Late last month, the mayor of Rahway clipped a parked car on a residential street.

It was 5:38 a.m. He was driving a city vehicle, a full-sized SUV that absorbed enough damage it had to be towed. And he was driving with an expired license.

These circumstances should trigger mandatory drug and alcohol testing - just consult the town's policy for employees who have accidents, even when they don't involve city property -- yet Samson Steinman was given a citation for the license and sent on his way.

This escapade is curious on so many levels, starting with the fact that Steinman, who couldn't be bothered to update his license, once ran the Rahway MVC.

But it should also concern the public that repeated requests from this newspaper for body cam and dashcam footage have been denied by the Rahway police and the city clerk.

Getting at the truth shouldn't require public shaming. Shame won't work in Steinman's case, anyway: He recently schemed his way into a $51,000 pay raise, after voting to decrease his predecessor's salary by 65 percent.

But a mayor should be obliged to take the same sobriety test required of any city employee who smashes a 5,000-pound truck insured at taxpayer expense - or he and the attending officers should list the reasons why he skated.

The matter is being probed by the Union County prosecutor, but Steinman has some explaining to do, even if he was just trying to be first in line at the MVC. He can start with this: What is he trying to hide by keeping the dashcam video secret?

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