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| Mayor Shelley Brindle |
DPW OVERTIME INVESTIGATION
“On a separate note, I want to take this opportunity to follow up on an issue that was presented to the Town Council by a resident over the last few months concerning allegations of overtime fraud at the DPW. As I had said publicly at the time, the matter was investigated by an independent employment law firm earlier this year, which found no evidence of fraud. The issue was then referred to the Union County Prosecutor's Office by a resident claiming to have additional information. The UCPO conducted a subsequent investigation, with which the Town offered its full cooperation.
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| Westfield DPW worker Frank Watkins clocks out multiple employees not present |
Mayor Brindle does not identify the "resident' that referred the issue to the UCPO nor does she disclose the "helpful suggestions regarding ways to improve some administrative processes."
Just because the UCPO “found no evidence to warrant criminal charges” doesn’t mean the theft of time didn’t occur.
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| UCPO Subpoena |
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crime of assault didn’t occur.
Barney Tracy would again be investigated, this time by the Readington Police Department after he assaulted a local resident, allegedly breaking the resident’s nose when the resident objected to Tracy’s son exiting their vehicle, while stopped in traffic on the way to the annual balloon fest, and allegedly urinating on the homeowner’s front lawn.
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crime of assault didn’t occur.
In 2004, Westfield Police Chief Bernard Tracy engaged in a search of B.R.A.K.E.S. Co-chair Sarah Strohecker Clarkson’s name using police computers to dig up “dirt” on the Westfield resident after she wrote a critical letter to the Westfield Leader newspaper. Tracy had also made claims to the Westfield Leader, and to others, that he maintained files on Westfield residents affiliated with the WECARE group formed to oppose the construction of parking decks. Among those names were residents, newspaper employees, and a sitting Westfield Councilman at the time. The New Jersey State Police investigated and found that names had been searched using Westfield police computers.
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| Police Chief John Parizeau |
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crime of illegally accessing police computers didn’t occur.
In 2007, then Westfield Police Chief John Parizeau issued a confidential memo to all police supervisors detailing the stealing of time.
The UCPO (Sgt. Tansey & Det. Koenig) investigated and appeared to be more concerned about how this blog site (TFoTM) obtained the confidential memo detailing the crime and exposing it to the public.
Parizeau would retire after he received a vote of "no confidence" by Westfield PBA 90.
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crime of theft didn’t occur.
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| Confidential Memo exposing theft by Westfield police supervisor |
A Town of Westfield owned and insured vehicle was involved and struck a parked Union County Prosecutors Office vehicle. During the investigation, other alleged crimes were exposed involving alleged thefts by Wayman, from the Westfield Police Department property/evidence room. Lugo was demoted to sergeant and Wayman resigned.
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crimes of official misconduct and theft didn’t occur.
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| "Hit & Run" accident report |
The theft of time by Westfield Department of Public Works employees was investigated by a law firm selected by the Town of Westfield and cost Westfield taxpayers in excess of $5000.00.
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| Chief David Wayman |
When town officials are so willing to dismiss criminal acts as departmental or labor union infractions, hiring a selected law firm to investigate, and not a law enforcement agency, one has to question their motive.
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| Lt. Leonard Lugo |
Just like the UCPO investigation that took place when Chief Parizeau had evidence of theft of time by a supervisor, it was deja vu. The only difference was the names of the investigators. UCPO Det. Colin McNamara and Assistant Prosecutor Melissa Spagnoli were more interested in outing the source of the information obtained and exposed by TFoTM than the actual crime of theft of time.
The Fact of The Matter would not confirm or deny any source of information pursuant to New Jersey's Shield Law.
Just because there were no criminal charges, doesn’t mean the crimes didn’t occur.
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| "Hit & Run" Investigation Report |
Who lives in Westfield or grew up in Westfield that works or worked for the union county prosecutors office? Don’t want your town to look bad? Don’t want your friend to look bad? Following in daddy’s footsteps?
ReplyDeleteWhen corruption infiltrates the law enforcement agency expected to uphold the rule of law, any expectation of a thorough investigation is negated.
ReplyDeleteI hope no one forgot the brilliant job done by the UCPO when the Mountainside PD case broke. About one year after it was reported to the Prosecutor, a civil suit was filed and it was suddenly public and the taxpayers money was on the line. At that point, the Town acted. With video evidence in the possession of all parties, the Prosecutor could find no criminality.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure the taxpayers of Mountainside are happy to know that they spent thousands on actions which were invisible to the Prosecutor.
The Mayor has the right to hire counsel. She hired the Wilentz Firm. It is famous and effective in giving its clients what they want. It is also famous for its political leadership in the NJ Democratic Party. The founder was the Democratic Boss of Middlesex County and a Democratic power in NJ.
While the Mayor has every right to hire Wilentz, she has no right to try to pass them off as "independent". They did what they were paid to do. They used the evidence given to them which was payroll records OUTSIDE the time period where theft of time was charged.
The Town hired a "friendly" firm, told them to use records INCAPABLE of proving criminality, and declared itself absolved. This is not an "independent investigation".
The failure of the Prosecutor to find criminality is not surprising and the Mayor should put that determination in the same category as the Wilentz absolution.
Better to find no evidence of a crime than to have to fire a dozen DPW workers. Rob the Ringleader is laughing all the way to the overtime bank.
ReplyDelete