Double-Dip Donovan and the Guadagno Grift

by: KendalJames

Tue Mar 15, 2011 at 01:30:00 PM EDT

Back in 2008, then-Monmouth County Sheriff Kim Guadagno hired a new "Sheriff's Chief" - retired investigator Michael Donovan, Jr. The operative word is "retired," because with Guadagno's help and apparent malfeasance, Donovan secured himself a sweet deal (scam) that has, to date, cost the state of New Jersey nearly a quarter of a million dollars. Charged with getting to the bottom of this is Treasury, whose investigation of the matter has - strangely - fallen apart at the seams. But let's rewind.

As defined by state statute, "sheriff's chief officer" and "chief warrant officer" are not the same thing. A key distinction between the two titles is that "chief warrant officer" is considered a temporary position, exempt from the Police and Firemen's Retirement System (PFRS). A "sheriff's chief officer," however, is a permanent position, and does qualify for PFRS.

As confirmed by multiple official documents collected and distributed this week by NewJerseyWatchdog.org (who first highlighted this story), Donovan was hired as the Sheriffs Chief Officer. You can see for yourself on this org chart, this website, and this memo from Guadagno herself, all of which clearly show Donovan as SCO. By accepting this position, a retired investigator like Donovan would be required to stop collecting retirement benefits; he also would have to re-enroll in PFRS.

Yet personnel records list Donovan as "Chief Warrant Officer" - strange, because 1) that's not the job he was hired to do, 2) that job doesn't exist on any current org chart, and 3) the very position of Chief Warrant Officer was eliminated by an order from Guadagno just one week before Donovan started. Guadagno even went as far as to announce Donovan's hiring as CWO in a press release. But it simply wasn't true - it was, in fact, part of a deception engineered by Guadagno to help Donovan cheat the pension system.

Double-dipping Donovan gets his cake ($85k yearly retirement benefits), and gets to eat it, too ($87,500 yearly salary as SCO). To date, this scam has cost New Jersey $245,000. And the friendly favor/theft originates with one Lt. Governor Kim Guadagno, whose fudgy paperwork now threatens to embarrass the Christie administration in a big way - which may be why the NJ Treasury has mysteriously been unable to find any wrongdoing (even when presented with overwhelming evidence), expose this fraud, and get New Jersey's money back.

If Christie wants to prove that his corruption-busting is in no way political, let's see him appoint a special prosecutor to investigate Guadagno under the NJ State Constitution, Article 5, Section IV, Paragraph 5.

Read the complete details of the investigation:

NJ Treasury Botches Monmouth Probe; State Ignores $245K Pension Scam Implicating Lt. Gov. Guadagno

Lt. Gov. Guadagno & the $170k State Pension Scam

KendalJames :: Double-Dip Donovan and the Guadagno Grift

Tags: Kim Guadagno, Chris Christie, featured, Double Dipping, Pensions, PFRS, Monmouth County, Michael Donovan Jr., (All Tags)

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Double-Dip Donovan and the Guadagno Grift | 1 comments

Double-Dipping Sheriff's Officer (0.00 / 0)

There's overwhelming, convincing, and compelling evidence that deception and fraud has taken place.

To compound the situation--a "whitewash" was conducted to protect certain people. Like the old saying goes, "the coverup is usually worse than the crime itself."

This is far from over. The current sheriff shares culpability for this as well, since when he took over the helm in January of 2010, he continued to keep Donovan employed as a Sheriff's Chief, until February 14, 2011. He knew, or should have known the pension situation of his "retired" Chief.

This is not over folks.

by: JimSage @ Tue Mar 15, 2011 at 18:49:37 PM UTC