UPDATED: BOE Suspends Berman Following Corruption Charges

The Westfield  voted Thursday night to suspend embattled BOE Business Administrator/Board Secretary Bob Berman following  in a corruption scandal.

The BOE issued a statement Friday morning saying that Berman has been suspended from his position due to the charges from state Attorney General Paula Dow. Dow charged Berman on Wednesday with taking over $13,000 in glass windows and doors for his South Plainfield home from the Metropolitan Metal Window Company in exchange for recommending that the BOE designate the company of the school district’s contractor of record.

“The Board of Education takes all allegations of financial impropriety very seriously; therefore, Mr. Berman has been suspended from his duties, pending further review by the board,” said a statement issued by the nine board members.

Korecky’s statement also said that the district will be hiring an outside auditor to conduct a review of the school system’s contracts and financial records for the period that Dow has charged that Berman participated in the bid-rigging scandal. Dow’s charges say that Berman took the bribes between 2004 and 2008.

Dow’s allegations against Berman are part of a larger bid-rigging and kickback scheme which she said was orchestrated by Mountainside engineer Kenneth Disko. Disko was the contracted engineer or engineer/architect for the Westfield, Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Tinton Falls school districts. Disko was ahrged with taking over $80,000 in kickbacks from contractors and he is alleged to have prepared fraudulent quotes and estimates for districts and directed contractors to inflate quotes and estimates for school districts.

Three contractors, John Sangiuliano of Scotch Plains, Martin W. Starr of Cliffwood Park and Stephen M. Gallagher of Cliffwood Park were charged with making false contract payments.

Berman is scheduled to make his first appearance before state Superior Court Judge Joan Robinson Gross Monday morning in Elizabeth. Berman was in his office at BOE headquarters Wednesday when the attorney general announced the charges. Berman declined to answer questions from Patch, referring questions to his attorney, Blair R. Zwillman of the law firm of Wilentz, Goldman and Spitzer.

Zwillman has denied the charges against Berman.

Senior BOE officials first learned of the charges against Berman through media reports. Thursday night’s emergency board meeting was called in response to the charges. School district officials had been huddled in emergency meetings on Wednesday afternoon and most of Thursday to discuss the situation.

The BOE has appointed Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan as the district’s acting business administrator until an interim business administrator is hired. Patch has learned that an interim business administrator could be hired at next Tuesday's board meeting.

Interim business administrators are typically retired business administrators and school district executives who fill empty positions in school districts. The Clark public schools had two interim superintendents from 2007 to 2010 and Cranford employed an interim principal of Cranford High School in the 2009-2010 school year.

The charges hit with a shockwave in the community, becoming one of the most talked about stories in town. During Thursday evening's for the Carly Pfeiffer Memorial Fund, many in the audience were talking about the charges against Berman.

Two of the  for the Board of Education issued statements about the charges on Thursday night. Both Mark Friedman and Jennifer Silva expressed concern with the charges with Friedman calling for the forensic audit that the board adopted.

"It is an unfortunate situation," Silva said. "Hopefully an independent audit will be conducted but, we need to remember innocent until proven otherwise so we need to let it play out through our legal system. However I do hope that the Board of Ed acts quickly on the matter."

"Obviously the charges against Mr. Berman are very serious but we do need to wait until the courts take this process to completion," said Friedman. "That said, I have zero tolerance for people who use their positions for personal gain. I would call on the school board to immediately engage with an independent third party in the field of forensic accounting to thoroughly review the financial records of the school district."

The decision comes as Berman was working closely with Dolan and the board’s finance committee to finalize the district’s $92.2 million proposed budget, which is due to be adopted on March 29. The board voted less than a week before Berman was charged to set the maximum budget range for the year and to start finalizing the spending plan, which is due to be put before voters during the April 27 school election.

Berman was also responsible for serving as the chief election official for the school election. The afternoon prior to his being charged by the attorney general, Berman was supervising collection of nominating petitions for BOE candidates. Berman was scheduled to draw BOE ballot positions during a ceremony on the morning of March 17.

Berman has been the school district’s business administrator since 1998, when he came to the district from Randolph, where he was assistant schools superintendent for business. He is a graduated of Kean University with a master’s degrees in educational administration and received a bachelor’s in business administration from Fairleigh Dickinson University. He is a 1973 graduate of New Providence High School.

“The board will respect Mr. Berman’s privacy in this matter and will update the public upon resolution of the matter,” the board said in a statemen