Mayor demands payback
By ROBERT LINNEHAN
The Cherry Hill Sun
7/4/2009

In the wake of Anthony Saccomanno pleading guilty to accepting bribes in exchange for municipal contracts last week in court, Mayor Bernie Platt denounced the former employee and vowed to pursue restitution under federal sentencing against Saccomanno for defrauding the public.

Restitution, Platt said, will stem from wages and any loss to the township suffered from his unlawful activity as an employee.

The township council unanimously passed a resolution directing township officials not to make any compensation payments to Saccomanno and to pursue restitution as authorized under the federal sentencing guidelines. The resolution passed unanimously, but Councilman David Fleisher was not in attendance.

In front of U.S. District Judge Renee Marie Bumb on June 16, Saccomanno pleaded guilty to accepting bribes on two separate occasions from a BIU official. In total, Saccomanno pleaded guilty to accepting a bribe of $2,500 from a Building Inspection Underwriters Inc. official on Sept. 20, 2007, and a $2,000 bribe from an official in July of 2008.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office charged Saccomanno last March with soliciting and demanding corrupt payments, namely $4,500 in cash, to be influenced to reward BIU with municipal contracts.

Platt said the township would recover every dollar paid to Saccomanno in unlawful gains. He also went on to say that he was appalled and disgusted by the actions of Saccomanno.

“This is a public servant that was supposed to be working for the benefit of the community and prostituted his office for personal gain. He broke the public’s trust and the critical bond between our residents and town hall,” Platt said. “Now it is imperative that the township is compensated for this heinous act against our community.”

In one of several examples, on Sept. 20 of 2007, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported that Saccomanno met with the cooperating witness at an Italian restaurant in Cherry Hill. After the meal, Saccomanno and the cooperating witness left the restaurant and walked to the parking lot, where Saccomanno allegedly took an envelope containing $2,500 in cash from the cooperating witness.

Platt thanked the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the work it put into the investigation and the conviction of Saccomanno.

Council President Steve Polansky said the township was doing everything in its power to make sure something like this never happened again.

A member of the audience asked the council during public comment what it was doing to make sure there was no more corruption in any of the township departments.

“We’re doing our best and following the instructions of our township auditors,” he said.

Since Saccomanno’s arrest the township has had a complete audit of the code enforcement department done by the state Department of Community Affairs, Communications Director Dan Keashen said.

The department has been restructured and the services of BIU have been replaced with new in-house employees, he said.

Furthermore, the operations in the office have been streamlined.

Saccomanno was a tenured employee when Platt and his current administration took office and was hired by the township on May 23, 1977.