Murphy still mum on report saying his administration knew of SDA patronage hires

More than two days after the State Commission of Investigation released a report charging Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration was kept in the loop on nepotistic hires at the Schools Development Authority, the governor said he still hasn’t read the report.

“I have not read it,” he said. “We’ve had a few balls in the air. We are, right now, trying to save as many lives as we can.”

Wednesday morning, the commission released a report that found former SDA CEO Lizette Delgado-Polanco was in constant contact with the governor’s staff as she ousted dozens of longtime authority employees and replaced them with friends and family members, many of whom were not qualified for their new positions.

The governor declined to comment on the report during Wednesday’s virus briefing, saying he had not read it.

He also declined to say why his administration invoked executive privilege to shield itself from questions about how Delgado-Polanco, a former Democratic State Committee vice chair and then a close Murphy ally, was chosen for the position.

The hiring scandal was one of the largest Murphy has faced in his first term.

Republicans have already hammered the governor over the report, which they see as proof that Murphy signed off Delgado-Polanco’s nepotistic hiring spree.

The report also raised further questions about the authority’s future. Senate President Steve Sweeney has long supported abolishing the SDA, which was regarded as something of a patronage pit even before Delgado-Polanco’s hiring spree.

The authority has faced financial troubles for more than a decade, and its predecessor, the Schools Construction Corporation was shut down after then-state Inspector General Mary Jane Cooper found the agency was rife with fraud, waste and mismanagement.