Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Ethics Panel: Asbury Park Housing Authority Lawyer Should be Censured

Kevin Wigenton, the attorney to the Asbury Park Housing Authority, itself currently under investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, may be censured as recommended by the State Ethics Panel, according to a July 11, 2011 report by the New Jersey Law Journal. The panel apparently rejected a special master's call for a four-month suspension for "his admitted misappropriation of client trust funds," the Journal said.
Wigenton, of Red Bank, is the husband of U.S. District Judge Susan Wigenton.
APHA has been in the news due to revelations about its budgets and questionable expenditures. (See Asbury Radio's post with the audit of APHA's finances on this site.)
Contacted this afternoon, interim executive director William Reid, who replaced Mark Holmes after the former executive director abruptly resigned shortly after financial records were requested by a new commissioner, confirmed that Wigenton is the Authority's attorney, but said he was unware of the Ethics Panel recommendation that Wigenton be censured.
Reid said he would make Ken Foster, chair of the APHA Commissioners, aware of the matter when he returned from an out of town trip. He said the commissioners would likely make "a determination" in the matter at their next scheduled meeting Monday, at 4 pm at Robinson Towers, in the City. 

1 comment:

Chris said...

Thanks for keeping us informed of this Maureen. The Asbury Park Press doesn't seem to have an interest of telling us about how poorly our government is run.