The vote not to confirm Michael Herbert as West Windsor’s township attorney at the August 4 council meeting was entirely proper in my opinion. Here are my reasons:
1. Besides his work for West Windsor, Herbert is general counsel for the Mercer County Board of Chosen Freeholders. Despite his repeated assurances of recusal when necessary, the occasions for potential conflicts of interest vis-a-vis our town are simply too numerous. Specifically, situations such as the MCCC solar farm, unwanted effects of Mercer County Park on its neighbors, and our steadily increasing county tax burden come to mind.
I therefore believe that as a matter of professional ethics, he should resign from one of these positions. Just as no man can serve two masters, I don’t see how he could comfortably give his undivided attention to either client. To draw an analogy, it would be as if the attorney general of the United States would simultaneously serve as attorney general of one of the states. None of the other firms that responded to the RFP had any such conflicts of interest.
2. Concerning the Freeholders, their meetings are held every other Thursday at the inconvenient hour of 6 p.m. at the McDade Building on South Broad Street in Trenton. They are not televised or videotaped, and their minutes are not posted on the County’s website. In order to get copies of these minutes, one has to personally go to the Clerk of the Freeholders and pay $0.75 per page for the first 10 pages. Although open to the public, these proceedings are, in effect, opaque to all intents and purposes.
It is also noteworthy that all of the Freeholders (as well as the County Executive) belong to one particular political party, the same one that Mayor Hsueh belongs to. In this arena, Orwellian groupthink tends to reign supreme.
3. Much has been made of the issue of “process,” i.e. the chain of events that led up to this vote. Let’s examine this. First, Mayor Hsueh was informed shortly after last November’s election that a newly reorganized council would want a change in the attorney position. Despite this, the mayor renominated Herbert, who predictably failed to receive confirmation at the reorganization meeting in early January. Nothing daunted, the mayor and his allies continued to insist that he alone had the right to choose the attorney, despite long history, the Faulkner Act, and our own code to the contrary (letter, “Advice and Consent,” the News, May 30).
Council promptly asked that the administration put together a Request for Proposal for the position. After a long delay, this was issued and garnered many responses. These became public documents and I reviewed them in detail. Three new firms seemed to me to be fully qualified for the position. The five-person review committee appointed by the mayor included three of his own staff. There was only one council representative, ignoring the clear statutory requirement of asking for council’s advice. (This disrespect of council on the part of the mayor did little to advance Herbert’s chances.) Again predictably, the mayor chose Mr. Herbert among two finalists. He should therefore not have been surprised, and presumably wasn’t, when council once again refused to confirm Herbert.
4. I have been less than satisfied with some of Herbert’s actual work. First, he is fully aware of the identities of the persons who illegally took valuable materials from the Grover house and sold them on the scrap market. Despite this, he refused to ask that they be arrested, which could have caused political embarrassment. Instead, he sent the file to the county prosecutor’s office, which promptly sealed it.
Second, he opposed allowing work sessions on the mayor’s proposed 2014 municipal budget before formal introduction, after which amendments are very difficult. Thankfully, council overruled him and we arrived at a budget with no increase in the tax levy.
Third, he tried to push through the lease of the Schenck Farm property to the Historical Society without first checking that it was a legitimate 501(c)(3) organization as required by law. They weren’t, and this is still an open issue. Even lay people knew of this problem.
5. Finally, some have complained about Bryan Maher’s style as council president. It is true that his approach is no-nonsense, data-driven, and occasionally confrontational, somewhat like our own governor’s. However, after having seen far too much obsequious toe-the-party-line behavior from a number of holders of this position, I find it a refreshing change. If Maher should modify his approach, then so should Mayor Hsueh.
John A. Church
West Windsor
