BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer

SEA BRIGHT — The decision about whether or not the town will pick up a $5,000 legal tab related to the filling of a Democratic vacancy on the governing body rests in the hands of a state Superior Court judge.

Borough Attorney Scott Arnette, who represented the municipal administration in Freehold on July 6, confirmed last week that Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson, sitting in Freehold, is reviewing the issues related to whether the town’s government or the local Democratic organization should pay the charges submitted by the party’s attorney for challenging a Borough Council vote in May.

Lawson has reserved judgment on his decision concerning attorney Paul Josephson’s bill until he reaches a conclusion on all the evidence presented by both sides, Arnette said.

In the meantime, at the request of his client, the Sea Bright Democrats, Josephson has agreed to cut the original $10,000 application for attorney’s fees submitted in June by half, according to Councilwoman Dina Long, who chairs the local Democratic organization.

The $5,000 figure covers Josephson’s time related to presenting the case involving the Municipal Vacancy Law, Long noted.

As for Arnette himself, the council, after some heated discussion, voted 3-1-2 to pay the $8,035 request for attorney’s fees.

The Municipal Vacancy Law calls for a seat vacated due to death or resignation of the office-holder to be filled by a member of the party that held it within the 30 days prior to the vacancy occurring.

Council President Maria Fernandes held that Arnette should get paid, but not at the taxpayers’ expense for a situation involving a dispute between party members on the six-member governing body. The council is now split evenly between Republicans and Democrats.

When the vote to fill the vacancy created by the April 12 resignation of Democratic Councilman William Gelfound came up on May 3, the council’s three GOP members blocked the Democrats’ nomination of Thomas Scriven. The move was made against Arnette’s legal advice, Fernandes said.

It was that 3-2 decision led by the three GOP council members, joined by Mayor Jo-Ann Kalaka-Adams, that resulted in the local Democratic organization taking the borough government to court in the first place, she pointed out.

“I don’t think that it’s fair that you are expecting the taxpayers to pay for your decision,” Fernandes told the GOP members.

Long, who as chairperson of the Sea Bright Democrats filed the court action against the borough, and Scriven, who ultimately was sworn in to succeed Gelfound on May 17, abstained on the motion to pay the bill submitted by Arnette’s Red Bank firm, Miller, Gaudio, Bowden and Arnette.

Kalaka-Adams urged the council to take action on the attorney’s fees as a whole governing body, rather than continue to argue along party lines.

“Since the attorney has been working on this, I think we should work on this,” Kalaka-Adams said.

The Sea Bright Democrats’ court action named Borough Clerk Mary Ann Smeltzer as defendant because she did not swear in Scriven after the GOP majority refused to name him to the vacancy, explained GOP Councilman Jack Keeler.

Still, Arnette should get paid, he said.

“My feeling is to pay the bill,” Keeler said.

Though he usually represents the borough in legal matters, Arnette was not the council’s first choice to handle the dispute over Josephson’s request for payment.

At a special meeting called by Kalaka-Adams on June 16, the council voted to hire Dennis Collins, of Wall Township, to handle the dispute over who should pay Josephson’s fees.

Collins, borough attorney in neighboring Monmouth Beach, ultimately turned down the job, leaving Arnette to pick up the case for the council and Kalaka-Adams’ administration.

“Frankly, my relationship with the borough [of Sea Bright] is that of legal counsel,” Arnette told the governing body before the vote on his tab. “I had no choice but to represent the borough when they were sued.”

Meanwhile, Gelfound, the 15-year councilman whose sudden resignation set off the firestorm over filling the vacancy, moved to California earlier this month, Long said.

At the time he stepped down in April, Gelfound maintained that he left the council to prepare for his relocation. Gelfound decided earlier this year not to seek re-election to a sixth consecutive term.

While Long and Fernandes both backed up Gelfound’s statements, Kalaka-Adams and the GOP majority insisted that Gelfound had been forced to resign by the Democrats.

Kalaka-Adams, basing her statements on conversations she had with Gelfound after he announced his resignation, alleged that the veteran councilman had been asked to step down as part of a strategy by the Democrats to seat Scriven six months before Election Day in November.

Scriven would then have the advantage of running as an incumbent with Fernandes, Kalaka-Adams has said.

On May 13, Lawson ruled that the GOP majority’s move to thwart the Sea Bright Democrats’ nomination of Scriven to the empty seat violated the state’s Municipal Vacancy Law. That law states that a vacant seat on a governing body must be filled with a candidate from the political party that occupied the office.