Special meeting planned on controversial report
Crowd turns out
to comment in
Millstone last week
It was a long night for the Millstone Township Committee and the standing-room-only crowd that attended last week’s meeting to hear discussion of the recently released investigation report on allegations involving former Committeeman William Kastning, and the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council.
The audience was often verbally abusive toward one speaker or another, and toward Committeeman John Pfefferkorn. The meeting did not end until approximately 12:20 a.m. when the committee went into a second executive session.
A state trooper, who said he was there for crowd control, was in attendance throughout the meeting. It quickly became apparent that there would be numerous questions and allegations made about the report, so Mayor Evan Maltz announced that he was going to recommend that a special meeting be held just to discuss the report. He added they weren’t ready to set a date, but it would be made public as soon as it was known.
Maltz said that he had gotten a copy of the report and had read the whole thing. In fact, he said, he had read parts of the report twice, but would like to read it again.
Later in the meeting, resident John Finley suggested that the author of the special report, Eric J. Marcy, an attorney with Wilentz, Goldman & Spitzer, Woodbridge, be present at the special meeting. Roger Staib, the municipal GOP chairman, said he would also like to see someone from the county Prosecutor’s Office there.
The Prosecutor’s Office investigated the allegations a year ago and dismissed them.
As soon as the floor was open to the public, Kastning brought up the issue of putting report on the township Web site, a new business item listed on the evening’s agenda.
The 33-page report was initiated at a Township Committee meeting in September after a township resident accused then-Committeeman Kastning of impropriety during failed land acquisition discussions that would have benefited the township. Copies are available at the municipal building for approximately $18.25.
Kastning said he would like to talk about the report, especially since there were so many concerned citizens present. He called the report an inquisition, instead of an investigation, and a waste of taxpayer money. He suggested that the committee ask for its money back and apologize to the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council and to MOST (Millstone Open Space Trust), a private non-profit organization that is also criticized in the report.
Maltz responded that he thought MOST was defunct. Kastning replied that the organization is defunct, but he was talking about apologizing to the members of MOST, which includes Stephen Lambrose, a founding member and president, Thomas Foley and MOST attorney Mitch Newman.
Kastning said the report was incomplete. "Do you realize," he said, "I was never interviewed."
Maltz responded that, according to the report, Kastning was contacted, but declined to be interviewed.
Kastning said that he was approached through his attorney and asked whether he would agree to an interview, but the request came two days after he had filed a lawsuit against the Laones, the residents who made the initial allegations against him. Kastning said his lawyer advised him not to agree to an interview because it might prejudice his case against the Laones.
In any event, Kastning said he wasn’t contacted until August 2001 and wanted to know why it took the investigator a year to contact him.
Susan Laone was also at the meeting. She congratulated the committee on its integrity in following through with the report and compared members to the heroes of Sept. 11.
The subject then changed to the issue of whether to put the report on the Web site. Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter, who would like to see the report on the Web site, said the issue was on the agenda for discussion because he didn’t think that any of the committeemen wanted to make the decision alone.
Kastning asked why no one was anxious to put the Prosecutor’s Office report on the Web site.
The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office was provided with a tape of the Sept. 20, 2000, at which Laone made the allegations against Kastning at the same time that the report was initiated. In a letter dated Jan. 26, 2001, the Prosecutor’s Office concluded that "… neither Mr. Kastning nor anyone else involved in this matter committed a criminal act. Accordingly, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office has closed this investigation."
Maltz said that if the special investigator’s report was going to be posted on the Web site, than perhaps the prosecutor’s office report should also be posted.
He asked Township Attorney Duane Davison if there was a problem putting both reports on the Web site. Davison said no, since the report had already been made public. But, he added, all the township has from the prosecutor’s office is a letter and not the investigation report itself.
Kastning said that a copy of the letter would be enough for him.
Committeeman Charles Abate reminded the committee that, in the meantime, residents could read the report for free at the municipal building.
Committeeman John Pfefferkorn, the committee’s Web site liaison, said "I guess I’m the guy that has to put it on. It’s a big document."
He added that he was concerned about the image of Millstone to outsiders when they go on the Web site and "see something like this."
He explained that he supports having a lot of other documents on the Web, but he "did not want to see it used as a tool for certain political statements."
Maltz asked for a motion to table the discussion on the Web site, and it was agreed that, pending further discussion, the report would not be put on.
The mayor said that this particular issue has made "this a disgusting job." He added that he got involved to do something for Millstone, not to be a politician. "One of my goals was to bring this township together. People on one side of town didn’t like people on the other side."
He said he didn’t want to see the matter end unjustly. He said it was a sensitive item and involves a committeeman and someone’s life. "When I first saw this report, I thought I would like to see it on the Web site. But if we don’t have all of the facts, then I don’t want it on the Web site," he said.
He added that he wants to see the town get beyond the issue.
The purpose of the report, he added, was to find out where the process broke down and why.
As for when the special meeting will be held, Maltz acknowledged that the committee is in the middle of the budget process. Township Attorney Duane Davison added that other people have to be contacted and a larger space arranged, probably the township school.