Irked over watchdog reports, group representing N.J. counties pushes for state probe

An association representing New Jersey’s 21 counties wants lawmakers to investigate a state watchdog that issued recent reports exposing misconduct and waste in three counties.

The New Jersey Association of Counties Executive Director John Donnadio sent a letter Tuesday to Senate President Nicholas Scutari asking legislators to probe the Office of the State Comptroller, accusing the office of publicizing its findings of wrongdoing while hiding governments’ responses. 

Donnadio told the New Jersey Monitor Thursday he specifically objects to “salacious” accusations acting State Comptroller Kevin Walsh made in recent reports on misconduct and waste in Essex County’s COVID-19 vaccine program, Hudson County’s contracts for jail health services, and payments to top Union County officials.

Lawmakers should hold a public hearing to review the practices of Walsh and his staff, consider redefining the office’s role to add checks and balances, and appoint “an independent third-party arbiter” to review its reports before they’re released publicly and “say who’s right and who’s wrong,” Donnadio said. The office also should include the full responses of those it investigates in the reports it issues, he added.

“Why should one agency have the ability to levy accusations of wrongdoing without really any due process protections of the law? It seems like they’re just sensationalizing these findings for YouTube hits and there has to be some type of protection,” Donnadio said. “It feels like 21st Century McCarthyism. We know that there’s fraud, waste, and abuse out there — I’m not blind to say that it’s not out there. But in many cases, there are disputes of facts and circumstances and legal premises.”

The letter was first reported by Politico New Jersey.

Walsh welcomed a hearing.

“I’ve issued lots of reports over the past four-plus years, and I will show up at the Legislature and welcome the invitation to discuss any single one of them,” Walsh told the New Jersey Monitor. “We are proud of the work we’ve done protecting taxpayers. We do that work knowing that we will upset powerful people, and that is why this office is independent. And that’s why I’m committed to keeping this office independent, so that we can do our important work. If the Association of Counties has suggested that our independence is a flaw, they’re wrong. It’s a feature and it’s an important one.”

He dismissed claims of fact disputes.

“This seems to be more of a complaint about basic accountability in government and the discomfort that brings than it is that we’ve done anything unfair or inaccurate,” he said.

Walsh said he and his investigators interview officials they investigate, invite them to share documents and information, share a draft report with them for comments before issuing a final public report, and summarize their responses in that report.

He recommends reforms and policy changes to fix problems he uncovers, but it’s up to legislators and other policymakers to act on them, he added. That’s why a third-party independent arbiter, as Donnadio requested, isn’t needed, he said.

“The independent arbiter here is the governor, the Legislature, and the taxpayers,” Walsh said. “They have their independent arbiter.”

Donnadio criticized the comptroller’s office for failing to note government successes, especially in his probe of Essex County’s spending of federal coronavirus funds.

“They focused on the 1% of the negative things that they did wrong, and not all the great things they did that really helped to protect the public health, safety, and welfare of the people of Essex County and the state,” Donnadio said. “Four or five years after the fact, they’re playing Monday-morning quarterback and saying, ‘Well, you could have done this right.'”

Walsh, who remains acting comptroller because several senators have blocked his confirmation, had little patience for that argument.

“If the counties are looking for kudos and gold stars, that’s not our job,” he said. “Our job is to protect taxpayers when fraud, waste, and abuse occur. That’s for others in government to do the work of congratulating entities when things go well.”

Scutari did not respond to a request for comment.

Donnadio’s call for scrutiny comes as policymakers have weakened watchdogs, including the Government Records Council, state Election Law Enforcement Commission, and the state Public Advocate, under the guise of expediency and transparency. It also comes at a time when lawmakers are mulling an overhaul of the state’s Open Public Records Act that would shield more government records from public scrutiny. Donnadio has testified in favor of that bill.

Good government advocates, consequently, flocked to social media to vent about Donnadio’s letter.

“We need more transparency and accountability of elected officials and their decisions, not less. We won’t stand for efforts to discredit, silence, or limit the powers of @NJComptroller,” New Jersey Citizen Action Executive Director Dena Mottola Jaborska wrote on social media.