A New Jersey town official was punished for resisting proposals he argued would illegally profile Jewish and Hispanic residents, according to a lawsuit filed earlier this month.
Matthew Howard, former deputy township manager of Howell Township, alleges in the suit that he was retaliated against for push back against the township’s “abuse of governmental power” that sought to “weaponize housing regulations to punish individuals based on their ethnicity, immigration status, and/or perceived national origin.”
The suit, filed September 5 in New Jersey Superior Court, claims that Mayor John Leggio and Councilman Ian Nadel proposed requiring proof of citizenship or legal residency to obtain housing documents, and suggested the “racially charged” enforcement strategy of monitoring residents’ trash for bottles from Modelo, a Mexican brand, as a “proxy for undocumented residents.”
The alleged anti-Hispanic animus cropped up in other situations, the complaint alleges, including a request by Nadel to use Hispanic-sounding last names to search for potentially illegal rentals.
Elsewhere, in 2024, Nadel sought to have code enforcement employees get overtime pay to stake out an address overnight the official believed was “owned by Jews,” according to the suit, and home to a Jewish Sabbath gathering, in case visitors stayed at the premises overnight.
New Jersey town officials wanted to use Mexican beer bottles in trash to screen for undocumented renters, retaliation lawsuit claims (Copyright 2023 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.)
Howard responded that gathering there was the residents’ “constitutional right” and refused the “blatantly unlawful directive,” the suit claims, warning that a nearby township had recently been found to be violating the law with similar enforcement actions.
Retaliation against Howard included officials looking into his personnel file and publicly discussing his salary without notice, and a social media post from Leggio and Nadel that the official claimed tied him to a local murder in June.
Following the killing, the officials allegedly wrote online that they were “completely disgusted with certain Township officials that allowed this situation to happen.” A suspect was later arrested and charged with the killing.
Town officials also sought to use Jewish Sabbath service as pretext for eviction, suit claims (Getty Images/iStockphoto)
That month, Howard submitted a tort claiming unlawful retaliation, while another town official, former township manager Joseph Clark, resigned, later submitting a lawsuit of his own.
After these complaints, town officials allegedly plotted to replace Clark with the town clerk Diane Festino, bypassing town ordinances that would’ve seen Howard fill in instead.
The Independent has contacted the officials named in the suit for comment.
