Asbury Park Attorney to Sue State
By ANDREW CANGIANO
Asbury Park attorney Thomas Deseno will be a plaintiff in a lawsuit against the state of New Jersey disputing how Homeland Security Funds were distributed within Monmouth County.
The plan to file the lawsuit was announced at a press conference Wednesday at Municipal Hall in Asbury Park.
Coaster Photos
Pictured at a press conference in Asbury Park were (from left) Neptune Township Committeeman Michael Golub, Assemblymen Steve Corodemus and Sean Kean, Wall Township Committeeman Mary Burne, Asbury Park attorney Thomas DeSeno and Neptune Mayor Thomas Catley. DeSeno (below) is suing the state over homeland security funding.
Local government officials, including 11th district Assemblymen Sean Kean and Steve Corodemus, Asbury Park Deputy Mayor James Bruno, Neptune Township Mayor Thomas Catley and Committeeman Michael Golub, as well as police and firefighters from Asbury Park, pledged their support to the lawsuit.
Kean said the money for homeland security was not distributed based on need, but rather on politics, as districts that are strongly Republican, such as the 11th district, received no money from the state.
The 11th district is made up of shore communities in Monmouth County, including Asbury Park, Neptune Township, Tinton Falls, and Wall Township.
Deseno noted how municipalities that border the Atlantic Ocean need more protection than other areas because they are an entranceway for the people that have bad intentions for us.
We cant protect that strip of land that belongs to Asbury Park and the other towns in this district with our lifeguards, he said. We need more than that. And you would have thought that homeland security money would have gone to shore communities first that have to protect that gateway to the United States of America.
Kean said the lawsuit will provide an injunction to stop Governor Richard Codey, state Attorney General Peter Harvey, and the Department of Environmental Protection agency from continuing to misappropriate funds.
Homeland Security monies have been misappropriated and fraudulently expended in the state, he said. Under Attorney General Harvey and under Governor Codey, monies are being spent based purely on politics, and not based on merit.
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