By Charley Falkenburg, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR The verdict is in: the Superior Court has dismissed former council member Charlie Morgan’s most recent lawsuit against Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh a second defeat in Mr. Morgan’s ongoing legal battle with the mayor.
Since 2010, Mr. Morgan has filed two lawsuits and one appeal all of which have either been thrown out by the Lawrence Township municipal court, the Superior Court, or the Appellate Division of the Superior Court with certification denied by the Supreme Court.
”Based on this recent decision it is clear I have been responding to requests for information from the council no one can say they have a hard time getting information from the administration,” said Mayor Hsueh. “It has been verified and confirmed by the Superior Court again.”
Both of Mr. Morgan’s lawsuits are similar in that they allege the mayor did not provide information that he had requested promptly or in written form during his time on council.
For that reason, the Superior Court threw out Mr. Morgan’s second case on grounds that his argument was the same as the first, which the court had already resolved and dismissed. The court statement also cited that any similar issues Mr. Morgan had should have been part of the first lawsuit.
”The court found that not only did the second lawsuit have no basis, but that he’s abusing the system because he filed a separate lawsuit, which alleges the same complaints of the first,” said Township Attorney Michael Herbert.
The trial court found the first lawsuit to be moot citing Mr. Morgan had already received the information and that the state law regarding information requests does not require a time limit nor a method of conveyance when providing requested information to the town’s governing body.
Mr. Morgan said he has already asked for a rehearing because he thought the judge made a mistake.
”To make an analogy, I asked for a report on corn and the mayor gave me a report on apples,” said Mr. Morgan. “The mayor didn’t like answering my questions where the answer was kind of ugly politically.”
The information Mr. Morgan requested regarded an investment for the town’s liquor license proceeds during a budget workshop two years ago a request the mayor said was handled by former Business Administrator Bob Hary. The mayor said Mr. Hary did not think twice about the request because it involved the council running business operations.
”Mr. Hary said it was common sense that governments can’t run businesses any elected official should have known that,” said Mayor Hsueh. “I’ve never heard of a government trying to run a business.”
The ongoing disputes continue to rankle West Windsor residents, because it is taxpayer money that must foot the bill to defend the mayor. Roughly $40,000 has been appropriated in the 2012-2013 budget for this purpose alone.
As a lawyer, Mr. Morgan has been representing himself in his legal papers.
”I feel sad that a community like West Windsor has to waste a lot of energy and resources on this for no good reason,” said Mayor Hsueh. “We could spend it on something more productive.”
Mr. Herbert said Special Counsel Harold Hansel, who has been representing the mayor, will be pursuing sanctions against Mr. Morgan to make Mr. Morgan reimburse the town for the legal fees spent on the second litigation.
Mr. Morgan described this move as “absurd” and “silly.”
”They’re just suing themselves because I’m an employee of the township, so the township will be suing the township,” said Mr. Morgan. “They can have a difficult time persuading the court I owe them anything when the mayor could have settled this a year and a half ago.”
Mr. Morgan said he offered to drop the lawsuit against the mayor a little over a year ago, if the mayor agreed to amend the Township Code to establish more stringent specifications regarding the transfer of information.
Mayor Hsueh said he had offered to work out the language under the condition Mr. Morgan drop the lawsuit first, but that he did not want to drop the litigation.
Mr. Morgan said he would end any subsequent lawsuits, if council allows his recently passed petition ordinance to go to the voters in the November election. The ordinance amends the Township Code by establishing a 30-day time limit for the mayor to respond to council member requests for information on town matters. It also requires the mayor to send the information, either in e-mail or in written form.
Mr. Herbert said that since the council passed the petition, the amendment would go immediately into effect and not require a voter referendum. He explained that when the council approved the initiative on July 23, its resolution had erroneous language citing there would be a referendum whether council passed it or not.
”We will amend the resolution on August 6 to correctly reflect the vote of the council,” said Mr. Herbert.
The adopted initiative appears to be the solution for Mr. Morgan and Mayor Hsueh which has the mayor’s support and symbolizes a win for Mr. Morgan.
”I got a victory here, I got a victory with the mayor supporting the amendment,” said Mr. Morgan.

