At loggerheads in Longport

LONGPORT, N.J. - Just about everyone in this ritzy Shore town has seen the banner planes buzzing the beach, trailing messages calling the mayor a "puppet" and other more cryptic denunciations.

And judging by the comments at a recent Borough Commission meeting, most residents know the banners are related to a long-simmering dispute between Longport and developer Martin E. O'Boyle.

They're also aware that the feud - which began over an alleged building-code violation - has cost this town of fewer than 1,100 year-round residents at least $75,000 in legal bills.

But few could understand just how personal this battle got, with lawsuits flying back and forth, criminal complaints being filed, and accusations of harassment, vandalism, slander - the fodder for a good beach novel.

Nor could they realize how embroiled O'Boyle became in the fight. By his own admission, it hurt his business and his personal life, but he's hardly one to quit.

While the borough's stake isn't small change, O'Boyle anted up at least $300,000.

"The Irish guys, they don't give up too easy," O'Boyle said. "A friend of mine said, 'Irish Alzheimer's is when you forget everything except the grudges.' "

All this because O'Boyle remodeled his 13th Avenue house, which he has owned for more than 30 years.

In November 2006, the fire company responded to an alarm in the house. Bruce Funk, the town's zoning official and an assistant fire chief, went inside and noted that the first-floor living area did not conform with the approved building plans.

Because it was below the required flood elevation, the first floor should have been used only for storage and parking, Funk wrote in an e-mail supplied by O'Boyle.

O'Boyle was cited for two violations.

And the fight was on.

O'Boyle, a Woodlynne native whose real estate business is now based in Florida, said he had tried to settle the matter amicably - even though he doesn't think he did anything wrong.

Many homes in Longport have first-floor living spaces, including his own before the remodeling, said O'Boyle, who spends his summers here.

"If I was wrong on the law and they enforced it, there would be about four houses left in Longport," he said.

O'Boyle, 56, refused to go before the planning board for a variance.

When he couldn't resolve the matter, he said, he decided to fight back. He started filing open-records requests with the borough. A lot of them.

O'Boyle supplied The Inquirer with a "master checklist" of his requests - 84 in all, from last September through March - asking for police and fire reports, borough personnel records, public office-holder disclosures, campaign information, and on and on. He said all were related to his case. (The borough said he had filed 139 requests through May.)

In June, O'Boyle turned up the heat and sued the borough, arguing that city officials had refused to comply with his requests.

The borough responded that O'Boyle, whose primary residence is in Florida, wasn't entitled to records because he wasn't a New Jersey resident.

As the battle escalated, O'Boyle hired a videographer to accompany him around town and to document Borough Commission meetings, his dealings with borough personnel, and his interviews with reporters, including one with The Inquirer.

The borough parried by asking a judge to ban O'Boyle from taping inside municipal buildings, to restrain him from "abusive or disruptive conduct," and to force him to notify police before visiting public buildings.

Last month, a judge shot down those requests.

The banners started appearing in July, and continued through the Labor Day weekend. O'Boyle was coy when discussing those.

"I think people who fly a banner are expressing their First Amendment rights. It's a wonderful thing," he said. "If people want to give me credit for it, I think that's great. I think it's creative."

Some of the banners referred to Mayor Nicholas Russo and Premier Properties Real Estate, a dominant player in the real-estate-rich town.

O'Boyle said Premier cofounder Joe DiLorenzo had run the campaign that installed Russo and a new slate of borough commissioners this year.

He contends that there is an all-too-cozy relationship between the real estate agency and city officials.

He keeps a hand-drawn chart showing connections between the agency and planning board members, commissioners, and other borough employees.

"I think Premier Realty has taken over the town," O'Boyle said.

O'Boyle said he wondered if Premier was using the borough to get even with him after the agencies butted heads on a real estate deal 10 years ago.

Now that he is on to the "political bosses," he said, they want him silenced.

"There's a lot of corruption in this town, and it needs to be cleaned up," he said.

DiLorenzo did not return a phone call yesterday, and he has declined to comment on O'Boyle in other publications.

As the summer wore on, the battle grew.

O'Boyle filed a slander suit against a member of the planning board after a couple of confrontations. He filed a criminal complaint against two members of DiLorenzo's family after yet more face-offs.

He said his home had been vandalized, and he hired private investigators for protection.

"It's gotten so far out of hand, I don't know what to do about it," O'Boyle said.

At the last commission meeting Aug. 20, several residents urged O'Boyle to settle the matter.

"I do agree the litigation is hurting the town, but so are the planes," resident Debbie Dombrowski told O'Boyle. "I think [the plan] to get public support might not be going your way."

O'Boyle offered to sit down with Russo after the meeting.

"Let's get this resolved and stop punishing these people," he said.

After a half-hour, closed-door meeting - which O'Boyle videotaped - the two announced a handshake deal. The borough would drop the building and zoning violations, and O'Boyle would drop his litigation.

The agreement was formally accepted during an executive session Friday, Russo said.

"I am very happy that we are going to be moving forward," he said. "We are not looking back."

The mayor said he'd rather not discuss other aspects of the dispute.

But for O'Boyle, the story probably won't end there. He said he was "inclined to stick around and clean up the [borough's] act." He said he planned to share with Russo all the information he had collected.

"Somebody's got to hold the government in check," he said. "It's a very provincial town. . . . No one has bothered them in the past, and, unfortunately for them, they hit the Irish guy."