Mayor, In Police Report, Says Council Member's Tirade Left Her "Fearful For Her Safety"

When the seven members of Montclair’s Township Council were sworn in on the first of July and took their seats at the dais, they represented a complete turnover for Montclair’s governing body.

They were elected on the promise of transparency, or at least normalcy, after years of high drama in the chamber room at 205 Claremont Ave. Council members openly screaming. Hurling invectives. Pointing fingers and stomping out of the room. On one stormy evening two years ago, the police were called to restore order. That's the way it was with the last council — Montclair’s version of “A Series of Unfortunate Events.” 

Now comes the sequel.

In a police incident report filed last Wednesday, and first reported by The Torch, Mayor Renee Baskerville accused First Ward Councilor Erik D’Amato of a verbal tirade during an executive session that morning in the wee hours that left her “fearful for her safety,” according to the report.

A discussion among the council members, held near the end of a marathon seven-hour session, quickly veered when D’Amato, the report says, screamed at her several times, “Fuck You.”

The report says that the mayor asked D’Amato if “he was really going to speak to her that way.”

In Baskerville’s description of the exchange, D’Amato retorted, “What are you going to do about it,” as he pointed a finger at her in an “aggressive manner.”

D’Amato never left his chair, but the mayor “felt that D’Amato was initiating a confrontation by singling her out, which made her feel directly threatened,” the report says.

Other fiery displays from D’Amato, including” expletive filled outbursts” involving residents and other council members had also led her to bringing the issue to the police, Baskerville says in her report.

Last Wednesday, a few hours after the mayor filed her incident report, Fourth Ward Councilor Aminah Toler filed her own report, describing a similar outburst laced with profanity from D’Amato during a phone conversation on Nov. 14.

D’Amato several times said, “Fuck you” in a tone that “made her fearful towards any future interactions with D’Amato,” she said. 

In the report, Toler points out that she and the mayor are the two black women members of the council. Among Montclair’s elected officials, only they have been subjected to D’Amato's temper, leading her to question “D’Amato’s mindset and potential biases towards African American women,” the report says.

In an email to The Torch, D'Amato, while acknowledging having cursed, denied he had ever threatened the Mayor or Toler. He said that the heat that trailed from the public portion of the meeting into the executive session was at least partly due to a persistent debate over whether a police chaplain deserved to be fired over social media posts viewed by many as antisemitic. A stream of residents as well as many from outside Montclair, spoke at the Dec. 17 meeting, some in support of the chaplain, others fiercely opposed.

"I am 100% guilty of dropping a few loud F-bombs in private, but never intimidated anyone," D'Amato said in his email, "certainly not in the way that some residents have felt threatened in our council chamber in recent months because of our ongoing problem with public expressions of antisemitism, which in part is what led to me using salty language."

Alluding to a police report, filed by the owner of a car wash accusing Toler of harassing phone calls, D'Amato said, "I’ll take my police report over the one Councilor Toler recently got, any day." The report says that Toler was upset with car wash employees playing soccer in the park.

"Meanwhile," D'Amato said, "everyone should be aware that the Mayor and Councilor Toler have been known to really have it out with each other as well."

"These are not shrinking violets," he said.

Tensions began to rise along the council's crescent-shaped desk well after midnight at the Dec. 17 session and after a full gallery had just about emptied. They centered around a resolution to appoint a new interim township attorney. Councilor-At-Large Carmel Loughman said that a committee of three — herself, Deputy Mayor Susan Shin Andersen and Baskerville — had done their "due diligence" in deciding among three candidates. Quickly, though, it became clear it was not a consensus choice.

"Myself and Susan are recommending that we go with Joseph Garcia," Loughman said, taking a glance at Baskerville, seated just to her left. Garcia is a partner at Cleary Giacobbe Alfieri Jacobs, a law firm based in Matawan that already does work for Montclair.

Baskerville, suggesting she had been airbrushed from the process, said into her microphone that a few days earlier she had gone into the weekend believing that the committee had winnowed candidates to a short list of two that did not include Garcia.

"I'm just confused about how we ended up here with that person," she said, adding that because she, Loughman and Andersen were not named as a formal subcommittee, the rest of the council should have been consulted as well.

Competing realities seemed to be at play.

"I have a very different review of the scenario you just described," Loughman said, "and I don't know where you're coming up with this."

"You're not reading your emails," Loughman said sharply.

Moments later, D'Amato, seated a few chairs down the row, spoke to the mayor in a gentle cadence.

"Be happy you were in the in the clique of three," he said. "I wasn't, the four of us weren't and we're not complaining."

Citing the looming departure of the current interim attorney, Paul Burr, on Dec. 31, D'Amato underscored that the council was still receiving resumes and that the process of hiring a full-time attorney was in full gear.

"For the time being, it's only a few months," he said. "I did not get my choice. If you do not get your choice, we can live with that."

Soon, D'Amato, Baskerville and Loughman were talking over one another.

"What attorney do you think is the most qualified to do this job," D'Amato said, this time in a more challenging tone.

"Two people," said Baskerville, "because they happen to be in communication, decide to just totally ignore the third person and not even ask my opinion."

"Baloney," Loughman said, her voice rising. "We asked you to rank your candidates. We never heard from you."

With time short, the council will try to resolve the matter in a special session on Dec. 30.

"Everyone should use the holidays to relax and come back in 2025 focused more on getting the work done, rather than personal or factional squabbling," D'Amato said.