Middletown Library Director and Democratic Committee Candidate Worked Together To Undermine Oversight, Raise Funds For Democratic Campaign

State Senator Barbara Buono and Linda Baum, Democratic candidate for Middletown Township Committee, 8/25/12 facebook photo

Middletown Library Director Susan O’Neal submitted incomplete and haphazardly organized emails between herself and Linda Baum, a past and present Democratic candidate for Middletown Township Committee, in response to Judge Lawrence M. Lawson’s ruling last week that the emails are government documents subject to the New Jersey Open Public Records Act.

MMM received the 298 pages of emails which include numerous duplicates, many truncated pages that cannot be fully read and omit relevant attachments, late this morning from Middletown Township via OPRA request.  The emails can be viewed via Scribd at the end of this post.

The emails reveal a ongoing endeavor between O’Neal and Baum to undermine the oversight of the library by its Board of Trustees and the Township Committee.  Additionally, Baum and O’Neal planned to use the library to forward the political objectives, including political fundraising, of Baum and the Middletown Democrats.  Middletown Democratic Chairman Don Watson was copied on several of the emails.

In his ruling dated July 1 denying Baum’s motion to thwart the release of the emails requested by Middletown Clerk Heidi Brunt on behalf of Township Committeeman and Library Trustee Tony Fiore, Lawson wrote that Baum argued the emails have “absolutely nothing to do with the official business of the library” and do not relate to public operations.

Lawson wrote that “Baum argues that she has no relationship with the Library, nor is she an agent of the library in any respect.”

The emails reveal otherwise.

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No Impropriety Found With Gabrielan’s County Job

Freeholder Director John Curley said that county administrators have reviewed Randall Gabrielan’s financial records with the Monmouth County Historical Commission and that “everything was found to be in compliance.”  Curley had requested the review last week upon learning of the news that Gabrielan had been signing purchase orders as an official of the Middletown Library for sales of books that he made to the library.

Gabrielan submitted his letter of resignation as president and trustee of the Middletown Library, dated tomorrow, to Mayor Tony Fiore this morning.

Gabrielan is paid $34.75 per hour for his county job as Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Society, earning over $36,000 and pension credits in 2011, according to Curley.

“That’s a good question,” Curley said when asked why the Historical Commission has a paid executive director, “That will be a topic of discussion at the upcoming budget meetings.”

The Freeholder Director noted that Gabrielan’s predecessor at the Historical Commission, the late George Moss of Rumson, peformed the executive director duties of the commission as a volunteer.

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Middletown Library President Resigns

Randall Gabrielan. Photo Credit: visitmonouth.com

Randall Gabrielan’s tenure as president and trustee of the Middletown Library is over.

Gabrielan submitted his resignation to Mayor Tony Fiore this morning, almost three weeks after Fiore asked him to step down.   Fiore asked for the resignation on January 25 upon discovering that Gabrielan, an author of history books about local area towns, had been signing purchase orders as an officer of the library for sales of his own books.

“In his letter of resignation Gabrielan admitted that he was wrong and that he understood my position in asking for his resignation,” said Fiore, “I appreciate that he did the right thing for the Middletown Library and taxpayers by stepping down.   I also appreciate his many years of service to the library.”

Gabrielan, who earns $36,000 per year as the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, could not be reached for comment.

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How Much Are These Commissions Costing Monmouth County?

Are they all necesarry?  What can be privatized?

The thing that I found most disturbing about the Middletown Library story is that Randall Gabrielan, in addition  to being president of the Middletown Library, is a employee of Monmouth County.

In his role as Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, Gabrielan is paid almost $36,000 per year and earns pension credits.  I wonder if Executive Director of the Historical Commission is one of the jobs that you can retire from, start collecting a pension, and go back to work the next day.

I don’t mean to minimize the seriousness of the Middletown Library situation.  It is serious.   It’s bad enough that Gabrielan sold his own books and signed his own purchase orders.  Even though the sales did not amount to a great deal of money, what stinks about what he did in Middletown in addition to the obvious, is that the library could have gotten Gabrielan’s books cheaper from Barnes and Noble or really cheap from Abebooks, Middletown Mike’s  favorite book seller, for the library’s shelves. 

I suppose we should be grateful that Mayor Fiore and the Township Committee got wind of Gabrielan’s practice, that has been going on for many years, before he bought Middletown Mike’s newsletter, beautifully bound in brown cloth with gold lettering for $59.00 per copy from Abebooks.

I wonder if the Monmouth County Historical Commission has also been buying Gabrielan’s books.

But I digress.

Why does the Monmouth County Historical Commission have a paid executive director?  How many of the other 25 volunteer county commissions have paid staff? 

The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders are taking their budget meetings on the road this month.  Let’s ask them if there are savings to be had in these 26 commissions.

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Fiore Playing Hardball With Middletown Library President

Randall Gabrielan. Photo Credit: visitmonmouth.com

Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore has asked for the resignation of Middletown Library Board President Randall Gabrielan because Gabrielan has been selling books to the library personally and signing the purchase orders for those books himself as president of the board, according to a report on Middletown Patch.

Gabrielan, a former insurance broker, is also the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, a pensionable position for which he earned $35,391 in 2010, according to APP.com’s Data Universe.

Middletown’s Vendor History report on Gabrielan reveals that he has sold the library $778.45 worth of books since 2007.

Gabrielan told Patch that he considered Fiore’s move to be “political retribution” for his opposition to the Library turning over $500,000 of its surplus to the Township in last year’s budget.

Fiore said that it is a matter of ethics and fiscal accountability.  The mayor has turned the matter over to the state’s Department of Community Affairs’ Division of Local Government Local Government Services.

Library Board Trustee Sherry Miloscia also signed Gabrielan’s purchase orders.  Yesterday, Library Director Susan O’Neal informed Fiore that Miloscia resigned effective January 20.

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