This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Health & Fitness

Is Hopatcong Happy with the Performance of the Borough Attorney? Sussex Borough Ousted Theirs

Did you know according to the NJ Herald that Sussex Borough ousted their attorney John Ursin.  Does this name sound familiar to you?  It should, John Ursin is also Hopatcong’s Borough attorney. Sussex Borough ousted him because of conflicting dual roles.

John Ursin is Hopatcong’s Borough attorney and he is also the attorney to Hudson Farm (land trust name for its legal tax entity name IAT Reinsurance Ltd registered in Bermuda) IAT aka Hudson Farm is one of the largest landholders in Hopatcong and John Ursin has represented IAT during Hopatcong’s council voted resolutions in their behalf under their non-tax legal name Hudson Farm.  Hopatcong’s Council has never rejected a resolution request from Hudson Farm as long as John Ursin has been the dual attorney.  And no one on Hopatcong’s council has every questioned this dual relationship as ever being a conflict of interest with his private clients and his Municipal counsel role.   Although, Council Woman Marie Galante was once President of Sussex County League of Municipalities who was educated on Ethics, Codes of Conduct, Conflict of interest and Civility in Government. Apparently, this education can be listed as a wasted expense items on our Hopatcong approved bill list too. We never hear a peep from our Blonde Councilwoman on conflict of interest issues but, she is good with her 5 minute stop watch on open public comments.  Maybe Hopatcong's governing council’s uncontested nature is because they have been misled to think that Ursin’s private client Hudson Farm is a nonprofit organization.  It acquired this good reputation name along with the property they purchased.  Its previous landowners were a NGO - Hudson Guild Farms. Maybe they think having a state tax sheltered QFARM Global Investment Business owning this land is a good thing and haven't done the math on the downside of these deals yet, if they ever do.  The Blonde Council woman with her tax paid League of municipalities' ethic school courses is not going to contest and the Mayor likes attending the same charity parties as our attorney. Don't think the Mayor will give any discouraging words about their big party relationships .   

My I add that John Ursin is on the Board of Directors of Sussex Bancorp & Sussex Bank – think what his counsel might be on this bank’s tax foreclosure properties.  Sussex Borough is thinking about it.    

Find out what's happening in Hopatcong-Spartawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

But the council in Sussex Borough and finally the Mayor conceded that a dual role was something that that they could no longer tolerate in Sussex Borough.  Sussex Borough Councilwoman had the best words Linda Masson argued in the Tuesday Council meeting that borough officials were entitled to have an “attorney who represents Sussex Borough 100 percent without having to worry about incestuous relationships with other entities.”  And so from the news page of NJ Herald: Attorney John Ursin, is already facing an ethics complaint over his dual representation of former Mayor Chris Parrott’s Sussex Inn and Sussex Borough last year, was ousted as borough attorney Tuesday, but not before Mayor Jonathan Rose acted to break a rare 3-3 split on the Borough Council. The action, which will hand off Ursin’s responsibilities to newly appointed Borough Attorney Francis McGovern.  The decision not to reappoint Ursin and replace him with McGovern was supported by council members Linda Masson and Annette Stendor as well as newly elected Councilwoman Georgiana Stoll. A split vote, was broken by Mayor Jonathan Rose ... 

Do you think Hopatcong Council and Mayor will ever make demands like Sussex Borough - that they have an attorney who represents Hopatcong Borough 100 percent free of incestuous relationships with other entities? Or do you think that they think he is providing a wonderful service to Hopatcong?

Find out what's happening in Hopatcong-Spartawith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

Patch Mayors are trusted local users who help moderate the Patch platform by promoting good local stories and flagging unwanted content. To learn more, click here.