Politics unbridled at council meeting
Council Dems remove GOP mayoral candidate from finance committee
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

Councilman John P. Curley

During a tumultuous meeting of the Red Bank Borough Council on Monday, Councilman John P. Curley was removed as head of the Finance Committee after a resolution calling for his removal was put forth by Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr.

McKenna claimed that Curley's "negligence, lack of oversight, lack of communication, lack of attention, and complete abdication of responsibility" in his role as chairman of the committee was to blame for mistakes and overexpenditures made by the Finance Department, causing $400,000 in increases to this year's municipal budget.

Curley, a Republican running for mayor in November, countered that it is the responsibility of the borough's chief financial officer to oversee the department, and that he, in his role as finance chair, acted as a liaison to the public and the council.

McKenna read from a prepared statement giving his reasons for requesting Curley be taken off the committee.

"In light of the fact that we have a new chief financial officer, starting on September 1," McKenna said, "it would be inappropriate and unfair to that individual to allow the current makeup of the finance committee to remain in place. It is clear we need new leadership and a new chair. Just as with every other department head in this borough, when there is a problem in a particular department, it is the responsibility of the chair to ensure that those problems are addressed. Unfortunately, our finance chair failed miserably in this regard."

Mayor Edward J. McKenna Jr.

The resolution removing Curley - who was first elected to council in 2002 - from the committee also named Councilwoman Sharon Lee as the new chairwoman of the committee and Councilman Robert J. Bifani as the third council member on the three-member committee, along with current committee member Councilman Pasquale Menna.

All three, like McKenna, are Democrats. Menna is running as the Democratic candidate for mayor to succeed McKenna, who has announced he will not seek re-election after serving for 16 years as mayor.

Both Curley and McKenna read from prepared statements during the meeting, although they, along with other council members and members of the audience, spoke out of turn in raised voices. McKenna's wife, Chris, was among those shouting out comments from the audience during the frenzied meeting.

Republican Councilwoman Kaye Ernst repeatedly called for order, and was once slapped on the arm by Lee after doing so.

"There would have been almost no tax increase this year, Mr. Curley," said McKenna, "if it had not been for mistakes made in your department."

"The finance department is run by you out of your law office," Curley replied.

Bifani made the motion to pass the resolution removing Curley from the committee, which was seconded by Menna.

Borough Administrator Stanley Sickels and Councilman Arthur Murphy did not become involved in the heated exchanges that marked the meeting.

Ernst voiced her concerns about voting on a resolution that council members had not seen prior to the meeting, also remarking that the majority of the blame should be resting on the former CFO who resigned from his position in July after the mistakes in the finance department were discovered by the borough auditor.

"I don't feel comfortable voting on something I don't have the paperwork for," she said. "This is a committee process. To hang this around his [Curley's] neck like an albatross is unfair. A person was paid a salary to do a job and do it well. He did not do his job and do it well. I think a lot of things went wrong here and I think there's a lot of blame to go around. I don't think that taking the other members of the committee and making them blameless is the right way to go here."

Ernst also said that had she been given prior notice of the action, she would have volunteered to take the open position on the committee, given her bookkeeping and administrative experience.

McKenna said that there was another consideration in removing Curley from the position regarding an e-mail he said he received last November from Lee, who cited problems in the committee, including lack of communication on Curley's part.

Menna said that there were other problems between Curley and Lee, claiming that Curley had referred to Lee as "Eddie's little girl" during a finance committee meeting.

"That is the most ludicrous comment I have ever heard," Curley responded. "I would have never made that comment."

Both Lee and Menna referred to the comment as racist, although Ernst questioned whether the remark could be construed as racist.

"Do you remember the discussion we had at that meeting," Lee asked Curley, "when you accused me of using borough money to pay for a trip? When I went to Boston and spoke to someone about a parking garage there? This was when we were in the middle of the parking garage issue."

"Why don't you just take me down Broad Street and hang me," Curley responded. "This is a three-ring circus."

"She [Lee] thought this was an insensitive and racist remark," said McKenna.

Curley said that he was shocked by the accusation, and that he hoped that come November, when he and Menna will both be up for election to the mayoral seat, there will be a difference in the way the council is run.

"I would not blame any debacle of our chief financial officer on you, Mr. Mayor," Curley said. "You are the chief executive officer of this community."

Although both Curley and Ernst voted against the resolution, the measure passed by a vote of 4-2, with Menna, Bifani, Murphy and Lee voting in favor.

Resident Steve Fitzpatrick, Chestnut Street, said that he has seen the topic of problems in the finance department erupt into arguments frequently over the past few months, and asked if an internal investigation had been conducted as to the mistakes made.

McKenna said the council could not comment.

Assistant Borough Attorney Thomas Hall said that nothing has been found that would indicate any illegal activity .

"The auditor found a number of problems," he said, "but it just looks like sloppiness. We are still looking at it, and if there is any indication of criminality, it will be referred to the prosecutor's office or to the attorney general."

"A lot of times," Fitzpatrick said, "these types of things don't get discovered until it's too late. It wouldn't be fair for just anybody to be held responsible. If a garbage truck driver is driving under the influence and kills somebody, we wouldn't put the responsibility on Mr. Bifani [the chairman of the Public Works Committee]. The same goes for the behavior of police officers. We wouldn't blame their behavior on [Councilman Arthur Murphy, the borough Police Commissioner]."

McKenna said that once the problems in the finance department were discovered, he called the state Department of Community Affairs, and was told that he had the right to hold the finance chair responsible.

"I rely upon department heads and department chairs," McKenna said, "for communication [of what's happening in the departments]."

William E. Meyer, an attorney with offices on Monmouth Street, said that McKenna should share the blame for any problems in the borough.

"It's like watching a zoo," Meyer said. "You are the one in charge. You're setting the pace. You're setting an example, and we're watching this, just shaking our heads."