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IN WAKE OF SCARPELLI SCANDAL, COUNCIL SETS SIGHT ON FORMING ETHICS COMMITTEE
By Catherine Snipe
Brick Township needs an ethics committee.
That's what Councilman Anthony Matthews hopes a resolution he is drafting for discussion next meeting will create.
Matthews announced at the township council meeting this week that he hopes the council will consider creating a committee that would address ethical standards for the township. The standards could be applied to elected officials, but also township administrators.
Though the draft of the resolution is tentative and has yet to be considered by the council, Matthews has an idea of what it would look like: it would provide citizen's input, not just official's.
"There could be three members from the council and three members who are citizens," he said, adding that perhaps an ethics officer could be in place.
The plan comes during a time of scandal for the township, with former Mayor Joseph Scarpelli pleading guilty to extortion earlier this month and rumors swirling of more to come.
An ethics panel or committee is not necessarily a new idea for the council, as it is been something the township has discussed previously. The January 23 meeting may be the first time the idea is presented as an agenda item, though.
Matthews said he hopes to work on this plan in time to put it on next week's council caucus agenda. In that meeting, the council discusses and clarifies the agenda items, but uses its business meeting the following week to vote.
It's no surprise that ethics once again comes up as an issue. At the last meeting, the news of Scarpelli's guilty plea shocked the township and those who had speculated for weeks about the reasons behind the former mayor's resignation.
Scarpelli pled guilty in Newark Superior Court to accepting at least $5,000 from an unnamed developer seeking approval for a project in the township between 1998 and 2003 in return for using his influence as mayor. He also admitted accepting $500 in cash. He may face up to 30 months in federal prison.
The former mayor previously came under fire during his term after admitting in 2003 that he took a township-owned vehicle on vacation to Vermont.
The township was also the subject of an FBI subpoena in May last year, and Council President Stephen Acropolis said the township received another "visit" from investigators last week, when the FBI subpoenaed more records from town hall. It is unclear if the cases are connected.
This is not the first guilty plea of a township official in recent years. Former Brick Public Works director John H. Nydam pleaded guilty to accepting a payment from a contractor and to stealing township equipment. The plea came last April in state Superior Court in Toms River.
Matthews said last week that the mayor's plea could mean residents and the public have distrust for township officials. The township must work to mend the situation and regain that trust, he said, and an ethics committee may be one way of doing it.
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