Former Ocean City school board member feels vindicated, but wanted sanctions
OCEAN CITY — A second ethics complaint filed against former Ocean City Board of Education member Robin Shaffer was dismissed April 30 by the New Jersey School Ethics Commission.
Shaffer believes the complaint was a factor in his narrowly losing a bid for re-election to the school board last November. He said he does not plan to run again.
Upper Township resident Christine Stanford had filed a lengthy complaint against Shaffer when he served on the school board, alleging ethics violations for actions as administrator of the OCNJ School Discussion Facebook page. On one count, she alleged he violated NJSA 18A:12-24.1(g) when he approved false information about the school district. On the second count, Stanford alleged he violated NJSA 18A:12-24.1(f) by posting partisan political articles and statements that reflected the views of special interest groups to which he belonged without using a disclaimer.
In its findings, the School Ethics Commission found there were “insufficient facts and circumstances presented” to lead a “reasonable person to believe” the statutes were violated.
In response, Shaffer had asked the commission to find the complaint frivolous and impose sanctions, but the commission would not, saying there was no evidence the complaint was filed in bad faith “or solely for the purpose of harassment, delay, or malicious injury.”
Shaffer told the Sentinel last week that although he was glad the commission dismissed Stanford’s complaint, he wished it had imposed sanctions. The decision, Docket. No.: C64-23, was signed by School Ethics Commission Chairman Robert W. Bender and commission Director Brigid C. Martens.
“Though the decision offers some level of redemption, it is frustrating that the ethics commission did not go further in issuing sanctions to Christine Stanford, the individual who filed the complaint,” Shaffer said. “It is my understanding that the ethics commission is averse to granting sanctions relief. Even so, an unbiased observer could see this was a politically fueled case, one that disrupted my service as a school board member and interfered with my 2023 campaign for re-election … .”
He called Stanford’s ethics charge “meritless” and said it came after an “equally wasteful ethics charge” by Longport’s non-voting school board member Carl Tripician.
Tripician had filed a complaint — also dismissed by the commission — about comments Shaffer made in a May 17, 2023 article in the Sentinel about former superintendent Dr. Matthew Friedman without a disclaimer that he was speaking for himself as an individual and not the board.
“As they held in the Tripician dismissal, the ethics commission affirmed that board members don’t forfeit their First Amendment rights during their time in office,” Shaffer said. “Free speech is a bedrock principle of our republic.
“In weaponizing the school ethics commission, Mr. Tripician and Ms. Stanford took great pains to silence and sabotage my tenure as a board member. I fear that, by not issuing penalties, the commission’s decision will not stop people … from abusing the system for their own benefit in the future.”
Shaffer was elected to a one-year unexpired term in November 2022, running on a slate with two other candidates, Liz Nicoletti and Catherine Panico, all endorsed by conservative group Moms for Liberty.
In the November 2023 election, Shaffer finished with 1,450 votes, which put him in fourth place behind Michael Allegretto (2,082 votes), Jocelyn Palaganas (1,782) and Corey Niemiec (1,492). The top three won terms.
“How many votes were changed based on lies and innuendo spread through these cases is an open question,” Shaffer said, blaming Stanford “and her allies” for costing the district thousands of dollars in legal fees.
Asked if he would run again for a seat on the Ocean City Board of Education, Shaffer responded, “As president of Protect Our Coast New Jersey, I would be precluded from seeking office because it is a 501c3 nonprofit. Our fight against offshore and coastal industrial development is critical to the future of OCNJ and the Jersey shore. I certainly appreciate the trust and support of the voters who put me in office previously. I will endeavor to find other ways to help improve our schools — including administering the OCNJ School Discussion Facebook site.”
Background
Stanford is among a large group of critics who oppose Shaffer, Panico and Nicoletti. Those three were vehemently against the school board narrowly adopting new state Comprehensive Health and Physical Education Standards in August 2022. The three then-candidates claimed the “perverse new sex and gender standards” “over-sexualize” children. The debate over the standards had been taking place for months as parents spoke at length for and against them at monthly school board meetings.
The rancor between critics and the trio grew dramatically after the candidates invited a vitriolic and homophobic pastor to a public campaign rally across from City Hall a few months before the election. That speaker condemned homosexuality and claimed the state programs were “grooming” children for sex traffickers.
That political rally prompted Stanford and many others to hold a large counter-rally to show their support for LGBTQIA+ students and form a group called We Belong Cape May County.
After Panico, Nicoletti and Shaffer were elected in November 2022 and were installed in January 2023, they tried to get the board to rescind its vote, but failed.
When Shaffer ran for re-election in November, he ran on a slate with two others endorsed by Moms for Liberty. All three lost.
– STORY by DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff
