BOE President Deceives the Public, Pockets Thousands.

Did Joe Licata break the law by signing fake invoices and receiving payments for services not rendered?

Or did Joe Licata break the law by refusing to produce financial reports after they were requested through the Open Public Records Act?

Most people knew that there was no “sixth quarter financial report”.  Most knew that politicians don’t get paid “consulting fees” for attending “TIPS”, a free training session for those serving alcohol.

Most expected that Joe Licata was doing very little if not nothing at all for his “consulting fees”.

But Joe Licata took things to a whole new level this week.

Here are #3 and #4 requested through the Open Public Records Act”:

3)  A copy of all Lodi Municipal Alliance financial reports completed by Joseph Licata for the 2014 Calendar year.

4)  A copy of all Municipal Alliance meeting minutes for the 2014 Calendar Year.

By not submitting any financial reports in response to an OPRA request, he is making the claim that none exist.   Because if they did exist, he just violated the Open Public Records Act.

If none exist, what has he been paid thousands for?  He contradicted himself, Mike Nardino, and the Mayor and Council.  He contradicted the invoice that contains his signature.

Who would have thought that the Lodi Municipal Alliance was being run as such a shady operation?

Here are just a few violations:

1)  Mike Nardino stated at a meeting that they don’t have minutes.  Joe Licata claimed the same with the above OPRA response.

Violation:  “MACs must operate in full compliance with the State’s open public meetings laws. There must be public notice of MAC meetings. Minutes must be kept of all Committee meetings, and a quorum of Committee members is required for action to be taken by the Committee (e.g., approval of plan or modifications). A quorum is 50 percent of the official Committee membership plus one.”

2)  The Lodi Mayor and Council claim that they don’t know who is on the committee.  Mike Nardino couldn’t name who is currently on the committee either. 

The Mayor and Council have not appointed anyone to the MAC (according to their own meeting minutes or anyone in attendance at council meetings).

Violation:  “For participation in the Alliance Network to Prevent Alcoholism and Drug Abuse, the governing body of a municipality must appoint a Municipal Alliance Committee (MAC), or join with one or more municipalities to form an Alliance consortium to which they appoint municipal representatives.

3)  #5 of the Above OPRA request:  “A copy of any municipal ordinance or resolution establishing its Municipal Alliance Committee (MAC)."

The Borough’s response is an old Resolution from 1990:

 https://www.scribd.com/doc/251422094/Drug-Alliance-Resolution

Violation:  “MACs must be established by municipal ordinance or resolution, and the committee must adopt bylaws. If a municipality chooses to use resolutions they must be adopted annually in order to be in effect.”

4)  Have Joe Licata and Jaime Ciofalo recused themselves when their conduct resulted in financial game?

Who knows?  They don’t keep minutes and nobody knows if any meetings even took place?  Nobody knows who is even on the committee

Violation:  “A conflict of interest may exist if a MAC member can reasonably expect that their conduct will directly result in a personal or financial benefit to themselves, their family members, business associates, employers, or to businesses that the member represents. In situations where a conflict of interest may exist, the MAC member must recuse him or herself. Recusal means that the individual is not participating in deliberations or debates, making recommendations, giving advice, considering findings, voting or in any other way assuming responsibility for or participating in any aspect of the decision making regarding the matter. Consultants or providers who are directly or indirectly involved in providing prevention services to the Municipal Alliance are also subject to the recusal requirement.”

5)  Joe Licata is claiming in the OPRA response that no financial reports were completed by him for the 2014 Calendar Year.

Violation:  The Alliance Coordinator is responsible for the administrative duties of the of the Alliance such as completing required reports and applications for alliance funding, scheduling consults and providing support to the Municipal Alliance Committee (a Municipal Alliance Coordinator job description is on file in the municipality).

All of the above quotes were taken directly from here:

http://gcada.nj.gov/documents/alliance/forms/Municipal%20Alliance%20Capacity.pdf

Look at what Joe Licata has done with an $8,758.00 Municipal Alliance Grant. Just imagine what he is doing with a $58,000,000.00 school Budget.