The irony was not lost on anyone inside the Asbury Park Press newsroom.
The head of the state’s watchdog agency appeared to have contradictory status regarding residency, voting history and outside employment. In other words, the agency charged with uncovering wrongdoing had some explaining to do.
When Press reporters Mike Davis and Michael Diamond published a story that outlined how Tiffany Williams Brewer, the interim executive director of the New Jersey State Commission of Investigation, owned a principal residence in Maryland, taught a full course load at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and voted in-person during the last presidential election in New Jersey, many residents and elected officials scratched their heads.
As did our reporters.
Following protocol for stories by news organizations, Diamond and Davis reached out repeatedly to SCI for information and an explanation of how this scenario came about and if anyone had any problem with the facts of the situation: Discrepancies regarding residency statutes, voting irregularities and an apparently full-time, out-of-state professorship that largely kept Brewer from the office for her six-figure state job.
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When we gathered enough information in our reporting to present our findings to the SCI for clarity, explanation and course correction, if necessary, the Press was met with crickets..
But we had questions about these troubling findings and, since the SCI is the New Jersey agency that built a reputation on ferreting out problems in state government, we were hoping for some reciprocityin this vein.
The Press also hoped for an interview with Brewer. But the best we received was a terse note from a spokesperson for the agency saying Brewer indeed lived in New Jersey.
This was not the first time reporters and an editor ran into the wall of silence from the agency.
But let’s backtrack a couple of decades, when the SCI routinely put out reports on their investigations, the press dutifully reported them and the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General followed up with its own investigations into any criminal activity SCI uncovered. It all seemed to work as designed.
While the SCI never spewed out all of its investigative secrets, like how they obtained information and who they spoke to, the basics of what happened and how taxpayer dollars were spent was made clear in the reports and follow ups.
I guess I shouldn’t have left the state for a while. While I was gone, the temperature in the room went from a welcoming warmth to a freeze-out polar vortex from the early 2000s to 2024.
In this case, when the Press first reached out to SCI to find out who, if anyone, was running the vaunted agency after its former leader was killed in a car crash last July, our inquiry was ignored.
A second outreach was made. Still nothing.
In mid-November, a short statement emerged on how the agency was working on filling vacancies within the agency, but SCI did not answer if an interim executive director was in charge.
A day later, the Press reported that, according to payroll records, Williams Brewer, the chair of the commission that runs the agency, was listed as its executive director and was drawing the $175,000 a year salary that went with the position.
Once confronted with this revelation, SCI issued a short statement acknowledging the facts.
Why, thank you! To use the over-used but apt phrase, this was like pulling teeth.
As Davis and Diamond worked the story, the other interesting reaction was the utter silence emanating out of Democratic leadership in the state. Gov. Phil Murphy, who appointed Williams Brewer to the commission, Senate President Nick Scutari, D-Union, and Assembly Speaker Craig Coughlin, D-Middlesex, must have gotten the memo to stay mum on the subject. We lost track of how many times we contacted their offices.
In the end, the reporting spoke for itself. With a resignation letter from Williams Brewer placing the blame of her exit on her staff and a long-awaited comment from the governor who basically said you can’t have two jobs – good to know – the story played out for Williams Brewer.
Soon afterward, the SCI actually posted the job on its website, something it hadn’t done previously when Williams Brewer was quietly installed at the top of the agency, with a hefty $35,000 raise at a time where raises are otherwise frozen for state employees.
Some credit must also be given to some Republican leaders, especially Sen. Declan O’Scanlon, R-Monmouth, who spoke out about the entire operatic performance, once the facts were laid out.
Still left unresolved is how Williams Brewer’s elevation even occurred. Was there a background check? And if there was, how did it not uncover the same facts the Press learned? And if it did uncover those troubling facts, how did the commissioners ignore them? Or did they?
These are just a handful of unanswered questions that the residents of New Jersey deserve answers to.
In a state where transparency sometimes takes a backseat when that seat gets hot, the Press is committed to digging in until the facts are all laid out.
It is our pledge.
