JACKSON-On Thursday, the Jackson Township Council is expected to fill the seat vacated by former Councilman Robert Nixon who resigned from his elected office in November after being the subject of two federal civil rights lawsuits. According to his peers, Nixon spearheaded the anti-Orthodox sentiment present within the township’s governing body and local Republican Club.
Nixon cited personal reasons for his resignation in November, but according to a deposition of current Councilman Ken Bressi, Nixon orchestrated the creation of several township ordinances aimed at curbing the activities of Orthodox Jewish residents in the township. Nixon, according to a lawsuit by Agudath Israel of America spied on Jewish residents and coordinated his efforts with Jackson Strong, which eventually led to a lawsuit by the organization which is a Jewish civil rights group.
Councilman Barry Calogero who has also been implicated in the lawsuits and by Bressi as being a cohort of Nixon’s during the two-year campaign to curb the Jewish population growth in town has been interviewing possible candidates for the position who will serve the remainder of Nixon’s four-year term which ends on December 31, 2020.
Nixon who in court deposition is alleged to have led the charge against the influx of Orthodox Jewish residents and allied himself with the Jackson Strong group sold his Jackson home in April of 2018. He currently works for the New Jersey State Policemen’s Benevolent Association and is the chairman of the embattled and corrupted New Jersey School Development Authority. He was appointed to the authority by former Democrat Governor Jon Corzine and was appointed as the chairman of the board by Governor Phil Murphy.
Despite Nixon’s resignation, Jackson Township is still embroiled in two federal lawsuits brought upon the township by his actions.
