AG's Lawsuit Against Town Was Mayor's Fault: Mahwah Councilman

MAHWAH, NJ — Council President Robert Hermansen is placing the blame for the Attorney General's lawsuit against the town on the shoulders of Mayor William Laforet.

Hermansen and other town officials attended a meeting with representatives from the state Attorney General's Office Monday. The sides signed a settlement agreement at that meeting, a meeting Mayor William Laforet did not attend.

"The representatives looked at us all and said make no mistake about this, this settlement is due also to what he and his administration did, otherwise we would not request his name or someone to represent him to be here to sign for him on this settlement," Hermansen said as part of a much larger statement he issued Monday on the lawsuit and subsequent settlement. (See related: Mahwah Settles Lawsuit Charging Town With Anti-Semitism)

Laforet said he attended a charity golf outing sponsored by the Mahwah Chamber of Commerce Monday, something that was scheduled "months in advance of the settlement meeting," he said.

"There was no need for me to be there at all," Laforet said. "This has nothing to do with my administration."

Laforet noted that he was, "happy that the council has finally agreed to the terms of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office. I hope that the Council has learned their lesson and going forward will act in a more reasonable fashion.

"Elected officials can protect their communities without acting in a hateful manner or allowing hate to fester. Mahwah is better than that," Laforet said.

The town will have to pay $350,000 if it does not engage in unlawful conduct and it fully complies with the agreement, the state Attorney General's office said Monday. The payment will be vacated in 2022 payment if the town abides by the terms of the agreement.

The town must provide the state Attorney General's Office Division of Civil Rights at least 30 days advanced notice of any vote on a proposed ordinance affecting public access to its parks and recreational facilities.

The same 30-day notice also applies to any ordinance affecting the placement of signs, devices, or any material whatsoever, on utility poles in town.

Here is Hermansen's complete statement:

"The Mahwah Township Council yesterday cleaned up another mess that was created by our mayor by settling our lawsuit with the Attorney General's Office. As we were sitting at the table with the Attorney General's Office representatives, our attorney, Brian Chewchawskie and Councilman Dave May and myself I asked for clarification before I would sign the agreement. I explained, our mayor was trying to convince the public he is not a party at all in this lawsuit. That he was at a golf outing instead of being there to sign the agreement. The representatives looked at us all and said make no mistake about this, this settlement is due also to what he and his administration did, otherwise we would not request his name or someone to represent him to be here to sign for him on this settlement.

I found it odd that the mayor thought it was more important to be golfing than to be at the settlement and instead sent a representative to sign the settlement agreement. I also explained to them, that we would not be sitting in these chairs if one of two things had taken place:

• The mayor had properly sent us an email that our Chief of Police had sent to our business administrator, our attorney, and our mayor. The email, which was sent in the middle of June, explained the chief’s trepidation in enforcing the park ordinance in its current state. The Town Council never saw or heard about that email until after the chief sent his letter to the prosecutor when no one responded with a potential solution, which was in the middle of July.

The mayor knew about this email for over a month. He never told us about it and he signed the ordinance at the end of June, knowing the chief had issues with it, something we were not privy to. Had we known, we would have gone through and found a solution, which is exactly what we tried to do after we were told of the chief’s email. The Town Council at that point demanded changes to ordinance committee meetings. One of those changes was that anyone who will be enforcing any new ordinance needed to be at our meetings and have input before the ordinances are enacted. Upon meeting with the chief and our Ordinance Committee we came up with solutions, but before we were going to input them we were slapped with a subpoena by the Attorney General's Office.

At this point our our attorneys told us to do nothing. The mayor told us that we were told that we should repeal the ordinances immediately. That is a blatant lie. Our attorneys said that we should do nothing now that the subpoena was in place. We followed their instructions, something our current mayor continually struggles with doing. At this point the mayor tried to play politics and told us to repeal the ordinances even though our attorneys told us otherwise. I will remind you we would not have ever passed the ordinance had we known of the Chief of Police’s concerns. Only the mayor knew of them.

• Had the Attorney General’s Office actually reached out to me after I made three phone calls asking for their help, after the chief sent his letter to the prosecutor and before we received our subpoenas. I have said this before and I will say it again what do you do when you ask for help and it does not happen. We asked for help and instead of help, we received a subpoena. This to me made no sense and still does not. We asked for a dialogue, for them to help us with the ordinance instead our town was vilified by the attorney general, the press, outsiders, and worst of all our mayor. I understood the others taking shots at us for their own motives, but the mayor attacking his own residents and then palling around with those same outsiders who were attacking our residents was and still is very upsetting to me and to a majority of the people in this town. Mahwah, incurred a large legal cost, embarrassment from the press, and unrest in our town. Very simply, none of this happens if the mayor does his job and gives us the emails, none of this ever happens.

So yesterday, the council cleaned up yet another one of the messes that was created by our mayor. On Nov. 6 it is my hope that the Mahwah residents clean up the biggest mess that was ever created in this town by voting yes for the recall and yes for a new mayor. This town can not afford to keep paying to clean up his messes."

Email: daniel.hubbard@patch.com

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