“Of the many matters I’ve had to deal with as mayor, none have received [this] attention of the mayor and council, the public or the press,” said Mayor Joseph LaPaglia as one resident stood in the back of the council chambers holding a neon green poster with a single word, “Unethical,” written on it.
For the better part of the month of December, Howley, who serves as the council liaison to the borough’s recreation department and senior center, has defended herself against accusations of improperly using the borough’s membership cards while purchasing goods for personal use. While she never sought reimbursement for those purchases, she may have avoided paying sales tax on some taxable items. The Bergen County Prosecutor’s Office recently conducted a review of Howley’s purchases at Costco, Restaurant Depot, the Christmas Tree Shop and Hillcrest Garden, concluding that “the use of the Borough membership cards by Councilwoman Howley for her personal use was in fact both improper and unethical.”
While the Prosecutor’s Office did not take any action against Howley, it did hand the matter over to the borough to handle as it saw fit. On Monday evening, the mayor and council met in closed session to discuss the matter and, as their first order of business during the regular meeting, also decided to take no action against Howley by a vote of 4-0. Councilman Jeff Hoffman was absent and Howley abstained from the vote.
“I never did anything criminal,” an emotional Howley recited from a prepared statement. “At most, while shopping for the borough I also did some of my own grocery shopping.” She told the governing body and members of the public that she “failed to realize” that not separating her personal purchases from borough purchases would cause any problems and assured her audience that she neither stole from the borough nor intentionally evaded paying taxes. She stated that she has since contacted the New Jersey Division of Taxation and “paid many times over any taxes that might have been due.”
“You cannot imagine the stress this has placed on me and my family,” Howley said, her voice cracking. “It is now time to put this matter behind.”
A handful of community members, including Howley’s daughter, spoke out at the meeting in support of the councilwoman.
“Anybody that knows Joanne knows this was an honest mistake,” said Zandra Filippi, a Clinton Place resident, stressing Howley’s two decades of volunteering in the community. “We could never replace her. This was just politics as usual and I think we should get on with it.”
But not everyone was satisfied with letting Howley off with a written admonishment.
“I would hate to see her step down as she’s done quite a bit [for Woodcliff Lake], but it’s due some major consideration,” said Bernard Kettler, a former borough mayor who ran for election this past November.
Josephine Higgins, Kettler’s running mate and a former councilwoman, was more frank: “I personally think Mrs. Howley should step down from her position.”
Howley was neither removed from office nor did she offer to step down from her position. To avoid this sort of confusion in the future, LaPaglia said, the borough administrator has collected all membership cards and will issue them for use by borough employees, including council members, for approved borough purposes only. LaPaglia added that while the governing body did discuss taking the matter before a board of ethics, the council decided that “this did not rise to the level of the state ethics board.” There are no municipal or county boards of ethics.