By Star-Ledger Staff

February 18, 2010, 8:14PM

NEWARK — A former top aide to Mayor Cory Booker was indicted today on federal extortion and bribery charges for allegedly funneling contracts to a trucking company that he partially owned.

Ronald Salahuddin, who resigned last year as deputy mayor, was charged with steering contracts in 2006 and 2007 to a demolition firm. In return, authorities say Salahuddin demanded the firm hire his business partner in the trucking company, Sonnie Cooper, as a subcontractor. Cooper was also indicted.

“Salahuddin’s brazen efforts on Cooper’s behalf are at the core of what the federal corruption statues are designed to prevent,” U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman said.

Salahuddin, 59, was among the first high-level appointments made by Booker, elected in 2006 as a self-proclaimed reformer who vowed to fight corruption. Fishman stressed today that there is no evidence that Booker was involved in wrongdoing.

In an interview, Booker defended his efforts, saying his administration had mounted probes leading to 19 convictions within city hall. “We don’t wait for other people to investigate corruption in our city. We are aggressively working against it every single day,” Booker said.

On one of the recordings, the consultant allegedly said, when referring to Newark officials with whom they would likely be dealing, “they’re all corrupt, except for (the Mayor),” according to the indictment.

A Montclair native, Salahuddin is an ex-investigator for the Essex County Sheriff’s Department and former director of the county’s juvenile detention center. As Newark deputy mayor for public safety, Salahuddin played a central role in Booker’s early efforts to fight crime. He cited undisclosed health reasons when he resigned in July 2009.

Cooper, 67, who runs a liquor store and deli on South Orange Avenue in Newark, founded his trucking company in the early 1970’s. Between May and August 2007, Salahuddin allegedly received $45,000 from Cooper, according to the indictment. In March of 2008 Salahuddin listed the trucking company on a state disclosure form requiring officials to list sources of income exceeding $2,000.

During an interview, Salahuddin insisted he had not broken the law. “I have never had a blemish in 35 years,” he said. One of his lawyers, Henry E. Klingeman, said his client would plead not guilty.

“He intends to defend himself,” said Klingeman, who is representing Salahuddin along with Thomas R. Ashley.

Attempts to reach Cooper’s lawyer, Alan L. Zegas, were unsuccessful.

Each extortion count carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. Salahuddin and Cooper are being allowed to voluntarily surrender. “If you hold a public office and you abuse your position and the public trust, you will be caught and you will face the strong possibility of prison,” said Kevin Cruise, acting head of the FBI’s Newark office.

Booker Versus Rice: The Remix?

by Kris Seals

Sunday January 18, 2009, 6:50 PM

On January 10th, West Ward Councilman Ron C. Rice delivered his first State of the Ward address. He laid out plans to improve the ward in the future as well as what he has done so far. On stage with him was his father Senator Ron L. Rice, Council President Mildred Crump, Newark Schools Superintendent Clifford Janey, as well as other dignitaries.

Rice spoke of matters ranging from new community resources to the official introduction of the West Ward Collective. The motto of the venture is, ‘One Ward, One Family’. Despite all of this, there was one matter that really got the crowd at West Side High School intrigued, and that was his stance on landlords. He is looking to start a bad landlord list, to be presented to media outlets for penalizing such owners.

“We’re going to put slumlords and absentee landlords, like the young people say, ‘On Blast’”, said Rice on this initiative. “If you do not do what you are supposed to do, don’t try to buy another piece of property in Newark.”

In the crowd, there was a bit of murmuring centered on one question, “What about Mayor Booker?” Ward residents were wondering this, especially with all of the other public figures who were on stage to support the councilman. Booker ran against and defeated Senator Rice in 2006 for the position of mayor in Newark, so there could be a little animosity between the camps in theory. However, there have been plenty of situations where officials who did not like each other made themselves present at a function.

So, therein lies the question: Will there be another Booker-Rice showdown in 2010?

By Max Pizarro, PolitickerNJ.com Reporter

Mayor Cory Booker, right, and Academy Award-winning actor Forest Whitaker,

who keynoted a Newark event honoring MLK today.

.

Essex officials plan to cut 219 jobs from county government

by Philip Read/The Star-Ledger 

Thursday January 15, 2009, 3:33 PM

Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo Jr., capping weeks of sometimes dire economic warnings, today introduced a $675 million budget that calls for the elimination of 219 positions, including 68 layoffs, in a belt-tightening that will reach into nearly every corner of county government.

“You never want to lay off people. You never want to raise taxes,” DiVincenzo said at his packed offices at the Hall of Records in Newark. “Anytime you lay off one person, it’s too many.”

JIM PATHE/THE STAR-LEDGEREssex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo

The budget package is a trimmed-down version of a working document first talked about weeks ago, when DiVincenzo warned of a pending county tax increase atop the loss of a then projected 150 positions — 43 through layoffs — amid a $33 million falloff in revenue borne of a national recession.

For the first time today, DiVincenzo laid out the tax-bite number: a 4 percent, or $14 million, increase in the county tax burden that he said is likely to cost the average homeowner about $90 more a year, or less than $8 a month.

The cuts reach into the prosecutor’s office, where 30 positions are on the block, and the sheriff’s department, where 28 positions will come off the payroll sheets, many by not filling open positions.

Paula Dow, the Essex County prosecutor, last Friday “regretfully” laid off five of 159 detectives after they collectively declined to accept furloughs of anywhere from five to 8 days. Yesterday, she said up to 10 additional staffers could be laid off among civil-service support staff, another group that would not accept the furloughs.

She had been asked to cut $2.2 million from her $37.5 million budget.

Sheriff Armando Fontoura said the elimination of 28 positions in his 700-member force would result in six actual layoffs.

Yet DiVincenzo said those cuts, at least, would be the last.

“I can assure both of you,” he said while looking at Dow and Fontoura, “you won’t see any more cuts in public safety.”

The budget unveiling came amid heightened angst among the county’s 26 unions, whose last contracts expired on Dec. 31, 2007.

On Wednesday night, about 100 members of CWA Local 1081, which represents the county’s welfare workers, descended on the freeholders’ public meeting to protect the county’s “reneging” on a memorandum of agreement for a new contract.

David Weiner, the local’s president, said the county had agreed to a 3-year pact calling for a 9.5 percent wage increase, only to pull the offer amid heightened financial concerns and demand a 3-year pact with a 3 percent raise the first year and “zero” percent increases in the remaining 2 years.

The local has filed an unfair labor practices complaint with PERC, the Public Employment Relations Commission, and has authorized its leadership to call a strike if it is deemed necessary.

The deeper cuts are the direct result of an even steeper falloff in revenue, first projected at $33 million and now mushrooming to $45 million.

Thursday January 15, 2009, 5:02 PM

A US Airways plane struck a flock of geese shortly after takeoff from LaGuardia Airport and crashed in the Hudson River this afternoon, though all passengers were safely rescued, authorities said.

The 148 passengers and five crew members quickly scrambled onto the wings and inflatable rafts on the side of the partially submerged plane. Ferries from both the New York and New Jersey sides of the river rushed to their aid.

One of the passengers on the plane, Jeff Kolodajy 31, Norwalk, Conn., described hearing “a loud boom” and then, he said, “I saw fire.”

“The plane just dropped about 100 feet,” said Kolodajy, who was ferried to Pier 81 in New York. “It was real scary.”

But, Kolodajy said, “when the plane landed, the boats were there in about three or four minutes to pick us up, and the water started to fill up rapidly.”

The plane was submerged in the 41 degree waters up to the windows, and rescue crews had opened the door and were pulling passengers in yellow life vests from the plane. Several boats surrounded the plane, which appeared to be slowly sinking.

“I saw what appeared to be a tail fin of a plane sticking out of the water,” said Erica Schietinger, whose office windows at Chelsea Piers look out over the Hudson. “All the boats have sort of circled the area. … I can’t tell what’s what at this point.”

The flight was US Airways flight 1549, which took off at 3:26 p.m., headed for Charlotte, N.C.

The NY Waterways ferry terminal at Port Imperial in Weehawken is closed until further notice, company officials said. Commuters who take the New Jersey-bound ferry will have to find another way home.

Christian Martin, who witnessed the crash from a New York office building, said the response by emergency personnel was swift after the plane hit the water.

“It came down very smoothly. If it had been an airport runway it looked just like that,” Martin said. “It’s drifted down the river. Touched down about 56th street. It’s way further down now.”

Ferry boats raced to help from both sides of the river, Martin said.

“In about four minutes, there was a ferry there and you could see people on the wings,” Martin said. “I didn’t exactly see people exiting because the ferry boat was in the way. There seemed to be plenty of time for people to get off the wings. Within 10 minutes there were three or four ferryboats, from the New Jersey and the New York side.”

Kolodajy said the passengers around him on the plane seemed to be uninjured.

“Everyone’s fine. There was a lady with her baby and she was trying to crawl over the seats. And I said, women and children first. She got off,” said Kolodajy, who praised the effort by the pilot.

“I tell you what. It says a lot about people. He knew we were going down,” Kolodajy said. “The engine blew out about three minutes, we circled around to the Hudson. Pilot said, look, we’re going down. We looked at one another and said prayers.”

When James Mohr, 21, opened the door of his apartment at around 3:45 p.m. in the Bronx, he heard a loud boom.

“It boomed more than once,” Mohr said. “I saw fire spitting out of one of the engines. I want to say the right one, but I could be wrong.”

The A320 is a widely used, medium-range passenger jet used around the world. More than 1,900 A320s are in service with 155 airlines.

The twin-engine jet, equipped with a “fly-by-wire” control system when it entered service in 1988. It typically can seat 150 passengers in a two-class cabin layout, and has a range of 3,000 nautical miles.

During its 20-year history there have been eight fatal Airbus crashes , the worst accident in 2007 when all 186 passengers and crew and 12 people on the ground died when a Tam Airlines jet ran off the runway at Sao Paulo- Congonhas Airport in Brazil.

Last year, a United Airbus A320 flying out of Newark Liberty International Airport experienced multiple avionics and electrical failures, including loss of all communications, shortly after taking off. The flight returned safety for a landing with no injuries to the 107 passengers and crew aboard the airplane and no damage to the jet.

A US Airways spokesman in a news conference shortly after 5 p.m. said it would be “premature to speculate about the causes of this accident.”

If you witnessed the crash, call The Star-Ledger newsroom (800) 350-4169.

Family members may call (800) 679-8215 to check on their loved ones.

Posted by Joan Whitlow January 09, 2009 6:01AM

So, you parked at a meter in downtown Newark last month and you got an overtime ticket, and you fussed at yourself for not scurrying back in time and at the city for not providing free holiday parking like so many other municipalities? Well, rejoice and be glad.

There is a good chance the ticket was illegal. Mayor Cory Booker’s administration has not allowed free parking for two years on the grounds that the city needs the revenue and that it is mainly commuters who squat in those spaces all day, so the freebie does not really attract shoppers and help merchants compete with the malls. The merchants I’ve talked to think otherwise.

In any case, it turns out there is a municipal ordinance that says the city can’t play Scrooge: no overtime meter tickets from Thanksgiving ’til two days after Christmas.

I know the folks at City Hall would prefer I write about other things, such as the announcement this week that crime rates are down in Newark. That’s great news. However, since the way a city handles parking has a lot to do with how well-managed and inviting a city is, I don’t want to ignore the fact that Newark has ignored its own holiday moratorium ordinance for two years.

Plus, the parking theme makes a nice segue into another good story. Newark seems on the verge of recovering control of assets — including a couple of parking lots — worth $1.2 million or more in revenue a year — that it lost about 8 years ago because Newark was not vigilant and well-managed. They way I see it, all of these matters are linked.

First, those tickets. Section “23:7-14.1″ of Newark’s municipal code declares a holiday moratorium on ticketing at meters “in the Central Business District during the period from the Thanksgiving Day Holiday to December 27th of each year.” The same holds true for a number of other holidays — so happy parking on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s birthday.

I went to municipal court to find out just how many people may have gotten illegal tickets and was told there is no way to spit out the count just for downtown. Last month, however, more than 28,000 overtime parking tickets were handed out citywide, and the greatest concentration of meters is downtown.

If you plopped your car in a no parking zone or ignored the parking restrictions for street cleaning, pay the ticket. If you think you got a wrongful holiday ticket at a downtown meter, tell it to the judge, the judge told me.

Julien X. Neals is currently the city’s corporation counsel and previously was the chief municipal judge. He remembers personally dismissing tickets issued during the holiday period last year. Too bad that information didn’t make its way through the city’s chain of command in time to avoid a repeat this year.

Neals says that anybody who got a ticket should go to court, and should expect to get a dismissal. Taking time off from work to handle a ticket you shouldn’t have gotten in the first place doesn’t seem like a lot of fun. The city should set up a special procedure for handling what could be thousands of illegal tickets. People should be able to get their tickets dismissed, get their money back if they have already paid, and get the apology due them with as little hassle as possible.

I also talked with Neals about another matter. During the previous administration, the city created the Newark Economic Development Corporation, which built a warehouse in the South Ward and several parking decks. NEDC was headed by Al Faiella, deputy mayor under Mayor Sharpe James, and Mr. Development for the city. One day Faiella packed up the NEDC and its assets and said legal control of those assets rested with him and his board, not the city. How could such a thing happen? It has been explained to me several times and I still don’t understand it. Chalk it up to a lack of municipal management and vigilance.

Neals has been in charge of the auditing and investigating and negotiating to get back what Faiella took. Neals says the city is in the final stages of recovering those assets, which are worth between $40 million and $60 million and generate revenue of about $1.2 million a year in cash. The city has already received about $4 million in cash and should get another $5 million in back revenue.

Neals said his job is to get back the city’s stuff without paying NEDC a dime or spending a fortune on litigation. He said he is also intent on making sure the language of any settlement leaves all doors open — just in case the city finds out there may be hidden assets tucked away or some fiscal funny business that would entitle the city to even more. Neals has his work cut out for him. Meanwhile, I’d like somebody to answer a question that seems very important:

Anybody going to jail?

by Peggy McGlone/The Star-Ledger

Tuesday January 13, 2009, 6:05 AM

The New Jersey Performing Arts Center sees itself as Newark’s living room, so it makes sense that it has invited more than 2,700 members of the community to watch the historic inauguration of Barack Obama as the 44th president of the United States.

Partnering with the city and Mayor Cory Booker, NJPAC will project the live broadcast of the swearing-in on a big screen on the stage of Prudential Hall for an audience of students, senior citizens, public officials and community leaders.

It’s a first for the arts center, which has hosted city political and civic events but not a presidential inauguration.

“Everyone thought this is an historic event, and we wanted to play what we feel is our rightful role,” said NJPAC spokesman Jeffrey Norman.

The Newark arts center’s event tops a list of public gatherings and celebrations marking Obama’s inauguration. Colleges, churches, schools and restaurants will welcome crowds, providing a warm place to witness history and then later to celebrate it.

Students at Montclair State and Kean universities will be able to watch the proceedings together Tuesday morning at mass broadcasts held in University Hall in Montclair, and at the Student Center in Union. At Weequahic High School in Newark, alumni are joining current students to watch the proceedings on a big screen.

The Bergen Performing Arts Center in Englewood also will open for the community, as will Manhattan’s Symphony Space.

“It seems like such an important event, such a wonderful occasion for us to open up to the community,” said Cynthia Elliot, executive director of Symphony Space, an arts center on New York’s Upper West Side. “We are considered home base to so many artists and audiences, where people can come to be with each other as a community.”

None of the arts centers has hosted a previous inauguration, although all have held civic events for the community. BergenPAC will kick off the festivities Monday night with an 8 p.m. performance by The Capitol Steps, a comedy troupe made up of former congressional staffers. Their specialty is musical satire with a decidedly political bent. BergenPAC will reopen Tuesday at 10:30 a.m. for the swearing-in ceremony and the Inaugural Parade.

NJPAC, on the other hand, distributed 2,740 tickets to city officials and community partners for the event. Doors open at 10:30. The arts center will project the live broadcast of the swearing-in and the subsequent speech, benediction and national anthem.

It is asking those who attend to donate canned goods for the Community FoodBank of New Jersey. Walk-ins will not be allowed.

The celebrations will continue at night. Elsie Foster-Dublin of Highland Park and some friends who worked on the Obama campaign have organized the Garden State Inauguration Celebration at the Holiday Inn at Raritan Center in Edison. The party starts at 7 p.m. and costs $50 for food, dancing and open bar.

“We realized how many people won’t have an opportunity to go to Washington, (D.C.),” Foster-Dublin said. “So we wanted to do something local.”

LaChaun Willis, a partner at 4 Aces Entertainment, a party planning company in Edison, is hosting a dinner party honoring Obama at Mirage Celebrations, also in Edison. Tickets are $75 and are available from 4 Aces.

Other parties are planned at the Mood Restaurant and Lounge in Union and at the Harvest Table Fresh Food Eatery in Newark. Carissa Borraggine, owner of the Harvest Table, decided to postpone her annual holiday party and celebrate Obama’s inauguration instead.

The Episcopal Church of St. Andrew & Holy Communion in South Orange will host the community for both the civic ceremonies and a celebration. In the Parish Hall, the 122-inch television will broadcast the morning swearing-in. Guests also will be encouraged to return at 7:30 p.m. for black-tie inaugural ball at the church.

“It is part of our congregation’s sense of radical hospitality,” said the Rev. Canon Sandye A. Wilson, rector of the church, at the corner of South Orange and Ridgewood avenues. There will be food, music and the television broadcast of the balls in Washington. Admission is a bottle of wine and donation of canned goods.

The church invited the community to watch the conclusion of the Democratic and Republican conventions and the vote tallies on election night. More than 100 people attended each of those events.

Wilson said the inaugural seemed a logical extension of that effort.

“It is what the president elect is all about, rebuilding community and the rebirth of hope,” Wilson said. “That’s what we want to be about.”

But the biggest venue may be Times Square, where major news events are often shown on the giant screens run by news networks. Lori Raimondo, vice president of marketing for the Times Square alliance, said it was likely that the inauguration of the new president would be shown — bigger than life.

“Any newsworthy event is usually on those network screens,” she said.

by Ralph R. Ortega and Carmen Juri/The Star-Ledger

Wednesday January 07, 2009, 3:24 PM

After two years in office, Newark’s Mayor Cory Booker and his civilian police director, Garry F. McCarthy, were due an assessment on the city’s top priority: public safety.

Today, they delivered their report card, showing the kinds of results Newarkers were promised by the mayor, when he took office two years ago.

Murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and thefts went down from 2006 to 2007, most in double digit percentages.

Shootings, among the most prolific violent crimes in the city, dropped 11 percent over the same time period. The number of shooting victims also declined by 13 percent from 2006 to 2007, the years detailed in the report. Crime statistics are also available on the department’s website.

Booker said the data was chiseling away at the Newark’s reputation for crime and violence.

“We are effectively, not through rhetoric, but through results, beginning to smash that reputation,” he told reporters at a news conference.

It was a celebration moment for Booker, alongside local, state and county law enforcement officials, who have helped battle crime in the city.

Among them was Essex County Prosecutor Paula T. Dow, who announced today that homicides dropped 24 percent countywide in 2008.

The county’s criminal conviction rate also jumped to 77 percent, she said. Dow specifically recognized law enforcement cooperation with Newark, and noted the city’s declining murder rate, which dropped to 67 homicides last year.

But city officials weren’t claiming victory.

“We are making progress, but don’t be fooled,” said Booker. “We know we have much, much work to do.”

The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey emerged today to point out some of that work. Deborah Jacobs, the state’s ACLU executive director was critical of the city’s handling of civilian complaints and how it reports them.

Jacobs, who did not attend the news conference, was skeptical of the accuracy of figures, that showed complaints dropped to 485 in 2008, down from 578 the year before, and 612 in 2006. A review of Police Internal Affairs Division Summary Report Forms detailing complaints from 2000 to 2007 by Jacobs, detected mathematical errors and even missing data, she said.

Jacobs renewed her past criticism of Internal Affairs, saying that the process for filing civilian complaints was intimidating, and could discourage citizens from coming forward to report police abuses. She urged the city to improve the citizen complaint process, so that it becomes more user friendly, and to consider putting in place an outside monitor of local law enforcement.

“An external monitor would be the most important thing to improve policing,” she told the Star-Ledger.

Booker said he respected Jacobs and that her input provided opportunities for the city to do better. He said, in this case, she was showing her “genius,” for getting the maximum attention for her cause.

McCarthy declined respond to Jacobs, because she had not addressed her concerns directly to the police. “Deborah Jacobs should come to me,” he said after the news conference.

Still, Jacobs wasn’t alone in pointing out issues for the police to consider, especially when dealing with the public.

“A lot of things happen and people don’t report it,” said the Rev. Moacir Weirich, pastor of St. Stephans Grace Community Lutheran Church in the Ironbound section of Newark.

Weirich blamed cultural factors that keep immigrants, both legal and illegal, from reporting crimes. Some residents, he said, who speak only Portuguese or Spanish, also have a hard time communicating with precinct officers.

At the same time, Weirich mentioned monthly meetings between residents and police at the church that have helped, he said.

“I think there’s a great effort from the community trying to make sure their voices are heard,” he said. “And also an openness from police in terms of how to best serve the community.”

Newark police chief job on its way out in favor of director

by Ralph Ortega/The Star-Ledger

Thursday January 08, 2009, 8:00 PM

Newark Mayor Cory Booker is expected to approve an ordinance next week that abolishes the position of the chief of police, and leaves the authority of the police director unchallenged.

The ordinance was sent to Booker today, according to the city. Booker is expected to sign it next week, according to a city spokeswoman.

Once approved, Police Director Garry F. McCarthy will have sole authority over day-to-day operations. The ordinance also strips the police director, as well as the mayor, of their ability to chose a new top cop for Newark.

“We’re taking that power away from them,” said Councilman Augusto Amador, just before the ordinance was passed by the city council on Wednesday.

With no way of resurrecting the post, Booker and McCarthy will avoid the appearance they might try to replace the former police chief, Anthony Campos, who resigned in October.

The ordinance offers a compromise after tensions arose between Campos and McCarthy, who signed on with the city during the first year of Booker’s administration in 2006.

City officials first agreed to a settlement with the Superior Officers Association, a union representing sergeants, lieutenants and captains, that sued to block McCarthy from assuming the responsibilities handled by the chief. Booker later called for abolishing the chief’s position, leaving McCarthy sole authority over the department of more than 1,300 officers.

Campos also was offered an olive branch: He remains with the department as a deputy chief, and now serves as a public safety adviser to the mayor. He also works with the city’s Office of Emergency Management, Taxi Commission, crossing guards and special police officers.

Despite attempts to ease frictions, there were others in law enforcement who still voiced objections to the ordinance. “It’s appalling what they’ve done,” said Edward R. Brannigan, president of the state Fraternal Order of Police.

Brannigan, a retired Newark detective, spoke briefly at the meeting, and was unable to persuade the council against approving the ordinance.

The president of the Superior Officers Association, John Chrystal, who also was in attendance, left saying he would ask the state attorney general to help the union watch McCarthy closely.

“We’re going to petition the attorney general and ask them for their assistance in this matter to make sure the duties of the police director don’t run afoul,” he said.

Without oversight, Chrystal said there is little to stop a civilian leader from blurring the lines of what can be done. State laws, he said, prohibit a civilian from exercising police powers and performing police duties, but the supervision of operations and administration is allowed.

The Auditor

When it comes to the hot and cold relationship between Newark Mayor Cory Booker and North Ward powerbroker Steve Adu bato, there may be one person to blame: Booker confidante and former chief of staff Pablo Fon seca.

Fonseca, who left his City Hall job to run Booker’s 2010 re-election campaign, told The Auditor he caused a lot of friction.

“I do take blame on the Adu bato problem,” Fonseca said. “I’ve personally battled in the North Ward my entire career. We didn’t have friends or alliances, we only had ourselves. We’ve had to learn to dance with each other, to waltz with each other.”

Fonseca said it was hard not to butt heads with Adubato, and Booker agreed.

“Pablo is a gladiator and warrior,” Booker said. “We were borne through a crucible where we had to fight for every inch. It’s been a tough 10 years. It’s also the right time to switch from the warrior to the diplomat.”

Adubato says he and the mayor are now working together, and called Booker one of the smartest mayors in Newark history.

“I’m supporting him,” Adu bato said, adding Booker’s rela tionship with President-elect Barack Obama will really help Newark.

Booker said it makes more sense for Adubato and him to work together. “Now I don’t have to waste time running against him. I’d rather raise $1 million for Newark institutions than $1 million to fight against him,” said Booker.

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