According to Niche, Montclair is one of the best places to live in all of New Jersey. Yet a series of politically questionable decisions by Mayor Sean Spiller has residents angry and frustrated. Montclair Local describes the “tempest” surrounding Town Council that has “sent it spiraling into disorder. Public displays of contempt” against Spiller and other Council members are commonplace,  tapping into a “sense among many in the community that their  municipal government lacked transparency and was fostering a toxic workplace.”

Mayor Sean Spiller also happens to be the president of the New Jersey Education Association and is busily setting himself up as Gov. Phil Murphy’s successor, with union leaders helping fund a new 501(c)(4) nonprofit, “Protecting our Democracy” as well as another PAC Politico describes as “Spiller’s equivalent of New Direction New Jersey,” a well-known NJEA-backed, Murphy-affiliated dark money group.  Will the moral morass that appears to be the new Montclair weigh down his political ascent?

First let’s look at recent events that have residents shouting, “Resign, Spiller!”

Tim Stafford has been Town Manager since 2014. His post was “interim” until Spiller became Mayor in 2020 and made him permanent. Over the last several years, according to  discrimination lawsuits filed by township’s chief financial officer Padmaja Rao and former Town Council clerk Juliet Lee, Stafford has created a hostile working environment for women. In her suit, Rao describes a string of episodes where Stafford bellowed at her with such “’ferocity’ that she became ‘fearful of facing or communicating with him.’” Two other women, along with Lee, corroborated her descriptions.

 Affirmative Action Office Bruce Morgan led an investigation that confirmed a hostile work environment.

Spiller then started, according to Rao,  “a retaliatory investigation…to create a derogatory record of her job performance and conduct, which could be used to undermine Rao in her work and potentially terminate her employment.” One Council member, Peter Yacobellis, says a woman who works at Town Hall described the workplace environment as “Trumpian.” He also said Spiller had approached Council members to collaborate with him on building a case against Rao without telling them about Morgan’s conclusion of a toxic workplace. “I find it really hard to believe he didn’t know about it” Yacobellis told Baristanet.  “Unfortunately the Mayor hasn’t been willing to make a change in leadership and equally unfortunate — not enough of my colleagues have been willing to go against the mayor.”

It all came to a head last Friday when the Montclair Town Council voted to fire Stafford. Notably, Spiller was absent from the meeting. 

It’s unclear how closely Spiller covered up Stafford’s behavior; indeed, it’s unclear if he did at all. Yet, according to North Jersey, “for some residents at [Friday’s] meeting, the blame lies with Spiller, whose ‘strong support of Stafford and his incompetence and poor judgment, whether out of fear or collusion, is nonetheless telling.’”

Rao also says Spiller signed off on an “illegally awarded contract” to a high-powered law firm run by former state senator and current Port Authority chairman Kevin O’Toole to investigate Black fire fighters’ complaints about racism and nepotism. She says she warned him that Council members weren’t eligible for health care coverage, advice she says he ignored. (Council members no longer get health coverage.)  

“Mr. Spiller, I know you’re gonna take cover behind lawsuits and say you can’t answer these questions,” township resident Deirdre Birmingham said at a meeting. “By the way, this town has never had so many active legal cases. You broke this town. Fix it. Fix it.”

Stafford had demanded a payment of $1.5 million in his own lawsuit against Town Council for firing him, although he said he’d accept $500K and his job back. On Friday, without Spiller present, the Council fired him without any payment, although he’s been on paid leave since October.

Micah Rasmussen, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University, weighed in on whether Montclair’s hostility towards Spiller  and his tarnished track record there would affect his run for governor in 2025. It’s not each issue Spiller’s involved with, he told NJ Spotlight, but “the cumulative effect of multiple issues that could be a problem for Spiller’s ambitions.”

 “If I were the [mayor’s] adviser,” Rasmussen added, “I would say you’ve got to have answers on all of these.”

If Spiller’s absence Friday is any indication, those answers won’t be forthcoming.