SCI hires Williams Brewer as CEO

The State Commission of Investigation has hired Tiffany Williams Brewer as the commission’s CEO. 

Brewer served as the chair of the commission from 2022 through 2024, according to a release. She had been serving as the interim leader of day-to-day operations since the death of former Executive Director Chadd W. Lackey, who was killed in a July traffic incident.

“It has been a privilege to serve as Chair of the SCI, along with my fellow Commissioners, in an unprecedented period of engagement and productivity for the SCI,” Brewer said in the release. “This transition carries a deep sense of purpose and reflection given the sudden and untimely passing of our former Executive Director. It is with humility and respect for his memory that I step into this role with a continued level of commitment to advancing the unique mission of the SCI.”

Brewer is a former New Jersey Administrative Law Judge and law professor, according to the release. Brewer has also served as chief counsel to the speaker of the General Assembly, deputy chief counsel to Gov. Jon Corzine, and deputy assistant secretary of state.

The Legislature created the SCI in 1968 as part of a package of crime-fighting bills pushed through by Gov. Richard Hughes after allegations that a North Jersey assemblyman worked to cancel a Senate hearing on organized crime at the request of reputed mob boss Jerry Catena.

The SCI was created with enormous investigatory power, largely to keep the Legislature out of the organized crime investigation business.  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.

While the SCI has broad jurisdiction, it now deals with issues that are smaller in scope than those that dominated its original mission.