Letter: Birdsall& A Tale of Two Crimes

The expressed opinions or views of this letter does not necessarily represent the opinion of the MiddletownMike blog:

Dear Editor,

When it comes to political corruption, serious crime pays in the Ocean County, New Jersey Superior Court.

Case in point: Howard Birdsall of Birdsall Services Group, pleaded guilty to corporate misconduct and fraud charges, admitting to making countless illegal political donations to score high-value government contracts. Under the terms of his plea before Judge James Den Uyl, he will get a four year sentence, with likely immediate Intensive Supervision Parole release. Mr. Birdsall might never see a day in prison.

Yet Jon Peditto, a local photographer who victimlessly grew 17 marijuana plants for his own usage and occasionally shared a joint with friends, was recently sentenced to eight years in state prison, with an over two year mandatory minimum, by fellow Ocean County Judge James Blaney.

Judge James Den Uyl should reject the sentencing recommendation in Mr. Birdsall's plea deal, and require Howard Birdsall to actually serve at least a decade in prison for his serious crimes or face a trial. The public cannot accept otherwise.



Eric Hafner
Toms River

If Truth Be Told, Brookdale Looked The Other Way In Birdsall Conflict of Interest

While acting as chairman of Brookdale Community College's board of trustees for more than 20 years,  Howard Birdsall, was a major shareholder and former CEO of Birdsall Services Group (BSG), which would have seemed to be in violation of the college's strick "conflict-of-interest" policy.  In an article published last week in the Independent titled "County, towns caught up in Birdsall probe", officials at Brookdale stated no:

“At no time during his tenure as a member of the board did Brookdale conduct business with Birdsall Services Group,” the statement read. “The bylaws of the board of trustees clearly state that ‘no board member or employee shall have a direct or indirect interest, financial or otherwise, in a contract with the college,’ and this conflict-of-interest policy is strictly enforced.”

If that statement is to be believed than how does Brookdale officials explain their connection with BSG and its role as energy procurement consultant for the County College Electric and Natural Gas Consortium?

As per BSG's website:

In our role as energy procurement consultant for the County College Electric and Natural Gas Consortium, we initially acquired historical data using an Electronic Data Interchange ("EDI") system, secured, and assembled the most recent 12-month historical usage data from the current supplier(s). BSG prepared comprehensive bid documents that were submitted electronically and by hard copy to all licensed third party suppliers in New Jersey. Upon receipt of competitive bids from third party suppliers, BSG performed a bid analysis and determined that it was in the best interest of to the County College Energy Consortium to enter a utility contract with the lowest bidding New Jersey BPU-licensed Third Party Supplier (TPS). The County College Electric Consortium included Mercer, Middlesex, Union, Burlington, and Bergen County Colleges. The County College Natural Gas Consortium includes Bergen, Brookdale, Burlington, Camden, Cumberland, Mercer, Morris, Ocean, Raritan, and Sussex County Colleges.

BSG remains the energy procurement consultant for the County College Natural Gas Energy Consortium.

It's pretty obvious from the screenshot above that BSG had a relationship with Brookdale, how else do you explain their use of a picture of the college's Larrison Hall on their website? It is also obvious that as a member of the County College Consortium, Brookdale looked the other way, in clear violation of its so-called "strick" conflict-of-interest policy and allowed Howard Birdsall to remain, not only as a member of Brookdale's board of trustees, but as its chairman.

Why would Brookdale lie about this? Maybe they figured that after Birdsall resigned his position on the board in the wake of the scandal that encompassed former college president Peter Burnham, they thought that no one would find out about this and they wouldn't have to answer any additional questions.

Who knows really? But the bottom line is that it is always better to be up front and straight about a situation rather than try and hide it. If you attempt to hide it, then flags get raised and before you know mountains are made out of mole hills and smoke begins to rise and where's there smoke, there's usually fire.

Former CEO of Birdsall Engineering and 6 Others Indicted For 'Pay-to-Play'

I'm a little late on this but it's worth noting that Howard Birdsall was the Chairman of the Brookdale Community College Board of Trustees when College President Peter Burnham, was charged and subsequently sent to prison for 5 years on Theft by Deception and Official Misconduct charges. I haven't seen this little fact mentioned in any of the stories circulating since the news about this pay-to-play scheme came to light.

Here's the press release issued by the State Attorney General's Office:

TRENTON – Attorney General Jeffrey S. Chiesa announced that Howard C. Birdsall, the largest shareholder and former CEO of Birdsall Services Group, a large Monmouth County-based engineering firm, was indicted today along with the firm and six other executives and shareholders on charges that they conspired in a scheme to avoid the restrictions of New Jersey’s Pay-to-Play Act by disguising illegal corporate political contributions as personal contributions of employees of the firm.

Under the scheme, instead of Birdsall Services Group making corporate political contributions to campaigns and political organizations that would disqualify it from public contracts awarded by certain government agencies, shareholders and employees of the firm allegedly made personal political contributions of $300 or less, which are deemed unreportable. Multiple personal checks were bundled together at BSG and sent to the appropriate campaign or political organization. It is alleged that the shareholders and employees were then illegally reimbursed by Birdsall, directly or indirectly, through added bonus payments, and the firm falsely omitted the illegally reimbursed contributions in documents filed with the Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) and with government agencies that awarded the firm engineering services contracts. The scheme allegedly continued for more than six years and involved hundreds of thousands of dollars in contributions.

All of the defendants face first-degree counts of conspiracy and money laundering, as well as other charges. The first-degree charges carry a sentence of 10 to 20 years in state prison, and the money laundering counts also carry fines and penalties of up to $1 million. Two employees of the marketing department of Birdsall previously pleaded guilty to participating in the scheme.

“These men allegedly participated in a corrupt scheme in which they made hundreds of thousands of dollars in corporate political contributions, but disguised them as individual contributions to evade our pay-to-play law,” said Attorney General Chiesa. “The defendants secured millions of dollars in public contracts for which they should have been disqualified. We have rules to prevent politically connected firms from stacking the deck in their favor in public contracting, but these defendants allegedly broke those rules and committed serious crimes.”

“New Jersey’s pay-to-play law seeks to ensure fair and open public contracting, free of the sway of political interests,” said Director Elie Honig of the Division of Criminal Justice. “As this indictment demonstrates, we will bring serious charges against anyone who engages in criminal conduct to skirt that important law.”

The Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau today obtained a nine-count state grand jury indictment charging Birdsall Services Group, which is headquartered in Eatontown, and the following individual defendants:

1. Howard C. Birdsall, 69, of Brielle, the largest shareholder of Birdsall, who retired late last year as CEO. He allegedly made at least $49,808 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
2. Thomas Rospos, 61, of Belmar, a former Executive Vice President of Birdsall. Rospos was charged in a prior indictment in the case, but this indictment supersedes the earlier one. He allegedly made at least $241,000 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
3. William Birdsall, 64, of Manchester, Howard’s brother. He holds the title of Senior Vice President and is a significant shareholder of the firm. He is semi-retired. He allegedly made at least $74,459 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
4. Alan Hilla Sr., 73, of Brielle. He is Executive Vice President for Business Development for Birdsall and a significant shareholder of Birdsall. He is also semi-retired. He allegedly made at least $148,309 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
5. Scott MacFadden, 58, of Brick, Chief Administrative Officer of Birdsall. He allegedly made at least $77,957 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
6. James Johnston, 51, of North Brunswick. He is President of the Environmental Consulting Division of Birdsall and a significant shareholder. He allegedly made at least $45,797 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.
7. Robert Gerard, 52, of Wall. He is the former Chief Marketing Officer of Birdsall and was formerly a significant shareholder. He allegedly made at least $48,700 in illegally reimbursed political contributions.

The amounts listed for illegal contributions by the defendants are approximate figures based on the investigation to date. The investigation is ongoing.

Each of the defendants is charged with conspiracy (1st degree), two counts of money laundering (1st degree), making false representations for government contracts (2nd degree), misconduct by a corporate official (2nd degree), tampering with public records or information (3rd degree), falsifying records (4th degree), prohibited corporation contributions through employees (4th degree), and concealment or misrepresentation of contributions or expenditures (4th degree).

The charges stem from an investigation by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. Deputy Attorney General Anthony A. Picione, Deputy Chief of the Corruption Bureau, and Deputy Attorney General Victor Salgado presented the case to the state grand jury and took the prior guilty pleas. Detectives Kiersten Pentony, Edward Augustyn, Janine Buchalski and Melissa Calkin have been the lead detectives.

Read More

Monmouth Freeholder Amy Mallet Comments On Birdsall Resignation From Brookdale Board of Trustees

I am grateful to Howard Birdsall for his service to Monmouth County and Brookdale Community College. I called for his resignation in February and I applaud him for having the good sense to do the right thing. During his term the school realized positive change; but as we are all well aware, problems with accountability also occurred. These problems are largely due to complacency that I believe can be a common consequence of 23 years on the board. This resignation is a start, but in order to realize a new era of accountability more change must take place. I feel that the co-chair, Mr. Elkes, should consider resigning as he has also served for more than 15 years.

In addition, my colleagues on the Freeholder Board need to take my call for term limits on this and other boards seriously. There is overwhelming support from the public for rotation on these semi-autonomous bodies, and my office has received numerous resumes from residents interested in serving.

I have also called for the resignation of John Cantalupo, the attorney who serves as general counsel for Brookdale. His role in drafting the perquisite laden contract of the former President demonstrates a lack of good judgment. Brookdale Community College is a fine institution and the students, staff and alumni deserve finely tuned representation.

Ever Wonder Why Lillian Burry Maintains Her Silence On Resignations?

Yesterday's editorial in the Asbury Park Press questioned why the Brookdale College Board of Trustees didn't do a better job of scrutinizing the expenses of former college President Peter Burnham and once again calls for the resignation of the Board President Howard Birdsall and Board Attorney John M. Cantalupo.

Birdsall and Cantalupo have both arrogantly ignored numerous requests from Freeholders Amy Mallet and John Curley, the Asbury Park Press and others to resign. So why haven't they felt it necessary to admit a certain degree of fault in this scandal and heed the call to step down? It could be argued rather successfully that both looked the other way when others told them of Burnham's improprieties.

It is also rather curious why the grand-dame of the Monmouth County Freeholder Board, Lillian Burry, hasn't spoken out and demanded Birdsall and Cantalupo step down. After all, Burry was criticized for not speaking out sooner on the Burnham situation when the first allegations of improprieties surfaced against him.

Why is that do you think?

It couldn't have anything to do with the fact the John M. Cantalupo is a close personal friend of Burry's and has been acting as her Campaign Treasurer over the years, could it? Let's think about it for a second, who was negotiating the terms Peter Burnham's Brookdale contracts over the years, it was Cantalupo. Given Cantalupo's status as personal friend and campaign treasurer, I find it hard to believe that Burry had no idea of over the years, what was contained in Burnham's employment contracts.

And what about Howard Birdsall and his company, Birdsall Service Group ? Both are so intertwined within Monmouth County through political donations and public contracts, that Lillian Burry must feels it's not in her best interest to speak out publicly against Birdsall

It's for these reasons and others why it is so important to impose term limits on those that serve on volunteer boards and commissions in Monmouth County as Freeholder Mallet proposed last month but had her proposal voted down by her Republican colleagues on the Freeholder Board.

As stated in the APP editorial, it's time for Birdsall and Cantalupo to accept part of the blame for the Burnham scandal and step down from the Brookdale Community College Board of Trustees.