Clark residents continue to call for mayor to resign over racist and sexist remarks

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Clark residents on Monday night continued to condemn Mayor Sal Bonaccorso and the Township Council after revelations that secret recordings captured the mayor and police leaders using racial slurs.

In the council’s latest move since the recordings became public, members hired an outside law firm, La Corte, Bundy, Varady & Kinsella, to handle the increase in public records requests the township has received since the scandal broke.

Clark Township Attorney Mark Dugan said the law firm will oversee Clark’s OPRAs “to make sure we disseminate proper information.” Bonaccorso cast the records requests as typical in election years, when he said political opponents are looking for dirt on one another.

“So a lot of them are fishing expeditions that ultimately costs the New Jersey taxpayers money,” Bonaccorso claimed.

A month ago, NJ Advance Media published audio clips in which Bonaccorso, Police Chief Pedro Matos and internal affairs Sgt. Joseph Teston referred to Black people as “spooks,” “shines” and the N-word. Bonaccorso also excoriated women in law enforcement, calling them “all [expletive] disasters.”

The news organization also revealed details of a 2020 settlement that sought to conceal those recordings, which were made by a police whistleblower, Lt. Antonio Manata. Under the pact, the township quietly agreed to pay $400,000 to Manata and his attorney, and to keep Manata on the payroll for more than two years without working until he could retire.

In exchange, Manata turned over the recordings and agreed not to file a lawsuit that would have brought them into the public eye.

Read the original investigation: NJ town paid $400K+ to conceal alleged racist slurs by mayor, police chief

About 15 residents attended the council’s second formal meeting since the controversy broke. Those who spoke continued to demand Bonaccorso’s resignation and expressed disappointment in the council’s involvement in the settlement that covered up Manata’s recordings.

Anthony Cortazzo, 56, who has been a Clark resident for 12 years, said there can’t be redemption for the town without accountability.

“Nobody wants to take the blame for anything. Nobody wants to say, ‘Yeah I did it.’” Cortazzo said.

Bonaccorso initially denied to NJ Advance Media that he and others used racist language and called it “offensive” to suggest otherwise. But after the recordings were published, Bonaccorso publicly apologized, though the six-term Republican has resisted widespread calls for him to step down.

Amid that, a long-stalled investigation by prosecutors continues, though the Attorney General’s Office seized control of it from the Union County Prosecutor’s Office following NJ Advance Media’s reporting.

Prosecutors took over the township’s police department in July 2020, citing “credible allegations of misconduct” among its leadership but offering no details. Chief Matos and Sgt. Teston have been on paid administrative leave in the 21 months since, as has a police captain, Vincent Concina, whom Manata accused of retaliation. None have publicly commented.

Michael Shulman, attorney and resident Clark, said the council’s silence will not make the scandal go away, and that the residents have had enough.

“I’m glad there has been reporting, that is what journalism is for, to expose the cancer that has been metastasizing in this town for as long as it has,” Shulman said.

“A tiger can not change its stripes, and the mayor has shown in over 20 years of public service and I’m sure many years before that as a private citizen, he’s a bigot,” Shulman said. “He is a 21st century George Wallace trying to turn this town into his own Jim Crow, and we’re sick of it.”

Daniel Fuchs, 37, who is a two-year resident, said that he can’t trust the council with his taxpayer dollars, and he also condemned members for their silence.

“You can identify a wrong and call it out,” Fuchs urged. “That would go a long way.”

Bonaccorso said the township has been transparent in terms of posting its meetings’ agendas and minutes on the township’s website, and that he is going to wait before he says more regarding the ongoing scandal.

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Vashti Harris may be reached at [email protected].

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