The New Jersey agency entrusted with ensuring access to public records may be Gov. Chris Christie’s biggest ally for keeping a pension scandal secret in an election year.
After a sudden decision last year not to review state Treasury documents that could incriminate Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, the Government Records Council sat on the case five months [...]

Mercer County Prosecutor Joseph Bocchini has three strikes against him in the controversy surrounding Joe Derrico – the ”disabled’ Hamilton cop turned roughhousing repo man on reality TV.
A continuing investigation by New Jersey Watchdog delivered:

Strike one: Bocchini disobeyed the law by failing to inform state authorities when Derrico was indicted on a felony theft charge [...]

 
On television, Joseph Derrico pursues a monster truck on foot, pulls the driver out of the vehicle and tosses him to the ground. He is on truTV’s “Bear Swamp Recovery,” a reality show on vehicle repos by the “baddest towing team in Jersey.”
Yet Derrico collects a police disability pension of nearly $70,000 a year. In [...]

New Jersey’s elite $100K Club of retired public officials is growing bigger and fatter.
The number of retirees collecting more than $100,000 a year from state pensions hit 1,474 in 2012 – an increase of nearly 50 percent in two years, according to a New Jersey Watchdog analysis of state pension data.
Former Jersey City school superintendent [...]

New Jersey State Lottery deputy director Duane Daniels hit a jackpot when he retired as a State Police captain at age 50.
Daniels started collecting an $88,296 annual state pension in October 2009. That same month, he was hired as the lottery’s head of security at a $90,000 salary. For Daniels, who did not respond to requests for [...]

Thomas Butler can take you to school on the study of double-dipping in New Jersey.
Since he retired as a superintendent 18 years ago, Butler has held 23 jobs as an interim or temporary chief at public school districts in eight different counties. While continuing to draw six-figure salaries from taxpayers, he has pocketed $1.2 million in [...]

Timothy Carroll retired at age 33.  He claimed he was “totally and permanently” disabled by the trauma of seeing dead bodies while working as a sheriff’s officer in Morris County, New Jersey.
“I suffer from crime scene flashbacks and hallucinations due to all the years I served as a crime scene detective,” stated Carroll in [...]

Gov. Chris Christie made a crucial decision last month on Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno, his second-in-command who’s embroiled by scandal and entangled in a criminal investigation riddled with conflicts of interest.
Christie named her as his running mate for the 2013 election. He effectively anointed Guadagno as his heir apparent to take the reigns as New [...]

Will this be the year New Jersey voters finally arrest the double-dipping practices of their county sheriffs?
Or will the wallets of taxpayers in the Garden State continue to be held captive by “retired” law enforcement officials who collect both salary and pension?
2013 could bring a showdown at the polls, as nine double-dipping incumbents face re-election. Here’s who they [...]

TRENTON — In a sudden reversal, the New Jersey Government Records Council has decided the documents detailing Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno’s role in a $245,000 pension scandal are too hot for the agency to handle.
The GRC voted unanimously Tuesday to quit the case and not review the records it twice ordered the State Treasury to submit for inspection. [...]