TOMS RIVER, NJ – Back in March, the Ocean County Board of Commissioners was served with a federal subpoenas seeking employment and hiring records over the past 5 years. The Board of Commissioners kept that subpoena under wraps until its existence was leaked to Shore News Network last week.
Shore News Network filed an OPRA request for the FBI subpoena, and two days later, Commissioner Jack Kelly came clean with the public about its existence. After Kelly publicly admitted the FBI investigation looking into possible jobs for favors practices, the county fulfilled the OPRA request submitted on Monday.
This week, Michael Fiure, the Assistant Administrator for Ocean County, slated to replace Carl Block as administrator said county officials did nothing wrong.
“Ocean County government complies with all rules and regulations that govern employment and hiring practices including the New Jersey Civil Service Act, New Jersey Employer Employee Relations Act and accompanying rules and regulations, and the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination and all federal laws pertaining to employment practices,” Fiure said.
Fiure has been embroiled in an ongoing scandal within the county involving Sheriff Michael Mastronardy and Commissioner Virginia Haines. Haines was pushing TJ Collins, a now-retired State Trooper into a position by sending her fellow freeholder’s handwritten memos, in a now-failed attempt to circumvent the OPRA process.
Initially, Haines said she did not know who Collins was and never met him. It turns out, she not only knew Collins, but was pushing the rest of the board to hire Collins to replace Fiure after he was promoted to administrator. That job opening came as Haines worked behind the scenes to push longtime administrator Carl Block out of his job.
At the Commissioners’ next meeting, Haines walked back her story about Collins after realizing her memos were leaked to the local media, saying instead, Collins was Sheriff Mastronardy’s guy for the job.
Days later, it became known that the FBI subpoena came just one month after Haines hand-delivered all of her Collins memos.
“A federal subpoena was received in county offices on March 23, 2022. All documentation requested by federal investigators was hand-delivered to the FBI’s Red Bank office on Tuesday, April 12, 2022,” Fiure told Shore News Network. “The Ocean County Board of Commissioners is fully cooperating with the FBI investigation. The county will issue no other comment at this time.”
Paid political agents working for the Haines-aligned faction of the Ocean County GOP are now claiming the FBI investigation is focused on Freeholder Joe Vicari, but that rumor, spread by people on the GOP payroll, is unconfirmed.
Haines and Vicari have had a public falling out, but Vicari alone cannot make any public hires, which require a majority vote on the commissioner board.
Haines, caught in a lie by former Ocean County GOP Chairman George Gilmore, has been pushing the Vicari narrative behind the scenes. Ocean County has long been known as a patronage pit for friends, family members and political allies of the commissioners. Jobs are doled out as rewards for political support and favors. Many of the county’s mayors, elected officials, political donors, family members, and friends have high-paying public jobs with the county.
Kelly and Haines both serve on the State GOP Committee. Haines is New Jersey’s RNC National Committeewoman representing New Jersey.
