Councilman wants Sacks sacked

By charles W. kim
Staff Writer

Sacks

South Brunswick Councilman Ted Van Hessen wants the governing body to fire Township Manager Barbara Sacks.

"We do not have a good fit," Van Hessen said during a press conference at the municipal building on Route 522 Wednesday afternoon.

Van Hessen said that he wanted Sacks removed because of the "atmosphere" that he alleges she has created among employees in the municipal building. He also charged that she is withholding information from members of the council.

"We have the absolute right to ask questions," Van Hessen said.

Wednesday’s press conference followed his surprising report to the council on Tuesday night when he announced that he was submitting a resolution to remove Sacks from her position.

Sacks, who was the manager of Fair Lawn since 1998, was appointed by the council during a special meeting in November. She replaces Matt Watkins, who left the position in June to head the state’s Local Government Services Division in the Department of Community Affairs.

Van Hessen charged that he had to request information through the new Open Public Records Act that he should have been able to obtain through the manager.

"During a recent budget hearing, we [council members] were told to e-mail questions to the manager," Van Hessen said.

Van Hessen produced a Jan. 25 e-mail that he said he sent to Sacks with questions regarding the police budget.

That e-mail asked for a total of seven items that he wanted to see prior to the next budget hearing.

Van Hessen also produced what he said was Sacks’ reply to his request. In that e-mail, dated Jan. 28, Sacks told Van Hessen that some of the information in his request was ready, but the rest of the request would require her to perform work that is in violation of the Faulkner Act.

"I am sure that if the council wanted me to drop all of my other work and instead devote my time to the voluminous amount of work in your e-mail, they would tell me so as a whole body," the e-mail states.

The e-mail also states that under the provisions of the act, which the township adopted in 1997, a single council member may not "order or direct the Manager or any other employee or officer to perform work."

While the request for Van Hessen met with her objection, a similar request by Councilman Edmund Luciano seemed to meet with a different response, according to an e-mail which Van Hessen said was from Sacks to Police Chief Michael Paquette.

In that e-mail, dated Feb. 6, Luciano requests nine items, and Sacks asked Paquette to gather the information.

"Some of this was already passed on to the council, such as the correspondence. Can you assemble the other items he requests and send them to me? I will forward them to the council members," the e-mail reads.

Sacks said Tuesday night that she feels this is "a smear campaign" against her that started in late January, and that Van Hessen’s requests were more of a directive for her to perform work in violation of the Faulkner Act.

"The majority of the governing body must direct me," Sacks said, explaining that the body, as a whole, has the only authority under the law.

Sacks has asked for a hearing on the matter in executive session during the next meeting, according to officials.

Mayor Frank Gambatese told Van Hessen Tuesday night, that his request for the resolution was "inappropriate."

"This is really offensive. This statement does not belong on the dais," Gambatese said.

Under the Council/Manager form of government, the council may remove the manager by a simple majority vote, according to the town’s charter study commission report.

Former charter committee member Jane Snyder attended the press conference as an observer.

Snyder said that if information was being given to one member and not another, there would be something wrong. She also said, however, that Sacks is correct that council members may not give an individual directive to the manager.

Sacks received a master’s degree in criminal justice in 1970 from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York, and one in public administration in 1976 from New York University, New York City.

The first helped her work as an investigator at the state level, where she examined corruption in the courts.

She later worked on the New York State Joint Legislative Commission on Crime for two years.

Sacks also worked in Newark during the 1970s on a $20-million Anti Crime Program under Mayor Ken Gibson.

Sacks later worked as the administrator of South Orange, and worked in her own tax and finance business before going to Fair Lawn.