Cultivating Justice in the Garden State

David Wildstein had Chapter 3 – Settling Scores – on his blog which led a my first blog. Now the book is out and reveals Union County political power broker Raymond Lesniak to be in line with almost all other politicians here who believe they know it all because they elicit the largest bribes. Lesniak’s career highlight was some forensic competition he won in France opposing the death penalty. We find out about France, his method of preparation, and the skill level of his opponents that day but nothing about his argument. It’s all about him.

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Costly Clark Scandal

The Union County Commissioner Board called for resignations and today the Star Ledger basically did the same while painting Clark as a town of corrupt racists (or, at least, enablers).

I agree there should be resignations and it should include the entire governing body if my allegation is proven. My allegation has less to do with racist audio tapes than with this videotape from the February 18, 2020 Clark council meeting:

Banning Politics When It Gets In the Way of Political Donations

At the end of this week’s Kenilworth council meeting:

Yet when it was brought to the council’s attention that an engineering firm was scamming the borough out of millions of dollars politicians awaiting their next donation from that firm shut down talk that would obviously be for the good of Kenilworth but not for the good of their campaign coffers.

Here is what prompted that politics talk this time and what Union County is doing about potential criticism.

Monitoring Scutari

The New Jersey Monitor picked up on the Scutari low-show Linden job story as if there would be real consequences. There won’t be but at least we got a couple of quotes and a copy of the Calcagni Kanefsky report.

Me Asking the Governor

Gov. Phil Murphy was taking YOUR questions on News12 New Jersey this afternoon. Mine was on property taxes and political corruption. I leave it to you to decide if I got an acceptable answer.

Scutari Ethics

Curb you astonishment but it was reported:

On Tuesday afternoon, a coalition of advocates, students and residents led by New Jersey Working Families Alliance filed an ethics complaint against State Senator Nicholas Scutari for allegations concerning the senator’s law practice. The complaint, filed with the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards, called for a full investigation relating to the conduct of the Senator. According to an investigation by the law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky, Senator Scutari committed “serial absenteeism” over the course of five years as Linden municipal prosecutor, missing 255 of 628 court sessions and costing the municipality nearly $200,000.

Yes, they are asking a judge to sanction the guy who confirms judges. But worse than that:

Scutari Troubles

Verdict from Reporters Roundtable in the minute they allocated to it: “not good”.

Taylor Made Money Wheeling

“wheeling”, the channeling of money through different political committees to avoid contribution limits.

It was a surprise to see Union County finance director Bibi Taylor running for an Assembly seat in the 21st district in February and then withdrawing the next month. It now makes perfect sense. She was Nick Scutari’s bag woman.

NJ state senator may be ineligible for pension credits after report claims ‘serial absenteeism’

That is the headline from a story that starts:

State Sen. Nicholas Scutari’s alleged no-show job as Linden’s municipal prosecutor — first revealed in a 2019 audit — likely allowed him to collect years of pension credits for which he was ineligible and could expose him to potential criminal prosecution, an investigative report obtained by the USA Today Network New Jersey shows.The 59-page report, prepared for Linden by law firm Calcagni & Kanefsky, accuses Scutari of “serial absenteeism” during his last five years as prosecutor. It also says the powerful Union County Democrat cost Linden nearly $200,000 and compares his actions to those of Wayne Bryant, the former state senator found guilty in 2008 of illegally padding his pension with a no-show job.

…….

Scutari, who oversees political and judicial appointments as chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, also leads the Union County Democratic Committee.

That latter job allows Scutari, in a Democrat-dominated county, to pick who he wants to sit on the Board of Commissioners and, by extension, who gets hired by Union County for any job or contract.

Though Nicholas Scutari’s Senate bio page lists his Public/Party Service as “City of Linden Prosecutor 2003-present” that is not the case as only relatives* appear on the latest datauniverse databases. However, back in 2017, he was listed:

Cryan’s Cronies

NJSpotlight took a look at next month’s 20th District primary in Union County:

Nothing on bondage but Cryan did get called out on one issue:

Coincidentally an anonymous follower took the trouble to document those family ties back in 2014: