A state watchdog forges ahead, in an era of endangered oversight

Kevin Walsh had been an attorney for just two years when he picked a fight that would help topple the death penalty in New Jersey.

As counsel to New Jerseyans for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, he challenged the state’s lethal injection regulations, a battle that led to a 2004 court moratorium on executions and a 2007 state law abolishing capital punishment.

Since then, he has become one of the state’s leading watchdogs on issues from affordable housing to police accountability, driving change in statewide policy with little regard to what powerful politicians he incenses along the way.

More than three years into his latest watchdog role as New Jersey’s state comptroller, he has yet to be confirmed by the state Senate, lingering longer than most other gubernatorial nominees with “acting” in front of their title. Two state senators have blocked his confirmation to the job through senatorial courtesy, an unwritten rule that gives state senators virtual veto powers over gubernatorial nominees.

Confirmation would secure him a six-year term and keep him from getting fired at whim at a time when state watchdogs have been increasingly weakened or altogether axed, prompting one editorial cartoonist to crack: “If I was the comptroller, I’d have somebody start my car for me in the morning.”

It also would offer Walsh protection as legislators consider several bills now in the Statehouse pipeline that would impose new oversight on him or even put someone else in the job. One bill would create a “chief accountability officer” to supervise the work of all government watchdogs, including the comptroller, while another would amend the state constitution to make Walsh’s job an elected post.

Walsh says he’s undaunted.

“When the governor appointed me the comptroller, he asked me to report the facts that involve fraud, waste, abuse, favoritism, nepotism, corruption, whatever it is, boldly, honestly, and with integrity. And I’ve done that in every single report that we’ve issued — and I will take on any issue that is appropriate to take on that involves fraud, waste, abuse, favoritism, and corruption,” Walsh said. “I would like to be confirmed because confirmation is a part of the job. But I’m doing the job the exact same way whether I’m confirmed or not.”

‘A circuit breaker in a political world’

In a sea of state watchdogs that includes inspector generals, auditors, and ombudspeople of all sorts, Walsh’s post stands out.

Created as an independent agency in 2007 to protect public money from abuse and corruption, the office has investigatory oversight of more than 2,000 executive-branch entities, from the state government down to the smallest fire department.

Investigators in the comptroller’s office have subpoena power, and while they’re legislatively tasked with investigating specific things like Medicaid fraud and public contracts, they also go where tipsters’ reports lead them, Walsh said.

“It is serving as a circuit breaker in a political world to keep bad things from happening. We have a very clear mandate to be able to look under the hood of government and see what’s going on, and then report that as appropriate to the public,” Walsh said. “There’s almost no information within government that we can be denied access to, including even attorney-client privileged information.”

Walsh, a graduate of the Catholic University of America and Rutgers School of Law-Camden, oversees a staff of more than 125. Their recent reports uncovered commercial fisheries that illicitly pocketed millions in COVID-19 relief funds; fiscal mismanagement that imperiled a public college that primarily serves students of color; police departments’ widespread disregard for misconduct-reporting rules; and rampant, extravagant sick-leave payouts to public employees.

The office also probed COVID-19 relief spending for waste, fraud, and abuse and launched a police accountability project to reveal and remedy misconduct and inefficiencies in law enforcement. More recently, investigators were tasked with reviewing opioid settlement spending and scrutinizing contracts in the Gateway project, the multi-billion-dollar expansion of the northeast corridor rail line between Newark and Manhattan.

It’s all weighty enough stuff that Walsh has surely earned plenty of haters — though few go public.

“The work we do is the sort of work that I think 99.9% of New Jerseyans believe in — that people shouldn’t take money they haven’t earned or that the law says they’re not supposed to take, that we should not tolerate perpetually poor quality in nursing homes we pay hundreds of millions of dollars to, that you shouldn’t pay twice for the same insurance policies,” Walsh said. “These are things that are not controversial concepts, and so we don’t get many people disagreeing with us publicly.”

Walsh said the senators blocking his confirmation to the job — Democrats James Beach and Nilsa Cruz-Perez — have not explained their objections to him. Nor did they explain themselves to the New Jersey Monitor; Beach didn’t respond to a call to his cell phone and his office said he was out of the country, and Cruz-Perez’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Walsh’s office irked powerful South Jersey Democrat George Norcross in 2021 when it released an audit that found fault with an analysis Norcross’ insurance brokerage did of health plans for Pennsauken Public Schools.

Daniel Fee, a Norcross spokesman, didn’t respond to a request for comment Thursday.

Whatever anyone’s objections to Walsh may be, one New Jersey political observer said his delayed confirmation isn’t good government.

“Senatorial courtesy is yet another tool that the very powerful political machines that run our state and control our legislature can use to get what they want,” said Julia Sass Rubin, a professor at the Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University. “Our state politics are very transactional and with senatorial courtesy, political machines can hold a governor’s appointee hostage.”

Gov. Phil Murphy, through a spokeswoman, told the New Jersey Monitor he was proud to nominate Walsh as comptroller and believes he has led the office “with the integrity and independence it requires.”

“The governor remains fully confident in his ability to ensure that taxpayer dollars are spent lawfully and carefully, and urges that his confirmation move forward,” Murphy spokeswoman Natalie Hamilton said.

Legislative changes afoot?

Two bills now stalled in the Legislature could impact the comptroller’s office, and maybe Walsh himself.

One meant to strengthen the office’s independence could require Walsh, who has never run for public office (except for student body president in high school and college — he won both), to become a political candidate if he wants to keep his job. That bill, sponsored by Assemblyman Benjie Wimberly (D-Passaic), would make the state comptroller an elected position.

In New Jersey, the only statewide elected positions are governor and lieutenant governor, with the two roles coming as a package deal for voters.

Wimberly couldn’t be reached for comment. But his legislation notes the “remarkable level of executive and political power held by New Jersey’s governor under our constitution” makes true independence unlikely for a comptroller who’s “appointed by and controlled by the governor.”

“Making the state comptroller the second and separately elected state-level official is the only means of providing independent and responsive checks and balances,” the legislation states. “An elected state comptroller will have personal motivations to seek the office, serve the entire state, and be accountable to no other appointing power other than the people of the state.”

The bill — stalled since Wimberly introduced it in February 2022 — is unlikely to pass before the current legislative session ends in January, considering its history. Lawmakers have introduced it nine times since 2007, without success.

Under another bill, Walsh — who now answers only to the governor — would have new oversight. That legislation would create a “chief accountability officer” to supervise the comptroller and similar watchdogs, including state ombudsmen, compliance officers, inspectors general, and auditors.

Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D-Hudson), one of the bill’s prime sponsors, said the bill was motivated mostly by the failure of a former state corrections ombudsman to flag years of sexual abuse at the Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women.

Lawmakers thought “a watchdog for the watchdogs” could ensure they delivered the oversight they were hired to do, he added. The bill hasn’t moved since it was introduced in January 2022.

While the comptroller is included in the legislation, Mukherji said he has no concerns about Walsh.

“I think he’s one of the good ones,” he said.