Holmdel Township Administrator On Leave for Allegations of Nepotism

Donna Viero, Holmdel Township administrator, was sent on a paid leave over one month ago for several accusations thrown his way of favoring those who were friends or family. Recently, more complaints about him have come in regarding from many missed work days to improperly issued township checks. On Tuesday June eleven, the township committee of Holmdel took a poll as to whether or not Donna Viero should stay on leave. The poll came back three votes to two in favor of keeping Donna Viero on leave for an undefined amount of time as of now. Attorney Sean Kean, was hired to investigate the claims of nepotism made against Viero. After he conducted his investigation, he had this to say, “During the course of our investigation allegations of potential wrongdoing have been made against Ms. Donna Vieiro,” He went on to explain that the allegations included, missing approximately 80 days of work in 2017 and demanding that the record be changed as to not reflect his absences, placing an expenditure of over 2 million dollars on a turf field without the knowledge or approval of the rest of the Township Committee, forcing several employees of the township to issue checks to an “unauthorized individual”, and discussing private information with an “unauthorized individual” concerning the Council on Affordable Housing and not telling the governing body about his actions. Sean Kean would then go on to say, after listing the allegations against Donna Viero, “We find it necessary to report the above concerns and allegations to you so that you and the governing body can determine how to proceed with the investigation of these additional claims,” The governing body has elected to keep Kean’s investigation on going for a currently unspecified amount of time. If Kean does discover more allegations made against Viero or more evidence that incriminates him, than Veiro will have to step down from his position Holmdel Township administrator and will either face a large fine or possible jail time. While the Township Committee does find it more than necessary to continue an investigation, they are still not entirely in agreement, afterall there were two votes against making Viero take a leave and two votes against Kean continuing his investigation. “This is bad money after bad money, why are you continuing the investigation? You are hurting the town.” Said Mayor Eric Hinds. He was however in the majority with Committee member Gregory Buontempo saying this, “The investigation needs to be thorough, none of us here created this situation.”