Sussex County GOP to sponsor recall petition of commissioner Bill Hayden

NEWTON - The chairman of the Sussex County Republican Party told the county's Board of Commissioners the party will be leading a "recall petition drive" to oust board member Bill Hayden from office.

Joseph Labarbera appeared before the commissioners during Wednesday's meeting and called Hayden "a fraud" and said he and the party would work with any Democrat effort to get the recall petition process going.

"This man has no credibility," Labarbera said, adding: "We are going to fix this mess we brought into this county."

Hayden, serving his first term which ends Dec. 31, 2025, was censured earlier this year by his fellow Republican board members, who cited four causes.

The cause which has drawn the most attention are the allegations Hayden has bragged about being a Navy SEAL - an elite team which does undercover and behind-the-lines military actions - and even telling some people he was wounded in action.

Labarbera earlier has said the party asked for research to be done through the military personnel center and produced a letter which said there is no record of Hayden ever serving.

Several other people also spoke against Hayden at the meeting and Kenneth Collins, kicked out of the board's last meeting over a T-shirt with an obscene saying, reappeared, sitting in the second row of the audience.

Collins also spoke to the board - getting a "nice shirt" comment from a previous speaker - and made sure that Hayden, who sits on the left side of the dais, saw him.

Asked on Thursday why she didn't eject Collins from Wednesday's meeting as she had the earlier session, Commissioner Director Jill Space said, "there were no children present this meeting." At the March 13 meeting, Collins also sat in the second row, next to two girls, ages 9 and 6.

Newton resident Kathy Brennan spoke directly to Hayden during her turn at the microphone. "Nothing has been said. No apology. No offer to resign.

"You are lying about his military service; certainly not a patriot," she continued. "(You) owe everyone an apology if not a resignation."

Hayden attended Wednesday's meeting but did not address the allegations.

Under the state constitution, a recall election can only be initiated by a voter petition signed by at least 25% of the registered voters of, in this case, the entire county since commissioners are all elected at-large. The county, as of the last election, had just over 109,000 registered voters.

Among the causes for the censure are Hayden's allegations of money being missing from the county's food pantry operation. The program, run entirely by volunteers, is a collection point for donations, providing food to other food pantries in the county, as well as a small number of it's own clients.

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For years, a private donor has provided the food pantry with a debit/credit card for ShopRite to order food. The food is delivered to the pantry with copies of the invoices sent to the donor.

A political blogger has reinforced Hayden's charges that there is money missing from the food pantry account and that blogger has posted what he claims are "invoices" of shipments. The allegation is that the some of the food also gets shipped to a private home in New York State.

However, the only proof offered is that the same truck which delivers to the county facility, also makes other home deliveries, including to a house in Monticello, New York, which is connected to the same donor who provides the debit card to the county.

During the meeting, Space asked board attorney Doug Steinhardt if he had any contact, or had heard about anyone being contacted, by legal authorities investigating the county's food pantry. He said "no."

Hayden has also not specified any police agency, such as NJ State Police or the state Attorney General, to which he has filed a complaint.

Hayden has filed a "notice of tort claim," a preliminary action to a formal lawsuit, against 11 people, including his fellow commissioners and party leaders, over his allegations of "malicious, inattentional, willful and reckless conduct" that led up to the board's censure.

Among those censure items is his lack of attendance at the board's twice-a-month meetings. Not counting Wednesday's meeting, Hayden had been absent from four of the past six meetings.

At Wednesday's meeting, Hayden voted "no" to a resolution supporting a bill pending in the state Assembly and proposed by Assemblyman Michael Inganamort (one of the defendants in Hayden's tort claim). The bill would give a county board of commissioners power to unseat a member for excessive absences, similar to the power already given to local school boards.

County budget

Also at Wednesday's meeting, the board held a public hearing on the county's 2024 budget of nearly $102.5 million. With nobody speaking, the board unanimously approved the spending package with one amendment.

The amendments shift the county prosecutor's salary from a county-only expense to show that the state will reimburse the county for the prosecutor's $104,107 salary.

This article originally appeared on New Jersey Herald: Sussex County GOP to sponsor recall petition of commissioner