Vote To Fire Neptune DPW Boss For Facebook Post Was Illegal: Judge

NEPTUNE TOWNSHIP, NJ — On Tuesday of this week, Sept. 17, a Monmouth County Superior Court judge ruled that a vote taken by the Neptune Twp. Committee to fire its DPW director was unlawful.

The fired DPW director is David Milmoe, a Toms River resident. Neptune Mayor Tassie York says he was fired because of remarks he made about LGBTQ+ people on a friend's Facebook post.

But Milmoe maintains he was fired because York has a personal vendetta against him, and has ever since she assumed office last year.

This week, Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Thomas Comer ruled that the Aug. 12 vote to terminate Milmoe "resulted in a tie and therefore did not pass."

"Therefore, plaintiff's employment was not terminated, and he is still an employee of the Township of Neptune," said Comer.

The judge also said the Neptune Township Committee did not provide Milmoe with a Rice notification before firing him. A Rice Notice is a notification that a public employee in New Jersey receives when their employment is going to be discussed at a public meeting.

However, the Neptune Township Committee is planning to vote (for a third time) this Monday, Sept. 23 to terminate Milmoe's employment, according to his lawyer, Claudia Reis of employment law firm Lenzo & Reis.

It remains unknown how the Neptune Township Committee will vote on Monday. Milmoe returned to work on Wednesday of this week, but is not allowed to enter the DPW building or talk to men he formerly worked with and supervised.

The back story

Mimoe was fired in August after he made a joke about LGBTQ+ people on a friend's Facebook post. He has since filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Neptune Township.

The Facebook exchange was as follows: On June 5, his friend posted on Facebook that he would be learning to play the piano.

In response, during his off hours from work, Milmoe replied: "So wait ... you're becoming a gay firefighter now? Next you'll be playing the flute at rest stops."

The friend replied: "This is the wrong month to say this statement ... I'm about to be a piano-playing firefighter." (It was June, Pride Month.)

To which Milmoe responded, "I'm just trying to see if we raising the flag in your honor, Stevie Wonder."

The exchange was found by Mayor York's daughter, who showed it to her mother, according to Milmoe's lawsuit.

Milmoe said a few days after the Facebook exchange, he was called into the Neptune Twp. HR office and shown screenshots of the exchange. He was placed on paid leave in June.

In August, at the time York gave this statement to Tap Into in June: "There is no place for homophobia in any context. That does not represent Neptune. That does not represent our values."

Tap Into also reported that Milmoe using a derogatory word commonly used for LGBTQ people in a separate Facebook post. Milmoe made that comment in 2011, before he worked for Neptune Township.

Milmoe alleges in the suit he was fired not because of his Facebook comments, but because of a personal vendetta he says Mayor Tassie York started against him last year, when he refused to hire her nephew for a driver position in the DPW.

Before he was fired, Milmoe spoke before the Township Committee and apologized for his Facebook comments. He said his current girlfriend once had a relationship with a woman, and the two women had a son. He said he and the girlfriend are raising the boy together, and that the boy often sees his two mothers.

"I have family members who are in the LGBTQ community ... I have no ill-will towards anyone," Milmoe said publicly at the Aug. 12 meeting, . "I acknowledge that my careless off-duty post on a timeline of a friend who lives in Georgia may have upset Neptune residents, which is the absolute last thing I would ever want to do. I want to publicly apologize for the post, especially if it gave anyone the very wrong impression that I am anything other than welcoming of the LGTBTQ+ community."

"He wants his job back," said Reis, his lawyer. "He really was a good director of public works. He tried to save the residents money and do things in a cost-effective manner ... There is a pattern of Tassie York using her position to confer benefits on people closest to her. And when Mr. Milmoe pushed back, she went after him and his job. She runs the town like she's a mob boss using her power to get what she wants."

York recused herself from that Aug. 12 vote, and the vote to fire Milmoe was 2-2-1 (two Committeemen, Derel Stroud and Robert Lane Jr. voted to fire him, Keith Cafferty and Kevin McMillan voted against, and York abstained). Because she recused herself, her vote should not have counted, so the resolution to terminate Milmo failed, Judge Comer ruled this week.

Cafferty has since taken a leave of absence and will not be voting on Monday. Stroud, Lane and McMillan will be voting on Monday.

Neither Mayor York nor most Neptune Committeemen responded to Patch when we contacted them for this story.

McMillan wrote back to say "no comment!"

Neptune DPW Boss Fired For LGBTQ Facebook Comments Sues Township (August 2024)