The Millstone Township reorganization meeting, a typically quiet affair, was an active one with pay-to-play a topic of discussion.
By: Lauren Burgoon
MILLSTONE There was a hint of 2004 lingering in the air at the Jan. 5 reorganization meeting as the committee swapped its top two positions and again decided to address campaign finance reform in the coming year.
The town’s new mayor is Republican Elias Abilheira. He took over the mayor’s seat and promptly nominated his running mate and last year’s mayor, Nancy Grbelja, to serve as deputy mayor.
Ms. Grbelja’s nomination was unanimously approved by the committee, but Mayor Abilheira didn’t have it so easy. Committeeman Bill Nurko explained that while he wouldn’t vote against Mayor Abilheira, he could not support him either.
"Unfortunately I feel that we shouldn’t be changing the mayor at this time … I cannot support Committeeman Abilheira for mayor. We definitely have some philosophical differences about the way things should operate in Millstone," Mr. Nurko said.
He ultimately abstained on Mayor Abilheira’s appointment and the mayor was selected by a 3-0 vote. Committeeman Chet Halka was absent because he was on vacation.
The faces of the top two committee members weren’t the only reminders of the 2004 reorganization. Like last year, campaign finance rules for local elections were on the agenda. The committee on Jan. 5 introduced two campaign finance-related ordinances, one dealing with political contribution disclosures for people seeking development approvals. The other is the much discussed, but never approved, pay-to-play rules that would ban professionals who contribute to local politics from receiving a no-bid contract.
The pay-to-play ordinance was introduced with little fanfare, despite the controversy over the proposed law last year. Pay-to-play appeared before the committee on Jan. 1, 2004 and was debated a half dozen times throughout the year, but the group could never agree on the ordinance’s terms. Zero tolerance, or the absolute prohibition of any professional who wants a township contract from donating to a political party or campaign, was one of the most contested points last year.
The reintroduced proposal has been relaxed to include sections that former Committeeman John Pfefferkorn was loath to embrace last year. The proposal scraps the zero tolerance clause and includes a corrective measure that professionals who inadvertently exceed campaign donation limits can take within 30 days of an election to receive a no-bid contract. The ordinance also would allow professionals to show their support for candidates or political parties through minimum donations $100 to individual candidates and $200 to town and county parties and political committees.
Professionals in violation of the ordinance would be ineligible to receive no-bid contracts for four years.
The second, more controversial campaign finance law introduced would require those who seek development approvals to submit a disclosure form detailing campaign contributions for township candidates, political committees and local parties. The disclosure would encompass all contributions made within one year of seeking development approvals.
The information that the ordinance would gather is readily available to anyone interested through the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC), a fact that was not lost on Mr. Nurko. He also questioned how the disclosure might affect development applications.
"It could influence the decision that’s what I’m afraid of," he said.
Ms. Grbelja defended it by saying that the law would make information more readily accessible for people who don’t want to look through records on the ELEC Web site.
"I think it’s a more effective way to have an open government [and] full disclosure so everybody knows all of the background information. I have full faith in our board members that they aren’t going to use it (to sway an application decision)," Mayor Abilheira added.
The public hearings for both campaign finance ordinances are scheduled for Feb. 2.
In other reorganization activity, new Committeeman Bob Kinsey was sworn in for a three-year term. The Republican took the oath of office with his wife, Paula, and their three daughters watching.
With Mr. Kinsey, Republicans retained their majority on the Millstone committee this year. Mr. Kinsey replaced Mr. Pfefferkorn, who is a Republican but ran as an Independent for re-election last year. Mr. Pfefferkorn was frequently at odds with the committee’s other two Republications, Mayor Abilheira and Ms. Grbelja, and often sided with the committee’s two Democrats, Mr. Nurko and Mr. Halka.
The mayor and committee made several appointments at the reorganization.

