All Muck Is Local: It’s Good To Be Mayor — And Even Better To Know Him

Charged with corruption, fraud and conspiracy, Sharpe James (D) allegedly greased the way for co-defendant Tamika Riley to buy nine city lots. James, 72, and Riley, 38, don’t deny having had an extra-marital affair. Riley, a publicist who once owned a boutique, turned the properties she purchased from the city around quickly, making a nice return of $665,000 on her investment of $46,000. In the most extreme case, after she bought a lot for $2,000 in August, 2001, she sold it less than four months later for $130,000. Riley is charged with tax evasion, in addition to fraud and conspiracy.

In his testimony, former housing director Basil Franklin reminded the jury about the redevelopment program for the South Ward, a depressed area of the city. When the Newark City Council approved the plan in 1998, it made no stipulation for advertising the program or public bidding.

According to Franklin, qualified builders were able to buy land for as little as $1 a square foot. But it didn’t take long for the program to fall apart, as who you knew, not what you knew, became the only qualification.

“There was no professional or legal vetting of anybody,” Franklin said. Instead, builders had to be recommended by members of the City Council and the mayor’s circle.

Riley’s purchases of city property were approved by the City Council even though some of the applications lacked the necessary paperwork, such as project proposals, preliminary site plans, estimated total development costs or arrangements for financing.

Laying the ground for their charge that James did favors for his mistress at city expense, prosecutors called several of the former mayor’s bodyguards to testify about the services they performed for Riley. One of them, Adelino Benavente, haltingly recalled being authorized by the mayor to pay $409.47 for an air conditioner, pick up and install it for Riley at her home.

James didn’t limit his favors to his girlfriends.

Franklin, the former housing director, recounted how the mayor had called him in 2001 or 2002 to set up a meeting between them at a furniture store. But when Franklin got there and went upstairs as he was directed to do, he found the mayor’s former chief of staff, Jackie Mattison, waiting for him.

“He wanted properties,” testified Franklin. Eventually Mattison made it possible for his partners to buy over 100 city lots. At the time, Mattison had recently been released from federal prison, where he had served 3-1/2 years for bribery.

Yet, speaking to the state senate in 2004, James promoted a bill that would augment the powers of mayors over sales of city-owned property.

“This law is needed to ensure that we protect the public trust, that we do not allow thievery with municipal property,” he said.

The trial is expected to last two to three months. When it’s over, James will face another jury. The City of Newark has accused him of charging $58,000 in personal expenses to city-issued credit cards. Among these charges are vacations with various women (not his wife) to places such as Martha’s Vineyard, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Rio de Janeiro.