Concern growing that Montclair town council will reinstate township manager

The Montclair town council might be planning to reinstate township manager Timothy Stafford, who was put on paid leave in October following a lawsuit against him alleging abuse and retaliation for whistle-blowing activities by township CFO Padmaja Rao, according to several reports.

The local nonprofit Montclair Gateway to Aging in Place sent out an alert late last week urging its members to attend Tuesday night’s town council meeting, where “Tim Stafford’s future may be discussed.”

And councilor Peter Yacobellis said on Friday that he’d heard from several people in the township that the council was preparing to reinstate Stafford.

In October, at a packed town council meeting which saw dozens of members of the public holding signs and speaking passionately about the need for Stafford’s immediate removal, the council voted to put him on paid leave.

Two weeks later, a second lawsuit was filed against Stafford and the town by the town’s acting municipal clerk, Juliet Lee. In January, two sworn statements were filed by former females employees Celia Trembulak, former program coordinator for the health department and Katie York, former director of senior services. All allege that Stafford created a hostile workplace and aimed his abuse at women.

And there was more documentation of harassment by Stafford. It came out in late October that Rao had filed a complaint against him in April with town’s affirmative action officer Bruce Morgan. In August, Morgan found that Rao’s complaint was warranted, and that Stafford’s behavior toward her was “aggressive, threatening, intimidating and abusive.” The report was never made public nor shared with all council members.

Mayor Sean Spiller has also been implicated in Rao’s allegations. In late January, Rao filed a motion to amend her complaint; among the new allegations is that Mayor Spiller approached council members several times “to discuss building a file of examples that could be used to pursue disciplinary action against Ms. Rao,” possibly in retaliation for filing the complaint with Morgan.

In response to Rao’s suit, the council has hired a law firm to investigate Rao’s allegations, and a human resources firm, Culturupt, to look into the workplace climate. The legal investigation may have been completed but the results have not been shared with the council yet, according to Yacobellis.

Concern that the council is poised to reinstate Stafford first came at the Jan. 24 council meeting, when Spiller made a reference to “when the town manager returns.”

The town has also filed a motion to dismiss Rao’s complaint. In it, the attorneys argue that Stafford’s abuse did not break any laws, and Rao has suffered no “adverse employment action” as she is still employed by the township.

That motion is set to be heard in March.

If a council vote were to be taken now on terminating Stafford’s contract, it seems it would fail. Their October vote to put Stafford on paid leave passed 5-1. Bob Russo was the lone dissenting vote; Yacobellis recused himself.

Council members react

Only Russo and Yacobellis have responded to a request for comment on Stafford’ status with statements; David Cummings said he couldn’t comment on “personnel matters.”

In his answer to the question of whether Stafford should be removed, Russo referred to a council meeting in September where he called for Stafford’s removal. “I have observed for many years the czar-like abuse of power caused by this system of municipal government. It is time for a change,” he said.

Yacobellis said, “I feel a responsibility to speak up for the four women, despite receiving legal counsel to remain silent to 'minimize legal liability exposure.'

“The behaviors they describe Mr. Stafford displaying at our town hall are unacceptable,” he said. He called it “disgraceful” that when Stafford attorney Patrick Toscano called Rao “underperforming and disgruntled, our government stayed silent.

“Why are they sticking up for one employee and not another?” he said in an interview Saturday. “He should resign or be removed.”

Toscano has also threatened to sue Yacobellis for statements the council member made supporting Rao and calling for Stafford’s ouster.

Yacobellis said that contrary to Toscano’s comments, ” Rao is considered “one of the best CFOs in the state, and has “integrity and poise.” Councilor David Cummings has also publicly praised her work.

It is unclear why the council would reinstate Stafford rather than force him to resign or vote to remove him. That question, put to Spiller Monday, was not answered. At the October meeting in which Stafford was put on leave, Spiller said, “We have an obligation to the process.”

Montclair’s council operates under the Faulkner Act, which gives the town manager more power than the mayor or council members, yet the manager is appointed by a vote of the council and and can be removed by a vote.

Even putting the lawsuits aside, Stafford’s long reign – he’s the second-longest serving town manager in Montclair history – has not been without incident. Last year he incurred the wrath of the public for the closing of two of three town pools for construction during the summer months, not communicating it to residents, and then initially refusing to reimburse them for their memberships. He was also assailed by business owners for a lack of communication about a failed inspection that caused a new parking deck to remain closed for nearly a year beyond its anticipated opening.

At a town council meeting last year, several owners of businesses near the parking deck confronted Stafford. One sounded near tears, saying Stafford hadn’t responded to numerous entreaties to discuss the parking an delivery problems that were killing his business.

The fear of a wrongful termination lawsuit by Stafford doesn’t justify keeping him on the payroll, said Yacobellis. Among the legitimate reasons for firing him, Yacobellis said, is because he’s “not a culture fit for Montclair, not to mention the incredible list of management screw-ups over the last two years. If he wants to sue us for wrongful termination, let the chips fall where they may. He’s costing us money either way.”

Stafford's resume

Interestingly, in Stafford’s previous job as manager of Fair Lawn, he was let go after only a year on the job. A January, 2012 newspaper article gave no explanation other than that a prior administrator, who was “a better manager,” would replace him.

Stafford was appointed interim manager in Montclair in 2014 by Mayor Robert Jackson but wasn’t appointed manager until six years later, when Spiller became mayor. Though his exact salary is not known, the maximum salary for the position is $216,000.

When he was hired, town civil rights commissioner Joe Kavesh said, “We are concerned about the process that led to his hiring, and whether affirmative action policies were fully complied with,” according to news reports.

Prior to his job in Fair Lawn, Stafford was vice president for legal and community affairs for the Trump Organization.

Before that, from 2004 to 2008, Stafford was Rutherford’s borough administrator and the developer of EnCap Golf Holdings, a project to build golf courses and homes on landfills in Rutherford, Lyndhurst and North Arlington. The month Stafford left to join the Trump Organization, Trump agreed to manage the Encap project. Officials there said his appointment with Trump had no connection to his work with Encap in Rutherford.

Stafford’s missteps

Another of Stafford’s missteps as manager was his role in allowing the town’s fire chief to re-write the fire department promotional exam taken by his son, said resident Eileen Birmingham, who has researched several issues involving the town and Stafford.

In 2021, two Black Montclair firefighters sued the town for discrimination after the chief’s son received the highest grade on the exam, in which key rubrics such as seniority and discipline were changed by his father.

“For me, the fact that Stafford went ahead and let the chief administer the test to his son and reportedly misled the human resources official that the chief had recused himself, is just ridiculous,” Birmingham said.

Of all Stafford’s possible missteps as manager, the most painful may have been losing beloved senior services director Katie York last year, according to Ann Lippel, president of Montclair Gateway to Aging in Place. York, who had a Ph.D in Gerontology, “had competence and leadership skills that were unrivaled in her field," Lippel said.

“Our town manager’s toxic behavior was a major factor in causing Katie York to leave,” she said. “I know of a number of encounters when he was unpleasant at best and abusive at worst with Katie. She tried her very best to be rational and when that didn’t work… she started looking for a new job.”

York has yet to be replaced, and senior leadership say that their needs are being ignored by the town.

Yacobellis said that even more women have left the township’s employ than the four who have filed legal documents, and it has taken a toll on the functioning of the township. “Most of the good women have left," he said, rattling off the names Katie, Juliet, Sharon, Margaret, Celia. "We don’t have the right staff. It’s scary. Middle management is stressed and sad.“

On Wednesday evening, he sent an email to his constituents saying, “the behaviors that four women describe Mr. Stafford displaying at our Town Hall are unacceptable and do not reflect who we are as a people. We need to be led by our values and our convictions and not by fear of lawsuits.”

This article originally appeared on NorthJersey.com: Montclair NJ township manager could be reinstated