ROSELLE PARK — It was a meeting lasting only a few minutes just before Richard Templeton was sworn in as a Roselle Park councilman, but it left him, he said, with a nagging unpleasant feeling that reminded him of something he had been through before.
The previous year, Templeton said, during his unsuccessful bid for a council seat on the Republican ticket, he knew other members of the party were holding meetings and making decisions without talking to him.
Then on March 19, minutes before taking the oath of office, three GOP committee leaders pulled him aside and told him to abstain from voting that night on the appointment of a Democrat to a choice municipal job. Templeton ended up voting for the appointment.
Five days later, on March 23, Templeton switched parties to register as a Democrat, a change that to some of the 13,000 people in the 1.3-square-mile borough smacked of political intrigue. It stunned Republican leaders who are still wondering exactly when the new councilman decided cross the aisle.
"I was fed up with it," Templeton said of the instructions from the GOP leaders. "I'm my own person. I wanted to vote with a clear conscience."
"I had already been through hell," he added, referring to the 2014 campaign, when he says other Republican Party members excluded him from meetings.
In the aftermath, borough Republican chairwoman Elizabeth Cairney says she was flooded with complaints.
"I got letters from both Democrats and Republicans from the fifth ward that are very unhappy," she said. "He disenfranchised voters."
Cairney said she had suspicions, and her feelings were reinforced the night Templeton was sworn-in when Union County Sheriff Joseph Cryan, a longtime Democrat and former Democratic assemblyman, came to administer the oath of office.
Templeton said he had no idea Cryan would come to the ceremony, but added that the sheriff is a friend of his father. Cryan said borough Democratic Party leaders invited him, but he had no idea Templeton would be switching parties.
Templeton had been a Democrat, but joined the GOP last year when his next-door neighbor, then-Councilman Michael Yakubov, asked him to run for an at-large council seat. Yakubov was running for mayor.
In October, Yakubov was arrested and charged with stealing campaign signs of his opponent, Carl Hokanson, from his neighbor's lawn. Yakubov later pleaded guilty, received a "conditional dismissal" of the theft charge and was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. Yakubov said the arrest was a set-up, and a borough police officer was sitting in an unmarked car across the street from his house.
Hokanson, a retired borough police lieutenant, won the election and is now mayor. Templeton lost the race for council at-large to Democrat Charlene Storey.
In January, Yakubov announced he would resign his fifth-ward council seat as of March, and Templeton sought the seat.
Cairney said Templeton was screened by the GOP committee, which recommended him to fill the unexpired seat, though Cairney herself did not vote for Templeton.
Daniel Petrosky, borough Democratic committee chairman, said he first met Templeton through a friend last February. At the time, Templeton asked for some help with his campaign financing report for 2014.
Petrosky says he only heard about Templeton's dissatisfaction with the GOP committee after he was sworn-in on March 19. Petrosky said he first advised Templeton not to switch parties.
"I told him to stay on as a Republican," Petrosky said. However, Templeton was upset about being told how to vote.
"He didn't want another year like last year," Petrosky said. On March 23, Templeton switched his registration to Democrat.
Cairney says Templeton avoided her after he took office. She said it was days after Templeton switched parties that another GOP committee member went to Templeton's house. Nobody answered the door, but as the committee member was leaving, he saw a new Democratic Party bumper sticker on Templeton's truck.
Committee members quickly nominated Thomas Shipley to run for the fifth ward seat this year, as Yakubov's unexpired term, which Templeton filled, ends this year.
"It is very disappointing that Mr. Templeton chose to deceive the Roselle Park Republican Committee," Cairney said in a statement. "I hope that he does not practice this same avenue of deceit with the residents of the fifth ward who he now represents."
Tom Haydon may be reached at thaydon@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Tom_HaydonSL. Find NJ.com on Facebook.