Sussex Borough drops protest of judge's appointment

SUSSEX BOROUGH — The Sussex Borough Council voted down a resolution protesting Wantage Township's selection of Judge Glenn Gavan as municipal court judge on Tuesday, March 3.

Council President Linda Masson was the only member of the council to vote for the protest, which would have asked Gov. Chris Christie and state Sen. Steve Oroho not to confirm Gavan's appointment as Wantage Township judge. Councilwoman Annette Stendor was absent.

During public comment, two members of the Sussex Borough Planning/Zoning Board — former Vice Chairwoman and current member Karen VanderVeer and Planning Board Chairman Richard Klein — Wantage Deputy Mayor Ronald Bassani, and former Wantage Mayor Bill DeBoer spoke on behalf of Gavan's appointment for about 23 minutes.

Much of the discussion circled around the Saiber Report, a report initiated by Sussex County Community College to investigate three members of the college's Board of Trustees and possible conflicts of interest when voting on matters relating to CP Engineers. Gavan was one of the three trustees and stepped down from the board in August 2014.

Klein said that Gavan was employed by Sussex Borough since 2008 as its Land Use Attorney, and the council never voiced any concerns about employing him.

The Saiber Report found Gavan abstained from all votes related to CP Engineers after he became their attorney. In addition, no ethics violations were found; and the college ethics rules were inadequate.

Klein told the Council Gavan had filed an Open Public Request Act requesting their emails and meeting minutes for the past six months to see whether they had slandered him.

Masson read from page 24 of the the Saiber Report that none of the three trustees “recognized or appreciated” the college's Ethics Code or New Jersey law relating to CP. She said that Sussex expected a judge to recognize what the law of New Jersey was.

Bassani said that he would have liked the council to have contacted Wantage Township “prior to reacting to unsubstantiated public input...” He emphasized working together “rather than debate the actions of one another without reasonable dialogue.”

Before the vote, the council discussed around another 23 minutes whether to approve the protest of Gavan's appointment.

Councilman Robert Holowach said that per the Saiber Report, Gavan abstained from all votes related to CP after they became his client. Masson maintained that although he abstained, he did not make full disclosure of his relationship to all members of the board.

Councilwoman Georgeanna Stoll said if there was a conflict of interest with Mr. Gavan on the Planning Board, the Council should have done something about it.

“We didn't even know about this,” she said.

“What I was told does not reflect in that 25 page report,” Holowach said. He said he did not want to find Gavan guilty of “something that is proven in writing he didn't do.”

“God help us if an attorney doesn't know ethics law when it comes to himself,” Masson said.