How a political appointment ensnared Phillipsburg, and how it might move on

Denial of the new mayor's requested legal counsel has drawn political battle lines and spurred questions about campaign contributions.

It's not just about an attorney.

Or is it?

Phillipsburg's new mayor has now twice requested -- and twice been denied -- a change in the town council's legal adviser. In the process, new political battle lines have been drawn and pointed questions asked. The dialogue has invoked the troubled politics of a neighboring municipality as well as a massive, multimillion-dollar redevelopment project.

Phillipsburg Mayor Stephen "Rogie" Ellis, left, said he was surprised when Council President Todd Tersigni, a fellow Democrat, sided against his requested appointment for town attorney. (Lehighvalleylive.com file photos)

The seeds of controversy in Phillipsburg, some councilmen allege, were sown during last year's election, and its roots extend to campaign contributions for Lopatcong Township's council race. The selection of a council president was a catalyst, and the mayor's request to appoint a new legal firm was the tipping point.

While it appeared post-election that the five-member town council would be divided along party lines, it is now new members versus the old. There are accusations of a resistance to change approved by voters, and counter-claims that such a change would be unnecessarily disruptive.

The potential for compromise could provide a way out, they say. But how or when that could be realized remains to be seen.

Here's how it started:

The election and the council president

Democrats took control of council following the last election, in which Mayor Stephen "Rogie" Ellis and Councilmen Joshua Davis and Mark Lutz swept the three open positions for the party, ousting four-term Republican Mayor Harry Wyant Jr.

The new elected officials joined Democrat Todd Tersigni behind the dais, but have made no secret about their displeasure Tersigni campaigned for the Republicans last year.

And while Tersigni publicly led the charge to make sure Ellis was paid a comparable salary to the departing mayor, he ruffled his new colleagues when they say he reneged on an agreed-upon selection for the council presidency - the position to which Tersigni was named.

An agreement reached before the Jan. 1 reorganization would have given the new Democrats authority on the council over the next two years, according to Councilman Lutz.

"A handshake to Todd Tersigni does not mean anything," said Lutz, who under the agreement would have taken the presidency. Tersigni would have been named vice president, and taken the higher title next year with Davis as vice president, Lutz said.

Lutz also blames Tersigni for holding up Ellis' attorney nomination. The council president gets to set each meeting's agenda.

"It all revolves around Todd Tersigni. One day he says yes, the next day he says no," Lutz said. "I don't think he's voting his own way."

When asked for comment, Tersigni would only say: "We need to move forward and get down to business for the residents of Phillipsburg."

Councilmen Bernie Fey Jr. and Randy Piazza did not return calls for comment.

A new attorney

Since their election, Ellis and the new Democrats have maintained that voters chose change for Phillipsburg.

That's why the mayor said he is frustrated by the "obstructionist" council majority - Tersigni, Fey and Piazza - twice blocking his choice for town attorney.

"It's just not what I expected. I expected more cooperation," at least from the ranking Democrat, Ellis said.

Phillipsburg councilman: Party chairman 'bullied' me for vote

The mayor twice this month nominated Arlene Quinones Perez of the Teaneck, New Jersey-based law firm of DeCotiis, FitzPatrick & Cole to guide the town in legal matters.

The firm has a big role in New Jersey politics. Among its clients are the New Jersey Attorney General's Office and the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, along with some 200 municipalities, Perez said at Phillipsburg's council meeting last week. The firm's name appears in finance reports for Democratic candidates around the state. Two managing partners -- and Perez herself -- were ranked by PolitickerNJ among the state's most influential people in 2015. The ranking notes Perez chairs the Hunterdon County Democratic Committee, is the attorney for Perth Amboy and is close to some of the state's major party figures.

Ellis has said he was introduced to the firm at a New Jersey League of Municipalities convention and interviewed four others, as well.

Tersigni has said he voted against the firm's appointment, in part because he felt pressured to do so.

In a 700-word Facebook post dated Jan. 8, the council president said Warren County Democratic Committee Chairman Tom Palmieri threatened not to support him in future elections if Tersigni didn't support the mayor's attorney appointment.

Palmieri, in response, admitted the conversation got heated "but it wasn't that bad."

"I think what Todd is doing is galvanizing the real Democrats," Palmieri said. "Because Todd is no Democrat. Todd is out for himself."

Tersigni's Facebook post also cited as retaliation bumper stickers that say "Todd lies" posted on his property and railed against the influence of outsider politics.

Councilman Davis has called the complaint hypocritical.

Campaign contributions

Davis last Tuesday asked that council reconsider the attorney's appointment. The vote again failed, 3-2, meaning that the council's current attorney - Richard Wenner, of the Hackettstown-based firm Lavery, Selvaggi, Abromitis & Cohen - was retained.

Phillipsburg Councilman Joshua Davis (Campaign photo)

But the new mayor and councilmen have questioned why the majority - and especially Tersigni - want to keep them.

"I'm getting to the point that I'm a little bit suspicious why they're so obsessed with this one attorney," Ellis said. "This is getting a little bit carried away."

At the meeting, Davis invoked the politics of neighboring Lopatcong Township, where he said "nasty grams" against Mayor Tom McKay and others were mailed during the election. They were funded, Davis said, by the Republican-supporting Leadership PAC for Better Government, which had received funding from the Lavery law firm.

"Council President Tersigni was so vociferous in his plea on Facebook about these bumper stickers ... if he's going to continue supporting (the current law firm), I think he's supporting those kinds of politics," Davis said.

The firm did not return a call for comment. Campaign finance reports show it donated $2,400 in the third quarter of 2015, when the PAC paid $1,060 for postage and $600 toward the campaigns of the eventual Republican victors in Lopatcong's council race.

Robert Larsen, the chairman of the Warren County-based PAC, said there is nothing improper about the donations or mailers: "If some candidate is unhappy with the content, then maybe that candidate should stop being an ass."

"I take donations from lots of different sources and residents," Larsen said. "But ultimately I support the candidates I believe in."

Also on the list of donors that quarter was Opus Investments, the Commerce Park redeveloper.

Redevelopment's role

Opus principal Erin Murphy said its $1,250 donation was made in error, without understanding that it was going to a political group. Finance reports show it was refunded within days, a decision both she and Larsen said was mutual.

Opus, based in Medford, New Jersey, has proposed taking the nearly 400-acre Commerce Park site -- which straddles the border between Phillipsburg and Lopatcong, and includes the former Ingersoll Rand property -- and building more than 4 million square feet of warehouse space, along with the supporting infrastructure.

The development is projected to bring some 3,000 jobs and $3.7 billion to the region over the next decade. And it has become tangential in Phillipsburg's new politics.

Financial gains projected in Commerce Park redevelopment

Beside the political donation question, Tersigni has maintained that changing town attorneys could hurt the project.

But Murphy said that is not the case. And it would certainly have less impact than political posturing, which she said could make potential tenants "very nervous."

"That's really the biggest threat to us for right now," Murphy said. "Towns change attorneys all the time."

Both Ellis and Lutz have said they want a fresh set of legal eyes to analyze the town's agreement with Opus.

Answers to lingering questions about remaking Commerce Park

The DeCotiis firm was previously involved in the project, both supporters and opponents on the council have noted. Ellis said the firm helped Phillipsburg buy a portion of the Commerce Park property from the previous redeveloper - a portion that Opus is buying from the town for $2.5 million.

As for the rest of the property, Murphy said the timing of Phillipsburg's latest political battle is concerning. Opus plans to close on $10 million worth of land Jan. 29, she said.

"I would like for our group to be taken seriously instead of people playing political games," Murphy said.

Moving forward

This is not the first time Phillipsburg has gotten political, and it certainly won't be the last.

Phillipsburg Councilman Mark Lutz (Courtesy photo)

Lutz, who has served on council before, said former Mayor Gloria Decker had a difficult time getting an attorney appointed when she took office in the 1990s, a process that took months.

Ellis said this episode at the start of his term is a challenge, and looked at it through the lens of his high school wrestling days.

It's "no different than when I was a kid representing Phillipsburg High School," he said. "I'm going to defend the town to the best of my ability."

There could be a possibility for a compromise: Perhaps keeping the current attorney on as a consultant on the redevelopment project, while his chosen firm takes the other town business, the mayor said.

The new council Democrats expressed hope that the current divide will be resolved and the divisions buried.

"It does work. We can work with anybody," Lutz said, noting a recent walk around town with Piazza to discuss blighted properties. "I think it's a rough patch right now."

Davis agreed: "Hopefully this is a one-time disagreement that we'll resolve quickly and amicably and be able to move on with the business of the town."

Ellis said he will not give up on the attorney appointment.

But, the mayor said, "I would want nothing more than to move forward."

That is something on which both he and Tersigni can appear to agree.

Steve Novak may be reached at snovak@lehighvalleylive.com. Follow him on Twitter @type2supernovak. Find lehighvalleylive.com on Facebook.