what exactly is happening with the head of New Jersey's election law enforcement commission or elac well initial reports were that Governor Murphy was looking to oust Jeff brindle from his executive director position at elec over brindle's criticism of dark money influence in the Murphy campaign but recently emails were released showing what some are calling insensitive and inappropriate comments made by brindle on lgbtq and racial topics today senior political correspondent David Cruz attended an elac hearing where those accusations were addressed David is there right now David what can you tell us about what came out of today's hearing Joanna there were four issues that the commission members dealt with today number one did executive director Jeff brindle fail to cooperate when he refused to acknowledge the Attorney General's office questions number two was he insubordinate when he showed up for work after a member of his staff had tested positive for covid number three was he a racist and number four were the emails or more specifically the first email that was made public an example of homophobia in the workplace here's a little sample of what happened today make no mistake about it the effort to undo this highly respected agency an important New Jersey Institution uh began with an effort to remove me as executive director in effort orchestrated uh by the office of the governor unfortunately when I would not give in to this pressure and resign it quickly unraveled into a legislative effort first to allow the governor to select an executive director and now into one wherein the governor would replace the Commissioners with others appointed by the governor and with no senatorial courtesy confirmation this effort to do away with the elect its current Commissioners and the statutory Independence along with its admirable history is not Justice it's politics naked and raw politics an attempt to turn a highly respected and independent governmental agency into one controlled by the patronage of the governor's office Mr brindles took the position that if he were to participate in this investigation he would be doing precisely with the statute prohibits namely subjecting himself as a high official in elect to discipline by the Attorney General's office there was confusion and ultimately consternation when several members of the state's lgbtq Community tried to testify the shame on all of you thank you a bunch of white straight men shame on all of you go take a diversity and inclusion class and you'll see the problem here Express Yourself is transparency in government and you have all failed that today the fact that the individual making the decision here just use the word heterophobia which is not a thing is really a Showcase of what is going on here and to be someone who is black black queer and a woman those emails are hurtful they contain microaggressions and I would not feel comfortable being someone who works underneath uh supervisor who has those hateful ideals so the question for us to examine is has did this email has the career of Mr Brandon resulted in the creation of a hostile work environment and by a preponderance of the evidence there is no evidence that it does and so from the point of view of the commission that allegation is not sustained and the ruling is there will be no discipline entered no it really didn't surprise me because I know the kind of uh the way that the commission has been managed and and the way that I've approached it and I think it was a very fair decision and the right decision by the by the commission as you see Joanna the Commissioners voted not to discipline Jeff brindle on any of these four charges the bill however the elections transparency act which evolved from this complaint is headed for an assembly vote on Thursday it's expected to be approved and that would give the governor absolute authority to replace all of these board members rendering today's decision moot we're in Trenton I'm David Cruz NJ Spotlight news [Music]