Monroe looks to enact new ethical standards

BY JESSICA SMITH
Staff Writer

Monroe Township officials are looking to enact seven new ordinances in an effort to bring higher ethical standards to the local government.

The ordinances, introduced Monday by the Township Council, were written using guidelines put forth by an ethics panel appointed by Mayor Richard Pucci last summer.

"I think what we tried to accomplish, we have achieved," Pucci said. "These go way beyond what state law calls for. We will probably be one of the first in the state of New Jersey to encompass these things in such depth. Certainly our residents deserve nothing less."

Council members voted unanimously to introduce the ordinances, which will establish stricter regulations regarding disclosure and recusal in conflicts of interest, pay-to-play laws and other situations that potentially pose ethical questions.

"Anything in that vein is going in the right direction, but they could have gone farther," said Township Republican Club member Harold Kane.

He took issue with the fact that there was only one Republican on the ethics panel.

"There probably wasn't too much dialogue going on, it was probably mostly monologue," Kane said.

One ordinance institutes a code of ethical conduct that will apply to all elected or appointed township officials. It creates a set of standards for conducting official township business, including guidelines for disclosure and recusal in the voting process, as well as specifying relationships that can pose conflicts of interest. Business and employment relationships, as well as family and social relationships are addressed in the ordinance.

Guidelines are also being established for township professionals, as well as applicants and their professionals who come before township boards applying to develop or redevelop land.

Pay-to-play reforms are also being made more stringent. Township Business Administrator Wayne Hamilton, along with Township Attorney Joel Shain, studied pay-to-play ordinances of other towns and model ordinances drafted by the New Jersey Citizens' Campaign.

Their findings, along with the recommendations of the panel, resulted in the prohibition of awarding professional service contracts to certain political contributors. Also, political contributions will be limited to a certain dollar amount. Campaign contributions from developers seeking to enter into redevelopment agreements or general development plan agreements in the township are now prohibited.

But Kane pointed out that the reforms do not apply to local political organizations that can filter money to candidates in unlimited amounts.

"[It's a] massive loophole," he said.

Under the new ordinances, an ethics training officer will be appointed to assist in the process of following the guidelines. Other new regulations prohibit town officials and employees, along with their immediate families, from receiving gifts from certain individuals or entities. In an attempt to eliminate the possibility of nepotism, township officials are prohibited from hiring relatives of existing full-time employees, unless they are hired for a part-time seasonal position.

"We have always held to the strictest of standards, and these ordinances serve solely to put our practices on paper," Pucci said.

The ethics panel, chaired by retired Middlesex County Superior Court Judge Joseph Sadofski, was formed after allegations surfaced last spring that Pucci acted in a potential conflict of interest with regard to his political consulting work for a political action committee. Pucci, who denied any wrongdoing, ended his consulting work and formed the ethics panel as a means of creating stricter standards for township officials.

The committee met eight times during the summer and fall of last year. Using state ethics laws and model ordinances, they formulated guidelines for use by the township.

"They did an outstanding job," Pucci said. "No stone was left unturned."