Goin' Platinum

The hits just keep on comin'.

Yesterday we learned that interference from the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office compromised the sting operation that netted the arrest of 11 officials. One unidentified source at the FBI said that County Prosecutor John Kaye "blew the undercover phase of the bribery sting." Unnamed FBI sources are also accusing Kaye of seeking information about the undercover officers, not the suspects in the sting operation. Now Kaye and the U.S. Attorney's office are playing a game of he said she said. I asked my Magic 8-Ball this morning if Kaye was going to survive what could potentially be another scandal in this increasingly disturbing story and it told me, "outlook does not look good."

And it just keeps getting worse, the suicide of Deputy Sheriff Allan D. Brunner on Thanksgiving is now tied to the web of investigations by the County and the Feds.

Middletown asked Committeeman Ray O'Grady to resign his position on Wednesday. O'Grady has thus far declined to comment on the charges. Assemblyman Joseph Azzolina released a statement about O'Grady saying, "I am not saying what he did was right but he has been a valued member of the community. He has done so much for the community it ought to be weighed heavily." I'm aware that O'Grady has a long track record of community involvement, including the Big Brothers Big Sisters of Monmouth County, but the fact is that if the charges do result in a conviction he will, and should, be remembered for this one (perhaps many - the operation lasted over the span of a few years) bad decision. All for $6,000. I can smell an idiot a mile a way.

And just who is this Robert Steffer, the mystery contractor who is at the heart of the sting operation. Well, all I'll say is he has vanity plates on his two cars - STEFFER and MR DUKE.

In the wake of this scandal I attended the Borough Council meeting last night as a pay-to-play ordinance was being introduced. There will be a formal public hearing on the ordinances next month (3/23). I should have the ordinances posted online soon for people to download. I'm also reviewing them in detail but already know in theory this is a good step for the town to take. There was some conversation about the pay-to-play ordinance, which came off mostly as a few folks trying to poke holes in a good thing. Developers and the purchase of tickets was a hot issue and one question was something to the effect of how do these ordinances stop someone from getting their brother-in-law or friend down the street from purchasing tickets. Uh? They don't, shouldn't and can't. Questions for questions sake does not insight make. I hope the meeting on 3/23 will draw a good crowd as the topic deserves intelligent discussion.

I must say, our council meetings are quite entertaining. What was a fairly civilized evening got all kinds of crazy toward the end. I guess I should have known something was bound to happen after the Mayor began the meeting informing all in attendance that he would not tolerate the "personal attacks and blatantly political statements" that occurred last month. I guess that's irony and foreshadowing all rolled up in one. (Hmm, is ironic foreshadowing an oxymoron?) Anyway, the really hot issue was the Borough Attorney's bill for December. The motion to approve the bill for payment drew criticism from Councilman Archibald who claimed something to the effect that "this was a sad day for the Atlantic Highlands taxpayer" once the bill was approved.

I'm not going to get into all the particulars but there was some sly questioning of the attorney's integrity, a rebuttal from Councilwoman Ladiana that the bills were in line with the previous attorney's bills, a strenuous rebuttal from the attorney herself, calls of out-of-orderness from the peanut gallery and finally a 4-3 approval to pay the bill. Archibald then pulled out some kind of spreadsheet out to prove his case. I must say, the whole episode reeked of a political stunt as the attorney was willing to meet with anyone who had questions about her bill but it took Archibald almost two weeks to contact her to schedule a meeting. Those opposed to payment did not do due diligence to resolve the (non) issue. You snooze you lose.

The most annoying entertaining part of the meeting was all the snickering in the audience. Next time I'm bringing popcorn.