A state employee who was fired by Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration this week after his anti-Semitic Facebook posts surfaced also had a criminal record that the state knew about.
And a state lawmaker who is a longtime Murphy ally says he had warned the administration about the ex-staffer, Jeffrey Dye.
Dye, who is also president of Passaic’s NAACP, was fired Tuesday from his $56,000-a-year taxpayer-funded job as a business representative in the state Department of Labor.
After two days of silence, Murphy made his first public comments about the matter Thursday. The Democratic governor distanced himself from Dye, calling him a “low-level staffer” in an administration of 64,000 people and declining to say who hired him.
Murphy also denounced what Dye wrote on Facebook.
“The social media that I have been made aware of is incredibly offensive and completely inconsistent with my values. Period. Not close,” the Democratic governor told reporters after an unrelated event at Montclair State University.
In one post, Dye called it “a damn shame” and a “disgrace” that the U.S. sends aid to Israel. In another, he criticized now-fired state Schools Development Authority CEO Lizette-Delgado Polanco for “hiring all Latino family members and friends and excluding black people.” And in another, he said “the black holocaust has been & continues to be the worst of them all even though white media wants to make you think it’s the Jews.”
Dye was hired as a civil service employee in February, meaning he was not a political appointee.
A member of Murphy’s cabinet, state Labor Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo, hired Dye, state labor department spokeswoman Angela Delli Santi said in a statement Thursday.
Dye won the job based on “his outreach skills, extensive community contacts and experience in job training and placement programs,” Delli Santi said.
Dye was charged in 2007 with allegedly assaulting a police officer at Paterson’s city hall and resisting arrest. He pleaded guilty to resisting arrest, according to court records. Dye accused the officer of using a racial slur, according to a report by The Record, which first reported about his arrests.
Dye also pleaded guilty to cocaine possession in 1995 and ordered to serve six months in the Passaic County Jail and four years of probation, according to court records.
Delli Santi said the labor commissioner "was aware of Mr. Dye’s past (criminal) offenses but believes that the Department must lead by example when it comes to hiring people with imperfect pasts.”
She also noted that the state and federal governments provide millions of dollars in grant funds to help ex-offenders “return to the workforce,” as well as funds to help recovering opioid users “obtain meaningful work.”
“Job training, retraining and skills development are core parts of our mission,“ she added.
The commissioner was “unaware” of Dye’s social media posts at the time of his hire, Delli Santi said.
Still, state Assemblyman Gary Schaer, one of Murphy’s top supporters in the state Legislature, said he voiced his concerns about Dye to the governor’s administration.
Dye has unsuccessfully run for local office in Passaic, where Schaer has served on the city council for 25 years. In 2017, Dyle wrote on Facebook likened Schaer, an Orthodox jew, to a “racist puppet master.”
“I’ve known Jeffrey for a good number of years,” Schaer, D-Passaic, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday. “He certainly, based on the views which he’s espoused, certainly it did not seem to me to be in any way reflective of the beliefs and statements and actions of the governor and his staff.”
“And I even further than that simply cannot imagine that state government, under a Republican or Democrat or whoever, that there would be a place for someone working for the state who had those views, who espoused those views.”
Dye told NJ Advance Media on Thursday that he was not free to comment yet.
A senior Murphy administration official told NJ Advance Media that Schaer expressed his concerns after Dye was hired. The source was not authorized to speak publicly about the matter and spoke on the condition of anonymity.
Schaer said he applauds the administration for firing someone “who reflects these kind of anti-Semitism, anti-Latino, anti-everyone who’s not him.”
State Senate President Stephen Sweeney, who often clashes with Murphy, said he was bothered that Dye remained in his job despite the warnings from Schaer.
“I believe in people having second chances, too," Sweeney, D-Gloucester, told NJ Advance Media. “But I don’t believe in hate. This guy’s is about hate speech. And that’s not acceptable.”
This is the latest hiring controversy to cast a shadow over Murphy’s administration.
Albert J. Alvarez was hired as chief of staff of the Schools Development Authority despite being accused of raping fellow state employee Katie Brennan. That led to a months-long investigation by the Legislature.
Last month, the SDA fired 30 employees after former CEO Delgado-Polanco was accused of hiring family members and friends with questionable qualifications.
And last year, Marcellus Jackson, a former employee at the state Department of Education, resigned under pressure after news reports highlighting that he was hired despite having spent time in prison for bribery.
When asked Thursday if he believes he has to tell his cabinet to crack down on hiring practices, Murphy said: “I have about 64,000 people who work for me. This was a low-level employee in the Department of Labor. So let’s just make sure everybody has that as a frame.”
“Secondly, without specific to him, I want to make a general comment,” the governor added. “I’ve said this before … I want to be the state where people get a second chance. People if they make reparations, if they make up for what they’ve done, I’d like to be the state where folks get a second chance. And I stand by that.”
Murphy did not respond to a question about whether he believes his administration should start checking applicants’ social media before hiring them.
Doug Steinhardt, chairman of the state Republican Party, accused Murphy this week of “cultivating a culture of blind indifference” in his administration.
NJ Advance Media staff writers Vinessa Erminio and Samantha Marcus contributed to this report.
Brent Johnson may be reached at bjohnson@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @johnsb01.
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