Hearing on mayoral lawsuit on tap tomorrow
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP - Lawyers for both sides in the mayoral appointments spat are slated to appear before state Superior Court Judge Frank A. Buczynski Jr. tomorrow at 9 a.m.

Buczynski scheduled the pretrial hearing during the last court date on the matter.

Mayor Daniel J. Kelly's lawsuit was once again a topic of discussion at the April 3 Township Council caucus meeting.

"We're back to square one," council President Stephen C. Acropolis said to Mayor Daniel J. Kelly. "I've asked you over and over again to please drop what I consider a frivolous lawsuit."

Kelly said he thought it was improper that Michael Blandina's name had been read into a closed session resolution at the March 27 council meeting. Blandina is a township employee and chairman of the Brick Democratic Party.

Blandina should have been given a Rice notice, which gives an employee the chance to decide if he or she wants the matter made public, the mayor said.

"You went into closed session, there was a lot of talk before and after," Kelly said. "We're big people. I can take it. But we have an employee involved. Whether you like the employee or don't like the employee, whether he's your party or he's not your party, an employee has to be given notice whether he wants it public."

But Acropolis said that under the Faulkner Act, the township's form of government, any township official or employee can be terminated if he or she refuses to testify after receiving a subpoena.

"He can be removed from office and terminated from the job," he said. "No Rice notice, no civil service notice. You just can't say no to a subpoena."

Acropolis said he was asked if he wanted Kelly removed too, since he had declined to testify.

"We just went through a very, very bad time in Brick Township," Acropolis said. "I don't want to go through that again. I don't even want to think about that right now."

The council did not discuss Blandina's "work product" during the closed session, Acropolis said.

"What we were talking about was somebody saying I'm willing to testify under oath and then their lawyer going in and saying they don't have to testify," he said.

Buczynski quashed a subpoena in late March that would have required Kelly, Blandina and former Township Attorney Charles Starkey to be deposed in the matter.

Both Kelly and Blandina said they had no problem being deposed, but had been advised by their attorneys there was no need for them to do so.

"We're going by our attorneys' advice," Kelly told Acropolis. "You went into closed session. Your attorney said one thing, our attorneys said another. He [the judge] quashed the subpoenas."

"This would have been done a lot quicker had we done depositions," Acropolis said.

"This would have been done earlier had you just asked for a decision," Kelly replied.

Both Acropolis and Councilman Michael Thulen said that by the time the issue is decided, there will only be a few months left before the mayoral election.

"What are we talking about, another four months?" Thulen said. "We are wasting money."

"You are suing the town you are mayor of," Acropolis said. "You can go into court tomorrow morning and say it's not worth it."

The suit's sole question is whether Township Clerk Virginia Lampman - who was appointed acting mayor by former Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli on Dec. 6 - had the legal right to make professional appointments at the New Year's Day organization meeting.

Kelly and his attorneys contend she did not. The appointments violated the state Municipal Vacancy Law, the suit states.

"My position as municipal chairman has nothing to do with my job as a municipal employee," said Blandina, who has worked in town hall for more than 20 years as an assistant administrative analyst. "I don't bring politics into that building."