March 19, 2017

To the City of New Brunswick Ethics Board:

Please consider this AMENDED COMPLAINT of repeated violations of the Local Government
Ethics Law (LGEL) and the Citys Code of Ethics on the part of Leonard T. Bier.

I hereby swear and affirm that the following statements are true:

1. Continuously since at least 2008, Leonard T. Bier has served as General Legal Counsel
to the New Brunswick Parking Authority (NBPA), and as such, is required to file a
financial disclosure statement (FDS) annually under the LGEL.
2. According to the LGEL, Mr. Bier must disclose all prior-year sources of income in excess
of $2,000, including his pension income, on his FDS.
3. Since 2008, Mr. Bier has collected an annual pension from the State of New Jersey in the
amount of $106,611.
4. Mr. Bier repeatedly failed to disclose this pension as a source of income on his certified
financial disclosure statements filed each year between 2008 and 2015.
5. On March 3, 2015, I published an article (Hub City Ethics, Part 5: Parking King Fails to
Report $106K Pension) documenting these repeated violations of the law in the online
edition of a community newspaper, New Brunswick Today. [SEE EXHIBIT A]
6. In a letter to this board dated March 4, 2015, Mr. Bier advised the Ethic Board of the
above referenced omissions, and accepted full responsibility for the failure to list [his]
NJ PERS pension in the statements [he] filed from 2008 to 2015. [SEE EXHIBIT B]
7. In the letter, Mr. Bier acknowledged that he was obligated to disclose [his] PERS pension
as a Source of Income, and accepted the jurisdiction of the City of New Brunswick
Ethics Board as well as the boards right to access a penalty or sanction for [his] failure
to disclose my PERS pension income.
8. In the letter, Mr. Bier pledged to this board that he would amend his previous filings for as
many years as the Financial Disclosure online filing system allows
9. According to the Local Finance Boards online FDS filing system, there is no record of Mr.
Bier amending any of his prior disclosure statements, as of today. [SEE EXHIBITS C, D]
10. Mr. Biers 2016 FDS, filed on April 4, 2016, includes the following items listed as new
sources of income that did not appear on his 2015 FDS form [SEE EXHIBIT E]:
a. Office rental income (144 Livingston Avenue, New Brunswick, NJ 08901)
b. Rental income condominium (7501 E. Treasures Drive Unit 5P, North Bay Village,
FL 33141)
c. Interest Income, Cheap Eats LLC (1482 Main Street, Rahway, NJ 07065)
d. Interest Income, Yellowbrook Properties, LLC (247 Bridge Ave; Suite 5, Red Bank,
NJ 07701)
11. According to property records from Miami-Dade County, Florida, Mr. Bier purchased the
condominium at 7501 E. Treasures Drive in 2006. Mr. Bier never disclosed any related
income from this property until 2016.
12. As far back as December 3, 2014, an organization called Downtown New Jersey has
listed 144 Livingston Ave. as its primary business address in emails sent to the public.
Mr. Bier first disclosed rental income from this property in 2016. [SEE EXHIBIT F]
13. Mr. Bier is and has been the owner of a company called Bier Associates, and a
building at 144 Livingston Avenue in New Brunswick.
14. For several years, Timothy Haahs & Associates has used and continues to use
144 Livingston as an official address for business purposes. [SEE EXHIBIT G]
15. Timothy Haahs & Associates received $39,019.74 in NBPA funds during 2015,
according to the authoritys public vendor list. [SEE EXHIBIT H]
16. While chairing the NBPAs annual reorganization meeting on January 28, 2016, Mr.
Bier took official action to benefit himself in violation of the LGEL.
17. As documented in Exhibit A, Mr. Bier chaired the NBPA Boards annual
reorganization meeting and participated in the decision to pass
resolutions that would hire him, and another that hired his company.
18. In addition to presiding over his own hiring as general counsel, Mr. Bier also ran
the meeting while both Bier Associates and Timothy Haahs & Associates were
chosen as parking consultants to be hired by the NBPA.
19. Im going to go through the reorganization resolutions so we can do this as a
consent agenda, explained Bier, effectively deciding to group about a dozen
resolutions, including the ones hiring himself and his company, together into one
single, swift up or down vote of the five-member NBPA board.
20. The consent agenda was unanimously adopted without mention of Biers
connection to either company. When it came to the resolution hiring parking
consultants, Bier declared: Weve appointed three: Tim Haahs & Associates,
Level G, and Bier Associates.
21. At the February 24, 2016 NBPA Board meeting, Chairman Kevin McTernan
defended the decision to have Mr. Bier chair those portions of the meeting,
saying it was the boards practice to have Mr. Bier chair the entire
reorganization, including the hiring of himself and his company.
22. At the same meeting, I proposed the NBPA Board should change their practice,
suggesting it should work like this: As soon as the chair is selected, the chair
takes over the meeting, rather than have the attorney continue to run it.
23. NBPA Commissioner Louis Garlatti challenged my suggestion, saying, Well
defer to Roberts Rules, confirming that the Board deem[ed] it proper that Mr.
Bier was involved in his own hiring. We do deem it appropriate because its
been our practice to do that for the years that Ive been a member here.
24. At their January 22, 2017 reorganization meeting, the NBPA Board changed its
practice, without acknowledging any deviation from precedent. Mr. Bier chaired
elections for the board officers, but did not chair the remainder of the meeting
where he was hired, along with Bier Associates and Timothy Haas & Associates.
25. In another departure from the previous practice, Mr. Garlatti recused himself
from the vote on Mr. Biers hiring at the 2017 reorganization,, citing that they are
doing some legal work in a private matter together.
As a result of these facts, it would be wise to use your subpoena power to require the
testimony and/or production of documents from the following individuals or businesses:
1. Leonard T. Bier, Esq.
2. Cheap Eats LLC
3. Yellowbrook Properties, LLC
4. Downtown New Jersey
5. Timothy Haas & Associates
6. Kevin McTernan
7. Louis Garlatti

Please do not hesitate to contact me if I can be helpful. Thanks for your time and consideration.

Sincerely,

Charles Kratovil