BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
WEST LONG BRANCH — With not one, but now two vacant chairs to be filled on the dais in Borough Hall, the local Democratic organization has its work cut out.
Councilman Joseph DeLisa has resigned his seat effective March 14. DeLisa, along with former Mayor Paul Zambrano, faces federal charges of extortion following the Feb. 22 arrests of both men as part of a county-wide FBI corruption sting.
The two men were among 11 former and current public officials, including county employees, the mayors of Keyport Borough and Hazlet Township, and a Middletown Township committeeman, to be rounded up in the FBI’s Operation Bid Rig late last month. The arrests were the culmination of an ongoing federal investigation into corrupt practices by government officials throughout Monmouth County.
DeLisa’s resignation, as stated in a one-page letter addressed to the West Long Branch Borough Council, was received by Borough Clerk Lori Cole on March 15.
In the letter, read publicly by Cole at the council’s March 16 meeting, the Democrat expressed hope that someday borough residents would find him “worthy of their trust and provide me a future opportunity to serve this community.”
DeLisa is facing one charge of extortion based on videotaped and audiotaped evidence that he accepted a total of $3,000 in bribes in late 2003 from an Ocean Township-based demolition contractor who appeared to be seeking work with the borough.
That contractor, now identified as Robert “Duke” Steffer of Vero Beach, Fla., was actually a cooperating witness for the FBI.
Zambrano, who is accused of accepting a total of $12,500 from the same cooperating witness, and DeLisa, both 48, remain free on $50,000 bail.
The former mayor resigned from his office of almost nine years, also through a letter to the Borough Council, dated March 4.
“I recognize that if I remain on the council, every vote I cast and every meeting that I attend will be affected by the allegations that have been brought against me,” DeLisa wrote.
“It is now clear that my continued presence on the council would only serve to distract the mayor and council members from addressing critical community issues head on,” DeLisa continued. “It would also distract the citizens of West Long Branch from focusing on what matters most — the future of this great community.”
According to the criminal complaint filed by the U.S. District Attorney’s Office, DeLisa and Zambrano met with the FBI cooperating witness in October 2003 at a political function for local Democrats. Both discussed the possibility of awarding a public contract to Steffer’s firm for the razing of the former borough hall, the criminal complaint charges.
To ensure that Steffer could submit the lowest bid to the council for consideration, DeLisa even offered to advise the contractor of the bid amounts placed by competing firms seeking the contract.
To date, the former borough hall on Locust Avenue has not been demolished.
As of March 16, three members of the West Long Branch Democratic Committee had submitted their names to the borough as candidates to fill Zambrano’s term, which was due to end Dec. 31, 2006.
The names, as announced by Cole, are John Paolantonio Jr. chairman of the borough’s Democratic organization; Marie Sorrentino, vice chairwoman of the same party; and Thomas Manzo.
In an interesting twist, Sorrentino is the widow of the late Democratic Mayor Frank “Clint” Sorrentino, whose unexpired term Zambrano filled after that official passed away while in office in late 1996.
Until the time of their resignations from elected office, Zambrano and DeLisa served respectively as the local Democratic organization’s chairman and vice chairman, Borough Attorney Gregory Baxter said.
Both Zambrano and DeLisa have stepped down from their party positions as well, and Paolantonio and Sorrentino have succeeded them in those two posts.
In accordance with state statutes, a new mayor must be named within 30 days of Zambrano’s resignation, which in the borough’s case is April 3, Baxter said.
At this point, the local Democrats have already complied with state laws requiring submission of the three candidate names within 15 days of an official’s resignation, Baxter said.
The remaining five members of the council have until April 3 to vote upon the three candidates submitted for consideration by the local Democrats, Baxter said. Whoever is chosen by a council majority will take the mayoral oath during a public meeting following the vote.
The new mayor will serve until a special election is held in November, Baxter said. The winner of that special election will fill out the mayoral term, set to end in December 2006.
The process is much the same for filling DeLisa’s council seat, Baxter continued. In that case, the local Democratic organization has until this coming Wednesday, which is 15 days from the time DeLisa’s resignation was received, to submit the names of three candidates to the borough offices.
By April 14, the council must again vote upon those candidates, selecting one to serve out DeLisa’s term until November. At that time, a special election will be held to fill the seat in a similar manner to that process used for filling the mayor’s office, Baxter said.
DeLisa, who was one of two Democrats on the council, was last elected to his current four-year term in 2003. A lifelong borough resident, DeLisa formerly chaired the council’s buildings and grounds committee until Jan. 1, when he was succeeded by first-year Councilwoman Bettina Munson, a fellow Democrat.
DeLisa was serving on the council’s public works, police, and the fire and first aid committees at the time of his resignation.