FBI investigating Trenton housing developments started under former mayor Douglas Palmer

TRENTON ? The FBI is investigating federal Community Block Development Grant funds used for six to eight major housing developments in Trenton started under former Mayor Douglas Palmer?s administration, the city?s CDBG coordinator said yesterday.

Federal subpoenas have been issued regarding the CDBG money and FBI agents recently visited the office, said Mark Leckington, the city coordinator. While the projects being reviewed may have continued into Mayor Tony Mack?s administration, Leckington said an FBI agent who visited his office last week said the corruption case against Mack, who has been indicted on multiple counts of alleged bribery and extortion, is not the origin of the probe.

?He made a point of saying it had absolutely nothing to do with the situation with the mayor,? Leckington said. The subpoenas served on the city this month identified a ?person of interest? in the federal investigation, Leckington said, though he declined to identify the target.

Palmer said yesterday that the FBI has not approached him about the CDBG investigation and he did not know who could be the subject of the investigation.
?I have no knowledge of anything, no one has contacted me,? Palmer said. ?There?s nothing I did wrong.?

Leckington said the FBI was seeking to obtain updates of information from an investigation started several years ago, when agents had subpoenaed the CDBG data in an earlier probe.

Palmer said he was unaware of any FBI investigation into the city during his 20 years in office, and said he was never interviewed by agents.

?They can look all they want,? Palmer said. ?They?re welcome. They never talked to me, or anyone on my staff.?

Leckington, who started working for the city in October 2011, said he has found many CDBG project records from both the Mack and Palmer administrations to be incomplete.

However, at present the FBI?s interest is limited to housing projects initiated under Palmer, Leckington said.

Much of his work since joining the city government has involved piecing together CDBG records that were poorly compiled and maintained, he said.

?I have no paperwork on a lot of projects going into the ?90s and 2000s,? Leckington said. ?In some cases, files are missing completely on the project, like they got activated and are not accessible.?

The FBI case is considered open even though it is several years old, Leckington said.

The subpoenas for all information about the use of the CDBG money on Trenton housing development arrived earlier this month, and the data must be provided by mid-January, Leckington said.

When Leckington was hired, he was tasked with organizing the city?s CDBG records.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development gave Leckington a late September deadline to complete the records on 100 projects dating back to the 1990s. He said he could not find the full documentation for 20 projects.

Leckington got a new list of 168 HUD requests two weeks ago and has been asked to account for the money involved, he said.

Failure to provide the necessary documentation that the money was properly spent could mean the city will be forced to pay some of it back.

?They said if we don?t hit some of these time lines they will recover some of the money,? Leckington said. ?It could be several million dollars.?

While Mack is not the subject of the CDBG investigation, some of the projects being reviewed by authorities continued into his administration.

Mack is currently facing federal corruption charges accusing him of accepting bribes to help a developer with a city parking garage project. The project, however, was actually a sting orchestrated by FBI agents, authorities have said.

Macks? brother Ralphiel Mack, and a longtime supporter Joseph ?JoJo? Giorgianni also are charged in the scheme. Mack has steadfastly denied any wrongdoing.

Leckington said that the latest investigation into the CDBG money could cost the city.

While public officials have been prosecuted in the past for misuse of CDBG money, that was only when they also were accused of performing illegal acts such as bribery, fraud and bid-rigging. In cases of the money being mismanaged, the grant is more frequently ordered to be repaid, Leckington said.

?If you misuse CDBG money ? as long as it?s not criminal ? HUD will ask you to repay the money out of the next year?s award,? he said.

Contact Alex Zdan at azdan@njtimes.com or (609) 989-5705.

Source: http://www.nj.com/mercer/index.ssf/2012/12/fbi_investigating_trenton_hous.html

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