Montclair Progressive or Corrupt

At his January 4, 2024 deposition, Spiller was asked “You have a full-time job right now as the president of the New Jersey Education Association since September 2021”, and famously responded, “Upon the advice of counsel, I assert my Fifth Amendment privilege and respectfully decline to answer your question”.

Hostile Workplace Environment Complaint

The hostile workplace environment complaint (“Rao case” ESX-L-006129-22) filed in October 2022 by the Chief Financial Officer, Padmaja Rao (“CFO”), puts Spiller’s criminal behavior in the spotlight.

The complaint focuses on the misuse of taxpayer funds to pay for Montclair Town Council members’ health insurance (State Health Benefits Fraud), the O’Toole Scrivo, contract (Montclair Fire Department Promotional Exam), and the Montclair Fire Department Tie Records Fraud (Fire Department Staff Paid to Take Others’ Shifts), the CFO’s efforts to enforce the law, and the increasingly explosive hostility the CFO endured from the Township Manager, Timothy Stafford, in response.

As in the Montclair Firefighters discrimination complaint, (Montclair Fire Department Promotional Exam) Bruce Morgan, Township Affirmative Action Officer (“AAO”) performed an investigation and found that the former Township manager, Timothy Stafford (“Stafford”), had created a hostile work environment for the CFO.  What Spiller does next is consistent with the emerging pattern of his retaliatory behavior, when he hires Lindabury McCormick Estabrook & Cooper (“Lindabury”) to perform an independent employment practices investigation without public bidding for an amount not-to-exceed $10,000. When the investigation exceeded the cap by 100%, not one of Spiller’s council colleagues questioned the overage.

After every interview of a current or former employee of the Township of Montclair, the Lindabury, attorney, Kathleen Connolly (“Connolly”), emailed or phoned the Township attorney, Paul Burr (“Burr”). Before and after every interview with Stafford, Connolly emails and phones both Burr and Stafford’s attorney, Patrick Toscano.  After Connolly drafts the investigative report and executive summary, there are multiple requests from Burr for revisions and multiple emails and calls from Burr to Connolly to interview more witnesses. After Connolly drafts the supplemental investigative report there are multiple emails and calls from Burr for revisions.  No other attorneys from Lindabury reviewed or commented on any of the deliverables despite there being thirty-six (36) other attorneys on staff at the law firm.  The investigative process was obstructed by Burr to discredit the internal investigation performed by the AAO in a brazen attempt to discredit the claims made in the Hostile Workplace Environment Complaint.

The Township’s defense attorneys, Hatfield Schwartz, persistently obstructed discovery throughout the duration of the case, falsely asserting that the AAO and the Lindabury report were not accessible due to the Cyber Attack reported on June 1, 2023. (Cyber Attack)

The Township’s defense attorney fees were paid by Garden State Municipal Joint Insurance Fund and totaled nearly $500,000.  When the Rao case was hastily settled on the eve of the Montclair 2024 town council election for $1.25 million, the taxpayers were left holding the bag for $1 million, the price of the plaintiff’s attorney fees. The taxpayers received no value in exchange for the $1 million payment – the cost of persecuting the municipality’s Chief Financial Officer, who filed the lawsuit to protect the community from fraud and corruption.