Many leaders say the indictment of former Newark Watershed Conservation Development Corporation executive director Linda Watkins-Brashear came partially as a result of lax oversight by former Mayor Cory Booker and others
NEWARK - Newark officials said they were dismayed by the former head of the Newark Watershed Conservation Development Corporation's guilty plea on corruption-related charges earlier this week - an outcome many felt could have been prevented.
Linda Watkins-Brashear, who presided over the non-profit agency until 2013 - just one year before it was dissolved amid widespread allegations of corruption and mismanagement - is facing up to 23 years in prison and $350,000 in fines for conspiracy and filing a false tax return.
She is the second person to plead guilty to charges related to the scandal, though many in the state's largest city consider it a reflection of an agency run amok thanks to the wandering eye of now-U.S. Sen. Cory Booker, who was mayor over the entirety of Watkins' tenure.
"The city....allowed all of these quasi-governmental agencies to run on their own without any oversight," said Central Ward Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins. "It's just a recipe for disaster."
A spokesman for Booker's office acknowledged a request for comment Monday afternoon but did not provide any statement or additional information.
Questions about the NWCDC began to arise early in Booker's tenure, with investigations by the Star-Ledger and citizens groups such as Newark Water Group turning up a series of financial misdeeds.
Those findings were affirmed by the state comptroller's office in 2014, when it issued a report detailing millions in misappropriated funds, doomed stock market ventures, mysterious severance packages and the awarding of dubious contracts to administrators' relatives and friends.
South Ward Councilman John Sharpe James, who was among a group of critics of the NWCDC during Booker's time as mayor, said Watkins-Brashear's guilty plea was bittersweet vindication for those who had long harbored suspicions about the agency's dealings. He heaped much of the blame on the media, who he claimed wrote him and others off as token dissenters rather than fully investigate their allegations.
"It's just another instance where the residents of Newark complained about a situation, were ignored for the most part, and later we come to find out $1 million is missing," he said.
Bill Chappel, a spokesman for the Newark Water Group issued a statement following her plea calling her conduct "as flagrant a violation of the public trust as you could ever find."
"This was an entity that veered out of control years ago in the way it operated and in the way it misspent the public's money when it thought no one was looking," he said.
Mayor Ras Baraka, who had also been a leading opponent of the agency during his time as South Ward Councilman, declined to comment on Watkins-Brashear's admissions.
Established in the 1970s, the NWCDC was charged with protecting roughly 35,000 acres of forest and reservoirs that provided drinking water for as many as 500,000 across Newark and North Jersey. By 2012, it also controlled the delivery of water to its entire service area.
The NWCDC was officially dissolved in early 2013, though Baraka helped form a new board in December 2014, which quickly voted to file for bankruptcy in an attempt to recover the assets allegedly stolen from the agency.
Earlier this year, court-appointed trustees filed a lawsuit against Booker and 17 others claiming they played a role in the mismanagement, saying the senator had failed to provide proper oversight despite his role as chairman of the organization's board.
Attorneys for Booker have denied those allegations, responding in court filings that he took immediate action once concrete evidence of wrongdoing had been presented.
As part of Watkins-Brashear's guilty plea, she has been ordered to pay $999,000 in restitution to the victims of her crimes. Because the NWCDC no longer exists, however, a federal judge will determine where the money ultimately ends up.
Chaneyfield said she was "saddened" by the fate of a woman she long considered a friend and dedicated city employee. However, she felt the scandal provided a difficult lesson for Newark in respect to its oversight of its various agencies entrusted with public dollars.
"The mere fact that Brick City Development Corp, the Parking Authority, the Newark Watershed and all these other quasi-governmental agencies that did not have the oversight that they should have was a disservice to the residents of the city of Newark," she said.
"Not everyone gets charged when there's a criminal act, but that doesn't mean that they weren't implicit in allowing it to take place."
Dan Ivers may be reached at divers@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DanIversNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.
