Five days in Rio on Newark's credit card
On trips, James used little-known account
Sunday, August 20, 2006
BY IAN T. SHEARN AND JEFFERY C. MAYS
Star-Ledger Staff
In the final week of his 20-year tenure as mayor of Newark, Sharpe James took a five-day trip to Rio de Janeiro, staying in a luxury hotel and dining at some of the city's finest restaurants.
Newark taxpayers paid the tab, which exceeded $6,500, according to credit card records obtained by The Star-Ledger.
The mayor, traveling with an aide and two police bodyguards, stayed at Caesar Park Ipanema Hotel, a four-star resort, and enjoyed meals at Marius Crustaceos and Don Camillo, upscale eateries on the Copacabana beachfront. Rio, at the time, was in the grip of World Cup soccer fever, as the Brazilian team neared the end of its unsuccessful run in the tournament.
James said yesterday the June 23-27 trip was purely business, following up on a 2004 visit there when he lectured on "affirmative action, sanitation, housing and poor people" -- as a guest of the U.S. State Department.
Of his more recent trip, James said: "I went to the consul general and met with him to discuss these issues. I wanted to see if my (earlier) visit paid off, and I found out it did pay off."
Asked why he needed to travel with two bodyguards, James said that "Brazil is a hot spot for crime -- everybody knows that."
The expenses for the trip were the final charges on an $80,000 tab James and his security detail accumulated over a 2 1/2-year period using a Platinum Plus Visa card issued to "Sharpe James Newark Mayor Sec Pol Bus" and paid for with Newark Police Department funds, records show. The use of this card for the former mayor's expenses has not been previously disclosed. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....870.xml&coll=1
Five days in Rio on Newark's credit card
On trips, James used little-known account
Sunday, August 20, 2006
BY IAN T. SHEARN AND JEFFERY C. MAYS
Star-Ledger Staff
In the final week of his 20-year tenure as mayor of Newark, Sharpe James took a five-day trip to Rio de Janeiro, staying in a luxury hotel and dining at some of the city's finest restaurants.
Newark taxpayers paid the tab, which exceeded $6,500, according to credit card records obtained by The Star-Ledger.
The mayor, traveling with an aide and two police bodyguards, stayed at Caesar Park Ipanema Hotel, a four-star resort, and enjoyed meals at Marius Crustaceos and Don Camillo, upscale eateries on the Copacabana beachfront. Rio, at the time, was in the grip of World Cup soccer fever, as the Brazilian team neared the end of its unsuccessful run in the tournament.
James said yesterday the June 23-27 trip was purely business, following up on a 2004 visit there when he lectured on "affirmative action, sanitation, housing and poor people" -- as a guest of the U.S. State Department.
Of his more recent trip, James said: "I went to the consul general and met with him to discuss these issues. I wanted to see if my (earlier) visit paid off, and I found out it did pay off."
Asked why he needed to travel with two bodyguards, James said that "Brazil is a hot spot for crime -- everybody knows that."
The expenses for the trip were the final charges on an $80,000 tab James and his security detail accumulated over a 2 1/2-year period using a Platinum Plus Visa card issued to "Sharpe James Newark Mayor Sec Pol Bus" and paid for with Newark Police Department funds, records show. The use of this card for the former mayor's expenses has not been previously disclosed. http://www.nj.com/news/ledger/index....870.xml&coll=1
chosen to spend time in the sun with King James? I bet it wasn't Mrs. James who would have loved to bask in the sun with the King.
Thanks, Ms. Tam-Tam. I hope that's what Sharpe was looking at. My boy was Living Lavita Loca up in this motha.
I tell ya, you have to wonder what the heck he was thinking. Didn't he know that this was all going to, eventually, get traced. And I'm sure Booker, no matter how good the audits, will never know the half of it. Booker and the Ledger are going to bleed stories like this for the next 2 years. This is going to be their UMNDJ-type series.
Sharpe and the crew should get out of dodge ASAP. It's only going to get hotter from here.
Thanks, Ms. Tam-Tam. I hope that's what Sharpe was looking at. My boy was Living Lavita Loca up in this motha.
I tell ya, you have to wonder what the heck he was thinking. Didn't he know that this was all going to, eventually, get traced. And I'm sure Booker, no matter how good the audits, will never know the half of it. Booker and the Ledger are going to bleed stories like this for the next 2 years. This is going to be their UMNDJ-type series.
Sharpe and the crew should get out of dodge ASAP. It's only going to get hotter from here.
is what exactly was he doing there on June 23-27, 2006, once we get past his absurd excuse that he was "following up on a 2004 visit there when he lectured on "affirmative action, sanitation, housing and poor people" -- as a guest of the U.S. State Department." Since the evidence is he clear to anyone with eyes and a functioning brain that Sharpe never implemented any of those policies in Newark that he claimed he lectured the Brazilians on, what exactly was he doing in romantic Rio with his 29 year old aide, Alturrick Kenney. We know that Kenney was appointed to a four year term at the Newark Homeless Commission by Sharpe James on June 9, 2006 during one of those now infamous eleventh hour council meetings, but what exactly makes Alturrick Kenney qualified for this position? Other than the fact that he apparently can keep his mouth shut in public and defer all responses to Sharpe James, what is it exactly that he's doing that makes him more qualified than any other person? Was Sharpe hoping to teach Mr. Kenney about homelessness in a four-star Rio resort, while dining in the finest eateries in Brazil?
Mr. Kenney was arrested in 1997 for assault on a police officer in Washington DC, so I'm trying to figure out how he passed the vetting process for a mayoral aide position, and is going on trips to Rio as what was apparently a trusted member of his administration.
Last edited by OneEyeOpen; 08-21-2006 at 01:38 AM.
Is any of this indictable? It sure sounds like it should be.
This kat was like trying to shake a booger off your finger. He delivers fraudulent petitions feigning as if he's going to run for mayor again, damaging his apparent heir. He attempts to create $80 million no-agenda nonprofits as if he really needed more public income. When his boy and team were TROUNCED in the election, he still has the audacity to jet away on a bon voyage junket!!! ??? Breathtaking! Is there no end to the absurdity of his greed? Does he even see us??
With Sharpe James' disdain for the spirit of conflict-of-interest laws, and considering all he and his crew have gotten away with, I want the first solid, actionable offense prosecuted to the fullest extent provided by law!
There is a big issue in Essence Magazine that says Rio is where Black men secretly escape to have affairs with the Brazilian women, who they pay for services Case I seriously doubt he took his wife.
There is a big issue in Essence Magazine that says Rio is where Black men secretly escape to have affairs with the Brazilian women, who they pay for services Case I seriously doubt he took his wife.
Check out this Month's Essence Magazine!
Eh, Brazil has some of the worse ghettos in the world and is highly segregated. I'm pretty sure that wasn't a business trip and it sure as hell wasn't a lecture on how to improve someone else's ghettos either.
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Five days in Rio on Newark's credit card
My boy was Living Lavita Loca up in this motha. 
Case I seriously doubt he took his wife.
Don't ask, don't tell, baby!
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