Trustees of UMDNJ spent big on limos (and pricey laptops, Blackberries, wireless email service)

Several members of the governing board of the University of Medicine and Dentistry of NJ received perks worth thousands of dollars, including computers and chauffeur-driven rides.....costing the state institution more than $14,000.....

The records also show the head of the university's citizen advisory board....reveal the university spent $83,700 to shuttle Mary E. Mathis-Ford back and forth from Pennsylvania in a luxury car.

The disclosures came as officials continued trying to unravel what happened to $36.8 million sent by the Legislature to UMDNJ last year as an additional allocation. Some state officials thought the money was intended to shore up University Hospital, the Newark facility that is being financially drained by the demands of charity care.

The ongoing revelations have included rampant travel expenses by senior administrators, nearly $2 million in golden parachutes to former executives, and $3 million in performance bonuses.

According to records released in response to an Open Public Records Act request, Jonathan Orenstein, a dentist from Cherry Hill, was furnished with car service that has brought him to nearly every board meeting since he was appointed by Gov. James E. McGreevey in 2004....including a $600 bill from a Metuchen limousine service that was on standby for 15 hours, taking Orenstein from his office in Marlton to UMDNJ in Newark.....then to Farmingdale in Monmouth County, then back again to Newark for the trustees' public meeting at 3 p.m.

Reached at his office, Orenstein said he could not recall why he went to Farmingdale. UMDNJ has no facilities there. Two university sources said he went there to play golf.

Eric Pennington, the current acting chairman of the board....a Newark attorney, also has received a $2,630 laptop computer and a $339.98 Treo 650 Smartphone, a digital hand-held organizer that offers cellular and wireless e-mail service, and Web access.

.....when Petillo was a priest/monsignor and Chancellor of Seton Hall University and the seminary, he accepted stock from a food vendor as a payoff for a contract...... he's well connected to the NJ pro-abortion, Democrat party.....

Dr Petillo was investigated for awarding of contracts while at Seton Hall, and for issues surrounding the purchase of his vacation house while at Seton Hall. The following quote is from the Home News Tribune, 1/29/04: "Although he was never charged with wrongdoing, Petillo became the subject of a federal probe focusing on his purchase of a $350,000 house in Forked River and the awarding of contracts at Seton Hall."

Under Petillo, UMDNJ has been beset by a series of revelations about shady financial practices: awarding of $126 million in no-bid government contracts, payment of $900,000 to unnamed, so-called lobbyists and using UMDNJ’s foundation for laundering government monies for political contributions.....or, as its more commonly known........government fraud.

Ominously, even before he came to UMDNJ, Dr. Petillo was part of a group of people sued by a bankruptcy trustee overseeing the money-laundering case of jailed New Jersey felon, onetime financier Robert Brennan.

EXCERPT: For Petillo, lost clout and grim prospects
Friday, December 30, 2005 BY TOM MORAN
Star-Ledger Staff

http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1135921524198480.xml&coll=1

The captain of the Titanic at least showed the good manners to go down with his ship. Not John Petillo. He is scrambling for a seat on a lifeboat. And it's not a pretty thing to watch..........

U.S. Attorney Chris Christie.......had enough evidence to indict the entire organization, a move that would automatically cut off federal funds and destroy UMDNJ. By sending in a monitor instead, he is saying this place is worth saving. Not only for the nearly 15,000 jobs at stake, but for the medical care provided to the poor and the research done by faculty.

But it's looking like Petillo won't be the man to steer UMDNJ to that higher ground........ Despite all this gloom, Petillo tried yesterday to spin the federal takeover as good news. "I am delighted," he said. "Now we can really start moving and doing things." You almost have to feel sorry for him.

He is a former priest, a gourmet cook, a former health insurance executive, and a charming guy with intelligence to spare. But if he believes his own spin, he is also delusional.

.....Petillo was on the UMDNJ board before he became president. And the payments to the politically connected continued after he took office. He approved a $300,000 grant to Steve Adubato, the Newark power broker, which turned out to be more than Adubato could spend.

It was on his watch that Newark Councilwoman Gayle Chaneyfield Jenkins got $10,000 for a charity that turned out to be unregistered.

And it was under Petillo that the executive suites were burglarized over and over, and e-mails relevant to this investigation were deleted from computer hard drives.

He was so tone-deaf that, in the midst of it all, he fought to preserve bonuses for his executives -- including the chief suspects in the fraud case.

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