Corruption concerns creep into Monmouth County races
Shades of scandals past haunt longshot challengers to Monmouth County officials
Monmouth County - Longshot challengers Ron Osadacz and Katie Kelliher have formed a unique alliance in their longshot quest to take out Monmouth Commissioner Tom Arnone and Nick DiRocco. Osadacz and Kelliher — the former, an Aberdeen cop who splits his time as a cigar shop operator and a mid-level manager for a title company; the latter, a real estate agent with Coldwell Banker — have begun relying on disgraced former Keyport Mayor and convicted felon John Merla to secure their victory on Election Day.
Questions abound concerning their alliance, chief among those being: do they know who Merla is?
Merla has been trying to stage a political comeback, but not to much avail given his criminal past. Then U.S. Attorney Chris Christie nailed Merla as part of the corruption investigation Operation Bid Rig for extorting cash payments in exchange for agreeing to exercise official action and influence as mayor in the award of no-bid contracts in 2007.
Per court documents, from September 2003 until November 2004, former Mayor Merla “accepted a series of corrupt cash payments…. In return for the cash payments, defendant Merla agreed, among other things, to steer to [cooperating witness] contracts for public work in Keyport, to attempt to use his official influence to secure work for [cooperating witness] from private companies in Keyport, and to introduce [cooperating witness] to other influential public officials in Monmouth County who were similarly in a position to help [cooperating witness] secure public contracts.”
Merla has become the face of Osadacz and Kelliher’s bid for county commissioner, going so far as knocking on doors for them, serving on a board of rebel republicans alongside them, and hosting their kickoff fundraiser at Keyport’s Town and Country Inn. The risk of Merla-style corruption is high with Osadacz and Kelliher. Osadacz would collect two taxpayer-funded salaries and could still have his other two jobs. Would Osadacz, like Merla, steer his judgment towards his own interests such as his cigar business and its partners, or even developers looking for title companies like his — perhaps even realtors like Kelliher, who could potentially lend favorability to realtor buddies of his and Kelliher’s?
After all, Kelliher who now mixes her politics with her dayjob did shoot a video with Osadacz highlighting his title company, and that’s not even the most concerning factor about Kelliher’s candidacy.
Kelliher’s husband, William, an investigator with the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office had a role in busting Merla-style corruption. Anthony Giordano of Freehold was indicted in 2021 for stealing approximately $1-million from at five victims through fraudulent stock purchases and promissory notes during a three year period between July of 2015 and April of 2018. Instead, he used the money for personal expenses such as travel, entertainment, gas, dry cleaning, a gym membership, meals restaurants, and monthly car payments.
Kelliher’s husband was the lead investigator into Giordano’s crimes which are similar to Merla’s. Further, Kelliher would not only have discretion over her husband’s agency’s budget, but perhaps who they would investigate. All of these factors eventually funnel down to a question for Kelliher and Osadacz, and their colleagues in their respective professions: do reasonable, good people hang out with felons?
Monmouth voters are the ones who will answer that on June 10th.
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