College Trustee Resigns in Wake of Ethics Probe

Another high-ranking official at a northwestern New Jersey community college has resigned in the wake of an ethics probe stemming from a renovation contract.

Glenn Gavan decided this week to step down as chairman of the Board of Trustees at Sussex County Community College in Newton. It was announced Friday.

Gavan had served on the 11-member board since 2008 and as its chair since November 2012. His resignation came after an independent investigation determined he and two other board members had a conflict of interest with the engineering firm hired for renovation work on campus.

The investigation concluded Gavan and two other trustees--Glen Vetrano and Ed Leppert--had conflicts with Sparta-based CP Engineering. But it also found they were unaware of their ethical obligations under state law and the school's ethics code.

The three, who never publicly disclosed these relationships, abstained on some CP-related votes but not on others.

Vetrano, who resigned last month, was a paid lobbyist for CP Engineers when he voted to give the firm a $142,300 contract for master-plan work last year, the report found. Gavan voted to approve pro-bono work for the firm weeks before becoming its paid attorney in April 2013.

Investigators noted that Leppert had asked the college's attorney whether he had a conflict, since a payroll company he owns had done work for CP Engineers. Leppert voted after the school's attorney advised him it was OK to do so, but then later abstained from other votes.