Eatontown Attorney Says Confidential Fort Monmouth Matters Should Stay Confidential

By Christopher Sheldon

The view of whether or not information about confidential Fort Monmouth matters should be shared by mayors with their councils appears to be differ in each town in which the fort is located.

Eatontown Borough Attorney Gene Anthony made it clear during Wednesday night's Eatontown Council meeting that confidential Fort Monmouth concerning discussions about negotiations between the Fort Monmouth Economic Revitalization Authority (FMERA) and possible developers for fort property should not be shared by Mayor Gerald Tarantolo with the Eatontown Council.

"It's one thing if it's between us and FMERA," Anthony said. "But we can't negotiate with a contractor or even discuss a contractor that we're not privy to. We can't discuss a contract that's between FMERA and the contractor and we're not a party to it."

"We can only discuss a contract between us and someone we're actually entering into a contract with, and that's important in regards to Fort Monmouth," Anthony continued. "Under their legislation they absolute authority to enter into contracts, they have absolute authority to pick a redeveloper without any participation other than the mayors that are on FMERA without any input from any of the host towns."

Anthony said the only time a host town; either Eatontown, Tinton Falls or Oceanport; gets involved is when the town's planning board reviews a plan.

"Mayor, if you say to the council that FMERA is approaching us about something, like the track, that would be a legitimate thing to go into executive session for," Anthony said. "Based on this analysis, I don't think it's legitimate to go into executive session just to discuss Howard Commons."

Howard Commons is a Fort Monmouth property located within Eatontown's geographical borders that FMERA is looking to develop. The FMERA board recently announced it would enter into exclusive negotiations with Hovnanian to build townhomes on the property.

The track Anthony was speaking about is another piece of Eatontown Fort Monmouth property the borough and the Eatontown Board of Education is looking to acquire to use for recreational activities. Tarantolo recently announced that a private entity was looking to acquire the property and could be willing to share it with the borough and BOE on a "scheduled basis."

This news prompted members of the Eatontown Council to vent their frustrations that the news was not shared sooner with them by Tarantolo.

Eatontown Council President Anthony Talerico has said the mayors of Oceanport and Tinton Falls regularly share Fort Monmouth information with their councils, and that Eatontown should follow their example.

"We've had FMERA publicly say, the chairman and the executive director and deputy attorney general, all say that FMERA has no position....that it's up to the mayors of the town," Talerico said. "It's my opinion that our town should join the other two towns in discussing items when they come up."

"In my opinion I think no person on that board is allowed to disclose anything that discussed in executive session and I think that was bad guidance by the attorney general," Anthony said.

Talerico said many of the matters FMERA discusses aren't done in executive session and that they should not be confidential as a result

"A lot of these items aren't even in FMERA executive session," Talerico said. "I don't remember the last time executive session was held. So my viewpoint is that you're not binding the mayor to confidentiality that hears in executive session, you're binding him from stuff that he is participating in as a member of this committee and I don't think that's the same thing."

Tarantolo said the FMERA Real Estate Committee that reviews and recommends most of the Fort Monmouth land acquisition deals to the board is "very powerful" and talks about things during its meetings that other FMERA board members are "isolated from."

"So if the Real Estate Committee is talking about, for example, Howard Commons, I'm not even privy to what was discussed in that meeting," Tarantolo said. "To say I'm not sharing information, yeah you're absolutely right, because I have nothing to share."

Talerico said he feels Eatontown is going to miss out on information about Fort Monmouth if it is not brought up to speed by the mayor.

"Eventually at some point, we are going to realize that we're missing an opportunity because the council could be engaged as the other towns are engaged and it really is problematic," Talerico said.

Tarantolo said he will continue to share information with the council when he can.

"Where I can give you information, I will certainly give you information," Tarantolo said.