County employees and campaigns
By Tina Renna | December 5, 2008When you push for someone’s silence via a lawsuit, you had better have nothing to hide. When you sue someone that gives that person the opportunity to conduct discovery. Depositions give the person you’re suing a chance to have their attorneys question you under oath.
A libel lawsuit was thrown out recently; it was filed by the county spokesperson Sebastian D’Elia, he is the public information officer for the Union County Freeholders. The suit was against me, Patricia Quattrocchi and the Elizabeth Reporter. Although being involved in a lawsuit is unpleasant, the upside was I could ask all about D’Elia’s involvement with freeholder campaigns and D’Elia didn’t disappoint. He confirmed my suspicions and admitted to working on campaigns during work hours.
County employees can be seen all over on Election Day, on the campaign trail when freeholders give interviews to the press and at campaign debates. They can also be found on ELEC reports getting paid for campaign work.
I’ve compared the Union County Public Information department to other county’s and found that Union is spending the most, some counties do without this department. I’ve counted up Union County press releases churned out by this department, which they consider public information, and found that the lions share in any particular year features the three freeholders that are up for re-election.
During a deposition the county spokesperson admitted to working on campaigns during work hours.
The county spokesperson verbally communicates his intentions to take time off, including vacation days, personal days and comp time to the county manager. He doesn’t submit a form, nor did he mention email. The process is all verbal. The county manager is George Devanney, former State Democratic Chairman and Senator Raymond Lesniak’s nephew.
An OPRA request in 2005 seeking the county spokesperson’s days off came with a disclaimer from the clerk “this record may contain errors or omissions”. When I questioned this, I received a letter from county council which stated in part “there appear to be duplicative and/or incorrect entries in the attendance records of Sebastian D’Elia (missing data)”. Therefore there is no accountability of when D’Elia is on campaign time or taxpayer time.
The county spokesperson admitted to a wide variety of campaign activities including prepping freeholders for their debates. “I’ve distributed flyers. I’ve stuffed envelops I’ve made phone calls. I’ve got out the vote, knocked on doors.”
The county spokesperson stated that he does not use his county issued computer to work on partisan political campaign materials, he uses his personal laptop, which he brings into the office in the Union County Administration Building. He stated he doesn’t use his laptop inside the building. When asked “What would be the reason you would bring your laptop to the office?” He replied “I – well, I always carry my laptop around with me, in case I have to leave the office and do – do work, you know, someplace else. I don’t have a county laptop, so I can use that laptop in case I need to have something around during emergency.”
The county spokesperson also admitted to writing for campaigns, although he didn’t have a copy of what he described as a letter where he “Just talked about some of the accomplishments the Board did. That was it.”
In 2005 a letter tailored to each town was mailed to all residents, it talked about some of the accomplishments the Board did. The letter was printed in the County print shop and was mailed using county postage.
When asked who instructed him on where to go on one Election Day he replied in part “I asked Charlotte DeFilippo where she needed me.” Charlotte DeFilippo is the Chairman of the Union County Democratic Committee
D’Elia’s present annual salary is $107,135. The county manager outlined a justification for a promotion in 2005.
Previously posted:
Chronicle of Harassment