TRENTON, N.J. – There’s an update to last year’s School Development Authority (SDA) hiring scandal:
A new report released the State Commission of Investigation (click here) has revealed that the gubernatorial front office was “in close contact” with the former head of the Schools Development Authority. The report also concluds that Murphy’s office was aware of the spate of hirings – many of them questionable – occurring on Lizette Delgado-Polanco’s watch.
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“The investigation led the Commission to uncover findings not revealed in prior examinations. Most significantly, the Commission found that a far wider universe of individuals than had been previously disclosed was involved in Delgado-Polanco’s decisions as CEO,” explained the investigators in their report. “Records obtained by the Commission indicate a steady stream of frequent communication – via phone and text message – between Delgado-Polanco and top-ranking members of Gov. Phil Murphy’s staff throughout her employment at the SDA. Delgado-Polanco and her top deputies testified before the SCI that she always kept the Governor’s Office informed of her administrative activities. In testimony before the Commission, those Murphy administration employees said they did not authorize every detail of Delgado-Polanco’s managerial decisions but their actions, and in some cases, inaction, made it clear that she conducted her overall activities as CEO with the tacit approval of the Governor’s Office.”
Delgado-Polanco stood accused of hiring friends and relatives to the authority.
Legislation to eliminate the authority gained some steam last year but hasn’t gone anywhere in the legislature.
