NEWS

By Maya Rao

Inquirer Staff Writer

A financial firm that employs a Medford Township councilman has made loans since at least 2007 to Mount Construction, a municipal contractor whose multimillion-dollar agreement with the township has become increasingly controversial.

SL Financial Services lists Joseph Lynn, appointed to the council last year, as a vice president.

Two former mayors also have ties to Mount, based in Berlin. Company president and chief executive officer David Smith held fund-raisers at his Medford home for Scott Rudder in 2007 during the latter's successful campaign for the Assembly, and for Chris Myers during his failed run for Congress the next year. Myers remains on the council.

Lynn works for SL Financial in Medford - the Connecticut company's only New Jersey office, where the address on the company's Web site matches the councilman's home address.

At least nine financing statements filed with the state and dated between May 2007 and June 2009 show that SL Financial made loans to Mount. The value of the loans, used to finance equipment for the company, is unknown.

Lynn motioned and then voted to renew the Mount contract for a year in September 2008. He was absent at an August meeting at which other council members approved another renewal.

Lynn, who is running for election next month, apologized in a statement last night, saying his 2008 vote to extend Mount's contract had been an "innocent mistake made by someone with only five months of experience serving in local government at the time."

Medford initially awarded Mount the utility repairs contract in 2006 with an option to renew it annually over five years. In February 2007, the Township Council amended the contract to include an agreement allowing Mount to store equipment on municipal land at no cost in exchange for making improvements to the property and local roads.

That arrangement has led to protests from some of Mount's neighbors off Gravelly Hollow Road over a resulting increase in traffic and noise, and other things. The township allowed the contractor to operate there for two years before belatedly filing a required application with the Pinelands Commission in June.

In his statement, Lynn said that although he is not a principal with SL Financial and has no ability to influence its financing decisions, "I wish I had recognized the potential conflict of interest in this relationship. I got involved in local government to make a positive difference for my community."

He said he had told the township solicitor that he planned to recuse himself from voting on the recent contract renewal but missed the meeting due to a family illness.

Lynn pledged to propose formal ethics training for new council members so they could "avoid similar pitfalls like this."