What began as a township employee’s complaint of nepotism by Holmdel’s human resources director has grown into a special counsel investigation that includes a list of separate allegations against the township administrator.

As it stands, the administrator, Donna Vieiro, remains suspended with pay from her $165,750-a-year job, while the special counsel continues to probe allegations that she withheld information from council members about payments to township vendors, hid excessive time off she had taken, and tried to get the council’s unwitting approval of $2.1 million in recreation spending by inserting it into a consent agenda approved en masse with several other, minor items.

Supporters of the administrator, including Mayor Eric Hinds, have labeled the special counsel probe a politically-motivated witch hunt, while opposing members of the council say the administrator is out control and the council has an oversight obligation to fully investigate the allegations.

The case is all the more notable for the unusually public nature of what so far has been a strictly administrative probe involving allegations against two municipal employees, which ordinarily would be dealt with by the ruling body behind closed doors in a so-called executive session.

In this case, however, it was Vieiro and the human resources director, Denise Callery, who asked that the allegations against them be addressed by the council in open session, before reporters and the general public, according to the township attorney, Michael Collins, who noted that, while their decision was unusual, state law gave them that option.

Vieiro could not be reached for comment, while a lawyer for Callery said she was looking forward to returning to her $80,400-a-year job after a month-long suspension with pay was lifted by the council on Tuesday.

“She’s happy to get back to work, and will certainly respond should any further action be taken,” said the lawyer, Jean Cipriani.

The pot began to simmer publicly during a council meeting on May 6, when Collins presented the five-member body with a memorandum noting allegations by an unidentified township employee that Callery, the HR director, had actively taken part in the recruitment, interview and evaluation process of an unidentified relative for a job as a township payroll supervisor.

Collins added that the employee also alleged that Vieiro was a Callery family friend who was complicit in the attempted nepotism hire. Collins concluded that the relative was not hired.

That night the council adopted a resolution suspending Callery and Vieiro with pay, pending the outcome of an investigation by a special counsel. The township attorney is the third official in line to respond to whistle blower complaints after the HR director and the administrator.

“I determined that Complainant’s allegations, on their face, raised serious concerns under the (township’s) nepotism and conflict of interest policies, as well as the Local Government Ethics Law,” Collins wrote in his May 6 memo.

The special counsel retained by the township is Sean Kean, who in addition to his municipal law practice with the Matawan firm Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs, is also a state assemblyman representing New Jersey’s 30th Legislative District, which includes parts of Ocean and Monmouth counties, but not Holmdel.

Kean appeared before the council Tuesday night, when he said his nepotism investigation was 99% complete, and a report was forthcoming. But in the course of interviews with subjects including the HR director and administrator, the employee who filed the complaint, other township staffers, and members of the council, Kean said additional allegations had been raised, and that he believed the council should consider authorizing his firm to look into them further.

Kean said the allegations included:

The administrator’s improper discussion of confidential information involving the township’s Coalition of Affordable Housing (COAH) plan with an individual who had conflicts of interest; the administrator’s failure to advise the council of payments to contractors and engineers under the COAH plan; and the administrator’s demand that another township employee issue checks improperly.

The administrator facilitated an unauthorized Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) reimbursement payment for property damage.

The administrator acted without the approval of the council by inserting on a consent agenda a $2.1 project involving a township turf field and pool club complex, and that she failed to advise the council on payments to contractors involved with the project.

The administrator had “in excess” of 65 absences in 2017, a figure documented by the township IT department in response to an Open Public Records Act request, though the record of the absences later appeared to have been deleted.

“We find it necessary to report these additional allegations, so that you, the governing body, can determine how to proceed with these additional claims,” Kean told the council.

In his statement containing the new allegations, Kean identified the employee who made the initial allegations against Callery and Vieiro as “former CFO Jeanette Larrison,” who resigned in April, according to published reports.

Kean later declined to speculate on whether any of the allegations, if true, constituted criminal behavior that might be referred to prosecutors.

Councilman Tom Critelli criticized the Vieiro investigation as “a witch hunt,” while Hinds called it, “a goose chase.”

Kean tried to reassure council members that an extension of his probe could be formally limited in terms of maximum fees and time spent.

Holmdel’s police chief, John Mioduszewski, has been doubling as township administrator, a job some chiefs have taken on in New Jersey, though typically after retiring from police work.

And in calling on fellow council members to rescind the suspensions of Vieiro and Callery, their supporters said the chief and other township employees were overworked.

“I think we need to bring Denise back, because paying her to sit at home is ridiculous,” Critelli said.

The argument was persuasive, and the council unanimously approved a resolution ending her suspension, even before Kean had completed his probe into the allegations against her.

Kean did not specify who had made the additional allegations against Vieiro. But they overlapped with statements during Tuesday’s meeting by Deputy Mayor Michael Nikolas, who recounted a long list of grievances, and by Councilman Gary Buontempo about Vieiro’s alleged absences.

Nikolas, Buontempo and Councilman Rocco Pascucci were the three who voted on Tuesday to extend Vieiro’s suspension and expand the special council probe.

Neither Callery nor Vieiro were at Tuesday’s council meeting.

But two Holmdel residents did speak in support of Vieiro, when they were the only speakers to address the issue from among two dozen members of the public in attendance. One of them was Donna Carannante, a 23-year resident.

“It sounds like a lot of sour grapes,” she said.

Donna Carannante, a Holmdel resident, was one of two members of the public to address the township council's special investigation into allegations of nepotism and other improprieties by staffers. She spoke in support of Township Administrator Donna Vieiro.Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media For NJ.com

Steve Strunsky may be reached at sstrunsky@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @SteveStrunsky. Find NJ.com on Facebook. Have a tip? Tell us. nj.com/tips.

Get the latest updates right in your inbox. Subscribe to NJ.com’s newsletters.