The son of Lodi Mayor Scott Luna recently received a
$15,000 raise:
Scott Luna tries to protect himself from ethics complaints
by telling people that he didn’t promote his son with a $15,000 raise. He will tell you that Borough Manager Vincent
Caruso took care of his son. He will
tell you that Vincent Caruso is responsible for hiring, promoting, etc.
Two OPRA requests were submitted for Vincent Caruso’s
personnel actions in the last few months, i.e. hiring, promoting, transfers
etc. Other towns with Lodi’s form of
government make this information readily available to the public by placing
this information on their meeting agendas and minutes. Vincent
Caruso does not report any of this public information at any time during any of
Lodi’s public meetings.
The Clerk’s office did NOT respond to my OPRA requests
by deadline (7 business days). The borough admitted that Caruso did take
multiple personnel actions during the time period. They just won’t provide any records to the
public.
My second OPRA request (after the borough wrongfully
withheld records during the first request) is listed below:
“The request sought access to the following:
A copy of whatever records were used by
Borough Manager Vincent Caruso to show his hirings, promotions, transfers, etc.
for the 2020 calendar year (January 1, 2020 to present). If his `memos`
are exempt from OPRA, then some other public records must exist to provide this
public information to the public. Other municipalities show this public
information on meeting agendas and on meeting minutes. Lodi does not.
This public information is not exempt from OPRA.”
The Luna
Administration’s OPRA response which I received today (late):
“There are no responsive documents to this
request outside exempt personnel records.”
The Luna Council
and Vincent Caruso are badly mistaken that the borough hall is their personal
family business where they do not have to answer to the public or serve the
public. How did Garrett Luna receive his
$15,000 raise? Did Caruso just make a
phone call to Frank Belli and tell him to alter payroll figures? Was anything else involved?
Reasons why the public has
the right to know who is hired and promoted:
The public is paying
for the hiring and promoting with their hard earned tax dollars. Not all Lodi residents have the luxury of collecting a $10,400/month public pension while simultaneously collecting a $150,000 government paycheck.
The public must
monitor that conflict of interest laws are not violated. Lodi learned just last week of a Luna
conflict of interest violation:
The public must monitor if civil service
regulations are violated. Alan Spiniello
couldn’t answer whether or not civil service regulations were violated when the
mayor’s son was hired:
The borough’s OPRA violations show a new sense of arrogance
and recklessness. Vincent Caruso continues to engage in the worst practices and then is
so disingenuous when newspapers call him for comments after Lodi appears in
State Investigative reports for government waste and abuse.
