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Education, politics and a tasteless display (Corrupt New President at UMDNJ)
The Bergen Record ^ | 4/6/05 | James Ahearn

Posted on 04/08/2005 6:31:53 PM PDT by Steve Cohen

OPINION

THE RECORD Education, politics and a tasteless display

Wednesday, April 6, 2005

By JAMES AHEARN

AS PLANNED, the party for John Petillo's inauguration as president of the state University of Medicine and Dentistry was going to set a New Jersey record for vulgar extravagance.

Bear in mind that the university is a public institution, supported by taxes. Bear in mind that the State House is struggling to fill a $4 billion hole in the budget for next year.

Against that background, consider that the university was going to spend $20,000 to rent the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark for the ceremony. Consider that it was renting academic robes for 700 professors, at $30 each. Consider that it had invited 1,600 people to join the festivities and dine in style at a later reception.

Consider as well that the university was going to hold celebrations at four campuses, in a solid week of partying in North, Central, and South Jersey. Consider, too, that it was renting the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency in New Brunswick for a grand university-wide gala.

A bit much, don't you think? It did indeed look excessive to Loretta Weinberg, the veteran Democratic assemblywoman from Teaneck. She wrote Petillo to say thanks for the invitation to the arts center, but no, she wouldn't attend.

"This is not a 'King's Coronation,'" she informed him. "As the largest public health institution in our nation, UMDNJ receives $209.5 million in state funding on average each year. As a legislator, I am faced with making severe cuts in this year's budget which will affect poor families, children and health care."

All the whoop-de-do was in bad taste, she said. Emily Post could not have put it better.

Nor did it make much difference that the bills would be paid by the school's non-profit fund-raising affiliate, the Foundation of UMDNJ. The money that the foundation spent on partying was money that it would otherwise spend on the university's core mission, education.

Well, as word of this celebratory excess spread, the university began cutting back. It is still going to use the performing arts center for the inauguration ceremony three weeks hence, but the fare for the following reception has been trimmed to an ostentatiously modest sandwiches-and-chips affair. As for the gala at the Hyatt Regency, it has been either scratched or postponed indefinitely, depending on which newspaper you read. The inauguration is now expected to cost at most $200,000. That is supposed to be a bargain.

Throughout this flap, Petillo, a former Catholic priest and chancellor of Seton Hall, has been unapologetic. He maintains that all the partying is not about him, it is about a great institution recognizing and celebrating its own worth. In a written response to Weinberg, he asserted, "It's an affirmation of a new direction for UMDNJ. We are raising the bar, setting a new standard for excellence, and calling our constituency into action to do so."

Petillo is one slick operator. At this time last year he was the unpaid chairman of the university's board of trustees, all of whom are appointed by the governor. When the UMDNJ president, Stuart Cook, announced his resignation, Petillo arranged to have himself appointed interim president. A nationwide, seven-month search for a permanent successor was launched, at a cost of $350,000, but from the start Petillo was rumored to have an inside track on the job, even though his doctorate is a Ph.D. in counseling and personnel, not in medicine. Darned if that isn't how things turned out.

From the start of his "interim presidency" he acted as if he owned the office, and he is clearly bent on exercising political influence. At the inauguration ceremony, for example, the speakers will include acting Governor Codey, and those attending will include three former governors. Associate state Supreme Court Justice James Zazzali will administer the oath of office. The invocations will be led by Roman Catholic Bishop Paul Bootkowski of the Metuchen Diocese and by the Rev. Reginald Jackson, who is head of the state black ministers' council and arguably the most influential African-American leader in New Jersey.

And, wouldn't you know, it turns out that Jackson's wife, Christy Davis Jackson, was appointed UMDNJ vice president for governmental affairs, at a salary of $156,000, shortly after Petillo became interim president. Another interesting move by Petillo was a $95,000 university grant to a non-profit elder-care program in Newark called Casa Israel. The program is operated by Stephen N. Adubato, a Democratic power broker whose base is Newark's North Ward. The grant was made without public competition or even a specification as to how the money would be spent.

As for the new president's own compensation, it should be quite satisfactory. When Stuart Cook retired after five years of service, he was making $514,000 a year. His predecessor, Stanley Bergen Jr., who had served since the institution was created in 1971, was getting $230,000 when he left in 1998.

John Petillo will be paid $575,000 to start, increasing automatically to $600,000 July 1, more than three times as much as the governor. And Petillo won't have to spend any of it on gasoline to get around. The university is supplying him with a Lincoln Navigator SUV and a driver.

Ain't no flies on John Petillo. You'd better believe it.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; US: New Jersey
KEYWORDS: adubato; corruption; essexcounty; medicalresearch; medicalschool; nj; petillo; umdnj

1 posted on 04/08/2005 6:31:54 PM PDT by Steve Cohen
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To: Steve Cohen
Throughout this flap, Petillo, a former Catholic priest and chancellor of Seton Hall, has been unapologetic.

Probably do all in his power to promote research on embryonic stem cells.

2 posted on 04/08/2005 6:39:29 PM PDT by madprof98
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To: Steve Cohen

So, is UMDNJ a part of Rutgers now or what?


3 posted on 04/08/2005 6:41:07 PM PDT by AmishDude (Join the AmishDude fan club: "You're a luminary!" -- Howlin; "You are a wise man." -- Torie)
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To: Steve Cohen

I couldn't care less. If the idiots in New Jersey want to keep funding this crap, more power to them.

I live not all that far from that demented state and sometimes listen to talk radio from there. It is really depressing. What in the hell are those people thinking? Can they spell Revolution?

One of my sons has done some work in New Jersey, as an installer of speciality equipment. At first, he was required to pay "prevailing wages" to his employees. He didn't give a $hit, the taxpayers of NJ were paying it. Now he can't do work up there because they now require that you be a union contractor.

Nevertheless, they recently smuggled him up there to clean up a mess that a union contractor had made. Not only did the idiots in NJ pay the union contractor for inferior work but they paid my son a huge amount to clean it up. He certainly wasn't going to jeapordize his life and limb for peanuts.

New Jersey is beyond redemption.


4 posted on 04/08/2005 6:44:13 PM PDT by jackbill
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To: Steve Cohen; Coleus

The writer had me, until Loretta Weinberg was quoted.

The way I see it, if Loretta Weinberg doesn't like someone, maybe that person is doing something right.

I don't know... holding out judgment now.

Ping to Coleus!


5 posted on 04/08/2005 6:44:39 PM PDT by Tired of Taxes (News junkie here)
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To: Steve Cohen; Admin Moderator

So, whaddaya think of that?


6 posted on 04/08/2005 6:57:47 PM PDT by Slings and Arrows ("The Internet, where men are men, women are men, and little girls are FBI agents..." --Unknown)
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To: madprof98

Is there any question now that NJ is the most corrupt state? That nepotism, cronism and political hacks rule. Why bust your hump in the private sector when you can do so much better greasing palms in the public sector to get that golden parachute. And never get fired or laid off due to cutbacks-heaven forbid that a bureaucrat might loose his/her job with a 4 billion shortfall-no,let the parks deteriorate first.


7 posted on 04/08/2005 7:08:18 PM PDT by outriderduke
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To: Steve Cohen

Whole lotta pork


8 posted on 04/08/2005 7:40:26 PM PDT by RippleFire ("It's a joke, son!")
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To: Steve Cohen

There's a college in new Jersey?? Wow, who'da thunk it?


9 posted on 04/08/2005 7:45:10 PM PDT by ozzymandus
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To: Tired of Taxes
thanks for the ping.

Probably a democrat party hack and operative. Appointed by mc sleazy to the board. Was a former priest, head of Blue Cross and now President of UMDNJ and not an MD.

Weinberg probably had somewhere else to go that day and used that opportunity to pander to her constituents showing that she is saving the taxpayers money, meanwhile she approved all of the sleaze's and codey's huge budgets.
10 posted on 04/08/2005 9:11:29 PM PDT by Coleus (God Bless our beloved Pope John Paul II, May he Rest in Peace)
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