Caught in the middle

Since Dec. 8, Township Clerk Virginia A. Lampman has been at the center of a mess not of her own creation.

Her problems began when then-Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli verbally walked out the door of town hall shortly before Christmas. Scarpelli informed her on Dec. 6 that he had appointed her acting mayor, effective upon his Dec. 8 resignation for "personal reasons."

The "personal reasons" turned out to be accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. Not much of a surprise there. Rumors blew through town hall like a tornado ranked three on the Fujita scale for several years.

Scarpelli's guilty plea in federal court merely confirmed what many had thought for quite some time.

And some predicted that some on the GOP-controlled council would strong-arm her into making the professional appointments they wanted.

That may have happened. It may not have.

Lampman has said she picked her municipal appointments based on the recommendations of Township Council members. She met with then-council President Anthony Matthews, Councilman and current council President Stephen C. Acropolis, and Councilwoman Ruthanne Scaturro to discuss the appointments more than once, Lampman said.

Acropolis and Matthews say that was routine, part of the "advise and consent" procedure that had been followed for years. Both say Lampman was never pressured, that the appointments were hers.

Now Ginny Lampman is headed to court.

Mayor Daniel J. Kelly has filed suit, claiming that Lampman "wrongfully usurped" the appointments, which he contends belong to him.

She will have to testify as to just what happened during the weeks before the appointments were made.

There's a lot of blame to go around here. The Republican-controlled council waited until Jan. 4, three days after the appointments were made, to select Kelly. They could have picked a mayor sooner, and allowed him to make his own appointments.

The municipal Democratic Party erred when they allowed Scarpelli to jump back into the 2005 mayoral race, after they had already tapped Councilwoman Kathy Russell to run against Acropolis.

But blame most of the mess on Joseph Scarpelli, who left his town in an uproar and his party in disarray. The fallout from the Scarpelli reign will likely continue for years. And this is probably not the only guilty plea residents will read about this year. Federal authorities have said they are not finished with Brick Township.

If there is one thing to be learned from this debacle, it's this.

A municipality could probably run quite well without a mayor. A municipality could probably function quite well with fewer governing body members.

But a town can't run without its employees. That's been proved over the past six weeks, when police still patrolled, garbage was picked up and municipal offices stayed open.

Ginny Lampman doesn't deserve to be in the spot she is in today.