Baraka Demands Federal Investigation of County's Handling of Charity Funds

Mayoral candidate and South Ward Councilman Ras Baraka said Monday he is asking US Attorney Paul Fishman to launch an investigation into an Essex County charity that distributed federal funds to needy residents, some of whom appeared to exceed income requirements for the aid.

Stopping short of alleging that any laws were broken, Baraka, during a City Hall press conference Monday, did say the matter “warrants a closer look.”

In a lenghty investigative report, The Star Ledger Sunday quoted Connie Crawford, the director of the East Orange Community Development Corporation, who said she was pressured to award funds to certain recipients by the office of Essex County Executive Joseph DiVincenzo. The East Orange Community Development Corp. was contracted by the county to disburse the funds during the depths of the housing crisis between 2009 and 2011. 

A review of records by The Star Ledger also showed that nearly half of more than 100 recipients of the aid examined by the newspaper did not qualify for it under the guidelines used historically by the charity, whose function is to prevent people from losing their homes.

The report prompted Baraka’s call for an investigation, he said Monday.

DiVincenzo denied pressuring Crawford to award aid to anyone, The Star Ledger also reported. The paper also quoted the county’s inspector general, who investigated the matter and found no evidence of wrongdoing.

The questions over the funding also involve Baraka’s council colleague and fellow mayoral candidate, Anibal Ramos, a former county employee who ran a department that oversaw the funds.

After Baraka’s press conference Monday, an Essex County spokesman, Anthony Puglisi, released a statement by the county’s inspector general, retired FBI agent Dominic Scaglione, in which he states Crawford denied making the comments reported by The Star Ledger.

“After the publication of the recent article, my office once again looked into the Ledger’s allegations concerning the East Orange Community Development Corporation because I believed the allegations contained therein were completely contrary to my earlier investigation. At that time, the EOCDC Executive Director denied making the statements attributed to her by The Star Ledger reporter,” Scaglione’s statement read.

And a spokesman for Ramos, Bruno Tedeschi, accused Baraka of making a politically motivated attack against his rival in the mayor's race. 

“While Baraka held what was a clearly a campaign press conference in city council chambers in City Hall with campaign supporters, residents in his ward are confronting violence on a daily basis and he has done nothing about it during his three years as a councilman," Tedeschi said in a statement. 

During his press conference Monday, Baraka denied his motivations were political, stating that if he were not a mayoral candidate, he “would be outside on the street” demanding an investigation.