GT School Board Member Reprimanded Over PAC

Gloucester Township school board member Marianne Coyle has been issued a letter of correction from the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The action was triggered by a complaint filed by Joshua Berry, a self-described "local good government watchdog." Berry alleged that Coyle was treasurer of a political action committee that raised thousands of dollars while she was a candidate for township school board in 2011 and that she continued in that position until last month.

ELEC agreed with Berry's claim and issued a letter of correction to Coyle dated April 23, 2013. Coyle did not immediately return a call for comment Monday.

A copy of a letter sent to Berry states:

"At its meeting on April 9, 2013, the Commission determined to issue a Letter of Correction to the Gloucester Township Citizens for Government Reform (CPC) and school board candidate Maria (sic) Coyle to notify the CPC and candidate that Candidates cannot participate directly or indirectly in the management or control of continuing political committees pursuant to N.J.S.A. 19:44A-9h(1) and N.J.A.C. 19:25-45 in respective future calendar years and elections."

Coyle's first name was misspelled in the letter, but Joe Donohue, the deputy director of NJ ELEC confirmed on Monday that the letter was for Marianne Coyle.

Joe Donohue, deputy director of ELEC, said a letter of correction is one of three actions his agency could have levied.

"We could have either done nothing, issued a letter of correction or fined her," Donohue said. "It's a judgement call on the severity of violations. We get thousands of complaints yearly."

Coyle resigned from the Gloucester Township Citizens for Government Reform last month, school board Solicitor John Wade said at a board meeting earlier this month. He said she did so even though he determined she did not have a conflict of interest. Wade said board member Ray Carr also resigned from a similar group because of a perceived conflict.

"As a good-government watchdog, we have been questioning Mrs. Coyle's involvement in this PAC for some time," Berry, a member of the local watchdog group South Jersey Citizens, said in a email. "Why did it take us escalating this conflict at a school board meeting for anyone within GT to take action?"

Coyle is also embroiled in another matter related to her position on the township school board. 

 She filed a harassment complaint after a Feb. 28 board meeting when she accused John Schmidt of "screaming and yelling" at her. Schmidt had peppered Coyle with questions during a public comment portion of the meeting about the issue on which NJ ELEC reprimanded her.

A hearing on the complaint was postponed last week when discovery information the prosecutor needed had not arrived from Gloucester Township. The case was being heard in Winslow Municipal Court to avoid any possible conflict of interest in Gloucester Township.

Schmidt, 24, of Gloucester City, is a gadfly and open-government activist in South Jersey. Last year, he went on a crusade to stop parents from parking in the yellow zone outside two schools in Runnemede, even though he doesn't live in the town or have children in the school district, Fox 29 News Philadelphia reported.

Stay with Patch for more on this developing story.