Both North Bergen township officials and representatives for the township’s Municipal Utilities Authority are determined to ensure that the recent guilty pleas of three former MUA employees on felony theft charges have little or no effect on the daily proceedings of the autonomous authority.
According to Township Administrator Joseph Auriemma, the recent pleas of the three former employees, who pleaded guilty to the charges of having stolen $57,000 from the MUA four years ago, will not have any bearing on the current status of the authority.
“We feel we’ve done what we should be doing,” Auriemma said. “We’re proud of our role in this matter and we think we’ve brought it to a head. And we are prepared to cooperate from here on in.”
Last year, the MUA turned over the findings of an internal audit to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, which showed several improprieties within the MUA.
The audit showed the fiscal irregularities to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s Office, which in turn, led to a criminal investigation. A similar audit uncovered improprieties in the North Bergen Municipal Court as well, which led to the resignation of former Court Administrator Janet DeMartino.
“The MUA administration was the one that authorized the audit,” Auriemma said. “It’s not like someone came in and uncovered some irregularities. We’re the ones who brought in the outside auditor; then we’re the ones who brought the audit to the prosecutor. We initiated the whole thing.”
Auriemma added, “When I got here at the end of 1997, I looked at a variety of financial activities. And there were some issues with the payroll. That’s what prompted us to do the special audit.”
MUA Executive Director Robert Fischer echoed Auriemma’s feelings.
“We looked very closely at the same areas that were affected in 1997 and did not find anything,” Fischer said. “We had a change in administration in 1998 and we initiated controls that would prevent that kind of thing from happening again. We didn’t find anything similar to it at all.”
Fischer is certain that it was an isolated incident.
“Since we’ve been able to limit the problem to 1997, it has helped to narrow things down in the investigation.” Last week, Hudson County Superior Court Judge Elaine Davis received a plea agreement from the three defendants. They are: former MUA payroll clerk Ruth Spina, 63; Shawn Neville, 22, who is Spina’s grandson; and Gary Sposato, 40, a former MUA laborer and the boyfriend of Spina’s daughter, who were charged in the theft of MUA funds sometime between Jan. 1 and Dec. 31, 1997. The three actually had pleaded guilty to the crimes in November but had not made an agreement as to sentencing.
The Hudson County Prosecutor’s office had recommended that the three receive only probation, as long as they agreed to repay the $57,000 by the date of sentencing, which was slated for last Friday.
However, according to the Hudson County Prosecutor’s office, Spina told Davis last week that she could not come up with the entire total, that she has been left practically penniless by the ordeal and was counting on her son to foot the entire bill. Spina told the judge that she could produce about $20,000 by the time of the sentencing last week. Spina also said that she was taking full responsibility for the bill.
Judge Davis listened to Spina’s plea and gave her six weeks to come up with the rest of the funding. If the payment is not received in full by that time, then all three defendants will stand trial for felony theft charges and be subjected to as much as 10 years in prison each.
The indictment stated that Spina allegedly issued MUA payroll checks to fictitious employees and cashed them at various check cashing locations throughout the area. In doing so, Spina allegedly provided payments to her grandson, Neville, and daughter’s boyfriend, Sposato, for work that they never did.
Spina was also charged with misconduct in a public office, but that charge was dropped as part of the plea arrangement.
On April 5, 2000, a Hudson County grand jury returned an indictment against Spina, Neville and Sposato, charging them with theft, which is a third-degree felony.
Jersey City attorney Daniel Welsh, who is representing Spina, said his client has agreed to pay back the MUA. Welsh said that Spina had just gotten caught up in some financial woes and thought she was going to be able to take care of it easily.
“My client has led a law-abiding life until the incident,” Welsh said. “However, she was faced with terrible set of circumstances, a lot of bad breaks all at once, including some serious medical situations, she felt desperate and made some bad choices.”
At the hearing last Friday, Sposato was represented by Jersey City attorney Wanda Molina, and Neville by Jersey City attorney Kathy Boyle.
None of the three defendants had a prior arrest record. Since they turned themselves in and were willing to cooperate with authorities, the Prosecutor’s Office decided that probation was a fair punishment, as long as the money is returned by the new sentencing date.
John Napolitano, the general counsel retained by the MUA, felt that the issue was close to being settled.
“We’re happy that this episode is coming to a close and that the taxpayers of North Bergen will be getting money returned to the MUA,” Napolitano said. “The authority has since put in additional controls at the recommendation of its auditor to make sure situations like this cannot occur again.”
Auriemma said that the township is more than willing to work with the authorities if any further illegal activity is uncovered as part of the investigation.
“The problems needed to be addressed as soon as possible,” Auriemma said. “For each of the operational deficiencies, we have been able to adopt a corrective option plan, in full compliance with the law. Again, this was initiated by us to go in and see if there were any real issues. And we’re going to continue to cooperate with the county court at the fullest extent.”
NB and Guttenberg water fees
The MUA went about its business as usual last week, establishing its user and connection fees for both North Bergen and Guttenberg residents.
The North Bergen residential water fees now stand at $4.41 per 1,000 gallons used and $2.91 per 1,000 gallons used for commercial/industrial use. In Guttenberg, the residential fees are $5.76 per 1,000 gallons used and $3.81 per 1,000 commercial/industrial, figures that represent decreases of one penny from a year ago.
It is projected that the MUA’s 10,000 accounts should generate approximately $10 million in revenues for the coming year.
The MUA also recently agreed with on a new two-year labor contract with its workers that work at the Central and Woodcliff treatment center plants.
The contract gives current workers, who currently average an annual salary of $25,000, a 3 percent increase over the next two years of the contract, which expires Dec. 31, 2003.
As part of the deal, an MUA employees’ hourly rate of pay will rise to $11.50 per hour after two years on the job and $14.56 hourly after five years. A laborer currently begins pay at $9.75 an hour. These salary figures are much lower than the average sewer plant laborer in the state.
According to officials, the salary increases are designed to keep the MUA’s trained labor force intact for as long as possible.