New Jersey Libertarian Party Open Government Advocacy Project: Identities disclosed for some of the other candidates for Burlington County Administrator post.

Issue Detail:

 

BACKGROUND: On March 14, 2010, the Courier Post published an editorial entitled "Burlco: Cut your losses, let Drayton go," which sharply criticized the Burlington County Freeholder Board's selection of Paul Drayton Jr. for the county administrator position. The editorial board called Drayton's selection a "highly partisan pick" and suggested that county taxpayers "must wonder about both [Drayton's] honesty and his ability to manage a budget of [about $200 million]." In "Drayton failed to disclose legal actions to freeholders," an article published two days earlier, Courier Post staff writer Carol Comegno reported that Drayton "was among 28 applicants for Burlington County's top administrative post" but that "county officials have denied a Courier-Post public-records request for a list of the other applicants." Comegno also reported that Freeholder-Director Bruce Garganio still supports Drayton, calling him :the best candidate for the job." It is, of course, hard to say whether Drayton was better or worse than the other candidates unless the other candidates' identities are known. Accordingly, on March 13, 2010, I submitted an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request for the identities and/or resumes of those twenty-seven candidates. I realized when making this request that it would be tricky and difficult to fulfill. This is because Executive Order No. 26 prohibits the County from disclosing the resumes of unsuccessful candidates unless those candidates agree to the disclosure. Thus, Ralph Shrom, Burlington County's Records Custodian, needed to contact each of the unsuccessful applicants in order to request their consent to disclose. I am very appreciative of the time and energy that Mr. Shrom put into fulfilling my request. THE RESULTS Mr. Shrom confirmed that there were actually twenty-nine applicants for the Administrator's post, including Mr. Drayton. of those, the following ten (10) applicants submitted resumes, which are available on-line here. Nick Angiulo Joseph Brosko Anthony Cancro Suzanne Low Mary Ann Minarick Brian Seltzer Yogesh Shah Randolph Terronez Carmen LaVerghetta Tina Zaverzence Also, two applicants consented to release of their names but not their resumes. They are: Leonard Klepner Owen Sullivan Finally, seven (7) applicants asked that neither their resume nor name be disclosed and nine (9) did not respond to Mr. Shrom's request. Hopefully, this information will enable readers to better judge the reasonableness of the Freeholders' decision to choose Mr. Drayton. Sincerely, John Paff, Chair New Jersey Libertarian Party's Open Government Advocacy Project http://www.njlp.org

Documents:

• This Index File
• Burlington Administrator Candidate Resumes
• Burlington Administrator Candidate Resumes