Council wants law enforcement to examine finances

JACKSON - At their meeting on the evening of Oct. 24, members of the Township Council were expected to read into the record their call for action regar-ding the previous township administrator and township government.

The meeting took place after the Tri-Town News deadline on Tuesday.

In a press release issued Monday, the council members said, "We continue to find what we believe to be examples of violations of state and public contract laws and misuse of public funds."

The council said it expects to take necessary steps toward making prior government officials accountable to taxpayers.

Additionally, the council members said they would report examples of alleged malfeasance and mismanagement to the appropriate state government officials and departments, including the state Depart-ment of Community Affairs and the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office.

The council said it expects to forward all documentation of possible budgetary law violations that have been uncovered in Jackson since July 1 to the United States attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie.

On July, 1 the previous Township Com-mittee gave way to the Township Council in Jackson's change of government.

The township's finances have been in the news in recent weeks following the council's adoption of a 2006 municipal budget that increased the municipal tax rate by more than 19 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

To the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 that amounts to almost a $400 increase in municipal taxes this year.

"We will be the voice for the overtaxed, overburdened residents of local municipalities and place the burden of truth of past discretions on the guilty," the council members said in the press release. "For it is their actions, the past administration, which resulted in the increasing taxation of Jackson residents."

The council's press release also questioned the behavior of former township administrator Andrew Salerno.

"The most unsettling revelation of questionable behavior by the prior administrator came in a memorandum from the chief financial officer (Lilly Ann Farley) dated July 12," the council said.

"In this memorandum, the CFO repor-ted that [she] first brought this to the attention of the administrator in May, that if [the township government] didn't adopt a budget soon, we would not have enough revenue coming in to meet our obligations by August."

According to the press release, the CFO, in her memorandum, said that Salerno told her not to worry, not to go over his head and not to go directly to the governing body on any topic. She further stated that she felt to do so would have been insubordination.

The council's press release said the prior administration delayed the 2006 budget for months, seemingly trying to avoid responsibility for a tax increase which resulted in an approximate $14 million cash flow deficit.