PARKING PROBE
Ethics Board investigates whether Trenton Parking Authority members violated city code in sweetheart deal »
TRENTON » Political operative Bill Watson is accused of using his influence to get an ally a high-paying job, records show.
The chairman of the Trenton Parking Authority’s Board of Commissioners is being investigated for potential ethical violations.
He’s accused by two fellow commissioners of orchestrating and manipulating an alleged patronage deal that benefited former commissioner Perry Shaw III, according to a letter laying out the explosive claims.
The allegations — some substantiated by a law firm secretly probing the ethics case — are that Watson, the brother of Congresswoman Bonnie Watson Coleman, developed a “bold” workaround the Trenton ethics code to steer a job to Shaw, according to records obtained by The Trentonian.
The code says the TPA Board of Commissioners cannot hire former commissioners within a year of their resignations from the board.
To get around this, Watson proposed having TPA hire a company that would then hire Shaw, according to allegations from commissioners Anne LaBate and Evangeline Ugorji outlined in records.
The two filed the complaint with the Trenton Ethics Board last year. LaBate declined to comment, citing the secretive nature of the proceedings.
The law firm, in a letter to the board in late December, suggested possible “coordination” between Watson, Shaw and officials at KEJ Associates LLC to rig the contract bidding process while Shaw was a TPA commissioner.
KEJ “prominently” featured Shaw, then still a commissioner, in its proposal to TPA’s advertised executive director position, the letter says.
“There must have been communication between KEJ and Mr. Shaw, while he was a Commissioner of the Authority, raising questions as to his involvement in the hiring process,” James Maley, the ethics board attorney, wrote in the letter.
Shaw, who served as a TPA commissioner since 2014, resigned from the board Jan. 30, 2020, and began working for KEJ in the consultant role Feb. 1.
Subpoenas Issued
The ethics board voted last week for the law firm Maley Givens to issue subpoenas to the major players involved in the alleged nodand-wink deal.
The law firm wants all communications between Watson, Shaw and the owners of KEJ Associates LLC to see whether there is evidence that Watson and Shaw used their offices for personal benefit.
The firm is also exploring whether Shaw’s appearances at Parking Authority meetings in his role with KEJ violates the ethics code.
The code says former commissioners cannot “represent, appear or negotiate on behalf of any other party” before TPA within a year of resigning from the board.
Furthermore, records show that the Parking Authority issued Shaw a direct payment of about $375 on Feb. 13, 2020, after he resigned from the board.
Robert Bianchi, a criminal defense attorney and the former Morris County prosecutor, said the deal to benefit Shaw sounded “tricky by half” but required more investigation to determine whether crimes were committed.
“You always be conservative and don’t do anything where people think you’re doing through the back door what you can’t do through the front door, because depending on who the prosecutor is ... you could get clipped,” he said.
“You just don’t want to play funny. If you’re hiring lawyers, if you’re trying to find a way to put a square peg in a round hole … don’t do it because someone may see you trying to put a square peg in a round hole.”
The allegations — as painted by LaBate and Ugorji that the contract award to KEJ Associates was an inside deal, orchestrated by Watson to benefit Shaw — are sure to rock the Trenton political world given the prominence of Watson, a political kingmaker who served as the chief of staff for ex-Trenton Mayor Doug Palmer.
“I’m shocked that anyone would level anything against his character,” Palmer said reacting to the allegations in a phone interview with The Trentonian.
Watson, in an interview with The Trentonian, dismissed the allegations as bunk and suggested the deal was legally above board.
“I’ve always protected my integrity,” he said. “I know how government is supposed to work.”
The Democratic kingmaker, however, admitted this wasn’t the first time that TPA employed a consultant using the “very same process” it used to hire Shaw.
Former TPA official Walter Drew Smith served as executive director for TPA from about 2010 through July 2015 after previously serving as a board commissioner.
Watson described KEJ and Shaw as “highly qualified” and said TPA saved coin because it doesn’t have to provide Shaw with pension and health benefits.
Shaw, who ran unsuccessfully for Trenton’s East Ward council seat in 2018, denied in a statement any wrongdoing and sounded confident he’d be cleared.
“I would like to be as clear as possible,” he said, “there was no ethics violations.”
TPA awarded a $120,000 contract to KEJ Associates last year after it was the only company that responded to the advertised executive director position, records show. The contract ends Jan. 31, according to records.
Kim E. Jackson, the director of transportation and parking at Princeton University, founded KEJ Associates LLC of Lawrence in November 2019.
Jackson and Howard W. Pollard Jr. are identified as KEJ stakeholders on state records, with a business address listed in Lawrence’s exclusive Woodmont neighborhood.
Jackson, the company namesake and a parking guru, has nearly three decades of experience in the industry and served as board chairwoman for the International Parking and Mobility Institute, a global association of parking professionals.
Jackson was described in the ethics complaint as Watson’s “acquaintance.” It’s alleged that Watson “presumably asked” Jackson to respond to the job posting and hire Shaw “as a condition” of the firm being chosen to fill the opening.
KEJ Associates brought on Shaw, a retired corrections officer who ran A Better Way Inc., a Trenton nonprofit that helps veterans, ex-convicts and at-risk youth.
State records show the status of Shaw’s nonprofit as suspended for failing to file annual reports.
The two commissioners LaBate and Ugorji said in the complaint they were unable to verify Shaw’s educational credentials.
Shaw also claimed to be enrolled in a certified administrator of public parking program with the International Parking and Mobility Institute (IPMI) with an expected graduation date of spring 2020, according to a copy of his resume obtained by the newspaper.
The commissioners said in the complaint that IPMI informed them Shaw wasn’t an “active candidate” in the program.
It’s unclear how much Shaw is compensated as KEJ executive director to
handle the lion’s share of the consultant responsibilities to TPA.
The Trenton Parking Authority, created by city ordinance in 1948, has about $30 million in assets and operates three downtown garages and a Merchant Street lot.
It is governed by a board of seven commissioners appointed by council and the mayor, and most of its revenue comes from user fees generated by monthly passes and daily parkers.
Jackson agreed to an interview this week but did not ring The Trentonian and stopped responding to emails and phone calls at a number she provided in the bid documents.
The Art of the Deal
KEJ Associates replaced TPA’s outgoing consultant Nexus Parking last January, following a bidding process in which KEJ was the only suitor.
That ensured it was awarded the $120,000 yearlong contract with TPA by default.
The ethics board-hired law firm described TPA’s procurement process in this case as “not designed to field a large pool of applicants.”
The Parking Authority’s advertisement for the executive directorship, called a Request for Qualifications, ran in The Trentonian from Nov. 19 to Dec. 6, 2019, according to the letter.
The Thanksgiving holiday likely meant less interested eyes on the job posting, which wasn’t advertised in places “typically read by those in the relevant industry sectors,” according to the commissioners’ ethics complaint.
The aggrieved commissioners further alleged that the RFQ specifications were unilaterally changed without board permission, thereby allowing individuals and businesses to compete for the contract, according to the letter.
That, in turn, opened the door for the KEJ owner Jackson — and, by extension, Shaw, a Parking Authority commissioner at the time.
On Nov. 20, 2019, the day after the position was advertised, Jackson created and registered her KEJ Associates consultant firm with the state of New Jersey, according to the letter and corroborated by state business records.
The company submitted a bid for the TPA contract on Dec. 5, and was later awarded the lucrative deal after it emerged as the only applicant.
Behind the scenes, the whistleblowing commissioners alleged, Watson worked to ensure fellow commissioner and political protégé Shaw landed the executive director gig with KEJ Associates.
To avoid a potential ethics infraction, Watson instructed Shaw to leave the Oct. 24, 2019 executive session meeting so the board could discuss finding a replacement for Nexus, according to the letter.
It was allegedly at that meeting that Shaw passed out his resume to commissioners for their consideration of his qualifications, the letter states.
Then Watson — with Shaw no longer present — allegedly proposed the workaround the Trenton ethics code preventing the Parking Authority from directly hiring Shaw as executive director.
It’s alleged in the complaint that Watson was advised by TPA attorney Michael Ash before the Oct. 24 meeting that hiring commissioner Shaw would violate the ethics code.
Still, the congresswoman’s brother allegedly laid out an “end run” around the ethics code by which TPA would hire a company that would then hire Shaw as executive director, according to the letter and the complaint.
Watson later appointed a three-person selection committee that included himself to recommend hiring the newly formed consultant company.
At a January 2020 meeting, commissioners Watson, Scott Rice, Andrew Worek and Harry Reyes approved the lucrative contract with KEJ Associates, with LaBate voting no and Ugorji and Shaw both abstaining.
Shaw allegedly abstained to avoid a potential ethical pitfall of voting for something that ended up benefiting him.
The law firm wrote in the letter that one of the misconduct claims about the end run couldn’t be sustained despite “clear” evidence that Watson’s proposed arrangement was structured to “circumvent” the ethics code.
Maley, the ethics board’s attorney, recommended revising the ethics rules to close the loophole so future former commissioners can’t exploit it.