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Belmar Councilman Jim Bean Lodges Ethics Complaint Against Mayor Matt Doherty Over AshBritt Contracts

Bean cites Local Finance Board’s Decision Against Marlboro Councilwoman Randi Marder To Support His Complaint

Doherty Dismisses Complaint As Politics

Belmar Councilman Jim Bean. Photo credit: Belmar.com

Belmar Councilman Jim Bean. Photo credit: Belmar.com

Belmar Councilman Jim Bean, a Republican, has written to the New Jersey Department of Community Affairs’ Local Finance Board requesting an investigation into a “potential violation” of New Jersey’s Local Government Ethics Law by Mayor Matt Doherty, a Democrat.

Doherty’s wife, Maggie Moran, a former Deputy Chief of Staff for Governor Jon Corzine, worked as a consultant for AshBritt, the Florida company that performed debris removal throughout much of New Jersey after the Superstorm Sandy.  Belmar paid $2.67 million to AshBrit and its affiliates, according to Bean’s complaint which can be found here.

Doherty said that Bean is “Belmar’s Bayshore Tea Party….a cancer on the Republican Party.”

“This is the second, politically motivated, baseless complaint Bean has filed against me in the past 8 months, ” Doherty said, “If he didn’t waste his time on this nonsense maybe he could actually do something useful for the people of Belmar.”

Since Sandy, Doherty has repeatedly claimed that he recused himself from any votes regarding AshBritt and that he delegated the decision to hire AshBritt, which was not subject to a vote by the borough’s council, to the Borough Administrator, Bill Young.  Young has since left his position at Belmar and works for the Port Authority of NY/NJ.

In his letter to LFB, Beam cites the board’s decision regarding Marlboro Councilwoman Randi Marder. In that case the Board said that “the spouse of an elected official doing business with the same municipality is an activity that should be avoided. Any appearance of impropriety or tacit influence on others by an elected official impugns the standards set forth in the Local Government Ethics Law.”

Doherty said that Bean has his own conflict regarding AshBritt because he works for Stavola.  Stavola was an AshBritt subcontractor in the clean up of Sea Bright.  “If Belmar paid too much for cleaning up after the storm, did Sea Bright also pay too much?” Doherty asked. “Sea Bright paid the same rates that Belmar did.”

Bean has not responded to a call regarding his employment or conflicts.  We’ll update this post if he does.

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Posted: May 4th, 2013 | Author: | Filed under: Belmar, Hurricane Sandy, Superstorm Sandy | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments »

5 Comments on “Belmar Councilman Jim Bean Lodges Ethics Complaint Against Mayor Matt Doherty Over AshBritt Contracts”

  1. ProudConservative said at 10:16 pm on May 4th, 2013:

    So where will Joe Kyrillos side on this issue ? I mean if he is a good Republican as our so esteemed chair Mr Bennett calls him a good Republican we know he will publically come out taking Mr Beans side over the Democrat mayor right?

    Nah he’s a liberal just like Doherty!

  2. Bob English said at 9:53 am on May 5th, 2013:

    At the risk of sounding like I am defending Sen. Kryillos, note that there are several questions involving AshBrit that are/are going to be investigated. These affect both D’s and R’s. It would seem to me that it would be best to let those individual investigations run their course before asking Legislatures to take political positions on them.

    For better or worse, the states designation of AshBrit as an approved clean-up contractor based on a several year old out of state contract, at double the price other firms offered to do the same work, basically gave local municipalities (that did not have the time or resources to bid the work) the okay to use them (AshBrit.)

    Mr. Bean is certainly within his rights to file a complaint however Legislatures and County Chairs should not be involved at this point.

  3. Jylly Jakes said at 11:21 am on May 5th, 2013:

    According to RedBankGreen’s interview of Mayor Dina Long from Jan 27, 2012

    http://www.redbankgreen.com/2012/01/sea-bright-mayor-dives-into-work.html

    “Long worked as a paid campaign staffer for governors Jim Florio and Jim McGreevey, presidential candidate Bill Bradley and then-Senator Jon Corzine.”

    Additionally, I was told by Sea Bright Councilman Brian Kelly that Sea Bright had a contract in place with Stavola prior to the storm. Then we hired Ashbritt after Stavola was already doing a great job. I’d like to see the terms of both of the contracts.

  4. Agree with Bob, said at 12:01 pm on May 5th, 2013:

    for once..just hoping any investigation is fair to whomever is involved, with a minimum of political posturing..getting the job done is paramount, anyone who may have personally benefitted from a disaster, or any time when in public office, is something else. So, let the sun shine in, and hopefully there were no shenanigans anywhere, as we try and restore our shore.

  5. Jylly Jakes said at 8:42 pm on June 24th, 2013:

    I “Agree with Bob”….let the sunshine in…
    http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/06/secret_files_reveal_how_pay-to-play_works_in_nj.html#/0