Committee wants atty. to repay $420 from '05
Bills for transition costs are at the heart of Manalapan skirmish
BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - The Township Committee has voted 3-2 on Aug. 8 to seek reimbursement of certain fees that were paid to Stuart Moskovitz when he was the municipal attorney in 2005.

The vote came on the heels of Committeeman Anthony Gennaro's report to the governing body that Moskovitz had done nothing improper with his bills to the municipality that year.

According to the minutes of a Township Committee meeting held Jan. 12, 2005, Moskovitz said he would not bill Manalapan for "transition costs" for the work it would take him to get up to speed on cases which had previously been addressed by Donald Lomurro, who was the municipal attorney in 2003 and 2004.

Lomurro said he remembers his contact with Moskovitz relative to Manalapan business consisting of a few telephone calls in which he was trying to arrange for Moskovitz or some representative of the township to come to his office to pick up his Manalapan files.

Deputy Mayor Michelle Roth said Moskovitz ended up billing Manalapan $420.50 for services labeled transition costs. The committee subsequently voted to direct Township Administrator Tara Lovrich to draft a letter to Moskovitz asking for that amount to be returned to the township.

On Aug. 13, Moskovitz told the News Transcript that the $420.50 reimbursement that the committee voted to seek from him is being made in error. He said he billed the township in 2005 for his efforts to retrieve Manalapan's case files from Lomurro and not for reviewing those files.

The decision to seek the reimbursement developed out of a discussion of a review of Moskovitz's billing that had been conducted by Gennaro.

Before the vote to seek reimbursement was taken, Township Attorney Caroline Casagrande and Gennaro engaged in a slightly contentious exchange when Gennaro tried to enter into the record a prepared statement that stated the findings of the audit he conducted of Moskovitz's 2005 billing.

Gennaro took on the task of auditing Moskovitz's bills for 2005 following recent allegations made by Drew Shapiro, who served on the committee from 2001-06, that Moskovitz had submitted improper billing for work he did as Manalapan's attorney in 2005.

Shapiro is a Democratic candidate for Township Committee this year. He and Moskovitz have both acknowledged that they are political enemies.

Gennaro's typed statement was titled "2005 Legal Bill Review" and included two columns representing the years 2003

and 2004 and specific types of legal fees that were paid to Lomurro in those years (i.e., transition costs, resolutions, ordinances, boiler plate research, pay to play, meetings, preparation work and agenda review, and Shapiro's calls to the municipal attorney).

The report does not list any amounts that were paid to Lomurro in 2003 or 2004, nor does it list any information about bills submitted by Moskovitz in 2005, either by the type of bill or an amount for services provided.

In the report, Gennaro said he found the legal billing practices Moskovitz used in 2005 "to be consistent with the legal bills that were approved and paid during the years 2003 and 2004. Frankly, I am disappointed that Mr. Shapiro has asked this committee to spend its time and expend its resources to advance a personal political agenda. I consider this matter closed."

The vote to request the $420.50 back from Moskovitz followed a statement at the Aug. 8 meeting by Roth, who offered the minutes of the Jan. 12, 2005 meeting in which Moskovitz said he "will not be billing any transition costs whatsoever."

Roth was joined in the vote to seek reimbursement from Moskovitz by Mayor Andrew Lucas and Committeeman Richard Klauber. Gennaro and Committeewoman Susan Cohen voted against seeking reimbursement from Moskovitz.

Gennaro told a reporter after the meeting that if Moskovitz said what the Jan. 12, 2005 minutes reflected then he should be directed to return the money.

Cohen later confirmed to the News Transcript that her husband has employed Moskovitz for legal matters pertaining to his business. She said she had no reason to believe her husband will not continue to employ Moskovitz's professional services.

Casagrande was on vacation and could not be reached to comment on whether Cohen's vote on Moskovitz's bills was a conflict of interest due to the fact that her husband has employed Moskovitz's services.

However, research revealed that New Jersey State Statute 40A:9-22.5(d) states, " ... No local government officer or employee shall act in his official capacity in any matter where he, a member of his immediate family, or a business organization in which he has an interest, has a direct or indirect financial or personal involvement that might reasonably be expected to impair his objectivity or independence of judgment."

When asked if the fact that Moskovitz represents her husband in business matters means she should recuse herself from voting on any matter involving Moskovitz, Cohen said she did not think the relationship between her husband and Moskovitz presented any problem for her or prevented her from voting on any matters involving Moskovitz.

In fact, Cohen, who is running for the committee on the Republican ticket with Lucas, said she has no more of an ethical conflict in voting on matters regarding Moskovitz than does Lucas, who she said also employed Moskovitz professionally.

Lucas said he employed Moskovitz for one specific matter in 2006, but said he never voted on any matter relating to Moskovitz during the time he was retaining the attorney professionally.

Lucas said he does not intend to retain Moskovitz's services in the future. He said, "Although multiple township counsels have stated that I do not have a conflict in this matter and I have consistently voted to defend the interests of Manalapan, in the future I will not vote on any matter pertaining to Mr. Moskovitz so my opponents cannot use this issue as political fodder."