Prosecutor Investigates Payment Holmdel Made To Committeeman

HOLMDEL, NJ — This winter, the office of Monmouth County Prosecutor Chris Gramiccioni investigated an anonymous allegation made against Holmdel Township Committeeman Tom Critelli for authorizing a check to himself while he was a sitting councilman in 2013.

While Gramiccioni said he found "insufficient proof" for a criminal prosecution, the prosecutor did send a letter to the Holmdel Township Committee last Tuesday, telling them they need to be more diligent in reviewing and approving payments made by the Township.

When asked by Patch today about the matter, Critelli said the initial complaint was politically motivated for his support of former mayor Eric Hinds.

"They are coming after me now. I'd rather take the high road and not names," he said. "This happened seven years ago. The county prosecutor spent the past ninety days investigating this; they did a very thorough investigation and found nothing criminal. I just find the whole thing childish and I want to put it behind me."

At issue is $9,872 Holmdel Twp. paid Critelli

In the fall of 2019, someone made an anonymous complaint to the county prosecutor to look into a $9,872.50 check Holmdel Twp. paid in 2013 to Danitom Development, the construction company owned by Critelli. The prosecutor's office would not reveal who made the complaint.

Critelli’s home, located on Heyward Hills Drive in Holmdel, was damaged due to flooding from Hurricane Irene in August of 2011. (This was before Critelli was elected to the Holmdel Twp. Committee.) Critelli said the flooding was so bad because a town sewer backed up, and that Holmdel Township was responsible for the damage. At the time, many homes in Holmdel were damaged by flooding from Irene, and the Twp. engineer even admitted that improper maintenance of sewers was partially to blame.

Critelli initially wanted the Township to pay $80,000 in damages. After filing a Notice of Tort Claim — a notice he would sue if he and Holmdel could not reach an agreement — Critelli negotiated with the Township’s insurance carrier, Scibal Associates, for a payment of $30,000.

He said he also agreed to accept an additional $9,872 directly from Holmdel Township.

"In total, I agreed I would take 50 percent of the $79,000, a little under $40,000," said Critelli on Wednesday. "The insurance company would pay $30,000 and the rest would come from the Township. I took a bath on that remaining $40,000."

Critelli said this was an agreement he made with then-Holmdel Mayor Pat Impreveduto and then-business administrator Andy Katz. Katz is no longer employed for the Twp. and Impreveduto is a current Monmouth County Freeholder, now in his last term. Critelli said he has e-mails between himself and the two men that prove the agreement. He said he did not feel comfortable releasing those emails to Patch, but said he did hand them all over to the prosecutor.

"The insurance company was only paying him $30,000," Impreveduto told Patch. "Tom was going to sue the town for the remainder of the money. On the direction of Katz, who said this man has significant damage to his home, we said let's save the town money and give him the $9,800 or whatever it was and end this. That was it. Nothing was done behind closed doors, under the table or however you want to call it."

Prosecutor did say Critelli should have recused himself

Critelli was sworn into office in January of 2013 and at the Feb. 5, 2013 Township Committee meeting, he and the rest of the Committee approved the $9,872 check to be issued to his company, Danitom Development.

Critelli said he voted on it because that payment was "tucked into 130-item bills payable list," he said Wednesday. "It was never listed on the agenda as a separate agenda item."

"It was on bills payable," agreed Impreveduto. "All the members there voted on it. That was it."

Nonetheless, the county prosecutor reprimanded the Holmdel Twp. Committee to be more careful going forward about what payments they approve.

"Mr. Critelli voted for a check to be issued to his own company, which is a clear conflict of interest," wrote Gramiccioni. "Critelli should have recused himself ... It is incumbent on committee members to be diligent in reviewing payments to be made by the township."

The prosecutor also said the decision to pay Critelli the $9,800 should have been discussed on record before the entire committee.

"Additionally, any discussions regarding payments to settle lawsuits should be discussed with the full committee as well as the township attorney, not settled behind the scenes without a full discussion among the committee," said Grammiccioni.

You can read a copy of the prosecutor's Jan. 21 letter here; it was included in the most recent Holmdel Twp. Committee meeting agenda: http://www.holmdeltownship-nj.com/AgendaCenter/ViewFile/Agenda/_01282020-585