As the broken campaign team of Freeholders Thornton and Hayes begins to unfold, Hayes sets off being perhaps the only Cape May County freeholder in history to be sanctioned. A rather unflattering achievement.
Hayes was censured by Director Jerry Thornton and the Freeholder Board for retaliating against a female employee. She received a second censure by Thornton and her colleagues for severe nepotism. Hayes admits guilt, but says Thornton’s nepotism and conflicts are worse.
Adding to Hayes’s charges, Thornton is running from another storm cloud. Recently, an appellate court reinstated a whistleblower lawsuit brought by the county’s former purchasing agent. The lawsuit claims that Thornton retaliated against the county official for objecting to improper activities in awarding political contracts by his family members.
While Thornton and Hayes are calling for state investigations into each other scandals, county Republicans are in a tailspin over the tumultuous blowup. Lines are being cast and fingers being pointed at which freeholder is to blame for this contentious conflict. Wagers are being made on which one will survive.
Fortunately, county voters have two mainstream candidates with independent voices and unblemished records running for freeholder. Liz Casey and Joyce Gould will stop the abuses, compensate and promote employees on merit, and hire the most qualified individuals for county positions. Casey and Gould are the people’s choice in cleaning up county government and putting it back to work.
Paid for by Casey and Gould for Freeholder 2700 Pacific Ave., Wildwood.
www.caseyandgould.com.
Cape May – Last week I witnessed a woman helping a man who seemed to be having difficulty getting up in the water. the next thing I saw was she also was injured. My Uber ride was there to take me to the…
