Chief, officials discuss phone cutoff response
Committee members irked that alleged nonpayment was cited
BY KATHY BARATTA Staff Writer

MANALAPAN - Who knew what and when they knew it seemed to be the crux of the matter and the reason why a public hearing was held on June 11 with Police Chief Stuart Brown.

That was when Brown appeared in front of the Township Committee to explain the actions he took following a disconnection of telephone service to the police department last month.

Between 10 p.m. May 14 and 2 a.m. May 15, Verizon cut off telephone service at the Manalapan Police Department. The initial indication to police from Verizon personnel was that the service had been cut off due to nonpayment of an outstanding bill.

Following an investigation into the incident, Verizon spokesman Rich Young said the Manalapan police shift supervisor was given incorrect information when he contacted Verizon on May 14.

"There was not a billing issue," Young said. "The department had an old account with Verizon that is now closed.When our representative looked at the account information, our data base showed the account was in fact not in service but may have incorrectly said the account was closed for nonpayment."

According to Young, Verizon workers were doing a facility upgrade in the area during the same time that the telephone service was interrupted (May 14).

"All of our testing indicates that the problem was related to that," Young said, adding that Verizon believes the disruption in service was an isolated problem due to a cable being upgraded in the area.

According to Brown, during the week after the cutoff in service he tried but could not get definitive information from Verizon as to why the phone service had been disconnected. He said Verizon stonewalled the department's efforts and was unresponsive to police requests for information and accountability from the utility.

The hearing in front of the Township Committee had an adversarial tone from the start when two attorneys, labor counsel Roger McLaughlin, representing Manalapan, and Robert Dikun, representing Brown, verbally sparred over what to call the proceedings. The hearing lasted for more than an hour in front of a scant audience of Manalapan political insiders. As was his right, Brown elected to have the hearing conducted in public. When asked by a reporter if it had been his understanding that Township

Administrator Tara Lovrich had been apprised that the telephone service shutdown had been due to an alleged nonpayment of a bill, Brown said, "Absolutely."

"From what I got back from (Lovrich), I'm assuming Tara did know," Brown said regarding Lovrich's response to his informing her that he was going to contact the state Board of Public Utilities (BPU) and file a complaint about Verizon.

"She didn't inquire why," Brown said.

Deputy Mayor Susan Cohen asked the chief, "What was your intention in sending e-mails to the press?"

Cohen was referring to an e-mail Brown sent to members of the press on May 21. In his e-mail he described what had occurred on the night of May 14.

Brown told Cohen he notified the press because in his experience in dealing with utilities he had found it could be very frustrating getting accountability from them.

"My trust and faith in our public utilities is not good. This is a significant event to have happened. To lose contact with your police department? It's a safety and liability issue. If it happened again I could see the township and myself named as litigants," he said.

According to Brown, Manalapan's "slow" bill paying process has in the past "resulted in us being cut off."

When asked when in the past service had been cut, Brown said he was referring to the individual cell phones each officer is issued, as well as the mobile modems that are in each police car that are used by officers to access computer information.

Brown detailed the fruitless attempts made by two of his men when trying to get the land line service reconnected this time and in trying to speak to someone who could address the accountability issue for the utility.

According to Brown, his men were getting "the runaround and recordings for hours" on May 14 before someone at Verizon told an officer that the service had been cut off due to nonpayment of an outstanding bill.

"We were victimized by Verizon," said Brown.

The chief observed that if it had not been for a man trying to contact Manalapan police to request a check on an elderly relative who took it upon himself to contact neighboring Freehold Township and let that town's police know there was a problem in trying to contact the Manalapan police, "we might have been faced with greater problems."

Brown said he filed a formal complaint against Verizon with the BPU on May 23 after several contacts with the BPU since May 15 during which, he said, the representatives of the state agency had not been helpful and had, in fact, been adversarial.

In his complaint to the BPU, Brown stated that he could "not defend the billing issue," referring to Manalapan's present system of paying bills as "antiquated."

He said he then notified the press of the matter.

Explaining why he contacted the press, Brown said, "This was a significant thing to have occurred in town; to lose your police department phone. Very significant. Sometimes you can use the newspaper as a tool. It's going to be documented."

Committeeman Anthony Gennaro asked Brown, "Did you let administration know you were going to the press?"

Brown said, "By phone. Told Renee. Absolutely."

Lovrich disputed the chief 's assertion on that point, saying, "I have to disagree."

Assistant Administrator Renee Garrigana, who had fielded calls from Brown and from Capt. Chris Marsala, said, "I provided the chief with requested information. He said he was getting questions from the public and members of the press."

At one point Committeeman Richard Klauber engaged in a sometimes tense back and forth with Brown.

"I totally understand your anger and frustration," Klauber told Brown. "Our problem is the appearance in the newspaper. You made us look like we don't pay our bills. You went to the press and then said 'expect calls.' I don't think that was appropriate."

Klauber said it was "problematic" for him that Brown had gone to the press with "the perception that the township does not pay its bills."

He defended Manalapan's bill-paying system, saying, "A two-week turnaround is not slow."

Klauber asked Brown, "Why did you not go down (to the administrator's office) and find out the truth; do a proper investigation before you went public?"

"Because, quite honestly, I didn't really care if the town had paid the bill or not," the chief responded.

Brown said that for him, whether or not a bill had been paid by the township was immaterial to the fact that Verizon should never have jeopardized the public safety by terminating service.

Klauber responded, saying, "I would have expected my chief of police to come to us first. You went to the press with inaccurate information. The question is why didn't you go down and do a proper investigation?"

"My issue wasn't whether the bill was paid or not; I was concerned with safety," Brown answered.

Klauber asked again, "Why didn't you check before going to the press?"

Dikun eventually responded for Brown, saying, "For the chief, payment was an afterthought."

Dikun's remark did not mollify Klauber, who told Brown, "You threw the township under the bus with that comment (that the service cutoff was due to an unpaid bill). I expect more from my chief of police."

In a May 15 memo from Brown to Lovrich which officials said was the only communication from the chief to the township administrator before he contacted the press, Brown informed Lovrich, "I spoke with a rep (sic) from the BPU today regarding the filing of a complaint against Verizon for the alleged 'shutting off ' of our phones last night from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. As of this e-mail, Verizon has not responded to Capt. Marsala's phone calls regarding this matter. If I don't hear from them by the end of the day, then tomorrow I will look into filing a formal complaint with the BPU as to why this occurred. Would you have any issues if I did this?"

Addressing Brown directly regarding the May 15 memo, Mayor Michelle Roth said, "There was no reference made in that e-mail to billing problems or errors."

Brown said there were several conversations between the administrator's office and Marsala and that it was his contention that at some point in the back and forth of the conversation all of the facts of the matter would have been disclosed.

Following the public hearing, the members of the committee went into executive session to discuss the matter.

Brown waited in the meeting room for the committee members to come out of the closed session and reopen the public portion of the meeting.

When the committee members did reconvene in public, a terse "no formal action is being taken" was stated by McLaughlin and the June 11 Township Committee meeting was adjourned.

Following the meeting, Roth said, "In order to speak with Chief Brown as a group we were forced, under state law, to issue a Rice notice. It is clear the real problem here is that Verizon shut off our service for no reason. It is unfortunate that the chief did not check the facts with our finance department before making statements about how the township pays its bills. If he had done so, he would have known that our bills are current, Verizon was wrong and he had nothing to defend."

Committeeman Andrew Lucas said more than an accounting from the chief for his actions in the matter, he wanted to hear from a Verizon representative not only accounting for the May 15 cutoff, but also what safeguards the company has put into place to ensure it does not happen again.

Roth said, "We have asked that Verizon appear at our next meeting to explain themselves and describe the safeguards they have put into place to prevent this from happening again."