OLD BRIDGE — Five township officials were hit with fines by the township Ethics Board for failing to file their financial disclosure forms by anApril 30, 2011, deadline.
Rabbi Yossi Kanelsky, a member of the Old Bridge Ethics Board, Marilyn Liberatore, of Fire District No. 1, Donna Ortiz, a member of the Rent Stabilization Board, and Robin Rosen, a member of the Economic Development Corporation, were each handed $100 fines by the Old Bridge Ethics Board for not filing their forms by the deadline. A fifth offi- cial was also fined, but the official’s post with the township could not be confirmed in time for this issue.
John Paff, chairman of the New Jersey Libertarian Party’s Open Government Advocacy Project, whose June 2011 complaint led to the fines, said that the filing of financial disclosure forms is important not only because it is the law, but also because it can help citizens determine potential conflicts of interest.
For example, Paff said that if the local planning board is voting on an application and a citizen has read a board member’s financial disclosure reports and finds that the board member’s wife works for the applicant, the citizen can raise the issue of a conflict of interest.
“Without the financial disclosure, without that information disclosed, that hampers the citizens’ ability to make those determinations [of potential conflict of interest],” Paff said.
The fines stem from an Open Public Records Act request that Paff filed with the township that found 20 individuals failed to file their financial disclosure forms on or before April 30, 2011. Paff then filed a complaint with the ethics board against these 20 officials in June 2011. Fifteen of them resolved the issue, while the other five were eventually hit with fines this month.
Paff said that he has sent similar requests to dozens of towns across the state over the years, and that in 85 to 90 percent of cases, he finds examples of noncompliance or no mechanism where governments test for noncompliance.
In some cases, Paff said, officials will leave certain sections of their financial disclosure forms blank or file a totally blank form, something he did not check for in Old Bridge.
Paff said that he is not sure if annual financial disclosure forms are the best way to handle this sort of financial information, noting that maybe changes could be made to allow for only information updates instead of annual reporting, and allow online filing instead of paper forms.
But Paff said he agrees with the intent of the law in exposing conflicts of interest and holding officials accountable. He said that government should be just as eager and zealous in enforcing reporting requirements against public officials as it is against private individuals like those who are seeking building permits.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” Paff said.
Townships, not citizens, should be monitoring who files their forms and if they are completely filled out, Paff said, and he hopes that his complaint will improve compliance with the filing law.
“It’s not fair to the people who actually file the forms,” Paff said. “There’s something wrong when people can just not obey the law with impunity.”
“You have to file the forms, that’s all there is to it,” he added. “And if you don’t file them, you get fined.”
Old Bridge Township Council President Brian Cahill said that he supported the fines and said that the Ethics Board needs to continue the practice to ensure that officials comply with township ordinances.
“It gives some teeth to the Ethics Board so people understand that there’s rules that need to be followed, particularly those that [involve] financial disclosure,” Cahill said.
Contact Chris Zawistowski at [email protected].