Subpoena of minutes part of ongoing state investigation
BY LAUREN MATTHEW
Staff Writer
A state grand jury has subpoenaed more than three years of minutes from Old Bridge Township Council executive sessions.
The subpoena, dated June 2, requires that the township “produce any and all records, whether stored in documentary form or on any electronic or magnetic media, relating in any way to any Old Bridge Township Council executive sessions. …”
It seeks all minutes of the closed sessions held between Jan. 1, 2002, and the present.
“A grand jury does not tell you why they want something,” said Councilman G. Kevin Calogera. “They tell you what they want.”
The council, Calogera said, had to comply. At Monday night’s meeting, it voted unanimously to approve a resolution authorizing the release of those minutes.
“The [township] ordinance says that executive minutes cannot be released without the approval of the council,” Township Attorney Jerome Convery said.
Originally, Convery said, the grand jury had asked for a specific executive session that took place on a certain date. But after contacting the township’s legal department, it opted to subpoena numerous sessions in order to protect the confidentiality of the investigation.
Executive session minutes up to the sending date of the subpoena will be sent to the state grand jury, Convery said. The public will not be able to access those minutes.
Mayor Jim Phillips said yesterday that he and all of the township’s administration have been working “hand in glove” with the state Attorney General’s office, which has been investigating allegations of wrongdoing in Old Bridge government for several years.
“This is part of an ongoing investigation,” Phillips said of the subpoenaed minutes.
That investigation has thus far resulted in two grand jury indictments. Township Engineer John Vincenti was indicted on bribery charges in January, and engineering inspector Barry Bowers received similar charges in March. The Attorney General’s office alleged that both men had developers perform services for their personal benefit in exchange for favorable treatment from the township.
“I have complete faith in the attorney general to do a thorough and complete review,” Phillips said on Tuesday.
He noted that the investigation began in 2002, before he became mayor, and that he looks forward to the attorney general “cleaning up the problem.”
The mayor said he hopes that there are no further indictments, but he does not believe the investigation is about to grind to a halt.
“I don’t think the attorney general is wasting his time,” he said.
The investigation came into the public eye in January 2004 when a subpoena was issued for records and paperwork related to five employees of the township’s engineering and building departments. Vincenti and Bowers were among the five employees, who also included a now-resigned engineering department secretary, a now-retired construction official and a current sub-code official.
Bowers, of Point Pleasant, has been accused of taking more than $27,000 worth of services from developers and contractors doing business with the township. The indictment lists five instances in which investigators allege Bowers arrange for builders to perform work at his home, relatives’ homes or the home of another engineering department employee.
Vincenti, who was Bowers’ supervisor, is accused of soliciting and receiving $3,800 from a developer, and using the funds for landscaping work at his home in Brick, Ocean County.
Both Vincenti and Bowers have entered pleas of not guilty.