BY DICK METZGAR
Staff Writer
Important and relevant issues concerning the running of Monmouth County came to the forefront following the June primary elections for two open three-year seats on the Board of Freeholders.
Within the past two weeks these issues have all but been obscured by charges and counter charges about the renting of an affordable housing unit in Tinton Falls by one of the candidates — Democrat Jeffrey R. Pringle, of Tinton Falls.
Pringle and his running mate, Steve Morlino, of Howell, will square off against Republican Amy Handlin, of Middletown, and Robert Clifton, of Matawan, in the Nov. 2 election. Handlin is a member of the freeholders board. Clifton is the mayor of Matawan.
Incumbent Republican Freeholder Ed Stominski was defeated in the June primary.
Pringle has admitted violating a municipal affordable housing regulation by allowing a friend to rent his condominium in Tinton Falls from June 2001 to Aug. 2002.
Local regulations stipulate that affordable housing units must be owner-occupied. If not, the owner of such a unit must seek permission from the Tinton Falls affordable housing office in order to rent the unit. If this permission is granted, the renter must be selected from a list of people qualified for affordable housing.
Pringle has admitted that he did not seek such permission.
Pringle has countered the charges with one of his own — that a Tinton Falls councilman coerced an admission from the man who rented Pringle’s condo.
Handlin is an associate professor in the Department of Management and Marketing in the School of Business Administration at Monmouth University, West Long Branch. She is seeking her sixth three-year term as a freeholder.
Clifton is the director of public relations with Comcast Cablevision, Eatontown. He is seeking his first term.
This marks the third straight year that Pringle, a history teacher at the Cedar Drive Middle School, Colts Neck, has challenged incumbents for a seat on the all-Republican Board of Freeholders.
Morlino, the executive director of capital facilities and construction programs in the Newark public school system, lost a bid to win a seat in the state Legislature in 2003. He is seeking his first term on the Board of Freeholders.
Following the June primary, Pringle said his platform this year would not change from the one he campaigned on in the 2002 and 2003 freeholder races.
“As I have the past two campaigns, I am concentrating on ethical reform and spending waste in the county,” Pringle said after the primary. “While I didn’t win in the last two elections, I think that I did more than anyone else to bring these issues to light. I believe that the people really didn’t know about the amount of spending waste that has been going on at the county level. At the