Before it decides to spend $5,000 more to defend Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh in a lawsuit filed against him by Councilman Charles Morgan, the rest of the Township Council wants to hear from Hsueh’s attorney.
The township has already spent $14,000 in attorneys fees since Morgan brought the lawsuit against the mayor in January, 2010. Business Administrator Robert Hary asked the council to approve an additional $5,000 at the February 7 meeting.
Morgan filed the civil suit in Mercer County Superior Court claiming that the mayor failed to provide a report with information about the 2010 municipal budget that the councilman believes he is entitled to under the township’s Faulkner Act form of government.
Hary said that since the lawsuit was filed last year, there were a number of interrogations. Depositions were taken, and the pretrial conference is scheduled for this month, with the possibility that it will go to trial in March.
“We budgeted $10,000 for this, and the bills came back over that,” said Hary. “If we go to trial, I’ll probably be coming back to you for additional money.”
The council, however, deferred a vote on the resolution approving the spending until it could get more information from the mayor’s attorney, Steven Secare, of the Secare, Ryan, & Hensel law firm in Toms River.
Councilwoman Diane Ciccone said she wanted to hear from him in closed session about where he sees the process heading. “I don’t want to come back here in two weeks, and he’s asking for more money,” she said.
Township Attorney Michael Herbert said that “the only problem with that is that it costs more money.” Still, council decided to bring him in for a closed session before the council’s meeting on Tuesday, February 22. During the open session, the council will vote on whether to approve spending more money to continue defending Hsueh.
Meanwhile, council members lamented having to spend money, even though it is the township’s obligation to defend the mayor when it comes to lawsuits filed against him in his capacity as mayor.
“We have an obligation to represent the mayor in his official capacity,” said Ciccone.
Councilwoman Linda Geevers said she wished “something could be worked out because it’s costing us a fortune here,” she said of the lawsuit. Still, “I can support the resolution because anyone who’s being sued here has the right to legal representation.”
Council President Kamal Khanna called Morgan’s lawsuit a “total waste” of taxpayer money and urged Morgan to drop the case. “I don’t think litigation is the only way” to resolve the conflict, he said.
Herbert said that Morgan, who will have to abstain from voting on the matter on February 22, will also not be able to sit in on the closed session because he is the litigant and allowing him to sit in would violate Hsueh’s attorney-client privilege.
Morgan’s lawsuit alleges that Hsueh failed to comply with a statute that states “any council member may, at any time, require a report on any aspect of the government of the municipality by making a written request to the mayor.”
In the complaint, Morgan submitted a copy of a written request he filed in October, 2009, asking for information about the 2010 municipal budget. The missive “requires a report whether you will receive zero-based budget submittals, as well as the alternative scenarios discussed at the October 21 [2009] council meeting that should accompany a zero-based budget submittal.”
Morgan alleges he never received the report.
This is not the only legal action Morgan has taken against Hsueh over the past two years. A week before the May, 2009, election, in which Morgan ran against Hsueh for the mayoral seat, Morgan filed a complaint with the county prosecutor’s office, alleging that the mayor and Councilwoman Linda Geevers “illegally used West Windsor Township administrative staff, and hence the public money, in furtherance of their political campaign.” The suit also named Township Attorney Michael Herbert.
The prosecutor’s office cleared the mayor and Geevers, as well as Herbert, saying Morgan’s allegations had “no basis in fact under the law.”
Then in April, 2010, a criminal lawsuit filed by Morgan against Hsueh and Geevers in municipal court was dismissed by a Lawrence judge.
Morgan filed the criminal charges against them in West Windsor municipal court — the third time he pursued legal action — but it was forwarded to Municipal Judge Paul Catanese in Lawrence Township to avoid conflicts in West Windsor. The lawsuit filed in municipal court rehashed the complaint Morgan filed with the prosecutor’s office, but was dismissed.
During the February 7 meeting, Morgan referenced the lawsuit in response to comments made by residents regarding the financial impact of the settlement with InterCap Holdings for the redevelopment area (see story, page 30).
He said the practice of withholding financial reports was typical of the mayor and his administration, as he has asked for reports and more information on a number of items, including the budget and financial statements related to redevelopment.
Morgan said the other four members of council have also asked for various reports and pieces of information in the past and still have not received answers. “We should not be defending a lawsuit when none of us can get answers,” he said, emphasizing that statutes require the mayor and administration to provide answers to requests made by any council member.
As for the money, “I’m picking up the cost of that lawsuit on my side,” he said, saying the mayor should pay for his defense out of his own pocket.
Hsueh, however, called the lawsuit “frivolous” and stated that he and his administration have followed state guidelines for preparing the budget every year and have provided the necessary reports to council.
“He pays his own way because he is a lawyer,” he said. “I’m not a lawyer.”
“What’s I’m doing is the practice that is routine for all of the municipalities under this form of government,” Hsueh added.
