Scutari wants to look into consolidating watchdog agencies

In the aftermath of the resignation of a state watchdog official, Senate President Nick Scutari said legislators should consider consolidating the state’s watchdog agencies. 

Tiffany Williams Brewer last week resigned as the executive director of the State Commission of Investigation after four days on the job and one day after the Asbury Park Press reported that she was living in Maryland and working as a law professor at Howard University. She had previously served as chair of the watchdog commission, which has fallen in prominence since its founding in 1968.

After Gov. Phil Murphy’s State of the State address on Tuesday, Scutari said he read the news about Williams Brewer in the newspaper and was not notified of her hiring or firing.

“I think what we have is a lot of watchdogs, a lot of them,” Scutari told reporters Tuesday. “We have ELEC, SCI, we have comptroller, the attorney general’s office, … county prosecutors. I mean one of these days we’re going to have to look at consolidation of those efforts.”

Scutari said he has “some concern” about a lack of vigilance from the watchdog agency — he said he met with a commissioner about the matter on Tuesday but noted there wasn’t an immediate solution.

The SCI was created with enormous investigatory power, largely to keep the Legislature out of the organized crime investigation business, but has since fallen from prominence. The commission had the authority to authorize wiretaps, compel top mob bosses to testify, and even temporarily jail those who refused to appear before them. They would refer their findings to law enforcement and act independently of politics.

Scutari said he thinks the Legislature should do more to improve oversight. He told reporters he had considered using his authority as Senate president to override the senatorial courtesy that is preventing the confirmation of acting Comptroller Kevin Walsh (senatorial courtesy allows state senators to block gubernatorial nominees from their home districts and counties).

Walsh has still not been confirmed by the Senate four years after being nominated because of state Sens. Nilsa Cruz-Perez (D-Barrington) and James Beach (D-Voorhees), who would not sign off on his nomination. The pair have not said why they refuse to sign off on his nomination. Walsh has performed the oversight job in an acting capacity.

Scutari said he has not overridden the senatorial courtesy because he fears Walsh would lose the vote and have to step down.

“I think the concern is the amount of money that office has spent without one single indictment in all these years,” Scutari told reporters about the comptroller’s office. “I mean, that office has spent an extraordinary amount of money on investigations and producing reports that have not resulted in one criminal charge.”