No pension for disgraced ex-public works director

The state Division of Pensions and Benefits has stripped former longtime Brick Township Public Workers Director John H. Nydam of his pension benefits.

John H. Nydam "The board voted for total forfeiture of his pension benefits," Thomas Bell, a state Department of the Treasury spokesman, said.

The pension board met June 18 to discuss Nydam's request for pension benefits. Nydam pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering in April 2006.

The board issued the decision after considering New Jersey's honorable services statute, which can affect an applicant's pension benefits, Bell said.

"It is exactly what we hoped it would be," Mayor Stephen C. Acropolis said of the board's decision.

The statute requires the pension board to consider a number of factors, including the nature of misconduct or crime, the gravity or substantiality of the offense, the relationship between the misconduct and the member's public duties, whether it was a single or multiple offense, and the employee's or official's motives and personal gain.

"I think it's wonderful," Township Council President Ruthanne Scaturro said. "I have no tolerance for people that take money from the public like that."

Nydam had a total of 14 years, seven months in the state pension system, Bell said.

Employees in the state pension system are vested after 10 years of employment. Nydam can still file an application to receive the money he personally paid into the system, Bell said.

Acropolis said he will continue to push for legislation to establish no statute of limitations on official corruption charges and to do away with pensions of elected officials who are convicted of or plead guilty to corruption charges.

State Superior Court Judge James A. Citta, sitting in Toms River, sentenced Nydam to five years' probation Feb. 1 after Nydam pleaded guilty to third-degree official misconduct and theft charges. He agreed to cooperate with the FBI and the U.S. Attorney's Office in exchange for the plea.

It was Nydam's "proactive cooperation" with county and federal law-enforcement authorities that led to the discovery and prosecution of multiple offenses, Citta said at the sentencing.

Township officials were upset with the sentence and said that Nydam should have received jail time.

"I don't think it sets a good example," Scaturro said. "I know he cooperated, but I just don't think that's a good-enough excuse for him to go scot-free."

It was Nydam's cooperation with authorities that ultimately led to former longtime Democratic Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli's guilty plea in federal court in January 2007 to accepting bribes from an unnamed developer. He admitted he took at least $5,000 in bribes in 1998 and 2003. Scarpelli is serving an 18- month sentence in federal prison at Fort Dix.

Nydam's downfall began Aug. 10, 2004, when a resident told Township Council members he saw township employees take down a chain-link fence at a park on Manor Drive and replace it with a board-on-board fence. There was no permit for the fence, which bordered Nydam's property.

Scarpelli suspended Nydam for 30 days and ordered him to reimburse the township for the cost of the fence. On April 3, 2006, Nydam pleaded guilty to official misconduct, theft and witness tampering. Scarpelli said then that he didn't think any other Brick officials would be charged in the investigation.

Nydam was also indirectly involved in a July 2006 indictment involving Stephen and Matthew Appolonia, co-owners of International Trucks of Central Jersey. Nydam was not named in the indictment, which refers to Brick's public works director. But he held the position during the time periods mentioned in the Appolonia indictment.

Nydam took a total of $3,000 in bribes on two occasions from Stephen Appolonia and took trips at the Appolonia brothers' expense to boat races in Canada, Ocean County and other areas, according to the indictment. Federal authorities said the brothers recouped the costs for the trips by inflating the price by at least $2,200 of two of four vehicles they sold to Brick Township, sometime between May 2002 and September 2003.

Nydam's acceptance of bribes didn't end there. Lance Hadley, a local landscaping contractor, pleaded guilty in August 2007 to bribing Nydam with two separate checks of $2,000 apiece. In exchange, Nydam threw more than $40,000 in no-bid snow-plowing contracts his way, according to the indictment.

As public works director, Nydam was responsible for hiring and deploying outside contractors to plow snow in the township during emergency conditions. He hired Lancescaping, Hadley's business, to plow snow in the township at least three times between December 2002 and March 2003, authorities have said.