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Municipalities and school boards are required to hire outside auditors to keep tabs on their books and finances. But who’s keeping tabs on the auditors?
A report released this week by the state Comptroller suggests the audit system is “deeply flawed” and points to cozy relationships between auditing firms and the governing bodies they serve. In some municipalities, the same auditors have been in place for decades and donate to the campaigns of the officials who hire them
Hillside is one such place.
The Hillside Township Council hires Suplee Clooney year after year without competitive bid — a practice the comptroller warns against.
In the past, Suplee Clooney has served as the auditors for the school board and Township Hall simultaneously.
And their work does not come cheap for Hillside. In 2005, the firm charged the township almost $95,000 — the second most expensive contract the firm had with a Union County municipality. Last year, they charged Hillside an additional $40,000 over their base contract.
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Posted in Pay, Play & Tax, Township Hall | 1 Comment »
The Hillside Township Council last night elected 3rd Ward Councilman John Kulish as its president and 1st Ward Councilman Edward Brewer as vice president.
KULISH |
Councilman-at-large Leonard Gilbert did not seek another term as council president, just as he had promised last week.
Neither Kulish — a registered Republican allied with the Democratic machine — nor Brewer are up for election next year. Could this be a plan to keep the at-large candidates, whose terms expire next spring, under low profile to avoid taking the blame for this year’s (and last’s) property tax increase?
As expected, the two independent council members, the 2nd Ward’s Shelley-Ann Bates and the 4th Ward’s Gerald “Pateesh” Freedman, were not appointed to any council committees.
It has long been a show of force by the majority party on the council and Board of Education to excluded opposition members from committees, although the practice seems a bit odd. First of all, being on a committee isn’t fun. It means extra work and extra meetings. Secondly, all final decisions are made by the full council or school board, not by a committee. And finally, not being on any committee sure makes it a lot easier to sit back and be the critic.
In any event, President Kulish told Freedman and Bates not to be concerned about the lack of assignments, promising them they’d be kept busy “up to their necks” in the upcoming year.
In other news:
Richard Bauch, of Democratic moneybag firm Schenck, Price, Smith & King, and Kathy Hatfield are in as Personnel Attorneys
Robert Renaud was reappointed as Special Tax Appeal Attorney
Steve Rogut is the Bond Attorney
Samuel Manigault is the Public Defender
Francis McIntyre is in a Special Township Attorney for the Board of Health
Harbor Consultants are still the Township Engineers
Ed Kologi and Michael Simitz are Special Township Attorneys
Daniel McCarthy is Special Township Attorney
Robert Varady, a resident of King Street, is the ABC attorney
Diane Rowe was reappointed as Deputy Township Clerk
Supee, Clooney and Co. are the auditors again
Anthony L. Acampora, M.D., who Kulish noted was his doctor, was appointed to complete all pre-employment physicals
Hugh Keffer is the night prosecutor and Lara DiFabrizio is the day prosecutor
Adam Samiec was brought on again as an engineering consultant.
Appointments to boards included the usual suspects:
Local Assistance Board: Rev. Nancy Ruckert and Ann Kaufman
Board of Health: Alan Zimmerman, Rosemary McClave, Debbie Stroud
Zoning Board of Adjustment: Joe Miskiewicz, Nagy Sileem, Chales Watts
Swimming Pool Commission: Paula Reico
Community Recreation Advisory Council: Frederick Bloomfield
Posted in Township Hall | 5 Comments »
Firms that give generously and regularly to the Hillside Democratic Committee (HDC) and its candidates also benefited from township, school board and county contracts worth millions.
The relationship between the contributions and the contracts they received, while not illegal, should raise eyebrows among pay-to-play critics and taxpayers concerned with whether contracts are awarded to the most qualified and affordable companies.
GIVE & TAKE
Nearly every firm that helped fund the Hillside political machine’s $58,000 war chest this year has worked for the township or Union County government, which is controlled by the machine Democrats.
Harbor Consultants, which gave $500 to the Democrat’s school board campaign this year and $3,000 to the HDC last year, serves as the township’s engineers.
They also got a $3.051 million contract from Union County and more than $202,800 in contracts from the Union County Improvement Authority, which is run by Democratic party boss Charlotte DeFilippo, a Hillside resident.
Agents of Hale Insurance, which got $11,000 from the township last year, gave the HDC $500 and their school board candidates $1,500.
Imperial Construction, of Elizabeth, gave the HDC $3,000 last year and $500 this year to the school board candidates. From DeFilippo’s Improvement Authority, they got $972,587, and from the county, $26,457.
Weber Law attorney Kraig Dowd, one of the township’s many lawyers, donated $75. The firm’s namesake, Guido Weber, of Montclair, also donated $75.
Richard Bauch, a lawyer with Schenck, Price, Smith & King, gave $75 after the firm earned nearly $185,000 in legal services last year from the Improvement Authority and $222,000 from Union County.
William Malone, an Elizabeth insurance broker, gave the HDC $150.
Martin Statfield, an insurance broker with Brown & Brown, donated $500. His only connection to “Hillside” seems to be his Livingston address: North Hillside Avenue.
AUDITORS TAKING
CARE OF BUSINESS
One of the biggest contributors to the Hillside machine is the auditing firm Suplee Clooney, which is awash in contracts from Hillside and Union County.
The HDC last year got $295 from the firm and $885 more from Suplee Clooney employees, none of whom live in Hillside.
The HDC also reported a $295 contribution from Elizabeth D. Cagnassola, who election finance reports list as a humble “homemaker” from Westfield. Why would a Westfield housewife be so desperate to donate to the Hillside Democrats? Perhaps she knows Robert Cagnassola, a partner in Suplee Clooney.
But Suplee Clooney isn’t needing for dough.
The company lists a 2005 contract with Hillside for almost $95,000 — the second most expensive auditing contract the firm had with a Union County municipality. The firm continues to do work for Hillside.
The firm also did work for the Improvement Authority ($112,700), the Joint Meeting of Essex and Union Counties ($15,500), Union County ($280,975) and the Union County Utilities Authority ($31,200).
Contracts with other county municipalities, school boards and public entities amounted to about $1.1 million in 2005.
BUSINESS AS USUAL
New Jersey’s rampant pay-to-play system, in which campaign contributions often follow or precede awarding of contracts, has long been blamed for the state’s highest-in-the-nation property taxes and its miles-long corrupt parade of indicted and convicted officials.
Recent legislation that allegedly seeks to curb pay-to-play is both difficult to understand and easy to circumvent.
A state prohibition on contributions from companies that do business with Trenton, for example, doesn’t affect donations to county parties, certain campaign committees and municipal parties or candidates. The result is virtually what we had before the laws took effect.
But one law, however, helps shine a light on the process by annually publishing a list of companies that do business with the state and how much they donated to campaigns.
The Election Law Enforcement Commission this year revealed that about 1,700 companies reported $5.4 billion in public contracts and donated about $15.2 million to campaigns.
What does this mean for New Jersey? Your tax bill might be a good indicator.
This year, Hillside municipal taxes are going up; Union County taxes are going up; and state taxes, spending and debt are as high as ever.
Posted in In the Schools, News, Pay, Play & Tax, Township Hall | No Comments »
On the campaign trail she promised to be an independent voice in Town Hall — and on her first day on the job, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Shelley-Ann Bates did just that.
Bates, along with three other ward councilmen who won re-election in May, were sworn in this afternoon in an annual reorganization meeting which tended to spare the niceties between rival factions.
“I can see that my colleague is already making her presence felt,” said 4th Ward Councilman Gerald “Pateesh” Freedman, agreeing with Bates to abstain on the votes to appoint Councilman-at-Large Leonard Gilbert as council president and 3rd Ward Councilman John Kulish as vice president.
SHELLEY-ANN BATES: Newest council member. |
Both Bates and Freedman — no longer the lone independent on the Democratic majority council — said many items on the re-organization agenda were placed there without prior discussion.
“I didn’t get the necessary communication to make an educated vote,” said Bates, who often abstained on votes to appoint top fire department officials, township attorneys and members to local boards and committees.
With Bates on the council, the political makeup of the seven-member body changes slightly. Bates defeated Democratic machine-backed incumbent Deborah Stroud in a June runoff, bringing the total of independents on the council to two. Party Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo still maintains a veto-proof five-member majority.
Also sworn in were 3rd Ward Councilman John Kulish and 1st Ward Councilman Edward Brewer.
In May’s nonpartisan race, Kulish eked out a four-vote margin over Joseph Puglise, who ran on a slate with Joseph Menza running in the 2nd Ward and school board member John O’Shea in the 1st Ward.
Freedman creamed former school board members Sip Whitaker, who also ran as an independent, and Beverly Lynn, who ran with unofficial support from the Democratic organization.
In the runoff, Bates received support from the other challengers seeking Stroud’s seat: former mayoral candidate Joseph Menza, Myrna Wiessman and Toy-Ling Washington. Mayor Karen McCoy-Oliver, a Democrat who is now on the outs with the machine, also backed Bates in the runoff.
COUNCIL BRIEFS
Resolutions appointing fire department officials:
- Dominick Naples as Fire Chief effective Aug. 1 at $127,096.
- William Pellettiere as Deputy Fire Chief effective Aug. 1 at $117,682.
- Thomas S. Corso and Jude M. DeLane as Deputy Fire Chiefs at $117,682.
- Thomas Mateer and Jeffrey Albrecht as Fire Captains at $94,460.
- John Pienciak as Fire Captain effective Aug. 1 at $94,460.
- Richard Vonden Steinen as Training Officer at 94,460.
Appointments by resolutions:
- Robert Renaud of Palumbo and Renaud as special tax appeal attorney for a total of $95,000 per year.
- Steve Rogut of Rogut and McCarthy as bond attorney for a total of $20,000 per year.
- Bruce Bergen of Krevsky, Silber, Brown & Bergen as special township attorney for a total of $15,000 oer year.
- Francis McIntryre (sic) of McIntrye & Kirshenbaum as special township attorney for the Board of Health for a total of $8,500 per year.
- Kraig Dowd as legislative research officer in the Township Clerk’s Office at $45,000 per year.
- Harbor Conultants, Inc, of Cranford, as township engineers, at $100,000 per year.
- Robert Varady of LaCorte Bundy Varady & Kinsella as ABC attorney for a total of $15,000 per year.
- Suplee Clooney & Co. as auditors (rate not listed on agenda)
- PMK Group for special engineering services for a total of $40,000.
- Richard Bauch of Schenk, Price, Smith & King as contract negotiations attorney for a total of $65,000 per year.
Board appointments:
- Two-year terms on the Board of Health: Georgette Corvelli, Dr. Irving Carno and Arthur Kobitz and Deborah Stroud for the unexpired term ending une 30, 2008.
- Four-year terms on the Board of Adjustment: Dennis Kobitz, Frank Volturo, Radomir Vlaisavljevic and Richard Semiac as alternate.
- Vivian Monroe as member of Senior Citizens Advisory Council for five-year term.
- Martin Hollander and Joseph Menza as four-year member of Planning Board and
Candace Harris and Andre Daniels as alternates.
- Five-year terms on Recreation Advisory Council: Nicola Drezaj, Gerald Russel and Leonard Dupree.
- A resolution to appoint members to the Board of Swimming Pool Commissioners did not receive a second, and therefore was not voted on. The names submitted by the mayor were: Jeffrey Dykes, Sip Whitaker, Angela Menza, John O’Shea and Amy Ketchem.
Public comments:
- Resident Rudy Brown said if the township can afford to hire “one attorney to look after another” then surely the Council can abolish the municipal pool fees for children.
- Jeffrey Dykes said the Council spends tax dollars “like Monopoly money” and that “taxes are higher than the services that our children receive.” He also agreed with Brown on the pool, claiming he’s seen children at the pool entrance begging families to give them money to be able to afford the $10 fee.
Posted in News, Township Hall | 1 Comment »
