Acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh has faced criticism from myriad public officials for his investigations targeting powerful Democrats. (Photo by Dana DiFilippo/New Jersey Monitor)
New Jersey’s most powerful state legislator introduced legislation Monday to weaken the powers of a state watchdog agency whose reports on government corruption, waste, and fraud have embarrassed and irritated public officials around the state.
The bill by Sen. Nicholas Scutari (D-Union), who is the Senate president, would hand the investigatory powers currently held by the state comptroller to the State Commission of Investigation. Officials targeted by the comptroller and groups including the New Jersey Association of Counties have pushed for a probe of the office, complaining about its practices in publicizing its findings.
While the bill says the comptroller’s office would be able to continue its “core work … unabated,” the office would be stripped of its investigative and subpoena powers. That means it could audit public agencies but couldn’t investigate wrongdoing or compel reforms.
A state watchdog forges ahead, in an era of endangered oversight
A public hearing on the bill is set for 10 a.m. Monday before the Senate’s state government committee at the Statehouse in Trenton. Lawmakers often use the brief lame-duck session between November’s election and January’s start of a new legislative session to fast-track controversial bills.
Scutari did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday, but his bill characterizes its goal as “eliminating duplication among State government oversight entities.”
“The investigations operations of the Office of the State Comptroller is smaller than, and different from, its main responsibilities, which are Medicaid fraud, procurement oversight, and audit functions. Transferring the investigations function to the State Commission of Investigation does not curtail those responsibilities and is a more logical fit that will capitalize on its experience and success,” the bill says.
Kevin Walsh, the office’s acting comptroller, doesn’t buy that explanation.
“NJ ‘transparency’ at its worst. Sen. Scutari sneaks in a bill before Thanksgiving to kill OSC investigations. A vote for this bill is a vote for corruption,” Walsh wrote on social media Tuesday night.
The plan has also sparked outrage among critics who have long lamented that New Jersey doesn’t have enough watchdogs to keep up with all its corruption.
Attorney General Matt Platkin said on social media that he would testify against the bill Monday.
“This Thanksgiving, the NJ Senate is killing a gov’t watchdog that stops wasteful spending, giving politically powerful individuals broad powers to intimidate law enforcement fighting corruption & even letting them tap phones. Outrageous,” Platkin wrote.
The comptroller’s office formed in 2010. Since Walsh became acting comptroller in January 2020, his supporters have praised him as New Jersey’s leading watchdog on police accountability, government waste and fraud, and other issues involving taxpayer money and public misconduct.
His work has irked public officials at nearly every level of government though, and senators have blocked his confirmation. He has said his work is bound to “upset powerful people,” underscoring the need for his office to remain independent.
Scutari’s bill also would more than double State Commission of Investigation commissioners’ annual salary, from $35,000 to $75,000. The agency now has three commissioners and an executive director, although it’s supposed to have four commissioners by law.
It would also take the power to appoint the State Commission of Investigation’s chair away from the governor and give it to the Senate president and Assembly speaker.
A commission spokesperson, executive director Bruce P. Keller, and John P. Lacey, its chair, did not respond Wednesday to requests for comment.
Keller told the Asbury Park Press this month that he does not support eliminating government watchdogs.
“There’s plenty of work to go around,” Keller told the newspaper. “So if your question is a version of the thing that we’ve all heard – which is, are there too many watchdog agencies – my answer is, hell no, there aren’t enough.”
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