L.B. officials spar over court filings

L.B. officials spar over court filings
BY KENNY WALTER Staff Writer
The political season in Long Branch has barely begun, but things are heating up with city officials and a mayoral candidate trading accusations of wrongdoing.

At the March 23 City Council meeting, Peter DeLisa, campaign manager for Councilman and mayoral candidate Brian Unger, asked Mayor Adam Schneider and each council member point-blank if they had ever accepted a bribe from a developer,

Each council member answered no, whereupon DeLisa asked, “Mr. Mayor, did you take the money?”

Schneider said he was not the unnamed person in news reports.

The confrontation came after an article about an alleged payoff to an unnamed councilman by former developer and FBI informant Solomon Dwek appeared in The Star-Ledger’s March 21 issue.

The controversy emerged after Unger sent out a press release following the council meeting about the allegations and demanded Schneider identify the unnamed councilman.

“I am not convinced that a bribe didn’t take place,” Unger said. “Developers who bribe don’t care whether it is a zoning board or a planning board, they want their project approval guaranteed and they grease the wheels to make sure.

“I am now asking Adam Schneider directly: Did you ever, at any time, or in any location, meet with Solomon Dwek and a Long Branch city councilman?”

Schneider answered the charges in a press release, calling on Unger “to stop the lies, the politics of personal destruction and start talking about real issues. Once again distorting any semblance of the truth, just as Mr. Unger has done many times before, he continues his pattern of lies and innuendo by slandering the hard-working people of Long Branch.”

In an interview, Schneider explained that during a legal battle for assets in bankruptcy court between trustee Charles A. Stanziale Jr. and Dwek associate Barry Kantrowitz, Dwek testified that he was introduced to an unnamed mayor and a Long Branch councilman and reportedly made a $10,000 contribution toward approvals for a Long Branch development project.

Schneider said the Dwek project refers to a 2001 application to construct 11 townhouses along Ocean Boulevard. In the court proceedings, no city official is named specifically.

Unger’s press release continues: “At Tuesday’s Long Branch City Council meeting it was disclosed that the townhouse complex that Dwek reportedly bribed officials for approvals on was the Newport condominiums, Ocean Boulevard corner of Bath Avenue. The Newport was developed by Dwek in conjunction with controversial city Sewerage Authority Commissioner John Brockriede, a Schneider campaign donor.

“It has not been disclosed whether Brockriede’s bank, Central Jersey Bank, financed the deal, but a bank director, attorney Mark Aikins, presented the project to the city Planning Board in September 2002. Brockriede attended the board meeting. City Attorney James Aaron is also a director of the bank. Dwek was a co-founder and former board member, as well.”

Schneider said at the council meeting that the charges are misunderstood.

“Most people don’t even understand the accusations,” he said.

“The trustee’s job is to do what is called marshal assets,” he said. “List all the assets of the debtor, in this case Solomon [Dwek], bring them all under his control and then sell them.”

According to Schneider, Kantrowitz is claiming some of the assets are his.

He also said that Stanziale isn’t making the accusations, Dwek is.

“Kantrowitz denies it; these are Dwek’s allegations,” he said.

According to the court filings, Kantrowitz introduced Dwek to the mayor and councilman, which Schneider is claiming proves he is not the mayor referred to in the court filings, adding that he has known Dwek for many years.

“I was not introduced to him by Barry Kantrowitz,” he said. “The way they set that out, it ain’t me.”

Schneider said he understands the assumptions people are making.

“Dwek has apparently alleged that Kantrowitz set up this meeting between an unnamed councilman and an unnamed mayor influencing a Long Branch project,” he said. “Clearly the logic would be a Long Branch councilman, but it is not alleged. For whatever reason, they don’t go there.”

Schneider also said the project didn’t require variances.

“It was not a major project nine years ago … [it] required no substantial approval,” he said. “It was kind of a nobrainer of an application.”

Schneider said that even though he denies any allegations, he is taking them seriously.

“Once the accusations came up, we took a look at it,” he said. “You have a responsibility when there is an allegation made.

“No matter how much merit you give, you have to take a look.”

Long Branch resident Diana Multare took the opportunity to push for a city ethics board because of the appearance of a conflict of interest.

“The attorney that represented Dwek and Brockriede was Mark Aikins,” she said. Aikins is the city’s conflict attorney.

However, Schneider said that an allegation of this type wouldn’t go to an ethics board.

“According to Mr. Stanziale, it was presented to the FBI,” he said. “Where else could it possibly go?

“We have looked at the file. We did that right away. Of course I’m interested in getting to the bottom of it, but right now it is just an allegation with no factual basis, as far as we know. We are not the appropriate investigative authority, the FBI is.”

Another resident suggested that the city should cut off all contact with Dwek.

“Some people are bad people; I think Mr. Dwek might be one of them,” Harold “Pudgy” Cooper said. “I would suggest to our council and mayor to probably not deal with him because it just looks bad.

“It seems like his name is always intertwined with bad things.”

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.


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