MANALAPAN — Former Township Committee member and former mayor George Spodak offered a resolution to the Township Committee on Nov. 12 which requests the resignation of committee members Anthony Gennaro and Susan Cohen. The committee did not take any action on Spodak’s request.
Gennaro will end his committee term on Dec. 31. Cohen’s term runs through Dec. 31, 2010. She said she will not resign.
Spodak said he drew up the resolution because Gennaro and Cohen took independent action on a matter of civil litigation that Manalapan officials are pressing.
The township is embroiled in a legal matter with attorney Stuart Moskovitz concerning actions he took when he was Manalapan’s township attorney in 2005.
Manalapan is represented by legal counsel in that matter, but Gennaro and Cohen — acting without the knowledge of the counsel representing the township — submitted legal papers to state Superior Court Judge Dennis O’Brien. The judge rejected their certifications.
Moskovitz subsequently resubmitted both certifications as part of a brief he filed with the court.
Cohen and Gennaro have said Moskovitz had nothing to do with their preparation or submission of the certifications. They said the certifications were prepared independently of each other.
Cohen was not present at the Nov. 12 committee meeting. She later said she had been released from a hospital that day after a 48-hour stay and that is why she was not able to attend the meeting.
Township Attorney Kevin Kennedy advised the members of the governing body not to discuss the details of the civil litigation that is at the heart of the resolution presented by Spodak.
Gennaro would only affirm that he had prepared and submitted a certification to the judge hearing the matter.
In the language of the resolution, Spodak made several statements, including, " … these certifications contained marked confidentialminutes of executive session meetings that are held to a public trust and not to be made public … Mr. Gennaro and Mrs. Cohen circumvented the Township Committee and its attorneys in a futile attempt to help aid the defendant Stuart Moskovitz (their friend) in his defense in the action against him … the courtroom in reality is the battleground and this is tantamount to an act of treason against our township … Mr. Gennaro and Mrs. Cohen, public officials of Manalapan, violated their oath of office and can no longer be trusted as officials of our town with the fiduciary and matters of public trust involving our township."
The resolution calls on Gennaro and Cohen to resign from office.
Reached after the meeting, Cohen said she has no intention of resigning.
"I have a fiduciary responsibility to the people. I answer to the people. The people elected me and I have to do what’s best for them," she said.
Members of the Township Committee accepted copies of the resolution that Spodak had prepared but did not comment on the document.
Later in the evening the committee voted 3-1 to publicly censure Cohen and Gennaro for their actions in the matter of the litigation. Mayor Michelle Roth and committeemen Andrew Lucas and Richard Klauber voted in favor of the censure. Gennaro voted no on that item.