Big mess at UMDNJ (NARAL Lobbyist and former Corzine staffer gets top job at state-run UMDNJ)

Bergen Record & NJ RTL ^ | 04.24.05 | Pat Alex

[Coleus]

NARAL Lobbyist and former Corzine staffer's top job at state-run UMDNJ comes under scrutiny. Read about the latest financial controversy with UMDNJ . . .

It was revealed late last week that shortly after Mr. Petillo, a former Catholic Priest and ally of former Gov. McGreevey, not a Medical Doctor and is paid $600,000 per year, was named to the top job (At UMDNJ), he created the $156,000-a-year position of vice president for government affairs and hired lobbyist Christy Davis-Jackson to fill it. She is a former aide to Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and the wife of the Rev. Reginald Jackson, arguably the most powerful black leader in the state. Was the job really needed, or was this a question of patronage and connections? That's what an independent investigation must determine. (Note:  She was also registered as a lobbyist for NARAL, the leading pro-abortion group in the nation.)

Investigation of two Universities slated to run the NJ Stem Cell Institute. Read more . . .

Note: Rutgers University and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of  New Jersey have been hand-picked by former NJ Governor James McGreevey and Acting Governor Richard Codey to jointly run the NJ Stem Cell Institute to be based in New Brunswick, NJ.   Scientists Wise Young from Rutgers University and Ira Black from UMDNJ have been the leading lobbyists pushing for the legislation and public funding for the NJ Stem Cell Institute.  Acting Governor Codey has appointed both Young and Black to co-direct the Institute.  The Stem Cell Institute is currently under construction.  Acting Governor Codey is presently pushing to use $380 million in public bond money to fund the NJ Stem Cell Institute.

[Coleus]

Big Mess at UMDNJ

THE GROWING scandal at UMDNJ is a festering boil, and the State Commission of Investigation had better lance it quick.

The SCI, an independent watchdog, announced last week that it is going to investigate spending and hiring at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey in Newark as a part of a wider look at state universities.

That's great, so long as the SCI begins its work with a comprehensive investigation into the alarming allegations of patronage, no-bid contracts and other insider deals at UMDNJ. With every passing day, new questions of impropriety arise about the management of the school, which gets $200 million in state funding.

Until that SCI probe is completed, it makes no sense to go ahead with the inauguration of University President John Petillo, who makes $600,000 a year. The elaborate festivities are scheduled for Tuesday, but at this point, too many questions about the college persist. Who knows what other skeletons will be found in the medical college's closet - especially in light of this independent probe into its contracts and hiring.

The scandal began to emerge in March, just after it was announced that Mr. Petillo's inauguration and related events were going to cost more than $100,000 - at a time when the state is facing a multibillion-dollar shortfall. Mr. Petillo became president last November after a $350,000 nationwide search - a search that ended with the selection of the inside candidate. Once the media started looking deeper, an outrageous pattern of no-bid contracts, dubious charitable donations and woefully inadequate financial oversight emerged.

Here's a sampling of what has turned up so far:

It was revealed late last week that shortly after Mr. Petillo was named to the top job, he created the $156,000-a-year position of vice president for government affairs and hired lobbyist Christy Davis-Jackson to fill it. She is a former aide to Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., and the wife of the Rev. Reginald Jackson, arguably the most powerful black leader in the state. Was the job really needed, or was this a question of patronage and connections? That's what an independent investigation must determine.

• Responding to requests from journalists, the university has begun to release lists of no-bid contracts, beginning with the year 2002, when $126 million in such contracts were issued - including a whopping $900,000 in fees to outside lobbyists. Who was minding the store?
• In the months between former Gov. James McGreevey's election in November 2001 and his inauguration in early 2002, UMDNJ paid a lawyer $75,000 to "represent the university's interests" during that period. The lawyer, Ronald White, apparently did no work in return, and later was at the center of a huge political scandal in Philadelphia. He died shortly before the trial, now concluding, began. Why was the university paying huge sums to the likes of Mr. White?
• More recently, Mr. Petillo gave a no-bid $95,000 grant to a social service agency run by Newark political kingpin Steven Adubato Sr. - after Mr. Adubato had backed Mr. Petillo for the UMDNJ presidency. Mr. Petillo says that he will now review all no-bid contracts above $50,000. Does that mean a $49,000 grant to Mr. Adubato would be OK?
• From a taxpayer-funded account, UMDNJ made a $10,000 donation to a Newark politician's supposed charity - a breast-cancer awareness group - even though the organization is not authorized to solicit donations. Why should the university be giving taxpayer money to charities in the first place?

Put all these items together, and you get the clear picture that UMDNJ's management is on one huge gravy train, with Mr. Petillo as the engineer and the taxpayers paying the freight.

Despite it all, a spokeswoman for Mr. Petillo says the inauguration will proceed as planned because it's an academic tradition that also celebrates UMDNJ's "accomplishments and its new direction."

New direction? Not only has Mr. Petillo done little to clean up the mess at UMDNJ, but he has given the university a few more black eyes to boot. The SCI probe can't come soon enough.

[FormerACLUmember]

And her first task will be to mandate medical students and residents commit murder ("abortion training") over any religious or moral obligations or face expulsion. Just as the NARAL thugs did next door in NY City.

[Coleus]

NARAL thugs >>

Mayor Michael Bloomberg

[FormerACLUmember]

Mayor Michael Bloomberg lost all my respect.

[Coleus]

abortion, corruption, money, paybacks, patronage and state jobs

[Lancey Howard]

THE GROWING scandal at UMDNJ is a festering boil, and the State Commission of Investigation had better lance it quick.

In New Jersey? The coverup and whitewash are the only things that will be quick.

[EQAndyBuzz]

New Jersey voters are putzes. I live there and it has to be the most corrupt place on earth. And yet, we keep voting for the same criminals election after election.

Jersey can only change if two things are done. Look at each name on the ballot for every position. Vote for the name you do not recognize.

Second, audit every contract the state has.

We have the highest taxes and the worst services. We pay tolls and taxes on pretty much everything. Well, you get what you pay for.

[chimera]

THE GROWING scandal at UMDNJ is a festering boil, and the State Commission of Investigation had better lance it quick.

Since the 'Rats took over, the whole freaking place is one huge festering boil. That would be quite a lance job, no?

Sounds like the "State Commission of Investigation" is going to need more than the usual amount of whitewash for this job.

[Liz]

The thesis of moral relativism appears to be that mankind exists in a guiltless vacuum, and is merely the sum of its private parts.

Relativism demands that all of society kneel in obeisance to its incessant need for gratification.

The language of laws, societal customs, and cultural institutions must be gutted and should exist only to feed this carnal obsession.

The abortion savages, ACLU, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, together with left liberal and church-separation groups, are employed in this destructive objective.

[Calpernia]

>Casino Association of New Jersey

I wonder if this has links back to AbScam?

[Calpernia]

>>>>Mr. Beal, NARAL of New York and PKF Mark III Inc., a Pennsylvania-based contracting firm with large contracts in New Jersey.


UMDNY = RWJ = ties to Woodside Hospice = also PA ties

[Calpernia]

TYPO

UMDNY was suppose to be UMDNJ

[EternalVigilance]

The public universities. Where Dem hacks go to cash in...

A budget of over one billion?

Some states don't have budgets much bigger than that.

[Calpernia]

People from Woodside go to RWJ (of UMDNJ) to teach. RWJ Foundation is a donor to Woodside.

[EternalVigilance]

Got it.

'Follow the money'.

[Calpernia]

Don't overlook the NARAL connection either. Same philosophy of Hospice.

[Fedora]

Thanks!

[Irish_Thatcherite]

abortion, corruption, money, paybacks, patronage and state jobs

Amazing how they all come together!!