Mayor Supports Council’s Decision to Form Investigatory Committee

The Linden City Council voted to form an investigatory panel with subpoena powers to determine what to do about potential misconduct by former municipal prosecutor Nick Scutari, who is also a state senator.

While he was municipal prosecutor and paid $84,659 a year, Scutari was absent at least 62 times in 2018 and 65 times in 2017. Records appear to show him taking no vacation days despite his frequent absenteeism.

When a governing body of a municipality appoints a municipal investigation committee, its members may issue subpoenas on any subject within its jurisdiction, to any person within the state, or compel witnesses to appear to give testimony or turn over required information.

The subpoenas may be served by any police officer or constable of the municipality, pursuant to state law (NJSA 40:48-25) and the City Code (2-5.3), which empowers the council to investigate any activity of the municipality.

Without naming the Senator, the resolution establishing the investigatory panel states that while he was prosecutor, Scutari was required to be present three days a weeks except for holidays, vacation or personal days.

Council members and other city officials believe that Scutari had taken off more than what was permitted and still received payment for services that were not rendered.  An additional $12,000 was spent on substitute prosecutors due to Scutari’s absences.

If the investigation committee determines that Scutari engaged in chronic or excessive absenteeism, he may be subject to discipline and if the behavior is particularly egregious, the matter may be referred to the county prosecutor or the state Division of Criminal Justice, where official misconduct charges may be considered. The Personnel Policy is fairly specific about employees who do not show up for work.  http://www.linden-nj.org/_Content/pdf/forms/Personnel-Policy.pdf

Former state Sen. Wayne Bryant, a once powerful figure in South Jersey Democratic politics who managed to nearly triple his pension over a four-year period with a plush no-show job on the public trough, was ensnared in a federal corruption investigation, went to prison and lost it all.

Scutari was making a combined taxpayer-funded salary of $133,659–including $84,659 as part-time city prosecutor and $49,000 for his part-time state legislative paycheck–which would be used to calculate his pension.  He is also a full time attorney with a robust private law practice.

The Investigatory Committee will be made up of 3 members of the governing body, one from each of the Personal, Finance & Law Department Committees.

“I support the decision to investigate Nick Scutari’s absenteeism”, said Mayor Derek Armstead.  He went on to say, “Taxpayers will no longer tolerate waste, fraud and abuse in city government.”  “There is something terribly wrong when a municipal prosecutor appears to be defrauding the taxpayers, and as a guardian of the city treasury I am not going to stand for it”, said Council President Michele Yamakaitis.