The prosecutor said six months without a chief. The borough's own records show 13.
Chief Keith Brown stood before the borough council on June 11, 2025, swearing in a new patrolman alongside five of his officers. He never appeared in the public record again.
Thirteen months later, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office walked in and took command. Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer announced the takeover on July 17, saying Pine Beach had gone more than six months without a permanent chief.
The borough's own minutes tell a different story: Brown vanished from public view in June 2025, and for most of the 13 months that followed, residents who asked where he went got two answers: "on leave" and "running as usual." The council hired around the vacancy and never discussed filling it.
"On leave" and "no further information can be had"
The first public trace of the chief's absence sits in the minutes of the council's September 10 meeting last year. On a routine agenda, the council passed Resolution 2025-100, described in the minutes as "confirming the appointment of 'Officer-in-Charge' for Pine Beach Police Department." The resolution, as recorded, names no one.
At the same meeting, the minutes show, resident Paul Walters of 333 Wayne Ave. asked why the chief was out. Mayor Lawrence Cuneo answered that Brown was "on leave" and that "no further information can be had."
The public record then goes quiet. October brought the resignation of Patrolman Sean Williams, four months after his hiring. On December 10, the council hired two more patrolmen, Gerard Sinnott and Justice Mari. That same evening, Councilman Newman thanked "Lt. Morris and the Police Department" for their work at the borough's tree lighting. Brown's name appears nowhere in the night's record.
Brown retired on Dec. 31, 2025, according to the prosecutor's office. The council marked the moment with a resolution; two weeks later it approved continued benefits for "K. Brown" under a state statute cited in the resolution. The minutes show no open-session discussion of the retirement at any meeting in 2025.
Six months of "running as usual"
The new year changed nothing in public. The council's January 6 reorganization meeting ran through its annual appointments and made no mention of a chief. The vacancy first surfaced again only because a resident raised it.
"Ms. Kulina continues for an update with the Police department," the February 11 minutes read, recording the question from resident Dot Kulina of Motor Road. Mayor Cuneo, according to the minutes, said the department was hiring and that "Lt. Morris is officer in charge and everything is running as usual."
The same exchange carried a quieter revelation. Kulina asked about merging police services with neighboring Beachwood. The mayor's answer, recorded in the minutes: "no further action to be had on that matter." The council had considered merging police services with Beachwood and let the idea die in February.
Instead of a chief, the council hired around the vacancy. It brought on patrolman Sean Delaporte in January and patrolman Ryan Laycock in March, whom Council President Barry Wieck described as "the seventh officer." It hired a part-time police secretary and signed a contract with Extra Duty Solutions to administer off-duty details. In February it approved a shared-service agreement with the prosecutor's office for SWAT and crisis negotiation, three months after approving two others covering DWI enforcement and the county's D.R.E.C.P. drug-recognition program.
Nothing in law required the borough to wait. Pine Beach is not a Civil Service jurisdiction, according to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission's published list of covered municipalities, so no exam process stood in the way. Borough code gives the mayor, with the council's consent, the power to appoint a chief and lays out a procedure for promotions. The public record shows the council used neither.
That record has a sealed layer. The council also meets twice monthly in work sessions with closed executive sessions, where personnel matters may legally be discussed. What the council said about the chief's office behind those doors remains sealed.
The borough's money moved before its command structure did. The 2026 budget, adopted May 13, cut the police salary line to $600,000 from $658,000, a drop of nearly 9 percent, even as total appropriations rose to $3.44 million. The 2025 salary line closed $74,871.37 under its appropriation. While the council hired more patrolmen and raised the ceiling for senior officers from $110,000 to $120,000, it left the chief's pay range unchanged at $25,000 to $150,000 in the salary ordinance introduced June 10 and set for adoption June 22 — 25 days before the takeover.
One budget line stands out. Pine Beach appropriated $12,000 for accreditation in 2025 and spent $9,242.26 of it, then appropriated the same amount for 2026. Accreditation through the New Jersey State Association of Chiefs of Police is the exact endpoint Billhimer pressed on Lavallette after his office took over that department in 2022, a process that borough resisted all the way to court. Whether Pine Beach's spending was the prosecutor's idea or the borough's own, the budget does not say.
Shared-service agreements had already woven the county into the department's operations. The agreements stacked up through 2025 and into this year. And Billhimer's July 17 announcement mirrors the statement his office issued when it took over Lavallette four years earlier, down to the structure of promising "appropriate levels of supervision, management and accountability." Lavallette fought that takeover all the way to court, and local control did not return for 10 months.
The prosecutor's office said nothing about misconduct. Billhimer, in the announcement carried by the Asbury Park Press, called the problem a leadership gap: "The departure of Chief Brown has left the Pine Beach Police Department without the appropriate level of leadership and supervision necessary to properly serve the residents of Pine Beach." Billhimer also commended Acting Lt. Ryan Morris for his "dedicated efforts as Officer-in-Charge since Chief Brown's retirement."
The prosecutor's office committed to a full review of the department's structure, management and policies, saying the goal was to build a permanent command. To run the department in the meantime, Billhimer named Chief of Detectives Casey M. Long as officer-in-charge and assigned Lt. John Carroll to day-to-day operations.
Borough praised the partnership and scheduled a closed session
Pine Beach's first official act after the takeover came quickly. On July 17, the day of the takeover, the borough posted notice of a special council meeting for July 22. The single item of substance: an executive session to discuss "pending or anticipated litigation or contract negotiation" and "personnel," with the agenda noting that action could be taken when the council returned to public session.
Whatever was said in that room, the borough's public face stayed welcoming. "The experience and resources provided by the Prosecutor's Office will allow our officers in becoming better stewards of the community," the borough said in a statement the day of the takeover, as reported by NJ.com. "The safety and security of our residents and officers is our primary concern. This partnership will strengthen our police department." The statement carried no official's name.
The council's next regular meeting is August 12 at 6:30 p.m. at borough hall. The borough publishes minutes only after approval at the following meeting, so the July 22 record will not appear until after August 12. That meeting will be the first account of whether Pine Beach's public welcome matched what was said behind closed doors.
Related Articles
• New Jersey's Fiscal Fault Lines: Six Cities, Six Models of Distress, and the State's Uneven Hand
• Sayreville Budget Deadlocks as NJ Health Insurance Costs Stall Municipal Government
• Jersey City Police Reorg Eliminates Posts, Adds New Management System
Sources
• Asbury Park Press, "Lavallette police department back under local control" (March 24, 2023)
• Asbury Park Press, "Ocean County Prosecutor takes over Pine Beach Police Department" (July 22, 2026)
• Asbury Park Press, "Ocean County Prosecutor's Office takes over Lavallette Police Department" (May 19, 2022)
• Borough of Pine Beach, 2025 Adopted Municipal Budget, adopted April 9, 2025
• Borough of Pine Beach, 2026 Adopted Municipal Budget, adopted May 13, 2026
• Borough of Pine Beach, Board Meetings Schedule and Agendas & Minutes Posting Policy
• Borough of Pine Beach, Code, Chapter 26, Police Department
• Borough of Pine Beach, Council Minutes, Jan. 2, 2025 through June 10, 2026, including Resolution 2025-100 recorded Sept. 10, 2025
• Borough of Pine Beach, Ordinance 2025-05-819 (salaries), adopted July 9, 2025
• Borough of Pine Beach, Ordinance 2026-08-831 (salaries), adopted June 22, 2026
• Borough of Pine Beach, Resolution 2025-142, Retirement of Chief Keith Brown, December 2025
• Borough of Pine Beach, Special Meeting Agenda, July 22, 2026
• Jersey Shore Online, "Pine Beach PD Taken Over By Ocean County Prosecutor" (July 17, 2026)
• Jersey Shore Online, "Prosecutor Takes Over Lavallette Police Department" (May 19, 2022)
• New Jersey Civil Service Commission, State Government 2025 Workforce Profile, Appendix: Listing of Local Civil Service System Jurisdictions (July 2024)
• NJ 101.5, "Lavallette police department takeover ends after 15 months" (March 24, 2023)
• NJ.com, "This N.J. police force hasn't had a chief since the start of the year" (July 17, 2026)
• Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, announcement on Lavallette Police Department restoration (March 24, 2023)
• Ocean County Prosecutor's Office, announcement on Pine Beach Police Department command (July 17, 2026)
• Patch, "Prosecutor Takes Over Lavallette Police Department" (May 19, 2022)
• Patch, "Prosecutor Takes Over Pine Beach Police Department" (July 17, 2026)