Like I've said before, paying Vega off only buys one vote. How many councilmembers have been voting yes on those sweet deals for developers again?

I'd prefer one fell swoop but one by one gets it done just as well.

And don't forget, November 3rd is less than a month away with a neck and neck race between Christie and Corzine. Next couple weeks could be interesting.

Don't forget Lopez.

Quote:

Vega, Kenny, Catrillo

All Team Healy.

If this is his judgement on picking people around him, how can I trust his judgements on issues affecting my taxes and quality of life issues?

Oh Lord please, let it be the domino effect!!

So what will Healy do? Will he come out and say anything? What about making him resign? Or will Healy have is standard line, No Comment!

I just went to the Jersey City Government website and the Ward B council member page is blank.

It will be awfully interesting to find out who the unnamed "Jersey City Official" is....

Geez, Kenny wasn't even involved in the original round up - not even mentioned. Wonder what Jersey City Official 4 is thinking about today???

Jersey City Councilman Phil Kenny pleads guilty in massive NJ corruption case
By Michaelangelo Conte/The Jersey Journal
October 06, 2009, 12:50PM



Jersey City Councilman Philip J. Kenny pleaded guilty in federal court in Newark this afternoon to accepting $,5000 in bribes as part of the massive New Jersey corruption case that broke over the summer.

Kenny, who represents the city's West Side, Ward B, hadn't been charged in the original roundup of suspects.

In pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, Kenny admitted that in March he met with a government informant posing as a developer wanting to grease the wheels for a fictitious development project on Garfield Avenue.

Two meetings were cited -- both in Jersey City restaurants and both attended by Kenny, the informant and an unnamed "Jersey City Official.''

At the first meeting, Kenny agreed to accept $5,000 broken down into two $2,500 contributions from "straw donors'' for his Friends of Phil Kenny war chest in exchange for future official favors in getting zoning and other approvals.

At the second meeting, he accepted the money, knowing it was illegal to do so.

Kenny is out on $55,000 bail until his Jan. 12 sentencing when he faces 12 to 24 months in prison.

Kenny has been in office only since the spring.

He was appointed to the Ward B seat on April 6 after Councilwoman Mary Spinello resigned, just weeks before the May 12 election. She had left to head the Jersey City Parking Authority, and the council voted to replace her for the short stretch in what some deemed an inappropriate attempt to give Kenny the "incumbent'' advantage come Election Day.

Kenny ran on Mayor Jerramiah Healy's ticket and was elected on the first ballot.

Before Kenny's appointment, Council President and fellow Healy running mate Mariano Vega sang his praises.

"He's been a strong activist for a long time,'' Vega, who has since been charged in the corruption sting, said. "It's an appointment of someone I think people can trust.''

In addition to his council post, Kenny is the office manager for Hudson County Board of Freeholders and has been a state Democratic committeeman; West Side ward leader for

Obama presidential campaign; trustee of the Lincoln Park Little League, and an usher and Eucharistic minister at St. Aloysius Church in Jersey City.
He is the sixth person -- all from Jersey City -- to plead guilty in the sweep that netted 44 men and women from New Jersey and New York on a variety of charges that ranged from political corruption to the sale of body parts.

On Sept. 24, unsuccessful Ward C candidate James "Jimmy" King pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from a government informant posing as a developer.

Before that, former Jersey City Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatham, former Hudson County Superintendent of Elections investigator Denis Jaslow, and former Jersey City municipal employees Maher Khalil and Guy Catrillo also pleaded guilty to their roles in the scandal.

Editorial: When will message get through to them?

By The Jersey Journal
September 28, 2009, 12:01AM

If it appears that this newspaper is beating the same drum rhythm, it is because the message that Jersey City government ethics is in crisis should get louder until this administration recognizes the obvious. The culture of business as usual must change, starting with the removal of those arrested July 23 in a massive sweep of 44 people on corruption and money laundering complaints.

Some of these people have already pleaded guilty and have been removed from their posts, but most are small fry.

City Council President Mariano Vega still acts on city business, although he was among those handcuffed. Vega can no longer sit on the City Council while defending himself against the federal corruption charges -- unless he is just a rubber stamp for the administration, which does not take much thinking.

Mayor Jerramiah Healy continues to wear blinders.

The mayor orchestrated the reappointment of his former chief of staff, Carl Czaplicki, as executive director of the Department of Housing, Economic, Development and Commerce. Czaplicki is also known as "JC Official 3" in federal complaints that documents Czaplicki as being present when a cooperating federal witness discussed giving bribes to officials in return for getting fast-track approvals for a fictitious development project.

Healy, who is also chairman of the Hudson County Democratic Organization, may have felt an affinity for Czaplicki. The mayor is described as "JC Official 4" in federal complaints brought against defendants, which include some members of his administration and party.

In Czaplicki's case, he was offered a $10,000 bribe but asked that the money be donated to the campaign war chest of another official, according to the complaints. Like Healy, Czaplicki has not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Meanwhile, Healy continues to stay mum about the federal investigation that has determined this administration's legacy. The mayor will not even utter a word about those who have admitted taking bribes.

Despite his silence and the support of his apologists, this newspaper will continue to beat the drum.

Jersey City's Jimmy King pleads guilty to corruption,
faces 10-16 months in prison

[from "The Jersey Journal," September 24, 2009, 1:37 p.m.]

Unsuccessful Jersey City City Council candidate James "Jimmy'' King faced a federal judge in Newark this afternoon and admitted he took $5,000 to $10,000 in bribes in exchange for his future official assistance of development projects proposed by a man who turned out to be a federal informant.

By pleading guilty to conspiracy to commit extortion under color of official right, the 67-year-old King is expected to be sent to prison for 10 to 16 months when he is sentenced on Jan. 5.

The charge normally carries a maximum penalty of 20 years behind bars.

As a now convicted felon, the longtime figure in Jersey City politics loses his right to vote, hold office, sit on a jury and own a firearm.

King made no comment as he left the courtroom, but in the hallway, his attorney, Arthur Abrams of Jersey City said his client is remorseful.

"He is very sorry for what occurred,'' Abrams told reporters.

The hearing before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares took about a half hour during which King was extremely respectful.

Asked by Linares how he wanted to plead, he said: "Guilty, your honor."

Very few people were in the courtroom and it didn't appear that any family members had attended.

King was among the 44 people netted by the feds in a wide-ranging sting that involved public figures and rabbis and involved charges ranging from corruption to money laundering to trafficking in body parts.

King is the fifth person arrested in the July 23 sweep to have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the informant, who was posing a developer seeking favors from officials.

Former Jersey City Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatham, former Hudson County Board of Elections investigator Denis Jaslow, and former Jersey City municipal employees Maher Khalil and Guy Catrillo have all admitted their guilt.

A former Hudson County undersheriff, King is also the former head of the Jersey City Parking Authority and a former chairman of the city's Incinerator Authority.

He was the longtime leader of the Jimmy King Civic Association, which held parties for seniors among other charitable works. After his arrest in late July, he disbanded the association.

King had come in second in the May contest for the Ward C, Journal Square, council seat to Nidia Lopez, a running mate of Mayor Jerramiah Healy. After the election, King challenged Lopez's residency, pointing out in a lawsuit that she has claimed Orlando, Fla., to be her home in order to get a tax break on a home she owns there.

The lawsuit, which has since been joined by third-place finisher Norrice Raymaker, is making its way through state Superior Court.

-- Michaelangelo Conte

Hudson County official pleads guilty in connection to corruption sting

[from "The Star-Ledger," September 24, 2009, 12:47 p.m.]

NEWARK --A former Hudson County undersheriff pleaded guilty today in connection to the massive corruption sweep that netted 44 people in July.

James P. King, 67, told a federal judge in Newark he accepted between $5,000 and $10,000 bribes from a government informant while running for the Jersey City Council. In exchange, King promised if elected he would help secure zoning changes for the informant, who was posing as a developer building a condominium project.

King is the fifth defendant to admit guilt in the case. It revolved around a single informant, identified as failed Monmouth County developer Solomon Dwek.

Dwek was charged with bank fraud in 2006, then spent more than two years recording conversations for federal prosecutors during scores of meetings in diners, parked cars and boiler rooms.

His work led to the arrests of three mayors, two state legislators, several political operatives and five rabbis from communities in Deal and Brooklyn.

U.S. District Judge Jose Linares scheduled his sentencing for Jan. 5.

Two officials from Hudson County pleaded guilty to extortion charges in federal court in Newark last week and implicated a dozen other defendants -- including two former mayors and an assemblyman.

Edward Cheatam, 61, an ex-Jersey City education and housing official, said he took $70,000 in bribes and introduced a government informant who posed as a crooked developer to an array of Democratic officials who, he said, also took bribes. They include state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, former Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano, former Secaucus Mayor Dennis Elwell, former Jersey City council candidate Louis Manzo and Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini.

Cheatam also said he funneled a total of $15,000 in illegal contributions to the campaign of Jersey City's Democratic Mayor Jerramiah T. Healy. In exchange, Cheatam said, Healy and Beldini would help secure approvals for a luxury condominium building.

Two other Jersey City officials -- Maher Khalil, 39, a former health official, and Guy Catrillo, 54, a former planning aide -- became the first defendants in the case to admit guilt, telling a federal judge they took bribes from the informant.

-- Joe Ryan

Unsuccessful Jersey City council candidate Jimmy King expected to plead guilty in massive corruption sweep
By Margaret Schmidt/The Jersey Journal
September 24, 2009, 11:14AM

Unsuccessful Jersey City City Council candidate and popular civic association leader James "Jimmy'' King is expected to plead guilty this afternoon to charges in the massive New Jersey corruption scandal.

King, who is also a former Hudson County undersheriff, was accused in the sting of accepting two illegal $5,000 payments from a government informant for his May campaign.

He's due in federal court in Newark at 12:30 p.m., court officials confirmed this morning.

So far, four of the 44 people arrested in the July 23 sweep have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from the informant, who was posing a developer seeking favors from officials.

Former Jersey City Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatham, former Hudson County Board of Elections investigator Denis Jaslow, and former Jersey City municipal employees Maher Khalil and Guy Catrillo.

Neither King nor his attorney, Arthur Abrams, could be reached for comment.

King -- whose Jimmy King Civic Association has been praised in the Journal Square area, particularly by seniors, for charitable works -- is also the former head of the Jersey City Parking Authority and a former chairman of the city's Incinerator Authority.

He came in second in the May contest for the Ward C, Journal Square, council seat to Nidia Lopez, a running mate of Mayor Jerramiah Healy. After the election, King challenged Lopez's residency, pointing out in a lawsuit that she has claimed Orlando, Fla., to be her home in order to get a tax break on a home she owns there.

The lawsuit, which has since been joined by third-place finisher Norrice Raymaker, is making its way through state Superior Court.

In the sweep, King was charged with conspiracy to commit extorition under color of official right.

The sweep netted a mix of public figures and rabbis on wide-ranging charges including corruption, money laundering and even trafficking of body parts.

Another of 44 due in federal court

Thursday, September 24, 2009

Yet another person arrested on corruption and/or money laundering charges in July is scheduled to appear today at 12:30 p.m. in U.S. District Court in Newark, a U.S. Attorney's Office spokesman said yesterday.

The spokesman did not reveal who would be in court, nor the purpose of the hearing.

So far, four of the 44 people arrested in the July 23 massive sweep have pleaded guilty to accepting bribes from an FBI informant posing a developer seeking favors from officials.

The people who have plead guilty to taking bribes are: former Jersey City Housing Authority commissioner Edward Cheatham, former Hudson County Board of Elections investigator Denis Jaslow, and former Jersey City municipal employees Maher Khalil and Guy Catrillo.

Today's hearing is before U.S. District Judge Jose L. Linares.

CHARLES HACK

Former Jersey City housing official pleads guilty, says bribes went to Mayor Healy's campaign
by Charles Hack/The Jersey Journal
Friday September 18, 2009, 12:34 PM
Jersey Journal file photoEdward Cheatam, a former Jersey City housing commissioner, pleaded guilty in federal court today and said bribe money he took went to Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign.

Former Jersey City Housing Authority Commissioner Edward Cheatam pleaded guilty in federal court today to taking bribes from a government informant and told the court he passed those bribes along to Mayor Jerramiah Healy's campaign.

Cheatam, who was accused in the scheme along with Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini and political operative Jack Shaw, said he broke down large bribes into smaller increments to pass to the mayor's re-election campaign.

Healy has acknowledged he is the unnamed Jersey City official referred to in the criminal complaint but he has said he did nothing wrong. He has also confirmed that the FBI visited his office, Shore home and City Hall.

In court, Cheatam also admitted helping introduce the informant to pave the way for bribes to several public officials charged in the case, including state Assemblyman L. Harvey Smith, Hoboken Mayor Peter Cammarano and Secaucus Mayor Dennis Ellwell.

Cheatam pleaded guilty to conspiring to commit extortion.

A second defendant pleading guilty today is Denis Jaslow, an investigator for the Hudson County board of elections and an ex-state corrections officer.

He is charged with taking a $2,500 bribe in exchange for introducing a Jersey City council candidate to a government informant posing as a crooked real estate developer. The informant said he wanted the independent candidate, Michael Manzo, to help secure a zoning change for a luxury condominium building.

I'd like to dedicate this song to Healy

"Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do, whatcha gonna do when they come for you......

How long is Healy going to keep up the "I knew nothing" charade?

This is getting very 'Nixonian'.

Two more Jersey City officials are expected to plead guilty in N.J. corruption sweep

[from "The Star-Ledger," September 18, 2009, 12:00 p.m.]

NEWARK -- A Jersey City housing official arrived at the federal courthouse here, where he is expected to be the first of two people to plead guilty today in connection to the massive corruption sweep that netted 44 people in July.

Edward Cheatam, a housing authority commissioner, was indicted last month along with Jersey City Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini for allegedly promising to help a government informant posing as a crooked developer secure building approvals in exchange for illicit campaign contributions to Jerramiah T. Healy, the city's Democratic mayor.

Healy has not been charged. Beldini has pleaded not guilty.

Cheatam is scheduled is appear before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares at noon.

The second defendant expected to plead guilty today is Denis Jaslow, an investigator for the Hudson County board of elections who and an ex-state corrections officer.

He is charged with taking a $2,500 bribe in exchange for introducing a Jersey City council candidate to a government informant posing as a crooked real estate developer. The informant said he wanted the independent candidate, Michael Manzo, to help secure a zoning change for a luxury condominium building.

Jaslow is scheduled is appear before U.S. District Judge Jose Linares at 12:30.

Last week, two other Jersey City officials -- Maher Khalil, 39, a former health official, and Guy Catrillo, 54, a former planning aide -- became the first defendants in the case to admit guilt, telling a federal judge they took bribes from the informant, identified failed Monmouth County developer Solomon Dwek.

Dwek was charged with bank fraud in 2006, then spent more than two years recording conversations for federal prosecutors during scores of meetings in diners, parked cars and boiler rooms.

His work led to the arrests three mayors, two state legislators, several political operatives and five rabbis from communities in Deal and Brooklyn.

-- Joe Ryan

City Employee Retirement Board Approves Castagna?s Pension

[from "Jersey City Independent," September 16, 2009]

At a meeting of the Jersey City Employees Retirement System (ERS) board this morning, health department official Joseph Castagna?s request to receive early retirement benefits was approved.

Castagna, who was arrested on federal corruption charges in July, put in a request to retire after it was revealed that he is under investigation by the Jersey City Police Department for allegedly issuing more food vendor permits than the law allows.

Given that Castagna has not been formally charged, assistant business administrator Bob Kakoleski felt that the board ?should only consider the facts as they are today.? City staffer Ben Bruno and chief financial officer Donna Mauer, the other two commissioners present, agreed when they voted in favor of the request along with Kakoleski. Business administrator Brian O?Reilly recused himself from the vote because he has overseen disciplinary action brought by the city against Castagna in connection with his federal arrest. Mayor Jerramiah Healy, who is also a voting commissioner of the board, was not present at the meeting.

The commission agreed that their decision is subject to revision if Castagna is convicted of misusing his position in City Hall. As Bernie Hartnett, the independent attorney for the ERS, put it, the retirement benefit is ?expressly conditioned on the rendering of honorable service? to the city.

According to city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill, Castagna?s pension is more than $60,000 per year and he will receive a one-time payment of $84,414 for unused vacation and for 80 percent of unused sick time. Any future adjustments to Castagna?s benefit would impact only what he accrued after the date of his first criminal act.

-- Shane Smith

_________________________

Innocence presumed, a retiring civil servant (or public official) should be due his/her accrued benefits. Bizarrely, though, those benefits - pension, unused vacation days, etc. - are not currently "revocable," should that same retiring civil servant/public official later plead guilty, or be found guilty in criminal court, of selling their office.

I think a photo of Corzine and Healy at a fundraiser would please the Christie ad people.

From the Bergen Record online:

Corzine won't dump embattled mayor
Sunday, September 13, 2009
By CHARLES STILE
COLUMNIST

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy will remain an A-list host for Governor Corzine's $300-a-person fund-raiser next week despite the ongoing federal bribery investigation that has already ensnared some of Healy's political confidants.

Corzine has no intention of asking Healy to withdraw from the Sept. 23 fund-raiser in Newark despite disclosures that the FBI visited Healy at his shore home in Bradley Beach in August and interviewed City Hall officials last week, a Corzine spokesman said Friday.

The FBI visits stem from the massive July 23 federal money laundering-bribery sting that netted 44 people and turned City Hall into veritable crime scene.

"Mayor Healy hasn't been charged with any crime," said Sean Darcy, a Corzine campaign spokesman.

But neither was Joseph Doria, the former Department of Community Affairs commissioner, whose Bayonne home and Trenton office was raided by federal agents on July 23. Corzine asked for and received Doria's resignation on the same day.

If an FBI visit made Doria persona non grata why not Healy, listed in the government's case as "JC Official 4"?

Darcy replied: "Commissioner Doria was in the service of the governor and didn't want to be a distraction to the campaign."

Healy, who has steadfastly insisted he has done nothing wrong, also has no intention of voluntarily bowing out of the event at the Robert Treat Hotel, which is also co-hosted by Newark Mayor Cory Booker, Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo, state Sen. Ray Lesniak of Elizabeth and state Sen. Teresa Ruiz of Essex County.

"[Healy] imagines that they would not have asked him if they didn't want his involvement," said Jennifer Morrill, Healy's spokeswoman.

Morrill also stressed a key difference between the FBI visits to Doria and Healy: Agents left Doria's offices with boxes of documents and other materials, while Healy was only asked some "preliminary questions." She declined to discuss details about those conversations. Morrill confirmed that agents also visited Healy the day before the July 23 raids.

Although Healy has not been charged nor formally identified as a target of an investigation, Healy was the most prominent political figure linked to the federal probe and remains, at least for the foreseeable future, at its center. Among those arrested was Leona Beldini, Healy's chief of staff and treasurer of his reelection campaign.

Beldini, Edward Cheatam, a Jersey City affirmative action officer, and political consultant Jack Shaw ? who died on July 28 ? are accused of taking thousands of dollars in bribes from Solomon Dwek, a government informant posing as a developer seeking swift zoning approvals, and illegally funneling them into Healy's campaign fund.

Healy also met with Dwek at a Jersey City luncheonette on April 30, federal officials allege. At the meeting, Dwek detailed the amounts of money he gave to Shaw to be "passed on" to Healy's election fund. After listening to Dwek's litany of payments, Healy allegedly told Dwek that hopefully, they could work "together" and it would be "mutually beneficial."

Corzine's treatment of Jersey City in the wake of the arrests has come under fierce criticism.

A week after the raids, Corzine ordered a freeze on state approvals of projects in towns where the mayor was charged with a crime. It was widely seen as an attempt to force Ridgefield Mayor Anthony Suarez, also arrested for allegedly taking bribes, to resign. Suarez has refused.

Critics accused Corzine of strong-arming a small-potatoes mayor while letting officials in Jersey City, a Democratic bastion critical to Corzine's reelection, off the hook.

Editorial: We can only think it's just fine by him

by The Jersey Journal

Monday September 14, 2009, 12:01 AM

Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy has yet to show any sign of indignation in the drama of two members of the City Council who should resign but are holding onto elected office.

Most astonishing are the revelations in the deposition of Journal Square Councilwoman Nidia Lopez, who is proving to be more of a Floridian than a Garden State resident. Lopez, who ran on Healy's slate in the May city election, has been accused of having her primary residence in the Sunshine State and is being sued by Norrice Raymaker, who lost to her in the spring race.

After the latest revelation, Healy said he is "confident" that Lopez is a resident of Ward C. Either she is or is not. The mayor should not be relying on the court to make a Solomonic decision but should be demanding answers of this official.

In a sworn deposition, Lopez said she has not paid New Jersey income taxes in at least three years. According to a transcript of the deposition, she said she filed federal taxes as a Florida resident in 2006 and 2007 -- and filed there for an extension for filing her 2008 federal taxes. To run for office in Jersey City, she must have been a resident for a year.

Florida does not have a state income tax, which could account for why she has not filed taxes in New Jersey.

Lopez owns a home in Orlando, Fla., that she has been claiming as her primary residence to get a break on Florida property taxes since 1997. Florida officials demanded that she pay back about $30,000 of those tax benefits upon learning she was elected to her Jersey City post.

Confusing things further, Lopez is registered to vote in both Jersey City and Orlando -- and she has.

No matter the outcome of the residency lawsuit, the councilwoman cannot pretend she was confused. This is a person who has been trying to take advantage of tax laws. There is, at minimum, a moral deficiency. It is a trait shared by Healy, who insists on waiting for the outcome of the courts. He is completely unaware that public opinion has already tried the councilwoman -- and the mayor.

Healy's position is the same when it comes to City Council President Mariano Vega, who was arrested by the FBI on July 23 in a U.S. Attorney's Office investigation into political corruption and money laundering that has led to the handcuffing of 44 people.

Vega cannot serve the people of Jersey City while putting up a defense in federal court, and this newspaper has repeatedly called upon him to resign and allow someone else to serve as a city lawmaker. Vega has refused and even insists on remaining as council president.

Last week, city officials Guy Catrillo, a member of the Mayor's Action Bureau, and Maher Khalil, deputy director of the Department of Health and Human Services, both pleaded guilty to accepting corrupt cash payments. Naturally, Healy had no comment on the criminal activities in the local government where he is its chief executive. Jersey City Councilman Steve Fulop was correct when he addressed the guilty pleas.

"The justice system is going to take care of Guy Catrillo," Fulop said, "but he's just a small lower level worker in a big political organization that fundamentally needs to change."

Fulop added that he thinks it is imperative that City Council President Mariano Vega should step down as soon as possible.

Where is the outrage, mayor?

To be clear the feds did'nt just visit Healy's beach house...they searched it. This in August, after the "BIG BUST" so they were acting on new info from guess who? The Blues Brothers of course whose deals were cut in August. Follow the yellow brick road.

so, maybe Healy's the one who brought the whole evil enterprise down by cooperating with the feds. See, we already have a great reformer in town!

FBI goes into 4 offices in Jersey City's City Hall
by The Jersey Journal Friday September 11, 2009, 8:44 AM

Last night, Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy confirmed that FBI agents paid a visit to his Bradley beach home in August-and to City Hall yesterday.


Healy said he couldn't say more about the visits because investigations connected to July's massive corruption sweep are ongoing. But according to sources, six to eight agents visited the City Hall offices of the business administrator, tax assessor, tax collector and city clerk yesterday.

Healy was not among the 44 people arrested in the FBI sting on July 23, but seven of those arrested worked for Jersey City, including Deputy Mayor Leona Beldini, who has been indicted.

The officials are charged with accepting bribes from FBI informant Solomon Dwek, who was posing as a developer looking for help with zoning approvals.

http://www.nj.com/hudson/index.ssf/20 ... nto_4_offices_in_jer.html

Castagna, under 2 probes, has filed request to retire

Friday, September 11, 2009
By AMY SARA CLARK
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City health official Joseph Castagna - who was charged in July in the massive FBI corruption sting and is now under investigation by local police - has put in his retirement papers, city officials confirmed.

Castagna, a 53-year-old health officer who is being investigated for issuing more food vendor licenses than the city allows, put in his request to retire Aug. 26, according to Jennifer Morrill, a spokeswoman for Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy.

The next day, police seized additional records from his office, officials told The Jersey Journal in late August.

The retirement, which is not yet approved, is scheduled to be considered at the Sept. 16 meeting of the City of Jersey City Employees Retirement System board, Morrill said.

Castagna has worked for the city for 29 years and currently earns $105,164 a year. If approved, his pension would be $60,740 a year. In addition, Castagna will also receive a one-time payment of $84,414, which includes 43.5 accrued vacation days, one-half of a personal day, and 80 percent of his 207 days of unused sick time, Morrill said.

Castagna has not been terminated, but if he were terminated before he retired, Castagna would lose the payment for his paid sick days, but would keep the rest of his benefits, according to Morrill.

Pension applications are normally approved as long as applicants meet general requirements such as age and years of service. But if Castagna is found guilty of a crime that directly relates to his office it is possible that the pension board could later decide to withhold part of the pension, according to Bernard Hartnett, the pension board's attorney.

Castagna was arrested by the FBI July 23 and charged with taking a $5,000 payment from an FBI informant posing as a developer. The health officer was supposed to pass along the money to the campaign of Michael Manzo, a firefighter running for the City Council in Ward B, according to the complaint.

Jersey City Police Chief Tom Comey has refused to say more about the police investigation because it is ongoing, but a source has said the records indicate that Castagna gave out more than 100 licenses above the 175 permitted by city ordinance. Annual fees for the licenses range from $100 to $250.

The licenses used to be issued by clerks at the city Health Department, but it appears that Castagna took control of the process, the source said.

And Healy keeps saying he is clean while all this has been going on around him, plus he had two meetings with Dweek. I guess he runs the city the same way...CLUELESS..

The city has fired Catrillo from whatever it is he does....

JJ link....

Holy crap; can you imagine where we'd be right now if this dope had somehow beaten Fulop?

Actually, they did hold trials for the witches. Hence, The Salem Witch Trials.

Vega is a stupid, corrupt Scumbag.
Quote:

Kahil also said he took the money "for Vega"