Thirty people were fired from the Schools Development Authority on Tuesday after two lengthy reviews of hiring practices under former Chief Executive Officer Lizette Delgado-Polanco, NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey has confirmed.

The reviews were spurred by the Network's reporting on a restructuring under Delgado-Polanco, a former union official and Democratic Party leader who was hired by Gov. Phil Murphy to lead the agency into a new era. But her hiring of about three dozen friends and allies after laying off longtime employees brought intense scrutiny on an authority that otherwise operates out of public view while spending billions building public schools in the state's poorest towns.

And those reviews — one internal and one by an outside law firm — largely confirmed what the Network found months ago. Open jobs were not posted internally or externally. Connected individuals were hired, sometimes at large salaries, outside of the normal hiring process. Some of the workers were not qualified for the jobs they had.

"Unfortunately, our review uncovered numerous examples of a failure to follow proper procedures," attorneys Domenick Carmagnola and Meagan E. Mariano, whose Morristown firm, Carmagnola & Ritardi, led one of two legal reviews, said in the report.

There was "a lack of transparency," they said, and it was "abundantly clear" that under Delgado-Polanco the "generally accepted hiring practices were not followed." The report added that "with few exceptions" among the roughly three dozen people Delgado-Polanco hired, "all of those employees were somehow connected to Ms. Delgado Polanco, whether via a direct or indirect connection."

Delgado-Polanco, who resigned in April, did not respond to a message seeking comment but has defended her decisions and said she did what most new CEOs do when taking over an organization. Investigators disagreed.

"It is unusual, however, to see so many positions filled by individuals connected to the CEO. The employees connected to Ms. Delgado Polanco far exceed the 'team' she assembled and extend through all levels – from Chief of Staff to Facilities Assistants," the report said.

The Murphy administration did not release the list of the people who were fired Tuesday, but an official said 27 of the 30 people who were let go had been hired by Delgado-Polanco.

Editorial:Clean up the SDA, and strengthen its core mission

A separate legal investigation, brought on by a complaint made by former employees, "failed to turn up any hard or compelling evidence" that other leaders of the authority tampered with personnel files, a criminal act. One of the vice presidents accused of being part of the alleged tampering, Jane F. Kelly, is suing a former employee over the allegation.

Five former employees are also suing the administration after they were fired last year, adding to the legal complications the agency faces since former chief of staff Al Alvarez resigned amid questions about a sexual assault allegation.

The investigations of employee hiring paint a damning portrait of the agency under Delgado-Polanco's leadership. It had such an "unhealthy focus" on securing billions of dollars in new funding for the authority that it served as a justification for the "questionable decisions that were made," the Carmagnola & Ritardi lawyers said.

But even though the authority was out of money for new projects and its debt already costs taxpayers $1 billion a year, the impact on the budget was "not of significant concern" to the leaders of the SDA, the lawyers said. Hiring new staff and giving promotions and merit increases raised the authority's salary budget by more than $2 million, they said.

And what were viewed as "patronage or patronage-type hires" ultimately had a negative impact on the authority and the working environment there, the lawyers said.

Both reports are rife with examples of what would widely be considered patronage.

Riya Arora, a close friend of Delgado-Polanco's daughter since high school, sent her résumé to Delgado-Polanco's personal email last September. She was hired in October and put in different departments "despite no relevant experience" but, the lawyers said, "was given a higher salary and title than most people in her departments."

Then there was Humberto Maravi, who had worked on Murphy's campaign. He was hired as a field compliance inspector, a technical job that ensures milestones are met at job sites. But about a week after he started working, his supervisor learned that Maravi could not read blueprints and was unable to fill the role.

That could have been avoided had the authority followed its hiring protocol, the lawyers said, but Maravi was brought on "despite a lack of qualifications and without consultation with his supervisors, seemingly because of a political and/or personal connection."

The hiring of Cory LeDet may be the strongest case for political patronage. His wife, Kellie, is a friend and political ally of Delgado-Polanco's and is a top official in the Education Department, the lawyers said. And even though he worked as an automotive shop steward for 20 years, Cory LeDet was hired as a deputy director at a salary of $105,000.

"We did not view Mr. LeDet as being qualified for the position he was hired for, and had the position been offered to internal candidates there likely would have been individuals who applied that were more qualified than he was," the report said.

One executive who was not qualified was hired by Delgado-Polanco. Pam Luster, who worked at the Communications Workers of America union, was hired as a vice president, and a new division was created for her to oversee. But the lawyers said she "was not qualified for the position that she was hired for and other individuals should have been considered for the position prior to a hiring decision being made."

In several instances, Delgado-Polanco received employee résumés directly, at her work or personal email address, according to the authority's internal audit. And, it said, she solicited one of those résumés as early as Jan. 30, 2018 — two weeks after Murphy was sworn in as governor and eight months before Delgado-Polanco would take over the agency.

Murphy has faced criticism for his handling of the authority, but he said in a statement that the investigations were done in a "fair and appropriate manner" through the hiring of a law firm.

"The findings of these three reports will help guide SDA leadership in recommitting to the organization’s core mission: providing underprivileged students with safe, high-quality learning environments," Murphy said in the statement, adding that the board chairman, Rob Nixon, and interim CEO, Manny Da Silva, "have my full and unwavering support to make any management decisions they deem necessary based on the findings of these reports.”