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Councilman John Moor, who is running for mayor in the November election, has a pending legal claim against the city.

“I filed a worker’s comp case in 2009 saying I was injured at work and I’m waiting for it to [be litigated],” Moor said.

Moor [shown at right] was an employee of the city’s public works department for 31 years. He served as the department’s assistant director before he retired in 2011.

He was elected as a councilman in the May 2013 municipal election.

Moor declined to comment further about the claim or his injury.

“I’m not talking about my lawsuit with the paper,” he said.

At the request of the city attorney, Moor leaves the council chambers during executive sessions while workman’s compensation cases are discussed and later abstains from any votes that involve the cases during regular meetings, he said.

“It’s not secret, it’s been public information. It was public information during the 2013 election,” he said. “Everyone knows about it, I’ve hid it from nobody, and everyone who has asked me about I’ve talked to about it.”

The matter is still pending and has yet to be resolved, he said.

“Why it’s taken five years — you can ask the city that.”

Erick Nemeth, the principal attorney for the city’s joint insurance fund, did not return two calls requesting comment on the case.

A change of government referendum passed in the November 2013 general election, shifting the city’s municipal elections from May to November and again opening up all five city council seats. For the first time in the city’s history, Asbury Park voters will directly select their mayor, who will continue to be a member of the council.

Also running for mayor is incumbent Myra Campbell, former Board of Education President Remond Palmer and Harold Suggs.

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