Mayor Sharon: What about that theft in the Tax Collector's office?

Word of an indictment for theft of cash may stir Plainfielders' memories that Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs has yet to publicly acknowledge or resolve the matter of the $41,000 that went missing from the Tax Collector's officer early in her term.

A former clerk in the Perth Amboy tax collector's office has been indicted for stealing money from the till (Ledger here, Courier here). The amount involved is $714, and the miscreant faces 10 years in prison.

Meanwhile, in Plainfield, NOTHING HAS BEEN DONE by Mayor Sharon to RESOLVE the money that went missing on her watch, about $4,000 of which was in cash.

Far from it. In a Courier story of June 10, 2006 (see here), Councilor Burney downplayed the cash aspect of the theft, referring to it as a 'comparatively small amount'.

Evidently 'small' is taken more seriously some places than others.

Here's a little history --

Back on June 9, 2006, I brought up...moolah that went missing, this from the Tax Collector's office --

...[A]t City Hall talk is going around about the $41,000 or so missing from the Tax Collector's office. What! You didn't know?! Yep. And get this -- the loss was discovered months ago. Is the administration trying to cover it up? When funds went missing in a similar situation in Highland Park, the Ledger covered the story from start to finish, including the indictment of an employee in the matter. Not only have we not heard about the matter publicly, we don't know whether Prosecutor Romankow is looking into it or whether the responsible party will face charges... Maybe those surveillance cams planned for City Hall should be put in the Tax Collector's office first.

That post in Plainfield Today led to a Courier story on the missing money, which I reported the following Monday (see here) --

Dan's scoop of the week was the revelation on Friday that $41,000 or so had gone missing from the Tax Collector's office. The Courier picked the story up with a front-page piece on Saturday (June 10, 2006). Seems it happened months ago and has never been publicly discussed. Councilman Burney told the Courier that the Council had been briefed. My inquiries got the response that the administration had asked the Council to consider it a confidential presentation, that the matter was being investigated and that the administration would "get back to them" on it. When? How hard is it to track down what happened?

And on June 16, 2006, it came to light that $3,000-$4,000 of the missing money was in CASH --

MISSING $$$ AT CITY HALL-- Seems the investigation proceeds. Is desultory a word? The grapevine has it that the locks have been changed. And that the $3,000 or so in cash -- which was part of the $40,000 that went missing -- is only part of the picture of missing money in the Tax Collector's office. Seems that it may have been going on for some undetermined length of time. Add to this the rumor that the employee was/is a 'special friend' of a politically well-connected person and we have the beginnings of an HBO series... Who is going to be the casting director? Meanwhile, still unknown is whether the Prosecutor's Office will get involved. That was NOT a question in Middlesex County, where a similar offender in Highland Park is going to the slammer for same...

So, in 2009, three years later after the theft became public, we still have nagging questions about the missing moolah from the Tax Collector's office --

• Why was no one ever named or charged over the missing $41,000?
• Did the Mayor keep the Prosecutor in the dark?
• Did Robinson-Briggs pull the plug on the investigation?

This is an election year, Mayor Sharon, and the voters are watching.

---

• 2/28/09 - Ledger: "Former Perth Amboy worker indicted for stealing money"
• 2/28/09 - Courier: "Perth Amboy clerk indicted for stealing from cash drawer"
• Plainfield Today --
• 7/27/07: "Government employees elsewhere prosecuted for theft. Not in Plainfield?"
• 6/09/06: "$41,000 missing at City Hall"
• 6/10/06 - Courier: "Plainfield probes theft of $40K paid to the city"
  

-- Dan Damon

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.