Michael Ruvo, 58, admitted using his role as code enforcement officer in Beachwood in transactions that benefited himself personally. Karen Wall, Patch StaffTOMS RIVER, NJ —A Toms River man has pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception and record tampering in connection with actions he took as a code enforcement officer in Beachwood, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said.Michael Ruvo, 58, pleaded guilty on T...
Michael Ruvo, 58, admitted using his role as code enforcement officer in Beachwood in transactions that benefited himself personally.
Karen Wall, Patch Staff
TOMS RIVER, NJ —A Toms River man has pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception and record tampering in connection with actions he took as a code enforcement officer in Beachwood, the Ocean County Prosecutor's Office said.
Michael Ruvo, 58, pleaded guilty on Tuesday before Superior Court Judge Guy P. Ryan, Prosecutor Bradley D. Billhimer said. Ruvo is scheduled to be sentenced on April 11 and prosecutors are expected to seek a term of 364 days in the Ocean County Jail as a condition of probation, Billhimer said.
Ruvo also will be required to forfeit any and all future public employment and make restitution of $2,800, the prosecutor's office said.
Ruvo was charged in September 2023 after an investigation by the prosecutor's office Economic Crimes Unit found he had "engaged in a number of unauthorized transactions wherein he utilized his position to gain unlawful personal benefits," the prosecutor's office said at the time. He surrendered himself on Sept. 20, 2023, to the Ocean County Sheriff’s Office in the presence of his attorney and was released on a summons.
As the code enforcement and zoning officer in Beachwood, Ruvo was responsible for conducting inspections to ensure compliance with various municipal ordinances, initiating legal proceedings against violators of municipal ordinances, and signing off on certificates of occupancy that permitted residences to be occupied.
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In that capacity he issued a code enforcement violation to a property owner on Tiller Avenue in June 2022. The property owner contacted Ruvo and said she had received an estimate to bring the property up to code but was seeking an extension of time to remedy the violation. Ruvo told the woman he knew of a company that would perform the job at a lower cost than the estimate and do it sooner, prosecutors said, and told her to contact the company, Express Cleanout.
Investigators learned Ruvo was the owner of Express Cleanout and failed to disclose that to the property owner, and then his company failed to complete the job in full, prosecutors said. Ruvo then deemed the property to be in compliance, in his capacity as the Beachwood code enforcement officer, in spite of the fact that his company did not finish the work.
The prosecutor's office also said that in March 2022, Ruvo signed a certification in his role as zoning officer stating that a property on Compass Avenue in Beachwood was abandoned — a certification that would be filed as part of a tax sale foreclosure and would allow the foreclosure to be expedited. But the property had someone living there, which Ruvo knew when he signed the certification, the prosecutor's office said.
The news release on Ruvo's guilty plea did not address other accusations the prosecutor's office made in 2023, including allegations he had billed other towns for working hours at the same time he certified he was working for Beachwood.
It also did not address a claim that he used information available to him as a code enforcement officer to buy a home at less than market value that had multiple code violations.
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