POINT PLEASANT BEACH — The borough council approved a motion at its April 16 meeting to go forward with seeking legal advice on amending borough code regarding disciplinary actions for current elected officials involved in “ethical violations.”
While she was not present at Tuesday’s council meeting, discussion of an incident involving Council President Rosa Crowley altercation with neighbor Jason Kaplan on Feb. 27 dominated the meeting’s discussions. During the dispute, which was captured on video by Mr. Kaplan, Ms. Crowley appeared to call her neighbor a “Jew” in both English and Spanish. An investigation by the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office later determined it was a “bias incident.”
During his transparency report at the meeting, Councilman Michael Ramos made a motion to seek advice regarding the council’s recourse for current council members accused of misconduct or bias incidents. He predicated the motion on the fact that council members Arlene Testa, Caryn Byrnes and Art Gant voted not to censure Council President Crowley for the incident.
“I, first of all, want to address last month’s council meeting, and the lack of action, in my opinion, that was taken by this council to address Councilwoman Crowley’s behavior with her neighbor resulting in antisemitic insults in two languages that were recorded and investigated by both our police department and the prosecutor’s office, who found this to be a bias incident. This type of behavior cannot be allowed to flourish and exist without ramifications,” he said, noting council members Testa, Byrnes and Gant voted not to censure her.
They also voted not to remove her as council president or remove her from her committee assignments for the incident, motions that, if passed, would have only been symbolic as state law and borough code prevent such an action.
“To me,” Mr. Ramos said, “the message that was clearly delivered to our residents — as well as people from all over the state — is that antisemitism is allowed to flourish and exist in Point Pleasant Beach. All one has to do is simply deny, deny, deny and tell people that the police and prosecutor simply got it all wrong, then have your majority cover your back.”
Mr. Ramos then made a motion for the council to “engage our borough attorney or outside counsel to review and revise our current code regarding the disciplinary actions for current elected officials for gross misconduct or actions resulting in ethical violations and/or bias incidents.”
The motion passed in a 5-0 vote. Ms. Crowley was not present. Borough Attorney Michael Collins said he would likely seek special counsel for the review.
During her committee reports following the vote, Councilwoman Testa read a faith-based statement in support of Council President Crowley.
“As your councilwoman, I am committed to supporting a positive community that values and respects all religions,” she said. “As a believer of Jesus Christ my lord and savior, I am opposed to any form of antisemitism. As a community, we need to walk in love and respect one another; that is what I try to do every day. Again, none of us are perfect — we’re all sinners — let everybody throw a stone at someone who hasn’t said or done something.”
“I firmly believe that the councilwoman is not an antisemite,” said Ms. Testa. “She’s genuine and she’s a Christian…I do not believe that she’s an antisemite, and I stand by that; and I’m a Christian. I work in Lakewood. Some of my best friends are Jewish people.”
Councilwoman Byrnes echoed Councilwoman Testa’s sentiment.
“It would behoove none of us to be on the side of bigotry up here. Rosa, in all the years I’ve known her, has never displayed any bigotry toward anybody in town. She’s been a Christian woman,” said Ms. Byrnes, who also claimed that many people “think that (video) was altered, and it didn’t go down the way it was.”
Additionally, later in the meeting, the council unanimously passed a resolution on the consent agenda approving a purchase order in the amount of $1,500 to StandWithUs Center for Combating Antisemitism for “governing body training;” the training is not mandatory.
“Since Councilwoman Crowley’s incident, I’ve been contacted by several organizations asking how they could help me and the borough of Point Pleasant Beach. I spent a lot of time researching and talking to these organizations and I found the training program from StandWithUs to be the most beneficial to the governing body,” said Mayor Doug Vitale of the training.
“They have extensive experience providing training to corporations and elected officials throughout the U.S.,” he said. “This training will examine who the Jewish people are, their connection to the land of Israel and various forms of antisemitism. The goal of the program is to provide a greater understanding of Jewish identity and attacks against that identity for the purpose of ensuring protection not only for the Jewish community, but for society as a whole.”
In a message to The Ocean Star Thursday morning, Ms. Crowley said that she supports the training, and would like for it to also include antibullying and antiracism training, among other topics.
“I encourage the council to attend the antisemitism training. However, I propose said training to also include anti-bullying, anti-discrimination, anti-harassment and anti-racism. I propose the same training for all borough employees,” said the council president. She further confirmed that she will attend the training.
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