In November 2019, I was informed by Facebook that my former blog, "Random Notes on NJ government" violated Facebook's Community Standards.  All of my posts on that blog quote from lawsuits or other official government records and those quotes sometimes contain profane language.  Apparently, Facebook's algorithm picked up some prohibited words in one or more of my articles and, instead of merely blocking those articles, Facebook prohibited me from sharing any articles.  Facebook did not respond at all to my appeal and also did not identify which of my hundreds of articles offended their standar ..read more

According to a February 20, 2019 settlement agreement, the Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills (Morris County) agreed to withdraw a Preliminary Notice of Disciplinary Action it had filed against a Township police officer on September 11, 2018 in exchange for the officer's resignation from the force.  The agreement also required the Township to pay the officer "$11,062.49 for all accumulated compensatory time off in lieu of paid overtime" and "provide him and his dependents postretirement health benefits . . . if he chooses to file for retirement at the same time as his resignation."  If a prospe ..read more

In an unpublished decision released today, a two-judge panel of the New Jersey Superior Court, Appellate Division dismissed a citizen's appeal of a ruling by the Local Finance Board that a Somerset County fire commissioner "did not violate [the Local Government Ethics Law] when he voted . . . to settle a lawsuit against the [fire district] in which he was a named defendant."  The Local Finance Board is the state agency chiefly responsible for enforcing the Local Government Ethics Law. The ethics complainant was Jeff Carter and the fire commissioner was James Wickman of the District 1 Board of ..read more

After a two and a half year investigation, a former member of the Dunellen Borough (Middlesex County) Council was tentatively fined $200 by the New Jersey Local Finance Board (LFB) for failing to publicly disclose on his Financial Disclosure Statement (FDS) two parcels of real estate owned by his wife. In its November 23, 2018 Notice of Violation, the LFB--the chief enforcer of the Local Government Ethics Law (LGEL)--found that then-Councilman Kevin A. Bachorik failed to list two parcels of real estate--one in Dunellen and the other in Toms River owned by his wife Miriam--on his 2015 FDS.  T ..read more

After a more than four-year investigation, a former member of the Bound Brook Borough (Somerset County) Council was tentatively fined $100 by the New Jersey Local Finance Board (LFB) for voting in favor of a resolution which designated a redeveloper for a Main Street property while her in-laws owned that property and her husband, who currently sits as a Borough Council member, had an interest in a business located on that property. In its November 27, 2018 Notice of Violation, the LFB--the chief enforcer of the Local Government Ethics Law (LGEL)--found that on July 22, 2014 then-Councilwoman ..read more

In an August 28, 2018 ruling, Burlington County Superior Court Judge Susan L. Claypoole upheld Eastampton Township's October 23, 2017 decision to fire one of its police officers for being untruthful during an internal affairs investigation. According to Judge Claypoole's 21-page written decision, the Eastampton Police Department's Internal Affairs Unit charged Officer Michael Musser with misusing sick time by calling out sick the day before a scheduled vacation in order to make an early morning airline flight to Florida.  He was also charged with failing to notify his supervisors of his "chan ..read more

In a September 30, 2018 Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to Middlesex County, Libertarians for Transparent Government, a non-profit I serve as executive director, sought a criminal complaint filed against a County Sheriff's Officer who we heard had been recently charged.  In its response, the County provided an unsigned, two-count criminal complaint filed by the Somerset County Prosecutor's Office charging the 41-year-old officer with 3rd degree theft by deception and 3rd degree insurance fraud. The officer at issue is Miguel A. Figueroa who has worked for the Middlesex Sheriff's Depart ..read more

After a three-and-a-half-year investigation, the Local Finance Board (LFB), the primary entity that enforces New Jersey's Local Government Ethics Law (LGEL), ruled that a former Westampton Township (Burlington County) Committeeman did not violate the LGEL by voting to appoint a former Mount Holly Municipal Utilities Authority (MUA) Commissioner to a $90,000 fire chief position two months after the Commissioner had voted to appoint the Committeeman to the MUA's $129,492 executive director post. According to my February 11, 2015 ethics complaint, Westampton Committeeman Robert Maybury voted "ay ..read more

A three-judge Appellate Division panel, in a published and thus precedential ruling, today invalidated a fee agreement between a Law Against Discrimination client and Somerville attorney Brian M. Cige.  According to the opinion, Cige's fee agreement required his client to pay the greater of the following three calculations: a) Cige's hourly rate of $475 for hours worked on the case, b) 37.5% of the net recovery or c) statutory fees awarded by the court or by way of settlement.  In addition, the client was required to pay all costs and expenses. According to the opinion, Cige billed his client ..read more

According to an undated Camden County indictment that appears to have been handed down in 2017, a sergeant with the Camden County Department of Corrections was charged with Fourth Degree Criminal Sexual Contact and Second Degree Official Misconduct for "committing an act of sexual contact upon another Camden County Corrections Officer . . . while on duty, specifically by touching [her] vagina over her clothing."  The incident occurred on October 5, 2016 and the female officer, identified in the indictment only by her initials, was 23 years old at the time. On January 3, 2017, police filed ano ..read more