Wacky Wnek Withdraws Wildest Weasel Words

Former GOP “Mayor” Wnek Capitulates On Most Objectionable And Defamatory Part Of Controversial Broome Character Assassin Memorandum Following OCPolitics Disclosures Suggesting He Used Burlington Highway Department Facilities And Equipment To Launch Political Attacks On Dover MUA Employees

Outgoing Lame Duck “Chairman” Hedinger Disgraces The DMUA One More Time By Naming Wnek, Who Refused Four Times To Identify His “Place Of Business” (Burlington Highway Department), To “Liaison Committee” For The Purpose Of “Managing” Information Given To The Public And The Township Committee

Will Perpetrator Of '92 Financial Crisis Become DMUA Chairman When Agency Reorganizes In February?

Dover Township - Commissioner Robert K. Haelig Jr. appeared before the township committee Tuesday evening to present a plan that could save nearly $300,000 annually at the DMUA, but Commissioner Paul Wnek and lame duck Authority Chairman Leonard Hedinger didn’t like it a bit. Hedinger appointed Wnek to a post on a liaison committee to filter “information” on authority business to the township committee.

Haelig’s cost cutting plan, which will be treated more fully in subsequent OceanCountyPolitics articles, included elimination of useless alternate commissioners (save $18,000), more aggressive investment policy (save $80,000), eliminate double dip health benefits (save $32,000), painless internal reorganization (save $65,000), refinance the authority’s debt (save $65,000) and additional minor policy changes to save $18,000.

Hedinger And Wnek Charge Broome With Abusing
His Office By Obtaining Public Information

Hedinger, who will be replaced as a DMUA Commissioner in February with former Deputy Attorney General John Sheehy, started his last meeting by reading segments of a memorandum from Wnek attacking Authority Executive Director John Broome for obtaining public information from town hall. They accused Broome of accessing the public data at the request of Haelig.

Broome acknowledged that public records were obtained from a variety of public sources, but vigorously denied Wnek’s allegations that he “may have violated the law” or “used or abused” his office for his “personal agenda”. Wnek did not back up his charges with a single scrap of evidence or a single bit of information. In fact, he would not even admit that he worked at the Burlington County Highway Department.

Wnek And Hedinger Helped Cause Major Fiscal
Calamities In Township And School System

Reliable local sources say Wnek, the former township “mayor” who helped to precipitate the massive 1992 fiscal crisis, used the facilities and personnel of the Burlington facility to prepare and launch a barrage of political charges against employees of the DMUA, including Broome and Haelig.

Hedinger, former President of the Toms River School board, was a primary factor in excessive spending by the school board in the 1980's, policies which led to a change in the administration and the largest school tax increase in the history of Ocean County.

Data Needed To Defend Authority Against
Larsen, Horn Litigation Threats

Haelig did not acknowledge Hedinger’s accusation, but he noted that all of the mentioned data was public information, and that a variety of public records were accessed to provide information needed by the authority to defend and prosecute potential legal actions including a letter from Democratic Chairman Jeffrey Horn threatening to sue authority employees and commissioners if they continued to criticize a DMUA dissolution plan dreamed up by his client, newly installed Committeeman Richard Larsen.

Data may also be used to prosecute an ethics complaint against Larsen involving a series of alleged lies and distortions circulated by Larsen (called “the accountant” in Democrat fliers) during Larsen’s campaign in violation of the Accountant’s Code of Ethics.

The Press Leaves, So Wnek, Having Secured His Cheap Shot Publicity, Withdraws Charges Against Broome

Towards the end of the meeting, faced with put up or shut up alternatives, Wnek agreed to withdraw the charges against Broome, but considerable damage had been done.

The unsupported allegations by Wnek and Hedinger may end up weakening the authority’s legal position, a contingency that was not helped by a statement from authority attorney Richard Meinders in the Asbury Park Press that accessing some of the public information “did not pass the smell test’, a metaphor which has been used before by Meinders to bail Wnek, Hedinger and former authority Chairman Virginia Haines out of uncomfortable situations caused by their own bizarre behavior.

Attorney Meinders “Used His Office To
Help Cover Up Policy Blunders"

Haelig said after the meeting he was disappointed once again, because “if anything doesn’t pass the smell test, it is Mr. Meinders’ repeated use of his office as the authority’s attorney to help cover up the policy blunders of the last twenty-four months.”

Ray Of Light As Mrs. Clement Joins Haelig
And Commissioner Steele To Postpone
New Authority Job Creation

The authority was scheduled to create a new position of “assistant to the controller” and make the appointment to the $35,000 job last night. This would have killed Haelig’s reorganization proposal even before it got off the ground, but good public policy prevailed for once as Commissioners Deborah Clement and Barbara Steele joined Haelig in moving to postpone consideration of the new appointment until the February meeting when the Authority reconvenes for the new year.   (for 1/23/03)

Click here for previous OceanCountyPolitics•Com article re:double dipper deficit wonk Wnek’s political career.

Click here for previous OceanCountyPolitics•Com article re:Wnek’s insurgency for the DMUA Chair.

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