Codey to fire him
from board; Scannapieco will fight pay loss
Asbury Park Press
April 14, 2005
James A. Quirk and Kathy Matheson
MARLBORO — Acting Gov. Codey has cut off the salary paid to former Mayor
Matthew V. Scannapieco by the state Victims of Crime Compensation
Board, where he works as a commissioner, and plans to fire
him Friday.
Wednesday's decision came a day after Scannapieco pleaded
guilty in federal court to accepting $245,000 in bribes while
mayor and failing to report the illegal income to the Internal
Revenue Service.
Codey notified Scannapieco, 60, that he was suspended without
pay from his $107,000 position as a commissioner on the five-member
board pending removal, which will become effective Friday
unless Scannapieco challenges it.
According to board Chairman Richard D. Pompelio, Scannapieco
stepped down from his daily duties at the board's Newark office
on March 31 but remains on the payroll until May 31 because
he is taking vacation and unused sick time.
"I hereby notify you that your guilty plea to the federal
offenses constitutes good cause for removing you from your
state office," Codey stated in a letter to Scannapieco.
"It is beyond doubt that your admission that you accepted
bribes and evaded taxes involves crimes of dishonesty warranting
your removal from office."
Mitchell J. Ansell, an attorney representing Scannapieco,
said his client will ask for a hearing to appeal Codey's actions.
"Matt has already resigned from the board," Ansell
said. "These monies due to him . . . are monies accrued
as vacation days and sick days throughout his 9 1/4-year tenure
as a commissioner of the board. These are days rightfully
owed to him. We're not asking that he be paid a salary from
now until May 31 — these are days and monies that are
his. He's earned them."
In U.S. District Court Tuesday, Scannapieco pleaded guilty
to one charge each of accepting corrupt payments — $245,000
in cash from 1997 to 2003 — and tax evasion. Scannapieco
admitted that while serving both as mayor and a member of
the Planning Board, he accepted money from a developer and
his associates in exchange for his votes or support on six
separate projects.
Scannapieco faces a combined maximum of 15 years in prison
and $350,000 in fines. He is free on $100,000 bail and is
awaiting sentencing July 15.
The developer was not named in court. However, Scannapieco
provided specific locations for each development for which
he said he accepted a bribe. Township records indicate the
locations mentioned involved developments proposed by Anthony
Spalliero, 62, of Marlboro. Spalliero has declined to comment.
Got state post in 1996
Scannapieco, a former auditor for Public Service Electric
and Gas Co., was appointed to the crime victims board in 1996
by Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and reappointed in 2000
by then-Gov. James E. McGreevey, a Democrat.
Sean Darcy, a spokesman for the governor, said the state pension
board will have to decide what will become of Scannapieco's
retirement payments from his municipal and state positions.
Scannapieco, mayor from 1992 until 2003 after a term as a
councilman, has been in the state pension system for 19 years.
If Scannapieco retired tomorrow, he could bring home approximately
$38,000 a year, depending on the retirement options he chooses.
"Governor Codey has been at the forefront of ethics reform
in the state," Darcy said. "With the support of
advocates throughout the Legislature, like Senator (Ellen)
Karcher (D-Monmouth), we will fight to restore the public's
faith in government throughout New Jersey."
But for Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg, who said he has the
unenviable task of correcting Scannapieco's many mistakes,
Codey's actions come as too little, too late.
"I wonder what took the governor so long," Kleinberg,
a Republican, said. "These allegations have been in the
newspaper for at least two years. It's laughable that a state
official has to be (on the) front page of a major newspaper
saying "I took almost a quarter of a million in bribes'
before the government acts. This is why we have the problems
we do in New Jersey."
"I look at every development in town (and think) . .
. was somebody bullied? Was somebody threatened? Was somebody
paid off?" said Karcher, a former Marlboro Township Council
president. "I will never look at my town the same way
again."
She said she wasn't surprised by Scannapieco's guilty plea.
"I had my suspicions," she added. But she said she
found it heartbreaking nonetheless.
"Two hundred and forty-five thousand dollars?" Karcher
said. "That doesn't even begin to scratch the surface
of what we're paying as a community for this."
Tainted approvals
Authorities provided only locations, not specific names, for
the projects for which Scannapieco took the bribes.
They are believed by town officials to include five housing
developments: Woodcliff and Sterling Woods, off Woodcliff
Boulevard; Georgetown Manor and Pleasant Valley Estates, off
Pleasant Valley Road; and Lexington Estates, off Vanderburg
Road. Another payment was for an unidentified major store
at Routes 9 and 520, according to township officials.
Scannapieco also admitted to accepting $100,000 in exchange
for supporting rezoning that would have let the former Marlboro
Airport property be developed for senior-citizen housing.
Negotiations on the proposed rezoning of the 151-acre airport
property for age-restricted housing have been under investigation
by the FBI since they began. The zoning was never implemented.
During Scannapieco's tenure, Marlboro's population rose from
27,648 to 36,398, second only to Howell in growth among Monmouth
County municipalities.
Karcher noted that each new house strains township services
— police, firefighting, schools and public works. And
today, people complain about traffic-choked roads, overcrowded
schools and a diminishing quality of life.
It's not likely to get better, said James Hughes, dean of
the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy
at Rutgers University.
The development of the past decade has "really set the
stage for what the future's going to be like," Hughes
said.
"What you see is what you're going to have," he
said. "There's no way of going back and reacquiring open
space once it's been developed."
Karcher conceded that "a certain amount of development
was inevitable." But "planning would have been so
much smarter" if more people had asked questions and
stood up against development they felt was misguided, she
said.
Scannapieco wielded more power than he should have, Karcher
said, describing her former council colleagues as "cowed
in some way" by the powerful mayor.
As mayor, Scannapieco not only sat on the Marlboro Planning
Board but also appointed six of its nine members.
A strong-mayor form of government isn't inherently bad, said
Ingrid Reed, director of the New Jersey Project at Rutgers
University's Eagleton Institute of Politics.
The mayor should help the planning board ensure that each
application fits in with the overall vision for the community,
Reed said.
Moreover, she said, the quality of the professional staff
hired to evaluate applications for planning board members
is just as important. They are the ones conveying to board
members — who are seldom professional planners —
the implications of each project.
"A form of government does not guarantee honesty or accountability,"
she said.
