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A circuitous route taken to finish a series of municipal hirings continues after three code inspectors were approved by the Middlesex Borough Council at a special meeting.

The governing body convened remotely late Monday afternoon, June 23 to authorize the three hires. Mayor Jack Mikolajczyk and five of six council members phoned in for the special session, which lasted less than 15 minutes.

Sailing through were the hirings of part-time or substitute plumbing, electrical and fire subcode inspectors. All three had been listed on the agenda for approval at the council’s regularly scheduled meeting on Tuesday, June 17. But the filling of those three and a fourth position, were rejected in a series of 5-1 votes that night with most council members agreeing they needed more information.

The fourth position – which at this point is still not approved – is an administrative assistant for the borough clerk’s office. The circumstances behind that stalled hiring have generated questions in the wake of the June 17 session. That night, a candidate was listed on the council’s agenda for intended approval.

An allegation has subsequently surfaced suggesting attempted nepotism and an effort to steer the position to a different candidate. That allegation was raised in an anonymous online comment, attached to an Inside – Middlesex post about the 5-1 votes entitled “Not so fast…”

At the June 17 meeting, Councilman Kevin Dotey was the lead questioner of the process used to advance the four people listed on the agenda for hiring. Those four were the three inspector candidates and another for the administrative assistant job. Dotey claimed he’d lacked details before arriving at the meeting.

The agenda listed Lauren Frisoli in line to be hired for the administrative assistant job.

“I have no problem with the people,” Dotey said then “It’s the process. Not even knowing until I walked in here. I got jumped when I came in here, for God’s sakes. That’s my problem, not the people and the jobs.” The council then voted to postpone the hiring of the assistant and three code inspectors to obtain more information.

The online commenter alleged that in a conversation with a staff member, Dotey had asked that “his soon to be daughter in law be hired in this new (administrative assistant) position.” Concerns about the inspector positions, the commenter further alleged, were a “smokescreen.”

Dotey was asked by Inside – Middlesex about that conversation during the governing body’s June 23 remote meeting. He acknowledged speaking with Deputy Clerk Kelsey Meixner, but gave a much different account than his anonymous online accuser.

“I called Kelsey about the person she wanted to hire (as administrative assistant) to make sure she was okay with it,” said Dotey, who is a member of the council’s administration committee. “That was the phone call that I had with her. That’s all we talked about.”

“I don’t know if my future daughter in law has applied or not and I also told somebody at work to apply for the job that I thought would be a good fit,” Dotey said. “I don’t know if they did. That’s all I can do. I don’t do the interviews or decide who is chosen.”

Dotey said he wanted to ensure Meixner was “okay with the person” since she would have to work with the hire in the future.

Regarding the online comment, Miklolajczyk said: “‘Maybe (its source) got lucky, maybe they understand the inner workings, but it’s not true.” 

When asked about nepotism typically being frowned upon in government hiring, Mikolajczyk replied: “‘That’s all well and good. All you’ve got to do is look at the schools, look at the town and you tell me there ain’t no nepotism. Come on.”

The mayor and Councilman Joseph DeScenza said the “best person” to apply for a position should be hired. Regarding nepotism, Mikolajczyk continued, “They go to great lengths to make sure these things don’t happen. (But) the world famous line of ‘I know a guy’ does exist.”

Officials said the administrative assistant’s job will be filled at the council’s July 15 meeting. They also implied that concerns about possible nepotism would become a moot point, without saying who would likely be hired.

Regarding the anonymous nepotism allegation,  Council President Michael Conahan noted that in Middlesex “rumors are a dozen a day.”

Emails obtained via Open Public Records Act request show borough officials have been mulling the hire in the clerk’s office since early February, in the wake of a longtime staff member’s resignation.

One of the emails shows that Dotey, and Councilmen Jeremiah Carnes and Robert Dessino, were emailed on Feb. 5 by Borough Clerk Linda Chismar. In that email, Chismar writes that she intended to start interviewing prospective administrative assistant hires later that month. Those three councilmen comprise the administration committee.

Other correspondence suggests that the filling of the administrative assistant’s position was proceeding earlier this month without objection.

In another email on June 4, Chismar asks Mikolajczyk for the okay to put an administrative assistant hiring resolution on the June 17 council agenda.

In still another email on June 9, Chismar wrote to the mayor and noted that “at your request” Meixner reached out to Dotey to discuss the hiring of Frisoli as administrative assistant.

“(Meixner) indicated that after discussing the hiring process with Councilman Dotey,” Chismar wrote, “she feels that he is comfortable putting the hiring of Lauren Frisoli on the agenda for the June 17, 2025 meeting.”

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