Mayor Gorman v. Gloucester City: The Legal Squabble That Began With a $42 MVV Has Ended

By Bill Cleary

 

A four year legal battle between the City of Gloucester City and former Mayor Robert Gorman has concluded. Mayor and City Council were informed at the July 17^th caucus meeting that a decision ruling against Gorman was decided by the NJ Government Records Council (GRC) at their June meeting.

 

The documents involve with the case number 100 pages or more. As for the cost to taxpayers in legal fees over the four year period it is not known. Frank Robertson, Gloucester City Financial Officer said on Monday (July 28^th ), \”it would take a long time to research all the bills for the past 48 months to find how much was spent by the City on this particular legal case\”.

 

Normally the City would have been represented by Paul Kain, City Administrator, who is the custodian of public records. However, because he is related to Gorman, his sister is married to Kain; the City was represented by former Solicitor James Maley, of the Parker McCay Law Firm.

In 2004 Gorman was stopped by Officer William Johnson for a traffic violation. His tag light was out. Gorman felt he was being harassed by the police department. At the time the Chief of Police was William Johnson, father of Officer Johnson, and the Deputy Chief was William James. The fine on the ticket was $42 with no points which Gorman paid. The same year Gorman, who is the son of the late Assemblyman Gorman, resigned as Mayor and moved to Morristown.

Wednesday, July 30th Gorman via Email wrote,

• Bill, The request for the tape related to my attempts to get emergency response vehicles in non-emergent cases to slow down and also to clarify the city\’s pursuit policies. While Mayor numerous citizens complained about their speed and numerous articles were written in the Gloucester City News. At the time, I figured the easiest way to make a point about their speed was to get a copy of a video tape from one of the vehicles. Thus, I requested a copy of such both as a Mayor and as a private citizen. I was denied such in both roles and decided to put in an OPRA request similar to the Gloucester City News recent actions relating to a specific e-mail.

• As I said then and I will say again, police officers and firefighters risk their lives every day for the citizens and this is in no way an attempt to put into question their heroic actions.

After reading the transcript several times this reporter was unable to find any reference by Gorman to obtain a copy of the video tape for the reasons he stated above. Gorman was asked to provide that page or pages in the transcript that refer to that issue. As of this writing nothing has been submitted by the former mayor.

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