County prosecutor asked to investigate actions at Jan. 18 meeting

LOWER TOWNSHIP – Nearly 75 people turned out for Monday night’s regular committee meeting, where the council voted by a 3-2 margin to ask the county prosecutor to investigate actions surrounding the Jan. 18 non-meeting.

The Jan. 18 meeting never took place because there was no quorum of council members; Deputy Mayor Kevin Lare and Councilman Thomas Conrad were on vacations with their respective families and the Ward 2 seat vacated by Erik Simonsen in December was up for grabs at the Lower Township Regular Republican Organization meeting, as the council had failed to reach consensus on any of the three nominees initially offered.

A make up meeting took place on Jan. 25, with Councilman Walt Craig – Lower’s former mayor – seated at his first meeting since his appointment by the Republican organization. Craig did not appear to be sworn in on Jan. 18.

The resolution requesting the prosecutor’s investigation was brought by Lare and supported by Conrad and Craig. Their primary concern was the presence of an on-duty police officer with township manager Michael Voll on the night of Jan. 18, when Voll walked from the town hall, where about 50 members of the public awaited the Ward 2 appointee so the meeting could begin, to the senior center on Bayshore Road where the Republican organization held its private meeting to determine its appointee for the vacant council seat.

The resolution seeking the investigation appears to allege impropriety regarding the police escort with Voll. The resolution states that Voll and a Lower Township police officer “were in some way instructed to go to the Lower Township Republican organization meeting in some official capacity for the township and it is of great concern to the members of the governing body” that a police officer and township manager were sent to a private political caucus.

The resolution asked about the identity of the official who gave the order for the police escort and the township manager to visit the Republican meeting and “…under what authority such orders were given.”

“Do we have to go there?” asked Mayor Michael Beck. “I’d ask that this resolution be withdrawn, or at least tabled for future discussion. It is time to put these things away.”

Lare and Conrad were adamant that the resolution go forward. Craig didn’t debate the issue but cast a vote in favor.

“You know, I would support this if the request were that all the actions – top to bottom – surrounding these issues were to be investigated,” said Beck, who cast his vote against the resolution with Councilman Glenn Douglass. “Why don’t we get on with the work of the township instead?”

Beck suggested that Lare, who brought the resolution, file a complaint directly with the county’s Office of the Prosecutor. Lare declined to do so, saying that he wanted the referral to come from council.

The vote finally went forward when solicitor Michael Donohue, having been questioned about whether Craig should abstain from voting on the resolution because he occupies the Ward 2 seat that was vacant at the time, said he wasn’t sure there was a conflict.

“I hadn’t considered the issued before tonight. It might warrant further research,” he said.

Donohue then continued, noting that all members of the council might have a conflict, so “under the Doctrine of Necessity,” all could vote.

“If everyone has a conflict, the doctrine permits everyone to vote,” he said.

Donohue is the leader of the Cape May County Republican Party.

After the 3-2 vote on the resolution went forward, a meeting broke out at what had become a Monday night fight.

Council members supported the first reading of an ordinance banning outdoor wood burning furnaces in the township, as well as one revamping an aged business-loan program funded by the state’s Department of Community Affairs Small Cities program.

Public comments comprised, primarily, pleas for the bickering to stop. Frank Majane, a retired investigator from the county prosecutor’s office, tried to diffuse the atmosphere with humor. “Why don’t you guys come down here and have a group hug, or something,” he quipped, after asking the council for help regarding unsafe road conditions near a state project in the township.

According to manners expert Hilary Brennan, of the New Jersey-based firm Socially Savvy, civility always matters.

“Of course local government should be conducted without personal attacks. People feel strongly about issues – that is why they choose to serve – but they have to separate their emotions from the work at hand,” she said. “Good manners require that we think about those around us, and, for public officials, that includes the people they serve as well as the people with whom they serve.

“Disagreements don’t have to be personal, nor do they have to be impolite,” Brennan said.