Labor leader Lizette Delgado-Polanco has agreed to pay a $3,500 fine after the State Ethics Commission slapped her for hiring relatives and friends at the New Jersey Schools Development Authority after Gov. Phil Murphy named her CEO in August 2018.
Less than a month after joining the SDA, Delgado-Polanco sought to hire her nephew as a maintenance worker. Soon after, she hired Laury-Ann Diaz as deputy director of legislative affairs; Delgado-Polanco is the mother of Diaz’s child’s father, making her the grandmother of the new employee’s child.
Delgado-Polanco resigned after a tenure of less than eight months that was marred by a scandal involving her chief of staff, Al Alvarez. Alvarez had been accused of sexually assaulting a Murphy campaign volunteer on the 2017 governor’s race. She told a legislative committee that she wasn’t told about the claims against Alvarez until the day he resigned. Delgado-Polanco filed a recusal letter two weeks after Diaz started her job.
The Ethics Council also found that Delgado-Polanco hired the daughter-in-law of a close friend without recusing herself.
She acknowledged that her actions might have violated a state ethics law but denied committing an infraction.
The Ethics Council said in a settlement order that they wanted to “resolve this matter expeditiously and without incurring any further expense or delay.” The matter has been under investigation for five years.
She also stepped down as vice chair of the Democratic State Committee.
Delgado-Polanco agreed to pay $500 monthly installments for the next seven months.
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