Lt. Gov. Guadagno Breaks Silence on Double-Dipping

For Immediate Release:


New Jersey Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno – as Monmouth County sheriff in 2008 – made conflicting and misleading statements to enable her top aide to collect an $85,000 a year pension plus an $87,500 salary.

Now in the heat of a political campaign, Guadagno has broken a long silence. She claims her maneuvers benefitted taxpayers.

"It saved the taxpayers of Monmouth County $50,000 for the year, put a uniformed officer on the street, put a well-qualified retired law enforcement officer in his place," Guadagno told Associated Press in a national wire story.

Her explanation overlooked several key facts:

• The aide, Michael W. Donovan, collected $228,000 he otherwise would not have received from a state pension fund. He also avoided paying $17,000 in new contributions to the Police and Firemen's Retirement System.
• The incident triggered an investigation in 2011 by the state Division of Criminal Justice. The probe was requested by the PFRS board of trustees.
• Despite a glaring conflict of interest – Guadagno was DCJ's former deputy director – Gov. Chris Christie failed to appoint an independent investigator or prosecutor to handle the case.
• DCJ has refused to reveal the results of its investigation. A New Jersey Watchdog reporter is suing the state in Mercer County Superior Court for records of the probe.

The Guadagno-Donovan pension controversy was first revealed by a New Jersey Watchdog investigation in 2010.

The full story is now online at http://newjersey.watchdog.org. The direct link is http://newjersey.watchdog.org/2013/11/01/9333/.

How NJ Cops 'Clean Up' on Disability Pensions

For Immediate Release:


TAXPAYER TRAUMA! HOW NJ COPS 'CLEAN UP' ON DISABILITY PENSIONS

Timothy Carroll retired at age 33. He claimed he was "totally and permanently" disabled by the trauma of seeing dead bodies while working as a sheriff's officer in Morris County, New Jersey.

The real shock is Carroll then started a business that cleans up gory crime scenes, a New Jersey Watchdog investigation found. Yet the state continues to pay him a disability pension for life, a sum that could total $1 million or more.

Carroll's company – Tragic Solutions LLC, of Linden – specializes in removing human residue from "bloody and/or messy" scenes, including "murder, suicide, accidental, natural and decomposing deaths," according to its web site.

"This says there is a problem with the whole pension system, the way the whole system is set up," said John Sierchio, a trustee of the state Police and Firemen's Retirement System. PFRS paid out $175 million to 5,067 disabled retirees in 2011 – figures expected to rise when 2012 data are released.

The supposedly career-ending incidents have included a fireman who fell out of bed while sleeping, an officer who fell off his chair while sitting down, cops who slipped on wet floors or icy sidewalks, and a patrolman who suffered emotional trauma because his lieutenant yelled at him during roll call.

In New Jersey, it's relatively easy to fake or exaggerate an injury to get a disability pension. The PFRS has no staff to investigate fraud. Nor do any of the state's five other retirement funds for public employees. The Tragic Solutions case illustrates how weak laws, red tape and lack of enforcement contribute to the woes of a state pension system that faces a shortfall of nearly $42 billion.

The complete story is now online at http://newjersey.watchdog.org. The story is also scheduled to air during tonight's 11 p.m. newscast on NBC 4 New York, which produced its story in cooperation with New Jersey Watchdog.