East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador was a leading critic of the agency before it was officially dissolved in 2013
NEWARK - As guilty pleas related to the kickbacks and bribery scandal that brought down the Newark Conservation and Watershed Development Corp. begin to pile up, one Newark official says he believes investigators have only reached the tip of the iceberg.
East Ward Councilman Augusto Amador, an early critic of the agency during Cory Booker's tenure as mayor, said at a Municipal Council meeting Wednesday that he believes a federal probe into its dealings may soon entangle additional former employees.
"This is only the beginning, from what I understand, of what's coming down," he said.
Amador (File photo) Amador's comments come just one day after the NWCDC's former special projects manager, Donald Bernard Sr., and a home improvement contractor, Giacomo "Jack" DeRosa, admitted to taking part in a scheme that provided contractors with work in exchange for hundreds of thousands in kickbacks.
Last month, the agency's former executive director Linda Watkins-Brashear admitted to soliciting nearly $1 million in bribes from contractors. Another contractor, James Porter, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and tax evasion for his own involvement in January 2015.
Matthew Reilly, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney Paul Fishman's, declined to comment on whether any other arrests or indictments might be imminent, saying only that an investigation into the NWCDC remained active.
Amador, who was among several council members who called for investigations into the watershed and de-funded its operation after the Star-Ledger and a collective of activists calling themselves the Newark Water Group raised concerns about the agency, something he said he considered inherent to his role as an elected official.
"One of the functions that we have as a council is precisely to do this kind of thing, on behalf of the interests of the city," he said.
Booker says he shouldn't be held responsible for Newark water agency corruption
Amador was among the members named to a newly constituted board of trustees overseeing the agency that voted to declare Chapter 11 bankruptcy in December 2014, in hopes of recovering the more than $2 million allegedly stolen and misused by Watkins-Brashear and others. The vote came nearly two years after the NWCDC was officially dissolved in the wake of a scathing report from the state comptroller's office detailing the widespread corrupt and mismanagement in its ranks.
A civil suit filed as part of the bankruptcy case names former mayor and now U.S. Sen. Cory Booker and 17 other agency executives, employees, contractors, accountants and trustees, alleging they played a role in the malfeasance. Booker's attorneys have denied those allegations in court.
Originally formed in the 1970s to protect approximately 35,000 acres of city-owned land the city owned around north Jersey, the non-profit agency took control of the water supply for nearly 500,000 customers in Newark and surrounding communities in the 1990s.
Joseph Hartnett, a former Montclair town manager appointed to serve as the agency's executive director through the bankruptcy process, said there were no plans to turn oversight of the water supply back to the NWCDC or any quasi-governmental agency, regardless of what assets might be recovered through the bankruptcy process.
"Our mission is to dissolve this corporation," he said. "The only activities we have now are in connection with the litigation and various litigation that we're defending."
Hartnett declined to comment on any aspect of the criminal proceedings stemming from the agency.
"That's up to the U.S. attorney," he said.
Amador recalled being "mocked" after initially proposing the NWCDC be investigated, and said he hoped residents said he hoped residents would take notice that years later, he and his allies have found some sense of vindication.
"I can't help but be satisfied, not happy," he said. "But I am satisfied that the work of the council committee, with the support of the Water Group, is coming to the conclusion that we were right at the time."
Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
