Concerns raised about city’s hiring practices
Jobs for a sex offender and non-residents cause controversy
Some Asbury Park residents are irked with the city’s municipal hiring practices, and they made their objections known at Wednesday’s council meeting.
Within the past calendar year, the city has hired a convicted sex offender and an individual who allegedly provided a relative’s address in the Asbury Senior Towers to gain priority consideration for a civil service position.
“We have young men in the city who, as college graduates, are working for the department [of public works] in the summertime but they cannot get a full-time job here. What are we going to do about this?” said Duanne Small, an unsuccessful candidate in the 2013 city council election and president of the Asbury Park chapter of the National Action Network.
City Engineer Joe Cunha has had oversight of the engineering and public work’s departments for just over two years. Out of the seven people he has hired within that time, four have Asbury Park addresses listed on their applications, however, the one who listed his mother-in-law’s address in the Senior Towers is currently under review, he said.
“The paramount importance in analyzing a candidate for their performance is their experience and their qualifications,” Cunha said. “I try, whenever possible, to give first priority to Asbury Park residents, but they must be able to meet the job descriptions.”
Small said while he understands the need to hire people in the city who have criminal records, hiring a convicted sex offender is out of bounds.
“I’m all for people rehabilitating themselves but when you reward a sex offender who took the innocence of a 4-year-old girl and is now being compensated at $75,000 – how is that possible? He should be terminated immediately,” he said.
Deputy City Manager Tony Nuccio told the Sun that contrary to public rumor, the victim was not a 4-year-old girl and the individual is a good employee. The misinformation stems from public records identifying the employee as four years older than the victim, he said.
The city was not aware of the individual’s record until months after he was hired. The employee, whose name was not mentioned at the council meeting, was introduced to the city while working as a consultant for a company brought in to help with emergency services at the sewer plant during Hurricane Sandy. City records show the employee was brought on full-time in July of 2013.
Mayor Myra Campbell questioned whether the city conducts background checks on all municipal employees.
Background checks are conducted for all municipal employees, said Nuccio, the scope of which includes a search for active warrants, a criminal history check and a financial background check. A criminal background check was not completed until well after the individual with a record as a sexual offender was hired, he said.
“At that point he had been working with us so long that, even if we had grounds for firing him, we would have possibly had ourselves some legal ramifications,” Nuccio said. The city’s labor attorney concurred, he said.
After a civil service employee is hired they cannot legally be dismissed solely because of a prior criminal record. In this case, the employee did not have to disclose the criminal record because the Asbury Park application asks for criminal history going back seven years, and the employee’s offense occurred outside of the seven year window.
Derrick Grant, vice-president of the Asbury Park chapter of the National Action Network, claims there are myriad issues plaguing the city’s public work’s department, including harassment and bullying of employees, and that his organization will conduct its own investigation.
At the Wednesday meeting, Kelly said he had not received any grievances from any of the city’s unions, had not heard any employee complaints, nor any complaints from the public prior to the meeting.
“There have been occasions with certain employees who, when warned about their work performance or absenteeism, tend to retaliate by alleging harassment,” Cunha said. “It is my opinion the vast majority of the department would tell you otherwise.”
City resident Daniel Harris, an unsuccessful city council candidate that ran on the same ticket as Small in the last election, said the city needed to support the “ban the box” bill, which would remove disclosure of past criminal histories from job applications.
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