EX-MAYOR & THIEF
Prosecutors say former mayor stole almost $100k in public funds from housing authority, spent on extravagant lifestyle >>
LAWRENCE » Former Lawrence Township mayor Mark Holmes faces five years of state imprisonment upon admitting he stole nearly $100,000 in public funds.
Holmes, 56, confessed in Monmouth County Superior Court this week to illegally seizing more than $90,000 from the Asbury Park Housing Authority between the years 2008 and 2011. He used the ill-gotten gains on personal expenditures that included patronizing gentlemen’s clubs and getting spa treatments, authorities said in a press release.
Holmes, who formerly worked as the housing agency’s executive director, agreed to pay $35,000 in restitution and to forfeit his governmentfunded pension as well as any future public employment in New Jersey, according to Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher Gramiccioni’s press release.
“Everyone, including public officials, must be held accountable when they break the law,” Gramiccioni said Wednesday in a press statement. “Public service is a privilege and requires a level of trust by our constituents — a trust that Mr. Holmes exploited.”
The voters of Lawrence Township elected Holmes to Lawrence Township Council in the past decade. With the blessing of town council, Holmes became the township’s first black mayor in 2004. He also served as mayor in 2008 in the councilmanager system where voters elect council members but do not directly elect the mayor.
Lawrence Council chooses one of its members to serve as mayor, which is largely ceremonial given that the township’s manager does the real executive work of municipal government. With Holmes pleading guilty Tuesday before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge John R. Tassini, he will never again serve as an elected official in the Garden State.
When he became mayor in 2008, Holmes used the Lawrence Township website to promote his vision to “make Lawrence great in 2008!”
Holmes served as executive director of the Asbury Park Housing Authority between December 2008 and June 2011 and engaged in multiple theft operations during his tenure. For example, he illegally used over $13,000 of housing authority funds for unauthorized meal expenses in the Asbury Park and Lawrenceville areas and illegally used state grant money to fund a $50,000 salary increase for himself without approval from the housing authority’s board of commissioners, among other acts of thievery, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. Holmes’ annual salary at the authority was $120,000.
Represented by attorney Mark G. Davis, Holmes is scheduled to be sentenced April 6. He is expected to be hammered with five years of imprisonment for pleading guilty to second-degree theft by unlawful taking, although convictions on second-degree crimes could potentially result in a maximum punishment of 10 years behind bars.
The Monmouth County prosecutor in a press release said Holmes pleaded guilty to stealing more than $90,000 from the Asbury Park Housing Authority, but the defendant’s lawyer disputes the information as reported.
“What you’ve written in your article about Mark Holmes is recklessly false,” Davis said Thursday evening in an email. “He admitted during his plea hearing only to increasing his APHA salary by $50k without the required Board approval for almost two full years, totalling approx. $90k in stolen funds. Everything else you wrote about his alleged admissions is simply untrue and must be retracted without delay.”
The prosecutor’s office gave detailed accounts of the crime Holmes committed in its press release, which goes on to say: “Additionally, Holmes opened up credit cards in the name of the ‘APHA’ and ‘APHA Community Development Corporation’ and used the cards for personal expenses. He changed the mailing addresses for the bills to go directly to his personal residence and racked up over $30,000 in debt.”
Holmes has served Lawrence Township as a registered Republican and then as a registered Democrat. He resigned from elected office effective Dec. 28, 2008, leaving his council colleagues high and dry.