EAST ORANGE — Two of the four local water commissioners resigned at the end of the mayor's week-long deadline on Friday.
However, all four who were asked to leave by Mayor Lester Taylor III deny the "gross mismanagement" he alleged in the June 13 demand for resignations. The board chair has since tendered his resignation in protest, saying Taylor was only using strong-arm tactics for political ends.
Taylor said the water commission was negligent in the agency's finances and handling of the aging infrastructure — and he asked four of the five commissioners to resign. If they did not comply by the June 20 deadline, Taylor threatened to have them removed "for cause."
Roger R. Rucks and R. Greg Ward resigned on Friday, a city spokeswoman said.
Darryl C. Walls, and Khalid Wright said by letter that they respectfully declined to resign, according to letters forwarded to The Star-Ledger.
Walls and Wright did not respond to a request for comment since messages were left on June 13. But Rucks responded last week in a letter accusing the mayor’s administration of fostering an impending “culture of corruption” – saying that he and the rest of the board refused to approve a no-bid, $1.2 million contract earlier this year that the mayor was supporting.
"Simply put, the mayor wants commissioners in place who will vote yes," Rucks said in a statement earlier this week. "The mayor is attempting to create the illusion that there is a crisis that would condone corruption."
Taylor confirmed he had reappointed Rucks earlier this year, after taking political office for the first time in his career. However, he vehemently denied the Rucks accusations.
"At no time did I request anyone to do anything unethical," the mayor said. "My only request of the commission was that they find a qualified leader or management firm. But they did absolutely nothing until June 4. How long should the residents of the city wait?"
The infrastructure, neglected for more than a decade, is "irreparable without immediate action," the mayor said last week.
Wright said in his letter to the mayor dated June 20 that one additional well had been turned on in recent days — meaning East Orange would have to buy less of its water from the city of Newark.
"Mayor, if at any time I had personally done anything to harm or endanger the residents of this city, my family, or the city.... you would not have to ask for my resignation, as I would remove myself from the board immediately," Wright said.
Taylor said the extent of the water system’s disrepair came to light in the wake of a criminal investigation. Harry Mansmann, the commission's executive director, and William Mowell, the assistant executive director, were indicted in February 2013 on charges of conspiring to hide elevated levels of tetrachloroethylene in the drinking water.
The state Attorney General's Office allege the two were trying to save money by not paying for clean water from elsewhere or installing millions of dollars in equipment to remove the industrial solvent, which can cause cancer at high concentrations over an extended period of time, according to the federal government.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said the approximately 80,000 water customers in East Orange and South Orange were not exposed at high enough concentrations to cause any health problems.
Mansmann has since died, but the charges against Mowell are pending, said Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for the Attorney General's Office.
The state environmental agency fined the commission $400,000 the month after the indictment was announced, and is requiring monthly inspections of raw and treated water, said Bob Considine, a DEP spokesman, adding that an engineered solution has not yet been reached. The commission had an interim director who resigned in April, the mayor said.
"They have not had anyone running the day-to-day operation," Taylor said. "Since taking office, I've made it very clear that my administration will operate with a high sense of accountability."
The DEP's latest water investigation showed that several of the 18 artesian wells in eastern Morris and western Essex counties still show high levels of volatile organic compounds, inorganics, radon and disinfection by-products.
The city currently produces just over 50 percent of what residents and businesses need. As a result, the mayor said the city has been buying millions of gallons of clean water regularly from neighboring communities, including about 4 million gallons a day from Newark.
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