by James J. Devine
Last week, I reported that Assemblyman Joseph Cryan is abusing his legislative office by having government staff perform work related to his capacity as state Democratic Party chairman.
Freeholder John D’Amico Jr. said communication with the office of Assemblyman Joseph Cryan from someone on the Monmouth County Democrats’ transition team regarding county government jobs was “wrong.”
Cryan’s legislative aide, Dave Jenkins, sent email messages to the state Department of Personnel and the Rutgers Eagleton Institute of Politics asking about candidates for several high-paying government jobs in Monmouth County.
According to e-mails obtained by Monmouth County Freeholder Robert D. Clifton, a Republican, Jenkins sought resumes of prospects for chief financial officer, human resources and human services department directors, in addition to a post that does not yet exist as inspector general.
“It was over-exuberance,” D’Amico said of the contact with Cryan’s office.
In the November election, Democrats won freeholder board control for the first time in 23 years.
“Assemblyman Cryan is not involved in this process (of recruiting personnel for Monmouth County government jobs),” D’Amico said at the Monmouth County freeholder board meeting Thursday, Jan. 8.
In my last column, I opined that “Whether D’Amico, Mallet and McMorrow deliver for their political paymasters or the public is a matter of enormous curiosity.”
I applaud D’Amico for working to bring Monmouth County a smarter, more efficient government and for keeping political thugs like Joe Cryan out of it.
