Local NJ Repukes Averse to "Ethics"

[rusty charly]

During the campaign for Township Council in 2003, Republican candidates said a local ethics commission is needed to investigate accusations of unethical conduct. Democrats, who then held a majority on the council, accused their rivals of political posturing.

http://www.app.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060827/NEWS02/608270425/1070

Yet in the nearly three years since the Republicans assumed control of the council, the committee has not been formed.

Council President Tony Matthews, who has directed the council's plans to form a commission to determine what is and what is not ethical, said that Melanie Donahue, an attorney in Ocean County Republican Chairman George Gilmore's firm, is currently researching what the council can and cannot regulate regarding ethics. By September, Matthews said, he expects to present the council with a proposed ordinance. And, by the first of next year, Matthews said he expects the ethics committee to be operational.

The amount of time that has passed between when the Republicans first mentioned the need for an ethics committee and its imminent creation now has some people asking what has taken so long.