Cloud of corruption lingers over city

nj.com has this gimmick where they give you just enough of a headline to get you interested but leave out a major piece of information, in this case the name of the city, to get you to either impluse-subscribe or pay $5 for the paper. It worked this Sunday with this story headlined:

Corruption has long been pervasive in New Jersey. Was this the state’s most corrupt city?

From no-show jobs and sweetheart deals, the business of government in New Jersey for some can be a game of opportunity.

I did buy the paper for the first time in years and it was worth it as I found a lot to relate to. In appreciation to nj.com I will keep the name of the city secret, substituting a K for wherever the city name appears and initials for names of people.

From no-show jobs and sweetheart deals, to pay-to-play schemes that reward political contributors with lucrative public contracts, the business of government in New Jersey for some can be a game of opportunity. In K, though, the game was taken to another level. An examination of hundreds of pages of financial records, emails and court filings, as well as years of municipal purchase orders obtained by NJ Advance Media, offer a graphic road map of payments involving friends and cronies, many tied to a wide-ranging series of schemes that included what prosecutors claim were self-serving bogus contracts or big payments used to fuel hidden kickbacks.

You look at places like K and you have to seriously wonder whether and to what extent corruption has actually become an ingrained, endemic part of the community’s political and economic culture.” remarked LS…;What the SCI found, he said was that the K’s core governing structure had ‘basically been turned into a cash-cow political fundraising machine.”

“I look at these from a fiduciary duty perspective and ask, did anyone on the K council see the land mines? Or even poke around for them?”

While all of it was going on, though, residents were getting socked with higher taxes.

TC, a former federal prosecutor with long experience in corruption cases, said the extent of the ongoing investigations and prosecutions in K “suggests the feds are working with an informant or cooperator. That person is likely someone on the inside of K’s administration, who’s proven him or herself reliable in providing information.” It does not reflect well on K, added TC, suggesting that the continuing drumbeat of charges was “emblematic of an administration with loose controls and low emphasis on ethics.”

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BTW: Lawn signs are appearing in Kenilworth. Democrats have them at relatively few houses with candidate names but I saw nothing with Republican names.There are these with no indication of the responsible party and, though nobody appreciates truth in advertising more than I do, I wonder if this is the wisest tack here.

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