Delran mayor took big contribution

While pushing for an ordinance that would ban township contractors from contributing more than $300 to municipal candidates, the newly elected mayor in Delran appointed a firm whose employees had given his campaign far more.

In one of his first acts as mayor, Ken Paris last week appointed Gregory Valesi of CME Associates - a firm whose employees contributed $5,000 to Paris and his running mates - as township engineer.

In an interview, Paris said he didn't know about the donations, which amounted to the third highest of any contributing firm.

"It really didn't come into play," Paris said. "I felt that CME was one of the most qualified [firms]. . . . If I was so excited about the $5,000 that they donated to my campaign, I could have appointed them on every engineering position."

A week after his election in May, Paris announced he was proposing the "toughest pay-to-play ordinance in Delran's history, sending a clear message that business as usual is over."

After the announcement, he submitted a model ordinance for the township solicitor to review, but the proposal was put on hold until the new elected officials were sworn in, he said. On Wednesday, Paris again broached the pay-to-play ordinance at a work session and said he had submitted a proposal to the new solicitor.

The mayor said he wanted the matter to be put on the agenda within a month, though he was unsure if it would happen because the new council will be busy.

The ordinance, which is all but sure to pass, would allow Delran to join 75 municipalities across the state that have enacted pay-to-play regulations.

Michael Chinnici, a former councilman who lost the mayoral race to Paris, said of the contract: "That's a little hypocritical, wouldn't you say?"

He added: "If you're going to enact it, and that's what you want, well, then, my thought is you should abide by it as you're trying to get it enacted."

CME, which did not contribute to the campaign, was appointed as the township's special projects engineer, and several other planning and zoning engineer appointments are pending.

On March 11, five employees of CME, including Valesi, each wrote $1,000 checks for Paris - then the only Democrat on the council - and his running mates, John Moran and Gary Catrambone, who were vying for seats on council.

Running on a reform agenda, they won all three positions by wide margins on May 13, toppling Republicans' longtime control.

Because Chinnici's term was up, the five-member council last week appointed Thomas Morrow, a Democrat, to his spot.

The council voted to approve Paris' appointments, which the mayor said were also reviewed with the input of residents. CME will receive $125 per hour, the same rate as Pennoni Associates, an engineering firm used by the previous Republican administration.

Valesi, of CME's Howell office, did not respond to requests for comment.

The pay-to-play ban would preclude firms that do business with the township from contributing more than $300 to local political party committees and $500 to county political parties. The township would ban contractors who violate the ordinance from receiving no-bid contracts for four years, according to Paris.

Mark Macey, a Republican councilman, called Paris a "huge hypocrite" but said, "In all honesty, the hypocrisy of Ken appointing these people - it models what [the Republicans] have done in the past."

He said he supported the ban as a way to clean up local politics, calling the amount of money that both sides had spent on the recent election "a pretty good indication of how far astray the political system is in the state of New Jersey."

The election was extraordinary because Republicans spent $113,622.31 - more than twice the amount of their opponents - on a township with fewer than 10,000 registered voters. The Burlington County Republican Committee financed nearly a third of the campaign.

"In one year, I'm going to be evaluating all of [the contractors], and believe me, I don't care who they are, if I'm not satisfied with the work they've done, I will make a recommendation to council to remove them if they have to," Paris said. "Nobody has any favor over the other."

He added: "The ordinance wasn't in effect. When it is in effect, I will abide by whatever we put forth."