First Amendment Rights Were Violated in Attempt to Suppress Information About County’s Plan to Seize Airport

September 24, 2024                                                                          973-403-7836                 

( Trenton, NJ  ) The owner of the Monmouth Executive Airport in Wall Township  – whose property  has been targeted for an eminent domain taking by the Monmouth County Commissioners –  has filed a federal civil rights lawsuit against the Monmouth County Sheriff, the county and the county Parks Department, alleging that his First Amendment rights were violated when his employees were prohibited from accessing the county fair grounds to distribute leaflets informing people of the county’s attempt to seize his property.

Alan Antaki, who is president of Wall Herald Corporation – the corporate owner of the airport and surrounding properties — said several of his employees volunteered to go to the county fair on Sunday, July 28 to hand out fliers to fair goers. The fliers informed people of the county’s impending eminent domain action and directed them to the airport’s new website where they could access information about the  seizure of his private property and its potential cost. www.pprmonmouth.com

After about 10 minutes at the fairgrounds, the three workers were removed from the fair by county park rangers and sheriff’s officers, who escorted them to an area outside the entrance to the fair and made to stand near a couple of sheriff’s vehicles.  A few minutes later, one of the rangers hastily spray-painted a square box on the ground and the workers were told to stand inside the painted box. They were told that they were not to talk to or approach any fair goers; and that the fliers could only be handed to people who asked for them.

In the federal court filing, the attorney for Antaki, says his free speech rights were violated noting: “WHC has the right, protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, to distribute leaflets containing information about the County’s plan to violate private property rights and condemn the Airport.”

Antaki filed an OPRA request on August 22 seeking the names of the sheriff’s officers on duty at the time, along an incident report of the encounter with the airport employees and body-camera video from the sheriff’s officers who were involved in the removal of the airport employees from the fair. The sheriff’s department said no incident report or video exists.

The civil rights filing states: “By removing WHC’s employees from the County fairgrounds and then forcing WHC’s employees to stand in a hastily created 10×10 spray-painted box in front of two marked Sheriff’s Office vehicles, WHC’s right of free speech has been violated.”

The filing adds: “The Defendants’ actions were intended to restrict WHC from educating the public on the County’s intentions, the financial risk and substantial costs involved in the County’s anticipated seizure of the Airport.”

The complaint, filed by Matthew Dolan, of Meyner and Landis of Newark, alleges: “Defendants’ actions are motivated in whole or in part by their desire to assist the County with its condemnation efforts and prevent County citizens from obtaining information on the anticipated condemnation.” 

SECRETIVE OPERATIONS

The county commissioners have been secretive about their intentions to take the airport, says Antaki. The Commissioners first revealed their intention of using eminent domain to seize the 340-acre airport and 400 adjacent acres owned by WHC – on November 9, 2023, when they passed a resolution announcing their intention to pursue a government claim on the property.

The resolution was approved two days after Election Day. Throughout the fall campaign season that year, neither the commissioners, the Republican commissioner candidates, nor the sheriff  made any mention of the county’s intention to take the airport. Commissioners Ross F. Licitra and Erik Anderson were the Republicans who ran for election and won in 2023.  Sheriff Shaun Golden is also the Monmouth County Republican Organization Chairman, whose job includes financing and running county elections.

Antaki said the fact that the commissioners waited until after Election Day to reveal their intentions to take the airport, demonstrates the commissioners’ intention to keep the airport seizure from the voters.

“I doubt the commissioners woke up on November 9 and said to themselves – ‘let’s use our powers of eminent domain to take the airport and the property around it,’ ” said Antaki. “Obviously the county commissioners made their decision to take my property months, if not a year in advance, but they did not want the voters to know about it – and they still do not want the people to know about their plans.”

The county hired special counsel to handle the eminent domain taking of the airport in May of 2023 – after issuing a Request for Qualifications months earlier – yet never mentioned the hiring or its purpose to the public.

Dolan said the county’s efforts to silence the airport workers and stop them from using their First Amendment rights to tell people what the county is doing to Mr. Antaki; “is a furtherance of the county’s desire to suppress information about the airport. They clearly do not want voters and taxpayers to know about their scheme.”

 Antaki noted that the commissioners used the county fair to distribute information about the county – allowing county employees to distribute information about departmental services and answer questions — according to a press release the county issued about the fair in July.

“So, it is okay for the county government to present information to the public, but it’s not okay for anyone who disagrees with county government. That’s not transparent, that’s not democracy,” said Antaki.

County Interference with the Airport

The federal filing also points out that the county’s actions at the fair are further related to attempts by the county, Sheriff Golden and the sheriff’s office to interfere with the airport and to ultimately condemn the airport lots.

In 2019 the airport applied to the National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) Federal Coordinating Center (FCC) to designate the airport a national disembarkation site and a key player in America’s national disaster response. In order to receive approval from NDMS the local County Office of Emergency Management must agree to the plan. The County OEM is a division of the Sheriff’s Office overseen by the Sheriff’s Office and Golden.

“Despite being afforded the opportunity to serve a vital role in assisting disaster victims from other states, bring more Federal funding to the County and create favorable press and exposure for the Airport and the County, the County OEM was uncooperative with federal officials,” reads the complaint.

In a May 6, 2021 email to Mr. Antaki from Paul Malool (NDMS Federal Coordinator) Malool said:

“I need to update you all.  I, 100 % agree that KBLM’s (KBLM is the FAA’s designated identifier code for Monmouth Executive Airport) involvement with NDMS would be a tremendous benefit not only for the airport but for the local and county departments.  However, I had tremendous push back from Monmouth County OEM that they will not support the NDMS program at Monmouth Executive Airport.  IF we were activated, I need the support not only from the airport but from local, county and state. I have reached out to the NJ State Office of Emergency Management to meet with and discuss us going further.  I am not done with KBLM!”

The lack of cooperation from Sheriff Golden with the NDMS caused the airport to lose the NDMS designation – and federal law enforcement grants that go with it, said Antaki.

Dolan said in his complaint, that: “although the County had an opportunity to play a key role in helping fellow Americans who are beset by disaster, the County and the Sheriff’s Office were more interested in furthering the County’s efforts to sabotage the Airport, at the expense of County constituents, than to help the County and the Airport.”

The complaint asks for a jury trial and unspecified damages to be paid to Antaki and his company.