Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, Councilwoman Linda Geevers, and Councilman Charles Morgan aren’t even running in next month’s elections, yet issues from last election season have managed to resurface yet again.
West Windsor Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh and Councilwoman Linda Geevers are calling for an apology from Councilman Charles Morgan after the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office cleared them of allegations he made against them regarding a township review of his proposal to reduce the 2009 surplus.
Morgan, however, said that he will not apologize and maintains that they are corrupt, also alleging that the mayor is wrong in discontinuing the practice of allowing municipal chairs to sit in for poll workers in the upcoming election so that they can vote, get lunch, or attend to other personal business.
The mayor and Geevers released a letter they received from the prosecutor’s office earlier this month in addition to their own comments on the matter, calling Morgan’s allegations “a blatant last-ditch effort of desperation in the waning days of a political campaign designed to confuse and mislead voters,” wrote the mayor. “The electorate in a landslide vote sent a clear message to Mr. Morgan that his conduct will not be tolerated.”
A week before the May election, in which Morgan ran against Hsueh for the mayoral seat, Morgan charged that the mayor and Geevers “illegally used West Windsor Township administrative staff, and hence the public money, in furtherance of their political campaign.”
He said that his opponents used township staff to defeat the political arguments he made in his own campaign. He alleged that they coerced then-business administrator Chris Marion and Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth to perform an analysis of his proposal — that the township use more of its fund balance, or surplus, to offset taxes in the municipal budget — ridden with “factual errors.”
Morgan charged that Geevers illegally asked Township Attorney Michael Herbert for a legal opinion as to whether it was a violation of the law in publicly using the materials put forth by the township professionals in response to council requests, saying Geevers was using the township attorney for campaign advice. He also alleged that Herbert was paid for a conference call with the mayor and Russell Schenkman about the West Windsor Community Foundation, which he alleged was a personal use of township staff by the mayor.
According to the letter from the prosecutor’s office, staff members there conducted an investigation, consisting of document review, review of the transcripts of council budget meetings, interviews, and a review of various E-mails, newspaper articles, and other sources — consuming “hundreds of hours.”
“We have reviewed each of your allegations and find that they have no basis in fact or under the law,” the letter states. “To the contrary, our review has revealed that the mayor and Councilwoman Geevers played no role in the preparation of the analysis of your proposal to utilize the fund balance to reduce the municipal tax rate. Your allegations stretch the criminal code to lengths not contemplated by the legislature.”
The letter also states that “we are satisfied that Mr. Herbert conducted the conference call with Mayor Hsueh and Russell Schenkman in order to obtain information concerning the West Windsor Community Foundation in order to respond to your questions about the foundation and to address your call for an investigation into the foundation.”
In the statement, the mayor demanded an apology, not only to him and Geevers, but also to township Chief Financial Officer Joanne Louth and former business administrator Chris Marion, who resigned shortly after the election last May. Hsueh acknowledged in his letter that Morgan’s allegations were a factor in Marion’s resignation, saying that Marion might still have been with the township “if an environment of hostility against township staff had not been created by Mr. Morgan.”
Hsueh and Geevers are also calling for an apology to residents, “who paid for countless hours of wasted staff time to defend something that only existed in Mr. Morgan’s mind and his blind political ambitions.” They also called on Morgan to “set our political differences aside, stop this destructive behavior, and commit to working constructively with council and administration to move this community forward.”
Morgan sent a response to the prosecutor’s office, alleging that its conclusion “is contrary to the facts” because Hsueh and Geevers played a role in the preparation of the analysis “because I demanded that they address the misrepresentations and other errors in a draft memo that had not been released to the public,” he wrote. “Worst case, they failed to respond to my demand — a demand that was perfectly legitimate — and allowed the memo to be released to the public several days later without addressing my concerns.”
He also wrote that the conclusion regarding Herbert’s conference call “is utter nonsense since it is a fact that the conference call was held on April 14 and my request for an investigation did not occur until more than two weeks later, on April 30, reflected in Mr. Herbert’s invoice submitted to the council.”
Morgan said that the prosecutor’s letter “creates the impression that you have reached a convenient conclusion motivated purely by politics in favor of a Democratic mayor who actively supports a Democratic governor in the context of an all-Democratic Board of Freeholders, a Democratic township attorney (who also is the attorney for the Freeholders) and a Democratic County Executive. Your office must remove the cloud of petty politics from its decision, reopen its file on this matter, and move forward with the criminal charges that clearly should be filed.”
In a press release, Morgan references his response to the prosecutor and says he will “not apologize for efforts to address Mayor Hsueh’s and Councilwoman Geevers’ corruption.”
“Mayor Hsueh and Councilwoman Geevers owe me and the community an apology for their having condoned the release of a memo full of fabrications,” he added. “They owe all of us an apology for their continuing cover-up of the ugly truth.”
Hsueh said he is going to ignore Morgan’s recent comments, including the accusation that he is not allowing municipal chairs to sit in for poll workers. “For me to keep responding to this, it’s a waste of taxpayers’ money, and we have more important issues we need to focus on,” he said. “This to me is not a high priority. I just wish he would stop doing all of this so we can work together to advance this community.”
The mayor also said he does not know what Morgan is referring to with regard to the poll workers. “The only thing I did was talk to the Township Clerk’s office to make sure that if the poll workers did not officially get the assignment as poll workers, they should not be serving as poll workers.”
Echoed Geevers: “any further pursuit of Mr. Morgan’s false allegations will be a complete waste of taxpayers’ hard-earned money. Four other council members are focused on the 2010 preliminary budget, while Mr. Morgan continues with his side show.”
Geevers also said Louth has “stands 100 percent behind her independent analysis. It is most unfortunate that Mr. Morgan continues to publicly insult and malign the reputation of a highly respected employee who has worked effectively for the township during the past two decades.”
