TRENTON, NJ – An appointee of New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy has been cited in a religious discrimination and bias lawsuit, saying he actively participated in activities aimed at keeping Orthodox Jews out of his town while serving as an elected member of the Jackson Township Council.
Related: Attorney General files lawsuit against Jackson Township over religious discrimination
Former Jackson Township Councilman Robert Nixon, a New Jersey State PBA Lobbyist engaged in spying activities against Jews and sought to keep Jewish residents from buying homes in his town.
Nixon was appointed by Governor Phil Murphy to the New Jersey School Development Council, the embattled agency that was wrought with political corruption and patronage jobs. He was also recently appointed by Governor Phil Murphy to serve on a gun control board.
In 2016, Nixon served as an elected councilman in Jackson Township and according to a lawsuit filed today by New Jersey Attorney General Gurbir Grewal, organized a surveillance effort to spy on over one dozen homes in which Jewish residents resided.
Nixon also vowed to fight the influx of Orthodox Jews from buying homes in the town when replying to residents.
“I can tell from your message that you share the same concerns and the same passion for addressing them as so many others in town. As a resident, I feel the same way and I can assure you my fellow members of Council are 100% on the same page,” Nixon wrote. “[Y]our town has not let you down. There has been a number of serious policy changes in town over the last few years to address these issues. It is our failure for not spreading the word loudly enough. As long as I am a member of Council I will continue to speak out against blockbusting, illegal uses of our properties, aggressive realtors and absentee landlords.”
After Nixon orchestrated a surveillance program of Jews living in Jackson, then Business Administrator Helene Schlegel advised Nixon of possible legal ramifications of his Jewish surveillance operation.
“[A]fter two weekends of monitoring and nothing significant, I do not see the need for further overtime on this matter. . . . We have already expended too many tax dollars on this one property to find that there is no issue. Many of these reports appear to be exaggerated causing us unnecessary expense,” Schlegel told Nixon.
Nixon responded by requesting “a meeting on these issues please before monitoring these homes ends” in order to discuss his “concerns” as well as another resident complaint.