In Mayor Adam Schneider's recently published remarks disparaging our organization, Long Branch Citizens for Good Government, there are misconceptions that need correction and clarification.

No surprise. What jumps out at me in the mayor's headlined remarks is his refusal to understand that partisanship on an issue has nothing to do with applying ethical standards to resolving an issue. Fortunately, many politicians on the local, state and national levels have recognized the invaluable guidance of ethical standards in conducting the business of government. It became part of our New Jersey law in 1991 (N.J.S.A. 40A: 9 -22.1 et seq.,) to restore and preserve the public trust in local government.

In forming our group, we recognized that we exist only because a duly constituted local ethics board does not. Individually, we pushed for such a board. As a group, we will continue to push for it. In rejecting the proposal for a local ethics board, the mayor and City Council (except Councilman Brian Unger) suggested a farcical alternative: the state's local finance board. Procedures on that level are very formal, time consuming, intimidating, and with a harshly restrictive threshold for review.

The underlying premise is not debatable: no matter where one stands on an issue, the process must be open and accountable to the public.

This is the reason for our being, and this is the reason for the mayor's cunning attack on our credibility. He doesn't want to accept the idea that people can disagree on an issue and observe principles of transparency and accountability at the same time.

We all know, from bitter experience on the state and national level, that what is unethical is not necessarily illegal. Unethical practices are so damaging because they are insidious; they continue to influence the way government does business until, in fact, they become business as usual. Long Branch government and politics are infected with pay-to-play ethics issues, and it is mostly legal!

The belief among us and many of our fellow citizens that such practices exist here in Long Branch has developed a deep distrust of local government. Our group goal is to expose and highlight what we see as unethical behavior on the part of our local politicians — chiefly because of the crippling ripple effect it can have on our diverse community. Witness the long drawn out fight over eminent domain, just now getting resolved after years and years of contention.

There is no small irony in Mayor Schneider's denunciation of our group as partisan naysayers. Many of us voted for this mayor in the past and at least one of our members has made financial contributions to his past election campaigns.

So it is Mayor Schneider, with most of his City Council in lockstep, who has created the most partisan issue in Long Branch: a city government that prefers to operate in the shadows.
Ed Hughes
Long Branch Citizens
for Good Government
West End section of
Long Branch