Dear Editor:
Yesterday’s reporting by Jefferson Focus — “Jefferson Township Under Scrutiny as Questions Go Unanswered” — raised serious, documented questions about Eric F. Wilsusen’s long-standing financial relationships with a township vendor, and about the township’s refusal to release basic records that residents have every right to see. The Save Jefferson team — Christian Barranco, Sheila Brown, and Dottie Santasieri — believe those questions deserve straight answers.
According to filings with the Ocean County Clerk and the New Jersey Division of Revenue, Mayor Wilsusen, Police Chief Paul Castimore, and Atlantic Communications owner Gary Davieau jointly purchased property in Little Egg Harbor in 2006. In 2015, Eric Wilsusen was added, by amendment, to a company named PES LLC with the wives of Mr. Davieau and Chief Castimore. That company owned a commercial property at 664 Route 15 South, the same building where Atlantic Communications, a township vendor, operated as a tenant.
On March 23, 2026, Jefferson Focus filed an open public records request for township invoices paid to Atlantic Communications from 2023 through 2026. The legal response deadline has now passed twice, and the records remain unreleased.
There may be reasonable explanations for each of these facts, and we welcome them. But the answer to a transparency question cannot be delayed any longer. We are calling on Eric Wilsusen to release every invoice, purchase order, and disclosure related to Atlantic Communications within seven days, and to recuse himself from any township decision involving a vendor in which he or his business partners hold a direct or indirect financial interest, per our municipal code. We are also urging the Township Council to authorize an independent review of contracts awarded to vendors connected to township officials over the past ten years.
This is not an isolated concern. It fits a broader pattern of how this administration communicates with residents. Eric has been posting campaign content on a Facebook page titled “Eric Wilsusen–Mayor of Jefferson Twp NJ,” categorized by Facebook as a “Government Official” page and listing [email protected] as the contact, which is his official government email address. A line in the bio notes the page is “created & managed” by Eric Wilsusen personally, but the overall impression residents are meant to take away is that of an official government page. Paired with ignored records requests, that is not the conduct of an administration that trusts residents with the full picture.
These decisions do not only affect the Mayor. He has aligned himself publicly with a sitting state senator and several Morris County elected officials, and every unanswered records request and carefully worded communication puts their reputations on the line alongside his own. Those officials should ask themselves whether they want their names attached to a pattern of conduct that Jefferson residents are increasingly being asked to question.
Christian Barranco extends an open invitation to Mayor Wilsusen: meet face to face. Debate the record, the budget, the taxes, and the transparency of Jefferson Township in front of the voters who will decide this primary on June 2nd. Residents deserve to hear both candidates answer for their positions directly in public, on the record, and without fine print.
- Save Jefferson TeamBarranco for JeffersonBrown & Santasieri for Council
