DeCroce calls Verniero report a waste of taxpayers’ money

Assemblywoman Betty Lou DeCroce (R-Parsippany) joined a growing number of fellow Select Committee members lambasting former New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Peter Verniero’s report on his investigation into the hiring of Al Alvarez.

“Peter Verniero is only solidifying what we have all been hearing and what’s being told to us,” DeCroce said. “The state has paid a lot of money for all these lawyers and all these investigations. It’s the people’s money, and everybody is up to the same answer — nobody knows. How awful is that?”

Verniero’s report offered little new information and did not provide answers to questions about who hired Alvarez to be chief of staff at the Schools Development Authority.

Senate Majority Loretta Weinberg said the report was more focused on exonerating those involved than trying to find the truth.

“To me, it just shows lack of competence, lack of caring, lack of being concerned for the state of New Jersey and irresponsibility with the people’s money. Somebody is hired and nobody knows who hired him,” DeCroce said, adding later: “Why this guy was allowed, as I have also said and quoted in the past, float around Trenton in a protective bubble.”

State Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency chief of staff Katie Brennan has accused Alvarez of sexually assaulting her in April 2017, when Alvarez was in charge of Muslim and Latino outreach for Murphy’s campaign, for which Brennan would later volunteer.