WILDWOOD, N.J. — In Jersey, you never know what you’ll get.
Two of Wildwood’s three commissioners are under indictment on charges of fraudulently receiving state health benefits, including Mayor Pete Byron, who also pleaded guilty in federal court to tax fraud in March and is awaiting sentencing.
Byron and Commissioner Steve Mikulski are refusing to resign. Mikulski oversees public safety, and the city’s police chief won’t report to him since his indictment, according to a city official, because were he a police officer under indictment, he’d have been suspended without pay.
At the council meeting on Wednesday, Byron presided quietly, residents filled the chambers, rumors swirled, and a dozen people spoke passionately about the mayor.
“It’s just awkward obviously when you have two of your three commissioners under indictment, and one under a different prosecution,” acknowledged Steve O’Connor, the city’s administrator.
But there was a plot twist.
The residents were there not to bury Mayor Pete Byron, 67, a Democrat, but to praise him. And they even crossed political aisles to do so (as difficult as that was).
“I’m not a Democrat, about the farthest thing from it,” said Mark Tallarida, addressing the room and the mayor, who he recalled had helped him with an in issue involving his son.
“I’ll be honest with you. I never thought in my wildest dreams I would help ... it’s not Democrat or Republican,” he said. “If you’re a good person, you’re a good person. I asked him for help, and he helped me. And I hope that somebody will help him.”
Byron ran on a reform ticket in 2020, ousting former Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr., an oft-quoted Republican, who is also now under indictment in the health benefits fraud while he was mayor and Byron was a commissioner. Byron was famously banned from Wildwood’s Trump rally in 2020 after complaining about the lack of reimbursement to the town.
Now Byron, dressed Wednesday in a pastel suit and Wildwood-y paisley shirt, befitting the mayor of this reliably dramatic Shore town, has found himself in a situation not unlike Trump, who is seeking a return to office while under indictment.
O’Connor, the city administrator, said city officials have been researching whether a state law mandating forfeiture of public office for a conviction of any offense that involves dishonesty or any offense relating to the defendant’s office means that Byron needs to resign.
For now, for the federal charges, they believe the mandate to resign, and a possible ban against holding future office, would not kick in until he is sentenced in August. Byron faces a maximum sentence of three years in prison on each of two counts, and a maximum fine of $250,000.
Byron, Mikulski, and Troiano have all pleaded not guilty in state court to submitting false records in order to qualify for state health benefits.
New Jersey prosecutors allege that Byron, Mikulski, and Troiano each fudged their timecards for years to make it look as though they were full-time employees in order to collect taxpayer-funded health care.
That indictment accuses the three men of official misconduct, filing false information, and tampering with public records. Lawyers for all three have contended that a 2011 Wildwood resolution declared them full-time employees and eligible for the health program.
Between July 2011 and December 2019, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office, Wildwood and the state paid more than $286,500 in premiums and claims on behalf of Troiano and more than $608,900 in premiums and claims on behalf of Byron.
For much of that time, beginning in 2013, the Wildwood administrator was Christopher Fox, the mayor of West Wildwood, who was fired in 2019 by Troiano and Byron after becoming embroiled in ethical issues in his home city.
Elected in 2020, Mikulski accrued about $103,000 in premiums and claims through October 2021.
Troiano might have been grandfathered into the state plan, as has his mayoral counterpart in Wildwood, Patrick Rosenello. But although he was first elected mayor before a new law restricted enrollment in state health benefits to full-time employees, a 2009 recall vote interrupted his service and bounced him out of eligibility.
‘You just showed up’
From the dais, underneath the Wildwood sign Wednesday night, an unseasonably warm day outside that drew people to a chilly ocean, Byron looked on with gratitude.
The work had been done, new salary levels had been approved (though not for themselves). The boardwalk reconstruction was nearing Phase 3. Art would return to the city’s parks.
Byron said later he had not expected the outpouring, but the opposite — for residents to come demanding he resign.
Instead, one by one, people described him as a man committed to improving Wildwood, who showed up at events such as a community baby shower, helped with community projects, reached out to the city’s Black and Latino communities, the business owners, and someone who made the town a safer, cleaner, better place. for
“I’m not going to fail them,” he said. “I’m not going anywhere. We have a mission. The more good things you do, the more of a target you become.”
Lataysha Matos, a salon owner who runs a children’s nonprofit, praised Byron for consistently showing up at her events and for his work on the multimillion-dollar improvement project for the Byrne Community Center.
“You just showed up,” Matos said. “I’m grateful that I have someone to talk to.”
“You’ve been very good to the veterans,” said Spyros Spyropoulos, another resident. “Any talk of you resigning should be put out of your mind.”
Jonathan Delgado said that the city had become a markedly better place under Byron’s leadership, and that he also appreciated his contributions to weekly church services as an adult altar person.
Two owners of competing bicycle rental businesses joined together to show their support.
It was a scene at odds with the flurry of criminal documents aimed the official’s way, or with the images of the three elected officials turning down plea offers and pleading not guilty March 17.
Wildwood had tried to account for the new law by passing a law of its own declaring their elected officials full time. But the law requires a fixed 35-hour schedule, not just the “working all the time” ethos of a small-town mayor and commission.
But the question remains: Does state law require that Byron resign?
Matthew Reilly, a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney’s Office of New Jersey, deflected the question to local officials, saying, “We would have nothing to do with what is a state/local matter.”
Daniel Prochilo, a spokesperson for the state Attorney General’s Office, which brought the charges in Cape May County, cited the state law about forfeiting elected office but did not address the specifics of the cases.
For Byron, the meeting only increased his resolve to stay on, he said, though neither he nor Mikulski would commit to running for reelection. Their terms expire in November.
“We’ve got more permits in new construction this year than we’ve had for generations,” he said. “There’s a real confidence in this administration.”
Commissioner and Deputy Mayor Krista Fitzsimons, who was elected as a team with Byron and Mikulski in 2020 but is not caught up in any of these legal troubles, said she was definitely running for reelection.
She has two new running mates, but said the current board remained focused.
“However that ends, it ends,” she said. “But we’re committed together as a team still. We’re super-focused on getting the work done. We have too many projects, too many good projects.”
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(Inquirer staff writer Oona Goodin-Smith contributed to this article.)
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