letter request submitted to the attorney for the Board, Eric Bernstein, and circulated to the Board before the hearing that outlined in great detail the bases supporting the recusal. Some of the other bases cited in the letter included:

1) Before anyone from the Ethics Board even reviewed the complaints or announced a hearing, Township Attorney William Willard prematurely told the press that the charges were frivolous and called them an “unsubstantiated partisan attack launched just prior to the upcoming election for the sole purpose of influencing voters” (Hillsborough Beacon, 10-25-17).

2) Willard’s statements and those of the accused town officials themselves were full of presumptive claims of innocence absent any credible basis in the facts or law, with some contradicting facts substantiated by the Township Committees’ own minutes from meetings and records of the real estate listing.

3) The statements by Willard and the accused officials improperly used their “official” municipal positions to ironically imbue their statements with a sense of superior knowledge of the ethical laws they were supposed to follow.

4) Although members of the Ethical Standards Board claimed they would not consider these statements in their evaluation, as the age old saying goes “a bell cannot be un-rung” and neither can the improper prejudicial statements and the influence on those who learned of them be reversed.

5) The ordinance creating the formation of the Ethical Standards Board remarkably permits the Board to consult with members of the Township Committee and Township Attorney when hearing complaints, apparently even when the complaints are against the Township Committee.

The Board then heard argument from the complainants’ representative, Roger Koch, and from Mayor Suraci on behalf of the accused town officials. Then, without adjourning to investigate the allegations or gain a fuller understanding of the applicable law and the legal cases cited in the complaint they had first learned of that same day, the Board went into Executive Session to deliberate. After another brief approximate 20 minutes, the board concluded its deliberations and came out and voted with four out of its six appointed members present, to find no conflict of interest concerning Committeewoman’s McCauley’s vote to give Township Administrator Ferrera a pay raise, and Ferrera’s choice to list his house for sale with McCauley, out of all the realtors in the area, which paid her a monetary commission.

The complainants are considering filing an appeal with the State Local Finance Board to get a fair hearing without the taint of favoritism by the Ethical Standards Board which is appointed by some of the same Township Committee members the Board was responsible to investigate. Another basis for the appeal will be the mistaken reasons for the decision that each of the Board members provided all of which were contrary to the Ethics Statute they were required to base their decision on.

The session Saturday morning came approximately two months after a complaint was lodged by several dozen Hillsborough residents against Committeewoman McCauley’s vote to approve Ferrara’s raise in salary and Township Administrator Ferrara’s choice of McCauley as his realtor resulting in bestowing on her a real estate commission. A second complaint was filed at the same time against Committeeman Burchette regarding a conflict of interest over the Township Committee’s pursuit of EMS services exclusively from RWJ Emergency Services. This second complaint was not addressed on Saturday.

The citations in the complaint are violations of the ethics code straight out of New Jersey state law and Hillsborough’s municipal code. The code violations are clearly outlined in the original complaint along with New Jersey court decision interpreting the law and in support of the complaint. The complaints were also delineated for the press several days after they were sent to the six members of the Hillsborough Ethical Standards Board.

In late November, the complainants were notified that Eric Bernstein, Hillsborough’s other township attorney, appointed by the Township Committee which authorizes his payments, would be acting as legal counsel for the Ethical Standards Board. This was the first acknowledgement of receipt of the complaint and constituted a still further conflict of interest since Bernstein is hired and paid by some of the same Township Committee members the Ethical Standards Board must investigate and judge. Despite a request prior to the hearing by complainant’s representative Roger Koch, to an attorney for Bernstein’s office, Phil George, this request for recusal was also denied. Mr. George claimed a reason for the denial was that all of the Bernstein office requests for payment were approved by the Township Committee, a point Mr. Koch argued supported the request for recusal.

Meanwhile, an additional complaint has been submitted, against McCauley for another real estate transaction with another employee, the Township Clerk. However, in light of the Ethical Standards Board’s decision in the above case, which according to Mr. Koch, in effect gives McCauley license to open a satellite real estate office in the Municipal Building, where she can gather still more listings from other township employees she oversees as a Committeewoman, the complainants are considering requesting that the State Local Finance Board assume jurisdiction over all of the complaints mentioned above.

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