For Immediate Release:
April 4, 2012
Freeholders name 2 Brookdale trustees
Monmouth County residents appointed to vacant board seats
FREEHOLD, NJ – The Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders appointed David G. Flaherty of Howell and Charles Karcher of Colts Neck to fill two vacant seats on the Brookdale Community College Board of Trustees. The appointments were made during a special meeting on March 29.
“With the appointment of these trustees we have begun the process of replacing the entire Board of Trustees, which I have mandated upon uncovering and exposing the mismanagement of the college,” Freeholder Director John P. Curley said. “As liaison to the college, I am ecstatic to begin the process of change that will preserve Brookdale’s status as the best community college in New Jersey.”
Flaherty, a Howell police officer, is an executive director of the Howell Chamber of Commerce. He is a former member of the Howell Board of Education. Karcher is a Red Bank lawyer. They fill the seats left vacant by Howard Birdsall, who resigned last May, and Simon Bosco, who resigned in November.
Birdsall resigned following allegations of financial improprieties involving Brookdale’s former president, Peter Burnham, who stepped down last spring.
There are 13 seats on the Brookdale Board of Trustees. Ten trustee seats are for Monmouth County residents; eight of seats are filled by freeholder appointment and two seats are filled by gubernatorial appointment. The remaining seats are filled by county superintendent of schools, a Brookdale graduate representative elected annually by the college’s student body and the college president who serves as an ex-officio member.
“This is a terrific opportunity for a resident to take a dynamic role at New Jersey’s best community college,” Curley said. “Brookdale needs leaders who will help steer the course of this quality, affordable higher education institution.”
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