Feds subpoena Statehouse records in Sharpe James probe

[Octavia]

by Ted Sherman
Tuesday July 03, 2007, 6:39 PM



Federal investigators have subpoenaed Statehouse records tied to controversial legislation sponsored three years ago by former Newark Mayor Sharpe James that gave him unbridled power in city land sales.


James, who is under investigation over cut-rate deals of surplus municipal real estate to politically-connected friends and associates, pushed for the change in state law after a court rebuffed his challenge to the city council's bid to unilaterally give land to a Hispanic non-profit group.

At the time, ranking Democrats said James, in his role as a state senator, had threatened to hold up the budget if the bill was not passed. Introduced in February 2004, it became law the following July.

The subpoena to the Senate -- a copy of which was obtained by The Star-Ledger -- seeks all documents and communications related to Senate Bill S-967, as well as any correspondence from the two primary sponsors of the legislation, James and the late Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham.

The U.S. Attorney's office would not discuss the matter. Calls to James and his lawyer, Raymond Brown Jr., were not returned yesterday.


The grand jury subpoena, dated June 28, came just a day after the Associated Press reported that James was denying responsibility for the cut-rate city land deals now being investigated by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

In a two-page handwritten letter to the AP, James invoked the Faulkner Act -- the 1950 law layout out powers for mayors -- in claiming that he never had the authority to broker land deals or set prices by himself.

"The mayor is not a boss or a lord or can give away municipal land," he wrote. "Only the Council set prices, only the Council meet and interview developers, only the Council can convey land to developers."

But in 2004 the former mayor took steps to give himself a major role in the sales of city land, when he pushed to amend the law solely as it affected Newark.

The bill he sponsored as a senator mandated that the city council could not convey property unless first presented to the council by the mayor, "recognizing the authority of the mayor, as the chief executive officer of the municipality, to initiate those land purchase and sales decisions and determine the terms and conditions for acquisition and sale." The change only covered municipalities with populations of 265,000 or more as of the last Census (only Newark qualified.)

The current federal investigation into the former mayor's dealings started after The Star-Ledger reported last summer that James used two city-issued credit cards to pay for trips to Brazil, Puerto Rico, and elsewhere.

The investigation later expanded to focus on Newark real estate deals, following the discovery that one of James' travel companions, a publicist named Tamika Riley, made hundreds of thousands of dollars buying cheap property from the city of Newark and reselling it, sometimes after just weeks.