Overdue sewer bill prompts response from Twp. Council

Current BTMUA chairman says there was no cover-up involved

BY JENNIFER DOME Staff Writer

BY JENNIFER DOME
Staff Writer

BRICK — The Township Council has requested a report from the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority (BTMUA) that details township properties that are billed for water use but not sewer, and vice versa.

The request came after council members learned that former mayor and utilities authority Chairman Daniel F. Newman Sr. paid a $10,900 overdue sewer bill on March 28 that went unnoticed and unpaid for almost 20 years.

The BTMUA discovered that Newman was never billed for sewer use when the new occupant at the former site of Newman’s Pineland Plumbing and Heating business on Mantoloking Road came to the BTMUA for site plan approval, according to BTMUA Chairman William P. Nittoso. The engineering department discovered that there was no record of the original connection fee, the chairman said.

Nittoso originally told the Bulletin that the overdue bill wasn’t brought to his attention until March. But last week he confirmed that he has known about the bill since the new occupant of Newman’s business, the Childhood Leukemia Foundation, came to the BTMUA for site plan approval on Sept. 23.

When asked why it took so long for the overdue bill to be delivered to Newman, Nittoso said, “That’s been the big question that everybody has.” The overdue bill was never included in Executive Director Kevin Donald’s report, Nittoso said. The chairman said an overdue bill would normally appear in this report.

Donald’s assistant, Marie Sylvester, said last week that Donald “doesn’t have any comment at this time.”

The three Democratic Township Council members, Kathy Russell, Fred Underwood and Gregory Kavanagh, released a statement last week asking that, “If there has been any cover-up or threat regarding the Newman sewer situation, we are calling for the immediate resignation of anyon.e who may have been a part of it.”

Russell said last Wednesday that the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office, who requested copies of documents from the BTMUA on March 28, will investigate to see if there was a cover-up involved.

When asked if anyone was told to bury Newman’s bill, Nittoso said that he took the chairman’s seat on Feb. 1. Until then, Donald only took direction from Newman, who was the chairman before Feb. 1.

“It’s inconceivable that the chairman [Newman] gave him [Donald] that direction,” Nittoso said.

Newman did not return messages left at his business by press time Tuesday.

Councilman Stephen Acropolis, a Republican, said he was disappointed when he heard that the Democrats had issued a press release. Council President Ruthanne Scaturro agreed, saying the council should have made a statement as a whole.

“I think we’re all on the same page regardless of party,” Russell said during the council’s April 5 caucus meeting.

“But it didn’t appear that way,” Scaturro said.

“It came from us because we, quite clearly, appointed the person in question,” Kavanagh said.

Acropolis said he feels that any BTMUA commissioner who knew about the bill six months ago should resign.

“We, as elected officials, have to hold ourselves up to a higher standard,” Acropolis said. “I hope people don’t paint all elected officials with the same broad brush. I think I should get a bumper sticker that says, ‘Yes, I’m a New Jersey politician. No, I haven’t been indicted.’

Russell said she didn’t feel it was necessary to wait and issue a statement with the other council members.

“Greg, Fred and I did what we felt was right,” Russell said. “I felt that it was appropriate that we issue a statement and ask for a detailed report on properties that have water and no sewer, and sewer and no water.”

Nittoso said that he and Donald have had an adversarial relationship about several things, including check signing and reorganization of the utilities authority. Newman started the policy of directing media questions to himself, rather than speaking with Donald, Nittoso said. He said he has never ordered Donald not to speak to the media, but the practice that Newman set in place has just continued.

As for looking at township properties and the bills that are paid or not paid, Nittoso said, “I already ordered the executive director to do that kind of investigation.

“We are doing that and we are the ones who should be doing that,” Nittoso said.