Kastning speaks out on investigation report Former Millstone committeeman finds it biased and full of gaps

Kastning speaks out on investigation report
Former Millstone
committeeman finds it biased and full of gaps

Former Millstone Township Committeeman William Kastning thought his day had finally come to speak his mind about a special investigation that questions his integrity as a committeeman and as the committee liaison to the township Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council. He has had to wait almost a year and a half for the results of the special investigation, which he said has affected his life and his reputation.

On Feb. 6, at the Township Committee’s agenda meeting, he was prepared to comment on the investigator’s report after getting the go-ahead from his attorney. The report was available for everybody to read, and he had a prepared statement ready in response.

But the discussion was postponed due to the large crowd, which attended the meeting, and the length of time it would take to listen to all of the speakers. After all, as Mayor Evan Maltz explained, there was other business to attend to, like four ordinances and eight resolutions to vote on, as well as new and old business to discuss.

The committee decided to hold a special meeting sometime in the future at a different, larger location and to invite the investigator, Eric J. Marcy, an attorney with Wilentz Goldman & Spitzer, Woodbridge.

Maltz has stated on a number of occasions that the recently released special investigator’s report, titled "Report on the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council — 2000 Millstone Township," was intended to find out what went wrong during a land negotiation that would have benefited the town, but a great deal of the report deals with the allegations against Kastning by resident Susan Laone.

Deputy Mayor Cory Wingerter said on Monday that he believes "the report reveals poor discretion on the part of the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council and the committee liaison to that council (Kastning)."

"In hindsight, the Township Committee should have been made aware that this property was available to the township for purchase," he said. "We were not. With farmland preservation being so strongly embraced within New Jersey and Millstone Township, the Township Committee needs to instill trust with the taxpayers and landowners that proper procedures are being followed in the acquisition of these properties.

"The report makes suggestions that I will strongly urge the Township Committee to act upon. I would like to put this investigation to rest."

The special investigation was initiated at a Township Committee meeting in September 2000, after Laone made her accusations against Kastning, who was a committeeman at the time. As of Feb. 14, the township investigation had cost the township $14,762.

Kastning said on Friday, that he has a lot of things to say about the 33-page report that he couldn’t say when it first came out. "My attorney told me to hold off until he had read the report. Then he said that it was important that I did speak."

Kastning has hired Arnold Lakind of Quakerbridge to represent him in a defamation suit he has filed against Susan Laone. He called the report biased and said it was designed to get a particular result. "I think the report is only as good as what the committee wants it to be," he said.

He said that the allegations that were brought against him were not substantiated by the report.

"Everything that the county prosecutor did in the way of investigation was done under sworn testimony. Everyone that was accused of wrong doing was read their Miranda rights. That was not the case with the report. How valid is this?"

The Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, at the behest of the committee, investigated the allegations and found that "neither Kastning, nor anyone else involved in this matter committed a criminal act." They closed the investigation in January 2001.

According to Kastning, he knows of interviews that were conducted and facts obtained that are not part of the report. "Who made the decision to exclude this information that I feel is relevant and points a finger at some of the other committeemen?" he asked.

Besides not including interviews that he thinks should have been included, there are people who should have been interviewed and weren’t, he said. "For example, the investigation concerned MOST (Millstone Open Space Trust) and there were conversations that occurred between members of MOST that are relevant information. Why they decided not to interview Steve Lambrose [MOST president] is beyond me. Also, we had a secretary recording at MOST meetings, so why wasn’t that person interviewed?" he continued.

"The investigation seems to be very selective in including information that would have led to a different conclusion, at least regarding MOST," he said.

Kastning said he hopes that those questions will be dealt with at the special meeting. "I feel very badly for the Open Space and MOST people. The way this report was handled has put everyone at risk," he said.

Kastning, who is a strong proponent of land preservation, said that if the township could have worked together with the Open Space and Farmland Preservation Council and MOST, the town would be further along in its land acquisition plans.

"Shame on the Township Committee for purposefully and willingly creating havoc in these organizations," he said.

"This witch hunt, although directed at me, is not good news for residents of our township. Millstone lost 27 acres of land, not due to anything but the leadership for not allowing the open space trust to do its business. This particular land could have been theirs for free, but because of their intervention and by making this a political fiasco, they lost it."

According to Kastning, there was no reason why the negotiations couldn’t have continued, since they were talking to some other contiguous land owners, not just Laone. "We’ll never know what might have come of this if MOST was allowed to continue," he said.