Ocean County voters slogging through these sour economic times need to pay attention to what is going on behind closed doors in their towns and county government, because deals are being made, jobs are being created, and jobs are going to people who do not deserve them, all at your expense.

The recent appointment of Brick TownshipMayor Stephen C. Acropolis to a $93,000 job as executive director of the Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority is the latest affront to taxpayers.

The TRMUA, or any municipal utilities authority for that matter, does not need an executive director. Acropolis does have administrative experience, but none running a water and sewer utility.

But that does not seem to matter in Ocean County. Case in point is Freeholder James F. Lacey, who was appointed executive director of the Brick Township Municipal Utilities Authority in 2008. Was he appointed because he was the best person for the job? Of course not. He needed a job because the new Democratic administration in Beachwood decided they did not need a $114,000 borough administrator (Lacey).

Lacey’s starting salary at the BTMUA was a disgusting $135,000. Some people questioned howhewould tend to his BTMUAduties while freeholder meetings were taking place in Toms River on Wednesdays. No problem. His contract gave Lacey 10 hours a week to be set aside for his freeholder duties.

Municipal utilities authorities are supposed to be separate from local government. In reality, they are quasi-independent. Members are appointed by the local governing bodies, who always appoint along party lines.

All of the members of the TRMUA are Republican political appointments. One of them, Joseph Bilotta, was a business partner of Acropolis. Juan Bellu, also an official in the Toms River Republican Club, has a cushy Brick Township job, courtesy of Acropolis.

Both men recused themselves before the vote to appoint Acropolis as the TRMUA director was taken, to make it look good.

How does all this happen? It’s very simple. Ocean County is run by a man who is not an elected official.

Republican Party Chairman George R. Gilmore has been moving his patronage pawns around the chess board for decades. Boss Gilmore decides who gets what, and his minions do his bidding.

I asked Acropolis once what he thought of Lacey’s appointment as the BTMUA executive director. He said it was “great” that Brick Township would have a sitting freeholder in the authority’s top slot. Spoken like a true Republican soldier.

Forty-two Brick employees lost their jobs on Dec. 31, 2008, part of Acropolis’ “restructuring” of the township. Acropolis began making arrangements for shared services with Toms River, and all of a sudden the very capable Brick Administrator Scott M. Pezarras needed a lot more help in the office.

Enter Bellu. He was hired as an assistant to Pezarras at a starting salary of nearly $100,000 a year. The all-GOP Brick Township Council agreed to give Bellu a $50,000 raise earlier this year. That is not a typo. Time to play connectthe dots.

Brick Township voters elected Acropolis to his first full term as mayor in 2009 at a salary of about $52,000. Although there are no set hours he must work, the mayor has put in fulltime hours since he was elected.

Acropolis must work a 40-hour week at the TRMUA, from Monday through Friday, and punch in like any other employee. To assume he can do both jobs is laughable, unless he delegates a lot more responsibility. In that case, he should reduce his mayor’s salary or resign.

The scuttlebutt is that Acropolis will step down as Brick’s mayor after Sept. 15, past the deadline to file for a special mayoral election in November to finish his term.

And if Acropolis does step down, Gilmore can shuffle the deck and put in who he wants. Chances are it will be Brick Councilwoman Ruthanne Scaturro, who is married to Ocean County Consumer Affairs Director Stephen Scaturro, who just happens to be a bigwig in the Brick Republican Club.

Stephen Scaturro did not deserve the county job. Former Sgt. Scaturro was dismissed from the Brick Township Police Department in the early 1980s on charges of civil service misconduct, according to an article in the Tri-Town News in June 2006, when he was appointed director of consumer affairs.

Freeholder John P. Kelly is no stranger to the patronage game either. Kelly was appointed as an “airport analyst” at the South Jersey Transportation Authority in 1999. Kelly, a high school graduate with no aviation experience, was paid $327,000 during his five years at the authority, according to the Asbury Park Press.

No one would have known this if Chris Myers, who was Kelly’s opponent in the 2008 Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District seat, had not made it a campaign issue.

Want to know what patronage jobs are called at the county level? Take a look at the roster of Ocean County employees. Anytime you see “confidential” aide or assistant as a job title, the person got the job because of his or her political connections.

And for those who say the Democrats would do the same thing if they were in power, you’re right. They probably would.

No matter who is running the patronage show, it does not make it right. Remember that when you go to the polls in November. Lacey and Kelly are seeking re-election to their sixth terms as freeholders.

Patricia A. Miller is a staff writer with Greater Media Newspapers.