of township ordinances
tops list of priorities
Old Bridge attorney
eagerly begins new job
Codification
of township ordinances
tops list of priorities
BY SUE M. MORGAN
Staff Writer
Jerome Convery
OLD BRIDGE — Newly appointed Township Attorney Jerome Convery is eager to arrange the numerous, thick volumes of books and legal documents sitting on a multi-level shelf in his office so users can find a given regulation more easily.
Admittedly, the process known as codification is enormous. But it is one that Convery, 58, who started his new job March 8, hopes to complete within the next several months.
A major part of codification entails reviewing the various volumes to ensure that all amendments to every ordinance are filed in a way that anyone, such as a township official or employee, could locate it.
"Codification is the taking of the separate ordinances and combining them so that they mesh together so that the last amendment would be reflected in the code," Convery said.
Though he is still getting up to speed on his new duties as the director of the township’s in-house law department, Convery did get a head start in mid-February by serving as deputy director for two weeks before his promotion.
Working with his predecessor, William Ruggierio, Convery familiarized himself with the documents as well as pending court cases involving the township.
After Ruggierio informed Democratic Mayor Jim Phillips earlier this year that he intended to seek employment outside of Old Bridge, Convery was tapped by the mayor to be the township’s new director of law. Ruggierio ultimately left March 2 to become business administrator in Mount Olive Township.
As part of his 40-hour-week regimen, Convery will represent Old Bridge in various court cases.
Until he became deputy director of law in February, Convery served as the attorney for the township’s Zoning Board of Adjustment, a post he carried out for two years. He is a recognized expert in land use law.
Convery will continue to serve as attorney for the Monroe Township Planning Board, a part-time post he has held since 1989.
He previously worked as the Old Bridge township attorney from 1984-87 under the administration of former Democratic Mayor Russell Azzarello.
The job’s challenges are different now, Convery admits, because Old Bridge has grown in population and diversity over the past 14 years.
"Obviously the town is larger, there’s more people and the issues are more complex," Convery said.
As a result, Convery wants to be sure all of the legal materials in his office — codes covering areas such as pet licenses, hirings and firings, and police testing — are up to date.
Likewise, the codes that make up Old Bridge’s land development ordinance also need to be reviewed by township professionals to see that amendments or revisions are filed in the correct volume, he said.
Codes governing land use, construction, engineering, criteria for the selection of representatives to the planning and zoning boards are all included in the thousands of pages that make up the township’s land development ordinances, he said.
All of the township’s existing codes, including the land development ordinances, soon will be forwarded for review to the heads of the appropriate departments, Convery said. In turn, those departments are required to advise the legal department of any updates that should be filed in the corresponding code books, he said.
At the same time, the township’s professionals are also charged with seeing that the township’s current codes do not conflict with any state regulations that could supersede them, Convery said.
"It makes it easier for the township and department heads to point to it and for the public to know what the law is," Convery said.
In addition, Convery will be conferring with the planning and engineering departments to look at rezoning parts of the township for "smart growth" that will attract profitable, clean ratables to Old Bridge.
Part of that process will be finding parcels suitable for building planned adult retirement communities, or PARCs, Convery said.
As part of his mayoral agenda, Phillips is encouraging the construction of age-restricted housing as a way of bringing in ratables without adding students to the school system or increasing vehicular traffic, Convery said.
"There are a lot of advantages to PARCs," he said.
Another job is to amend and finalize the township’s land development ordinance, which has been pending for some time, Convery said.
A draft of a new land development ordinance has been submitted to the township’s planning and engineering departments by an outside consultant, he said. After the township’s professionals have reviewed the draft, the council will receive a final land development ordinance for a vote, Convery said.
Although he will continue to maintain his 21-year-old private practice on Route 516, Convery intends to make Old Bridge his primary client.
"The amount of work in Old Bridge is going to command most of my time," he said. "The work I do for other clients will be done primarily during evening hours."
In taking the township job, Convery has discontinued his practice of matrimonial, civil and personal injury cases and is not taking on any new real estate transactions.
A recognized trial attorney by the New Jersey Supreme Court, Convery will now only deal with limited criminal defense, wills and some municipal court work in his outside practice.
At Phillips’ urging, the Democratic-controlled Township Council amended an existing ordinance that prohibited the in-house attorney from serving any outside clients. The revision allows Convery or any other township attorney to maintain a limited outside practice providing those clients do not have conflicting interests with Old Bridge.
Convery served two terms as a member of the Middlesex County Attorneys Ethics Board and is still an independent counsel to that body.
He also served for 18 months as a municipal prosecutor in Monroe before becoming Monroe’s Planning Board attorney.
From 1971-81, Convery worked as an assistant in the Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office. He is a member of the bar in both New Jersey and New York.
A graduate of Bucknell University in Lewisburg, Pa., Convery received his juris doctorate from Rutgers Law School in Newark.
An Old Bridge resident for 33 years, Convery and his wife, Judy, have three adult children: William, 33, Susan, 25, and Sarah, 20.