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Sunday, August 3, 2014

Charges against Passaic rec director eerily familiar


Up to $140,000 may have been extorted in unauthorized fees
for use of soccer field at Rushmore Playground.

The charges against Passaic's recreation director, who was arrested Friday on allegations of official misconduct, extortion and theft, may sound eerily familiar to Plainfield Today readers.

One of the methods the fired director, Eddie Carrero, is alleged to have used is charging teams and parents extra and unauthorized fees to participate in city-run teams and leagues (see the Record story here).

In July 2012, rumors of financial hanky-panky in Plainfield's Parks and Recreation Division came to a head (see my post here, which includes links to posts by Councilor Williams and Olddoc).

Among the allegations at the time were the extorting of unauthorized cash fees from soccer teams in order to play on the Rushmore Playground site -- possibly to the tune of $140,000.

At the time that then-director Wynn resigned in 2012 (see my post here), there were other allegations of hiring abuses -- including keeping seasonal employees on staff past the legal limit and paying stipends for seasonal coaches who had no signups for their teams.

Since then, I have learned of other allegations that unauthorized fees were routinely extorted from vendors at the annual July 4th Parade. One can only wonder how long that went on and how much was extorted.

With the announcement by Mayor Adrian Mapp at Thursday's Town Hall meeting that the city was preparing for a forensic audit of several years' finances, the taxpaying public may be closer than ever to answers to these questions.

And the culprits closer than ever to prosecution.


  -- Dan Damon [follow]


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1 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it interesting regardless how blatant dave wynn & srb were in their suspicious dealings, he was able to walk away scott free. And now jerry green is looking for jobs for them both??!!