Council asks for review of $1K fine against clerk

Action comes as resident
continues to examine
tax assessor’s office
BY JOYCE BLAY
Staff Writer

LAKEWOOD — Township clerk Bernadette Standkowski, the only custodian of records to be fined thus far by the state’s Government Records Council (GRC) for a violation of the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), will have her day in court.

The GRC has referred the matter to the Office of Administrative Law (OAL) after receiving a request for reconsideration from Guy Ryan, an associate with the firm of Steven Secare, the township attorney.

"The GRC has decided to change its decision and give Bernadette an opportunity for a hearing," Ryan said last week.

E.J. Miranda, communications officer for the state Department of Community Affairs, said the three actions available to the panel after formally receiving Ryan’s request for reconsideration were to hear the request, deny the request or refer the request to the OAL. Council members chose to refer the matter.

"The GRC had some questions after viewing documents received after the council issued its penalty decision," Miranda said. "We resolved to refer the matter to the OAL for expedited reconsideration."

Pending resolution of the case, the $1,000 fine assessed to Standkowski will be held in abeyance, he added.

The fine was assessed Standkowski in October for failing to provide township resident Yehuda Shain with the bills and contract of the tax assessor’s attorney, Scott Kenneally, within the required time period of the request.

Shain is a man with a mission, but whether that mission is the reform of the township tax assessor’s department or its complete disruption may be a matter of perspective, township officials say.

"I don’t know what motivates the guy," said Ryan. "This is not Iraq."

Under OPRA, requests for bills and contracts must be provided immediately, according to the state’s Internet Web site. The fine assessed to Standkowski was the first assessed against a custodian of public records since the law took effect in 2001, although the GRC’s attorney advised against it. For that reason, Lakewood officials are hopeful they can reverse what they believe to be an unjust decision against the clerk, said Ryan.

Township officials were not the only ones who felt they were victimized by Shain’s actions.

Rabbi Aaron Kotler of Beth Medrash Govoha school in Lakewood, whose tax file was one of the documents reviewed by Shain, expressed indignation that Shain had suggested any impropriety or that the private religious school had anything to hide.

"The record will show that all requests for information to Beth Medrash Govoha by the assessor’s office have been fully responded to in a timely and open fashion," Kotler said. "I’ve known Yehuda Shain for 30 years. He’s entitled to say what he wants, but if he makes false accusations about my institution, I’m going to respond to them."

Shain had told the Tri-Town News that Kotler’s school had not provided a response to a letter sent by the tax assessor’s office in conjunction with maintaining the school’s tax exempt status on several of its properties.

Ryan said the reason the response letter from the school was not in the file Shain examined might be due to an oversight.

If that is so, according to Shain, the township will have a more difficult case to prove in appealing the GRC’s decision to fine Standkowski.

"I asked Guy Ryan if anything had been missing from those files and he gave me an affidavit signed by the employees in the department that had handled my request that nothing was missing or overlooked," Shain said.

Ryan did not deny Shain’s assertion, but insisted that Shain did not specify which of the 53 properties owned by the school did not merit tax-exempt status.

"He’s trying to confuse the issue," said Shain, who continued to insist that the private religious school was not entitled to tax exemptions for all its properties, and that he had discussed that assertion with Kotler.

"He said he would set up a meeting between me and his lawyers, but that never happened," said Shain.

Kotler said in an earlier conversation that he believed Shain had specifically targeted his school. Two years ago, Kotler said, Shain had attempted to purchase tax exempt properties owned by Georgian Court College in Lakewood and was rebuffed. At that time, the rabbi said, he had defended the college in the media. Kotler said he believed that Shain’s request for tax documents maintaining the tax-exempt status of properties owned by Beth Medrash Govoha was made in retaliation.

Shain denied the allegation.

"I take everything on its merits," said Shain. "I try to run a straight line; if you’re entitled, you’re entitled, but if you’re not, then give it up."

Ryan also questioned Shain’s ulterior motives.

"He wanted to be tax assessor, but Linda (Solakian, a career civil servant) was appointed from deputy tax assessor to tax assessor," Ryan said.

Shain did not deny he had applied for the job about five or six years ago, but said he had done so at the urging of members of his community who were concerned about the way the department was being run.

"I was secretly hoping I wouldn’t get the job because of the low salary," said Shain. "I think it was something in the low 30’s or 40’s. I would not be able to live on that salary with children enrolled in private schools."

Shain got his wish when Solakian was appointed Lakewood’s tax assessor. Despite the township’s rejection of his candidacy, Shain said his investigation of the department Solakian heads was not based on personal feelings of retribution.

"I felt there were still a lot of things that were not on the up and up, so I requested the tax records under OPRA," Shain said. "I felt there’s a lot of inequity in town and I wanted to know what was going on in the tax department."

Ryan and members of the Township Committee are equally committed to rectifying the wrong they said was done to their clerk, Standkowski, who as Lakewood’s designated custodian of public records was personally fined when Solakian’s officer failed to promptly provide Shain with the materials he requested of them.

But Shain said he was not concerned about their attempts to discredit him or his work.

"I don’t know why they’re going after me instead of fixing the tax assessor’s department," he said. "I happen to be very knowledgeable in this field and I want to fix these injustices. That’s my agenda."