Asbury Park Press
March 8, 2005
By Andrea Alexander
MIDDLETOWN -- Committeeman Raymond O'Grady sat stone-faced Monday night as a resident asked him to step down during his first appearance at a Township Committee meeting following his arrest on corruption charges two weeks ago.
"With a touch of sadness, I think it is responsible of me and others in town to ask Mr. O'Grady to please step down from the Township Committee," said Joseph Mc-Grath, 49, a former committeeman from the North Middletown section.
"Your actions are inexcusable, and they have definitely cast a black shadow over the entire form of government in Middletown Township," McGrath said. "You have an obligation to step down and allow the Township Committee to replace you and restore that trust."
O'Grady, 55, did not respond to McGrath's comments during the meeting, the governing body's monthly workshop. When asked after the meeting if he wanted to respond, O'Grady said "no comment."
The committeeman was one of 11 officials in Monmouth County arrested by the FBI Feb. 22 in the culmination of a bribery sting. O'Grady, who was also director of the Monmouth County central motor pool, was charged with extorting $6,000 in bribes.
The four other members of the Township Committee issued a statement the day after O'Grady's arrest calling for him to step down because they believed he had lost the confidence of the public.
"He needs to consider what is good for him and what is good for the town," Mayor Thomas G. Hall said after the meeting Monday.
Won't seek re-election
O'Grady had been at odds with the all-Republican committee over the last few years for his support of the $150 million town center proposed on Route 35.
He has rebuffed calls by the committee for his resignation, but has said he will not seek re-election after serving nearly 15 years on the committee. His terms expires Dec. 31.
West Long Branch Mayor Paul Zambrano on Friday became the first municipal official arrested in the sting to resign.
O'Grady receives an annual stipend of $4,000 from the township for his service on the committee, according to township public information officer Cindy Herrschaft. He also continues to receive health insurance coverage that includes medical, prescription and dental benefits, she said.
He was suspended from his $84,094-a-year job with the county following his arrest.
Belford developments
O'Grady was also a major supporter of plans to build a commercial and residential development adjacent to the Belford Fishing Co-operative.
He voted Dec. 26, 1989, to create a marine commercial zone in Belford, three days before he stepped down from the committee. He was re-elected again in 1994 and voted years later, on Jan. 22, 2002, in favor of a zoning ordinance that made it possible for K. Hovnanian Enterprises Inc. to move forward with plans to build The Dunes at Shoal Harbor. It's a complex of 123 condominiums on 23 acres along Port Monmouth Road, separate from the commercial development.
The zoning change was adopted unanimously by the committee.
Two years later, in April 2004, O'Grady bought one of the new condominiums for $427,000 and took out a mortgage for $382,455, according to county records. He owns the condominium in addition to the house he lives in on Park Avenue that he bought in 1994 for $185,000. He took out a $148,000 mortgage on the Park Avenue house.
O'Grady said Monday that the condominium in Port Monmouth is up for sale and that he obtained the property following a raffle. When asked if buying the condominium was a conflict, considering his support for the project, O'Grady again said he had no comment.
