Is Newman really for open government?

[Mike Rosseel]

Mr Newman in recent times you have spoken about open government and your desire for the public to be able to access you. I have heard a few rumors, none bad or personal just about your involvement in town committees etc, I hope you will start the trend and respond to us, the concerned Boro residents...

1. Is there any truth that after you accepted the appointment to the Zoning Board and the Planning Board that you never finished your time as you swore to? Did you leave these groups without explanation or reason?

2. You were Freeholds public defender, how exactly or what caused you to leave that post? What happened after the appointment?

3. Months before election, was your home for sale? The reason I ask this is because I don't see how you can claim to be all about Freehold if you were thinking of leaving Freehold?

4. Do you think Councilmen Schnurr was wrong for his recent comment about the Dr King race at Freehold track?

Mr Newman I honestly am asking just to clear these questions up? Alot of people asked me about this and I have no answer. Please answer these so we can clear the air. Once again, I do not ask this in an disrespectful manner just as a concerned Freehold resident.

[BrianSullivan]

This is a very nice tie in with the thread about attracting elected leaders, I doubt any councilman would answer this. But, lets see.

[Mike Rosseel]

Jan 31, 2010 20:20:45 GMT -5 BrianSullivan said:

This is a very nice tie in with the thread about attracting elected leaders, I doubt any councilman would answer this. But, lets see.

Brian, I just think if someone calls themself the self proclaimed open goverment king, he should answer the questions. he OWES it to the people of Freehold. if your not quilty of anything, WHY WOULDNT Newman clear the air, if hes wrong hes wrong, if its lies its lies, isnt this what a elected officals should do? seems like a no brainer to me

[Mike Rosseel]

Day 2 and still no answer..

[Mike Rosseel]

Brian, do we have Mr Newmans email on here?

[admin]

Feb 1, 2010 7:46:03 GMT -5 Mike Rosseel said:

Brian, do we have Mr Newmans email on here?

[e-mail]

[johnfnewman]

Mr. Rosseel,

I believe that none of these questions have to do with an "open government," and all of them are personal. Also, Mike, you could have addressed any of these questions to me personally as you not only have my freehold boro address, but you also have my private e-mail address as well. During the campaign, we had several e-mail transactions over a course of weeks. I even visited your house on three occasions to try to talk to you. I wished you would have asked me any of these questions then.

As to the "Day 2" comment, c'mon and be fair! Day 1 was at Sunday night at 7:51 p.m. Day 2 was Monday at 7:16 a.m. That was hardly enough time for someone not as tied into this site as you to hear about the post and answer it.

As to "open government," this concept is not about people knowing details about my private life, but rather having access to their government and people having input into the process of government. In my opinion, your questions have no bearing on "open government." I will post something later today asking for feedback on an issue that will be before the council shortly (not tonight). I would appreciate your input then.

Lastly, before I answer, I do not want to get into the habit of answering personal questions every time someone hears a rumor about me. However, I will answer your questions. Please don't expect me to have a continuing dialog about my private life on internet sites. Like I said, I will try to reach out to people to let them know about issues, or to their gain input on issues. I will try to post my other query later today.

1. Is there any truth that after you accepted the appointment to the Zoning Board and the Planning Board that you never finished your time as you swore to? Did you leave these groups without explanation or reason?
Any truth? None. I never served on the planning board. I did serve on the zoning board for several years. My term on the zoning board ended naturally, when my term was up. I believe it ended when the two boards were merged (but I may be wrong on the timing). I did not resign from the zoning board, although at the end it was beginning to conflict with other things in my life. You can contact the Zoning Board secretary to verify this: Samantha Daesener.

2. You were Freeholds public defender, how exactly or what caused you to leave that post? What happened after the appointment?
I was the Freehold Public Defender for exactly one year. (It is a one year appointment.) When I became the public defender, I was informed that it would require an appearance in municipal court approximately one time per month. The hearings are routinely held in two sessions on Tuesdays: one in the early afternoon and one in the early evening.

However, despite this one-time-per-month assurance, there was rarely a Tuesday session that I did not have at least one case (afternoon and evening). Therefore, the once-a-month appearance was more like 4 times a month, usually with an appearance at both sessions.

When I became public defender, this was also the time when prosecutor Scott Basin became judge and the public defender Kathy Sheedy became prosecutor. Judge Basin stepped into the job at full speed. He wanted to clear up the old calendar. And so he instituted some changes: special DWI sessions, code enforcement sessions and spanish-speaking sessions. Further, as Judge Basin was the prosecutor for many of the old cases, there were also many "conflict sessions" - at least in the beginning of my term. The conflict was that Judge Basin could not have acted as prosecutor on a case one week, then two weeks later act as the judge. So Judge James Newman (no relation) was a judge for special conflict sessions. So with these special sessions, it was not even four times a month, my appearances in court were more like 5, 6 or even 7 times a month (mostly in the first half of the year).

Why did I leave? I was appearing in municipal court much more than I anticipated, causing me lost time from other work. My employer and I knew from the very beginning that the public defender position would be a money loser; but as the year rolled on, I discovered that I was not even getting reimbursed for my services due to how the boro structured the payments. I was not a partner in the law firm then, and my employer was suffering a great monetary loss due to me holding this position. After the year was up, (and this is my understanding of events, it may be inaccurate) the mayor would have let me stay on as I had a good relationship with the prosecutor (being able to try cases or resolve issues well together, and I genuinely like Ms. Sheedy and the whole court staff there). I also learned that the Lomurro firm was interested in the position. Given the time and money issues, I had no qualms about stepping aside. (Later the Lomurro firm renegotiated how the public defender gets paid.) Jonathan Lomurro is still the public defender and he is a fine attorney. I assume that Kerry Higgins or Kathy Sheedy can verify most of this information if you really want to follow-up on it.

3. Months before election, was your home for sale? The reason I ask this is because I don't see how you can claim to be all about Freehold if you were thinking of leaving Freehold?
This is also not correct. My house was for sale several years before the election. You can contact anyone on my street to verify this. The family was growing, and my in-laws stay who are currently living out of the country stay with me for several months at a time. We simply needed more room.

So, when my house was for sale I put a bid on a house on Broad Street (yellow house diagonally across from the Earl's - a mother/daughter = extra room for the in-laws). If you would like my realtor's information about that, I can provide that as well. If you would like to meet my in-laws, they will be here from the end of March until July. (just joking)

My wife and I wound up putting an addition onto the house and staying put.

4. Do you think Councilmen Schnurr was wrong for his recent comment about the Dr King race at Freehold track?
no comment. If I have a problem with Mr. Schnurr, I will address it to Mr. Schnurr directly.

[Mike Rosseel]

Mr Newman,

A few things, one I applaud you for answering these questions. Two, I did not intend this as a personal attack, I was trying to clear the air. None of these questions were personal and if a personal reason was an answer, I think its safe to say that you would have been respected if you said that. Honestly, these are questions people have asked me, I was trying to get the facts, period. This 100% wasnt anything personal to you. I thought I was helping you by finally putting a stop to peoples speculations on these topics.

John, we did share emails and you did come to my home and I appreciated all that and never said anything bad about you. If you want to be honest, I drove over to the county party on election night to congradulate you, I thought that was a sign that I wasn't then nor now, have anything against you! I truly believe you have alot to offer council and think you will be a positive influence!

Thank you for clearing the air up! In the future I will email directly as you wish!

[richardkelsey]

I agree that most of those questions bare no relation to "open government." Having said that, I think answering these questions frankly, fully, and adroitly, shows that Mr. Newman is willing to be quite open. It's refreshing.

As I said on my other thread -- most elected officials would never appear on these types of pages -- particularly to answer tough, even hostile questions that often are used solely against the elected official.

Kudos to Mr. Newman for stepping up. It is consistent with his reputation earned on these pages.

While we know that the Mayor and council participate on this site regularly by reading, reacting, and planning around the site -- it is great that an elected official is now posting on the site again. Mr. Le Vine use to do that -- and it was laudable when he did.

[Mike Rosseel]

Rich, well said, i too am applauding Mr Newman. I disagree with you saying this has nothing to do with open goverment because as part of open goverment, Mr Newman spoke of being accessible through emails etc.. He def has my respect for answering these questions. I state again, this was NOT an attack, just wanted to give a few people some answers and Thank you to Mr Newman for making that possible!

[BrianSullivan]

John,

When I posted my first post it was with skepticism that you would actually post here and answer these questions. I am not knocking the questions themselves, but I recognize that elected officials are rightfully shy of forums like this.

That said, your answers were very informative and thorough. I do hope you continue to post here and, if for no other reason, to provide us with some good info. Be it issues you are working on or what ever may be happening on the committees you are on, people will appreciate it.

It would also be nice to hear your thoughts on the thread about attracting elected leaders. Lets set an example and maybe we will be fortunate enough to have some of your fellow council members also join us. The door is always open.

[admin]

I cleaned this thread up because it was going too far off topic. Any complaints or concerns should be dealt with in the complaint/suggestion box board under site guide lines.

Lets stay on topic and remain civil in order to reflect our town the right way.