PVSC employees were pressured to buy tickets for political fundraising events out of fear of retribution, according to several sources
Commissioner Frank Calandriello, right, talks to fellow commissioner William F. Flynn, left, Wayne Forrest, the executive director for PVSC, Anthony J. Luna, the chairman of PVSC and Carl Czaplicki Jr., the vice chairman of PVSC during a public meeting. The Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission is an obscure agency whose payroll is swollen with the friends and family of those with political clout, while records show the funneling of thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts to political insiders. TRENTON — State Sen. John Girgenti (D-Passaic) does not work for the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners.
Instead, it appears to work for him.
In his most recent campaign reports, more than $1 of every $10 Girgenti raised came from employees and vendors connected with Passaic Valley.
According to state campaign finance filings, those who work at the public authority over the years have given more than $100,000 in contributions to elected officials such as Girgenti and others — both Democratic and Republican — who have long held sway over the commission. Even more went to those same campaigns from consultants, engineers and lawyers who retain lucrative contracts with the public authority.
But the money connection apparently went even deeper — so deep that tickets for political fundraising events were being sold at the authority itself by supervisors there, and its employees were being pressured to buy them out of fear of retribution, according to several sources familiar with the matter who have been talking with the Attorney General’s Office. Those sources declined to be identified because it is the subject of an ongoing criminal probe. No one has been charged, but many PVSC employees have been questioned.
The fundraising scheme is the latest revelation to emerge from the patronage-laden agency since The Star-Ledger began publishing a series of reports about scandals there two weeks ago.
Evidence has already been culled from some PVSC computers, the sources said, with copies of political e-mail traffic regarding fundraisers for both Democratic and Republican campaigns. One computer, they said, contained a listing of all tickets sold to PVSC employees for an October 2010 beefsteak dinner for Girgenti at the Brownstone House in Paterson.
Questioned about the money coming from Passaic Valley, Girgenti said he does not solicit money from PVSC employees.
Officials at the Division of Criminal Justice within the Attorney General’s Office would neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation. However, the PVSC and many of its employees were recently hit with a spate of subpoenas looking into a long list of allegations of wrongdoing, including possible fundraising activities, the sources said — some as late as Friday.
The continuing focus on Passaic Valley comes following revelations of widespread nepotism, including the hiring of wives, brothers, in-laws and children; special interest contracts that benefited the communities of several commissioners; and the hiring of politically connected officials at six-figure salaries. One former congressional aide was making $214,000.
Last week, Gov. Chris Christie effectively fired six of PVSC’s seven commissioners, forcing them out after charging that they used their agency as a “piggy bank” for friends and family.
A seventh commissioner, Kenneth J. Lucianin, a Democratic appointee of former Gov. Jon Corzine, was not asked to leave. He remains the governor’s at-large representative.
The PVSC operates the largest sewage treatment plant in the state, handling the wastewater of 48 communities in Bergen, Passaic, Hudson and Essex counties, and has traditionally been a lucrative source of money for campaigns. With a payroll filled with appointees who owe their jobs to connections, state election finance reports show that employees have given more than $100,000 in contributions over the past decade.
Among the major contributors are William Flynn, one of the authority’s former commissioners who resigned last week. Records show Flynn — who first got a job with the agency as a safety inspector following his retirement from the Paterson Fire Department and was later named a commissioner — has over the years contributed more than $7,000 to Girgenti, who sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee, which must approve all appointments made by the governor.
Flynn’s term on the PVSC expired in 2008, but he remained as a holdover appointment because those named to replace him have been blocked through senatorial courtesy, the unwritten but strictly enforced rule giving state senators veto power over nominees from their legislative districts. Girgenti last year single-handedly blocked the appointment of a Passaic County nominee who was expected to take Flynn’s place on the commission.
Flynn, who at first insisted on an apology from the governor when he came under fire last week, did not return calls to his home for comment.
In Girgenti’s most recent campaign finance report, employees wrote checks totaling $7,900 in support of his re-election. That did not include those who gave below the threshold limit at the senator’s annual beefsteak dinner in Paterson. That same report showed those who do business with the commission kicked in another $14,000 for Girgenti’s election.
Girgenti said he has never solicited any contributions from anyone at the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners.
“We don’t go around selling tickets to people at the commission,” he said. “I’ve never personally solicited anything.”
The Attorney General’s Office, meanwhile, is apparently not limiting its focus on political fundraising at the commission. The sources familiar with the subpoenas said investigators are also apparently looking at charges that at least two top officials had major improvement work done at their homes by carpenters employed at the sewage treatment plant.
The work, they said, was done using PVSC materials and supplies, while the employees were on the clock, and included the fabrication of new kitchen cabinets. The sources said there were also reports of Sheetrock, recycling trash barrels and other materials missing from a warehouse.
In addition, one employee already disciplined for operating his own accounting business out of his PVSC office has come under renewed attention by the attorney general. Separately, investigators are looking into other allegations that an outside contractor was forced to kick back $20,000 to settle a contract dispute, the sources said.
Wayne Forrest, the former Somerset County prosecutor named the PVSC’s executive director last July at Christie’s behest, would not comment on any subpoenas, acknowledging only that there have been matters he has referred to the attorney general.
Last week, he was vested by the governor with full authority to run the commission pending the naming of a new board. One of the first things he did was cancel a trip by two of the ousted commissioners — Carl Czaplicki of Jersey City and Thomas Powell of Harrison — to this week’s winter conference in Florida of the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. The conference was booked at Fort Lauderdale’s Hyatt Regency Pier Sixty-Six Resort and Spa.
“I canceled that in light of what’s going on,” said Forrest.