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From the Philadelphia Inquirer:

Posted on Tue, Sep. 19, 2006

State Sen. Bryant hired as no-show, U.S. says
A report said UMDNJ put him on its payroll strictly for his "political juice."
By Jennifer Moroz and Troy Graham
Inquirer Trenton Bureau

State Sen. Wayne Bryant was given a no-show job at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey to mask what he was really hired to do - use his political influence to secure more state funding for the school - a federal monitor concluded yesterday.

In a report submitted to U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, former federal Judge Herbert J. Stern said Bryant, chairman of the powerful Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee, ultimately was "paid $35,000 per year by UMDNJ to lobby himself."

The findings, which invited immediate criticism from some legislators, were enough to prompt Gov. Corzine to suggest the veteran Democratic lawmaker consider giving up his chairmanship duties.

Stern, who was appointed by Christie in December to review practices at the scandal-ridden university, said Bryant, 58, asked for a job and was rewarded, in March 2003, with a part-time "program support coordinator" position created especially for him at UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine in Stratford.

Stern said Bryant, who did not return messages left at his legislative and law offices yesterday, did not cooperate in the investigation. But based on more than 35 interviews with current and former UMDNJ officials and "supporting documentary evidence," Stern concluded that university officials, led by R. Michael Gallagher, then dean of the osteopathic school, skirted hiring procedures to bring the Camden County Democrat on board. And once he was hired, Stern wrote, Bryant "performed little to no work."

Stern said that the senator, who was getting paid about $38,000 a year when he left the job in February, generally spent three hours a week at his office at the school and that the only activity observed "by anyone was that he read the newspapers."

Stern further found that even though the position Bryant held should not have been included in the calculation of his public pension, school administrators ensured it would. And Gallagher, whose actions were lambasted in an earlier report by Stern, signed off on it.

Bryant, the most prominent figure to be trapped in the federal monitor's net, was being compensated for his "political juice," Stern concluded.

Specifically, Stern said, Bryant was hired to use his influence to get more state money for the school.

In that regard, the report said, Bryant was successful. According to Stern, the osteopathic school was getting about $2.8 million a year from the state before Bryant was brought on board. In the three years Bryant worked for the school, it received a total of $12.8 million, Stern said.

The report also said Bryant used his ties at the school to help his political allies. According to Stern, the senator leaned on the school to sponsor a Tweeter Center program affiliated with the wife of Jeff Nash, then director of Camden County's freeholder board. In the end, UMDNJ gave $20,000 to the program.

Bryant's attorney, Carl Poplar, did not return messages yesterday. But Bryant's colleagues had plenty to say about the report.

The findings invited immediate criticism from Republicans.

Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance (R., Hunterdon) said he was "very disturbed by the report," adding there should be a ban on legislators doubling up in public jobs.

Gov. Corzine, a fellow Democrat, suggested that Bryant consider stepping down as chairman of the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee until the matter was cleared up. But the governor said that decision was ultimately up to legislative leaders.

In a statement, Senate President Richard J. Codey (D., Essex) indicated there would be no leadership changes right away.

"There's a process under way here, and I think we owe it to everyone involved to let that process take its course before we make any judgments or decisions," Codey said.

The monitor's findings have been forwarded to Christie's office, which is conducting a separate criminal investigation into Bryant's employment and will determine whether any charges are warranted.

Yesterday, a spokesman for Christie declined comment.

Christie in December appointed Stern to review financial practices at UMDNJ as part of an agreement that allows the school to avoid a potentially crippling prosecution on charges of Medicaid fraud.

Since then, Stern has launched dozens of investigations and issued several scathing reports.

John Inglesino, who works with Stern, said the university had come a long way since December. The school has hired a chief compliance officer to prevent future abuses, named a number of new board members, and has begun a search for a new president - moves the monitor urged.

Inglesino said that as a result of the progress, the monitor's role would start to diminish in the fall.

"It appears they're moving in the right direction," Inglesino said.

UMDNJ spokeswoman Anna Farneski echoed that the types of abuses described in the monitor's latest report were history.

"Sen. Bryant is no longer employed by the university," Farneski said. "The people who hired him are no longer employed by the university. The kinds of actions described in the monitor's report would not be tolerated now, and will not be tolerated in the future."

"He Read the Newspapers"

Excerpts from a federal monitor's report on the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey:

Our conclusion is that UMDNJ created a no-work job for Senator Bryant so that he could use his political power to benefit his employer, UMDNJ's School of Osteopathic Medicine (SOM). In short, Senator Bryant was paid $35,000 per year by UMDNJ to lobby himself in his capacity as a State Senator.

The conclusion is inescapable that the senator did not perform any substantive work as an employee of UMDNJ in return for his $35,000 per year "salary" - but did increase SOM's funding by millions of dollars while chairing the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

No one interviewed in the course of this investigation... could state that they had observed Senator Bryant performing any work for the university at any time during his entire "employment." Consistently, most people interviewed observed that Bryant spent about three hours per week at SOM - from 9:00 to noon on Tuesdays - but that such time was inconsistent at best. While in his office at SOM, the only thing observed of Bryant by anyone was that he read the newspapers.