Am I understanding right that Mr. Getzendanner was trying to get reimbursement for Mr. Osmun's legal bills before they were covered by an insurance contract? How much were the legal bills and what was the date difference? Are we talking a couple days? Or months? How much money are we talking about getting reimbursed for?

PatchQuestion, while answers to your questions would help clarify events, they are not relevant to determination of Mr Getzendanner's culpability. "A little bit of fraud" is "a little bit pregnant".

Asking for $0.01 with a single day date alteration is still fraud.

Backstabbers? That is what others have called the Council, with the exception of Tom, of course. I think the more appropriate term to apply to the actions and behaviors of the Council, expect Tom, would be ‘the gang that could not shoot straight’. A gang they are.

Until Tom is convicted, or pleas guilty, to felony fraud related to the ‘mess’, the City is required to pay the bills, notwithstanding Osmun’s statement to the contrary. In fact Osmun’s statement that ‘city code requires the city to provide defense for any city employee, including an elected official, in legal matters and to pay fines or penalties associated with any judgments or settlements, except when the council decides that person's actions were "actual fraud," "willful misconduct" or "malice," leaves the City open a major lawsuit. That would come about since the Council’s actions themselves in attempting to cover-up the matter would open them to charges of fraud, willful misconduct and malice, especially Vernotico as relates to misconduct and malice. How fair is it for the Council to act as judge and jury in the matter, especially when their hands are not clean?

So, when will the entire Council resign? That is needed so City government can be disinfected and decontaminated. Until that happens the stench, smell and stain of corrupt government will overhang the Council, and our City. Hopefully a strong slate of independent candidates will shortly appear to begin the process.

Who pays the legal bills if an alien lands on city hall, starts shooting his ray gun and the city gets sued for negligence?

There won't be any legal bills here folks--in spite of the best efforts of a certain member of the city council.

That said, if there were legal bills here, the city would be on the hook. Our junior lawyers are throwing the term "fraud" around without its proper definition:

§ 2C:21-4.6. Crime of insurance fraud
a. A person is guilty of the crime of insurance fraud if that person knowingly makes, or causes to be made, a false, fictitious, fraudulent, or misleading statement of material fact in, or omits a material fact from, or causes a material fact to be omitted from, any record, bill, claim or other document, in writing, electronically, orally or in any other form, that a person attempts to submit, submits, causes to be submitted, or attempts to cause to be submitted as part of, in support of or opposition to or in connection with: (1) a claim for payment, reimbursement or other benefit pursuant to an insurance policy, ...

In order to be fraud, there is a prerequisite of a false claim in some form--something lacking here.

I'm missing something here.
Since when did Bret Haire and Gil Owren run the council?
For all this noise and angst, if the people of Summit have not chosen to recall their representative, (and so far there is not even a modest effort underway) I suggest the Council focus on some things we do care about. For all the lawyers running around making their own personal cases a JUDGE has already ruled, at our expense, that it was definitely poor judgement, but the law was not broken. He noted Vernatico was just as guilty of the same crime, doing the wrong thing for the right reason, helping the people of Summit.

Stop wasting our time and money on the parties country club personality problems and spend your time lowering taxes, providing services, reinvigorating our downtown, stoping this heliport and figuring out how to negotiate with the police fire and teachers unions. THAT is worth some time.

One more day and Bill Gates, I agree. Tom's foolish actions have kind of run their course, but some people just can't seem to pull themselves away from the podium spotlight. (Note-its not about you). If Tom's submits a legal bill, deal with it then. But for the time being, focus on the important City issues and whatever happens to TG will happen. If you would like see real corruption, take a look at County Government. Exhibit A- Middlesex County, a mirror image of Union County. 9-0 Dem Freeholders, Sheriff for Life/Dem County Boss taking kickbacks for jobs. SERPRISE SERPRISE SERPRISE as Gomer Pyle would say. Nothing to see in Union County-move along please. I wish some of these folks would expend about 1% of their outrage on the UC folks and then maybe the Western part of the County would get some representation in Elizabeth. But no, we're tying to figure out how to pretzel Getzendenner 10 ways to Sunday for the cat license and crossing the line to try and get the City money. Let the Union County Prosecuter do his job and and figure out if a crime was committed. Until then, the Council has wasted enough of our time and money on this issue.

"...or attempts to cause to be submitted as part of, in support of or opposition to or in connection with: (1) a claim for payment,...

Mr. Ucko, you're missing the "any record, bill, claim or other document, in writing, electronically, orally or in any other form" element that has to be attempted to be submitted. That does not exist.

Furthermore, "attempt" is an "act or omission constituting a substantial step in a course of conduct planned to culminate in his commission of the crime." NJSA § 2C:5-1.

In in New Jersey, Criminal Law is codified. It is not in the code, it is not a crime. Maybe if the Summit Patch lynch mob wishes hard enough, the circumstances here will magically appear as proscriptions in the criminal code.

From the comments here, sounds like our council members need to attend some of the classes our kids are getting in school on bullying. I'm getting the feeling that this is getting blown out of proportion so they can gang up on someone they're not particularly sympatico with. While they all are busy being self-righteous, sounds to me like they're the ones making the bigger mistake from a human standpoint. I hope they see the error of their ways and move on to focus on more relevant issues for Summit.