Skip to content

A town square for an unsquare town

redbankgreen

Standing for the vitality of Red Bank, its community, and the fun we have together.

A CFO THEY’D LOVE, IF ONLY HE’D LET THEM

Mason1_2

Usually, when a chief financial officer is in the news, you’re talking crisis.

Think Enron. Think WorldCom. Think Borough of Red Bank last August.

That’s when things kind of blew up at Borough Hall, with the disclosure that freshly-resigned CFO Terrence Whalen hadn’t exactly been running the tightest ship, in bookkeeping terms.

No fraud was ever alleged. But checks were being deposited into the wrong accounts, according to outside auditor David Kaplan. Accounts weren’t being balanced. Refunds from developers’ escrow accounts were being made in duplicate.

The fallout from the sloppiness was real, as borough taxpayers took a hit in the form of a four-cents-per-$100 of property value tax increase for 2006-2007, all of it attributable to poor recordkeeping, officials said.

There was political fallout, too. Then-Mayor Ed McKenna blamed Councilman John Curley, who was head of the council’s finance committee, for failure to keep an eye on Whalen’s operation. McKenna bounced Curley from the high-profile assignment, and in a heated exchange, Curley uttered his infamous Why don’t you just take me down to Broad Street and hang me? retort. It all became fodder for last year’s mayoral race, which Curley lost to now-Mayor Pasquale Menna.

Well, what a different story 10 months can make, as evidence by the lovefest that erupted at last night’s council meeting for new CFO Frank Mason and his five-person crew of green eyeshades.

The occasion was the presentation of Kaplan’s annual audit.

“This audit is a lot different than last year’s,” Kaplan began. That report, he said, “was probably one of the most negative reports I’ve ever issued in my life,” which includes 23 years as an auditor, and caried with it a raft of recommendations that the borough needed to adopt to begin getting its house in order. Download rb_2005_audit_recommendations.doc

That’s been done. “All of the prior year’s audit recommendations were corrected in their entirety” Kaplan said. Moreover, this year’s analysis comes with no specific recommendations for remediation, a bill of health that’s as notably clean as the prior report was sullied, Kaplan said.

Menna said that in his 19 years as a councilman, there was never a year in which the auditor didn’t recommend some change. He called Mason as “the best CFO in New Jersey.” Councilman Michael DuPont, who is now the finance committee chair, also praised Mason’s efforts.

Outside the council chambers, Kaplan told redbankgreen, “The best course of action the borough could have taken was replacing the CFO. They did that, and replaced him with a highly competent and energetic CFO.”

Without mentioning Whalen by name, Kaplan said that Mason has superior organizational skills, is computer savvy, not afraid to make hard decisions, and “knows how to delegate, which was clearly absent in the prior CFO’s repertoire.”

Mason is a 36-year-old graduate of Seton Hall University and resident of Cranford who never before held the top financial post in a municipality. His last job was as treasurer and assistant CFO in North Bergen.

Reached at his office this morning, Mason deflected questions about the conditions he encountered on his arrival at 90 Monmouth Street, directing redbankgreen to last year’s dry-as-bones list of list of recommendations.

Mason said he didn’t want “to dig up the past” or in any way to appear to be badmouthing his predecessor. Instead, he credited his staff; former CFO Bruce Loversidge, who came back to town from out-of-state to offer both advice and hands-on help; and the members of the council finance committee, as well as Kaplan, for helping put the department back on track.

“It was an uphill battle,” is all he would say about the challenge of correcting past errors while keeping the borough’s ongoing operations and budget preparations current.

And how did he feel about last night’s Frank Mason lovefest, during which he stayed in his customary corner seat behind the council dais and did not speak?

“I’m not used to that kind of attention,” he said. “I don’t like it.”

Email this story

Remember: Nothing makes a Red Bank friend happier than to hear "I saw you on Red Bank Green!"
redbankgreen Classics
Partyline
SHROOMS ABLOOM
Shrooms on Irving Place. (photo by Partyline contributor Boris Kofman)  
El Camino y la Siesta
An early-arriving El Camino owner sneaks in a few winks as the annual Liberty Hose – Red Bank Firefighters’ Classic Car Show in memory o ...
RED BANKJ: JAZZ IN THE PARK BEGINS THURSDAY
Jazz in the Park kicks off tonight (Thursday) with The Grace Fox Big Band, an all-women 16-piece ensemble known for its bold original compos ...
LOST PARROT
This little blue beauty was found by a redbankgreen reporter Thursday boldly tempting fate by foraging on the ground on the turf of a pack o ...
ORANGE GLOW OVER RED BANK
A truly unbelievable post-storm sunset Tuesday (shot on Monmouth St. facing west). Photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus.
BROAD STREET’S THIRSTY BLOOMS
Delfino, a worker with the company Terra Casa that manages the flower beds for the Red Bank special improvement district waters the flowers ...
PILGRIM BAPTIST MEN’S DAY CELEBRATION
  (photo by: Shanikquya Jackson) On Sunday, June 22, Pilgrim Baptist Church of Red Bank hosted its annual Men’s Day Celebration a ...
THREE GENERATION PROCLAMATION
Mayor Billy Portman presents the Borough of Red Bank’s Independence Day 2025 Proclamation to Arleen Brahn (second from right), grandmo ...
STEW THE BUTCHER COSPLAY
On the occasion of the retirement of Stewart Goldstein, longtime proprietor of Monmouth Meats, we thought it apt to present this photo from ...
NAVESINK FISHING
A kayak fisherman tries his luck under the NJ Transit train trestle across the Navesink River in Red Bank. (Photo by Partyline contributor A ...
RED BAKE
As the temperature hit 100 degrees Tuesday, Tom Sevison, Red Bank High School Class of 1973 and in town briefly on his way back home to Virg ...
JUNETEENTH CELEBRATION
Performers at Red Bank’s Juneteenth community celebration Sunday at Johnny Jazz Park. (photo by Brian Donohue)      
BUTTERFLIES LOVE THE WEED
Save the monarch, plant butterfly weed. (photo and text by Partyline contributor Roseann DalPra)  
LANTERNFLY PARTY
An invasive ailanthus tree sprouting in front of the US Post Office on Broad Street is covered with invasive spotted lantern fly nymphs Wedn ...
STREETCORNER SERENADE
An Irish doodle named Cheddar listens to native New Jerseyan, singer/songwriter and former Houston resident Tom Foti, (identified in the hea ...
Red Bank 5K Fun!!!
Red Bank Classic – June 14th, 2025 (photo by Partyline contributor Adam Kaplan)  
RAINBOW OVER RED BANK
Saturday, before and after the storm that rolled through town. (photo by Partyline contributor Thomas Doremus)    
Mini Ballers Bring the Heat at Fusion Basketball School
As the temperatures heat up, so does the competition in the mini baller clinic at Fusion School of Basketball. These little tykes are intens ...
DOZENS OF PLEIN AIR ARTISTS “PAINT RED BANK”
Plein air artists take over town for first ever "Paint Red Bank" event. (click to read)
RED BANK: SIGN ON ICONIC DANNY’S STEAK HOUSE COMES DOWN
The sign hanging from the shuttered Danny's Steak House comes down ten months after a manager reported Danny's Steakhouse would be back "bet ...