From The Editor’s Desk

(Editorial)


Reprinted from AMBOY BEACON,

Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2010

If Perth Amboy Board of Education Attorney Victor Medina’s explanation is to be accepted, the theft of almost $2.6 million from the Board over nearly six years for healthcare-related programs that never existed occurred despite the employment of a chief administrator repeatedly-credited with “watching every penny,” and yearly audits by outside firms costing tens of thousands of dollars. According to Mr. Medina, the theft was accomplished through “a mastermind scheme” in which “funds were diverted from our health-benefits account” by people with “superior knowledge” that “was, for all intents and purposes, undetectable” because it was “designed to avoid detection.” Accountability means that those who actually committed the theft —Bernardsville insurance broker Frank Cotroneo, who has admitted that he bilked the Board out of those funds, and others who were named in an indictment handed-up by a State Grand Jury, if they are found guilty: Baltimore, MD brokers Francis Gartland, Summit broker Brian Foley and two of Mr. Gartland’s companies, Gartland & Co. Inc. and E-Administrative Systems Inc., all of whom have

been accused of participating in the same scheme — must pay. But accountability also means that those who allowed the theft to happen, whether willfully or through incompetence or irresponsibility — members of the school district’s Central Office staff, the auditing firms which were paid substantial sums of money over the years and members of the state agencies which are there to monitor “special needs” districts like Perth Amboy — need to be investigated for their roles in this economic disaster. We agree with resident Alan Silber that a theft of such magnitude over so-many years “wasn’t impossible to find or to detect.”

It took former Councilman Robert Sottilaro — who is not, to our knowledge, a financial wizard — about three months as a member of the Insurance Commission to detect the existence of a similar alleged scheme in which the City of Perth Amboy was bilked out of $216,495 for another healthcare-related program that never existed, in which Mr. Gartland is also charged with being involved. We agree with City Council President Kenneth Balut that “somebody should watch what’s going-on. They throw elaborate parties down there (at the N.J. School Boards Association convention) in Atlantic City. Where do you think that money was coming-from?” We agree with resident Victor Coronado, who declared, “In the real world,

if $3 million is stolen, somebody’s got to go, somebody’s got to be fired.” Apparently, the Board hasn’t learned any lessons, voting unanimously to appoint Mr. Medina, with no contract or even an item on its agenda, for “initiation of the recovery effort” to secure the $2.6 million. And six Board members, on the advice of Mr. Medina, retired into closed-door executive session to discuss the seating of a new member to fill a vacancy. The position that was filled is not that of an employee, but one normally filled by an elected official. Like the sign on President Harry S Truman’s desk, “The buck stops here.” We call for the immediate resignations of Superintendent of Schools John Rodecker, Board Secretary/Business Administrator Derek Jess and Board Attorney Victor Medina because we believe they have not served the best interests of the residents of Perth Amboy.We also call for the immediate hiring of a forensic auditor to scour the district’s books and a special counsel to pursue the recovery of ALL funds due the district, including reimbursement of payments that were made to those responsible for protecting the taxpayers’ money from any predators, both inside and outside the district.