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Gov. Chris Christie's office pushed out the top investigator of the state Ethics Commission during an open investigation into a member of the governor's staff, former officials at the ethics agency say. Christie is shown in February giving a speech before the Legislature.

(Tony Kurdzuk/The Star-Ledger)

TRENTON — At first it was only about a bunch of stray cats.

A complaint filed with the State Ethics Commission alleged that a member of Gov. Chris Christie’s staff used her state email account to influence her county health department to handle some feral felines on her property in Bordentown. A minor matter, it seemed.

By the time it was over, the executive director of the ethics commission was out of a job at the request of the governor’s office, replaced by one of Christie’s own lawyers, who was later given a judgeship by the governor.

Now, three former commission officials, breaking four years of silence, are accusing the governor’s office of unprecedented interference with an agency set up to be free of political influence. Christie, they say, pushed the agency commissioners to replace the executive director — at a time when she was investigating a member of his own staff — thus crossing a line no other governor had before.

"These moves strike at the heart of the State Ethics Commission in the public’s eye, undermining its independence and integrity," said former Republican state Sen. Bill Schluter, the commission’s onetime vice chairman, adding that to his knowledge it marked the first time a governor had asked for the commission’s top investigator to be removed, or suggested his own candidate lead the agency.

Founded 41 years ago, the ethics commission is a unique Trenton entity with broad powers to police conflicts of interest and official misconduct in all corners of New Jersey’s state government, issuing subpoenas, holding hearings and slapping the worst offenders with tens of thousands of dollars in fines.

"This is the one government agency that the people of New Jersey must rely on to keep its public officials honest," Schluter said.

For its part, the Christie administration called the charges without merit and denied any interference with the commission.

"We expect all members of the State Ethics Commission and its executive director to carry out their duties independently, objectively and without regard to outside influence," said Michael Drewniak, a spokesman for the governor.

THE COMPLAINT

The story began in November 2010, when, according to records obtained by The Star-Ledger, the ethics commission received a complaint that a member of the governor’s staff had used her position to influence an official with the Burlington County Health Department regarding feral cats.

While the complaint is not public, a one-page letter the commission provided at the newspaper’s request shows that Barbara Panebianco, an executive assistant who worked for Bill Stepien and Bridget Anne Kelly — two former top aides to Christie — was investigated for possibly violating New Jersey’s conflicts of interest law.

New Jersey law says no state employee "should use or attempt to use his official position to secure unwarranted privileges or advantages for himself or others." It also says state employees should not take actions that could be perceived as a conflict of interest.

Christie fired Kelly and cut ties with Stepien in January after documents surfaced tying them to the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Schluter, and two others who have served on the commission, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, give the following account of how the complaint was handled:

When the ethics commission received it in November, the executive director of the agency, Kathleen Wiechnik, opened an inquiry and notified one of the governor’s lawyers as a routine courtesy.

Shortly after the notice from Wiechnik, Peter Tober, the ethics lawyer in Christie’s own office, operating separately from the commission, asked Wiechnik to name the citizen who filed the complaint. She refused because the citizen — fearing retaliation — had asked to remain anonymous.

Days passed and then Tober asked Wiechnik to turn over the complaint to the governor’s office for an in-house investigation. Wiechnik again refused.

By Christmas, Wiechnik was told she would be removed as director.

Andrew Berns, the chairman of the ethics commission, summoned Wiechnik to a meeting in Trenton and told her she had to step down. Schluter said Berns explained the move to him by saying "the governor wants his own person."

Wiechnik, a career public servant and registered Democrat who had been an investigator at the ethics commission since 2005 and executive director since 2007, decided to retire.

The new director was Tober.

In response to questions from the newspaper, Berns, who was appointed by Christie as the commission’s chairman in October 2010, said the investigation of Panebianco had nothing to do with removing Wiechnik.

"This investigation played no role in the decision to replace Kathy Wiechnik, and Schluter’s apparent suggestion to you that it did is blatantly inaccurate and disingenuous," Berns said. "I had no knowledge that Kathy Wiechnik was investigating Barbara Panebianco until sometime after the investigation was concluded and the matter was presented to the commission."

He said his decision to replace Wiechnik predated December 2010, and that he made it before the Panebianco complaint was filed in November.

Tober, who had served as a senior lawyer for Republican Gov. Christie Whitman and later as a commissioner of the independent Election Law Enforcement Commission, was named to replace Wiechnik in January 2011. Schluter was the lone dissenting vote on making him the new executive director, according to the minutes of that meeting. The other six members voted to approve him.

SEVEN MEMBERS

The commission is made up of seven members, including a chairman and vice chairman. Terms are staggered, and as they expire the governor has the right to renew their terms or appoint replacements. Three spots are reserved for members of the governor's administration and four spots for members of the public. At the time Wiechnik was removed, three Christie administration officials were serving: Richard Constable, Marc Larkins and Lee Solomon. Berns, one of the public members, brought the number of Christie appointees to four.

Wiechnik served as the chief investigator charged with bringing cases to be voted up or down by the seven commissioners. The executive director acts much like a prosecutor and is always a staffer not a commission member.

Asked whether he ever faced pressure to go easy on Christie’s staff or cabinet officials, Berns said, "Never," and dismissed accusations that the ethics commission was not independent.

"The governor’s office has never communicated with me about the day-to-day operations or internal hiring or firing decisions apart from recommending consideration of the two most recent executive directors," he said.

He added that Tober recused himself from the subsequent feral-cats inquiry, and called him "fair, knowledgeable, impartial and efficient."

"He effectively and efficiently moved matters that had been lingering at the commission for years and proved to be consistently available and responsive to all who sought assistance from him," Berns said.

SPEAKING OUT

Now, as state and federal investigations zero in on the Republican governor and his inner circle, several officials who led the commission for years are highlighting the story of Wiechnik’s ouster. They said the watchdog agency was compromised by the dismissal of Wiechnik, the subsequent appointment of Christie loyalists, and by the chairman’s own breach of the state ethics law. Looking back, they say, it was also a precursor of power abuses to come.

"The public trust is badly shaken by these allegations that the watchdog agency obliged to zealously police the executive branch has become a pawn of that branch," said Paula A. Franzese, a law professor at Seton Hall University who helped toughen New Jersey’s ethics laws in 2005 and chaired the ethics commission for years. She called on state lawmakers to reform the watchdog agency and lessen the governor’s control over it.

"The commission must be reconstituted so that it is composed entirely of members of the public rather than members of the governor’s office or governor’s inner circle. Until then, the public cannot have assurances that the law will be applied and enforced fairly and impartially," said Franzese. Christie declined to reappoint her as chair of the agency in 2010.

Bill Schluter is the former vice chairman of the State Ethics Commission.

Schluter, known in Trenton as an ethics reformer who wrote the laws establishing New Jersey’s first lobbying restrictions, said he mounted a one-man resistance when he first heard Wiechnik was being replaced. He said he lobbied Christie’s chief of staff and other commissioners to keep her in place — to no avail.

Wiechnik, who worked three decades in the state government with stints in the Corrections Department and the State Parole Board before she became an ethics investigator in 2005, would not comment specifically on the complaint that led to her ouster. But she was clear about her stance on outside interference with the agency she ran.

"It was a privilege to serve as the executive director of the state ethics commission," she said. "While in that position, I would not allow the governor’s office or any other political entity to influence an ethics investigation."

The ethics commission typically handles more than 100 cases a year, most of them involving mid-level state employees. Investigators look at whether officials are making hires based on nepotism or steering public contracts to relatives or friends, whether they’re running a private side-business during government work hours or using their titles to intimidate people into giving them special treatment, getting improper gifts from state contractors, and other conflicts of interest.

CONFLICT ALLEGED

Since the bridge scandal erupted in early January, Wiechnik and other former staff members of the commission have filed a series of ethics complaints against officials in positions of real power — including one against Berns on Feb. 28. They alleged that Berns, a Republican lawyer in Denville, had a conflict of interest by chairing the ethics agency and serving on Rutgers University’s board of trustees at the same time.

"The conflicts of interest law begins with a very compelling legislative mandate — that public officials should hold the respect and confidence of the people, and avoid conduct which violates the public trust or even the appearance of a violation of the public trust," Wiechnik said. "I joined in the filing of the complaint because I believed the chairman to be violating the very law that he is required, by virtue of his public office, to enforce."

Wiechnik and others also filed complaints against Kelly and three former Christie associates at the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which manages the George Washington Bridge: Bill Baroni, David Samson and David Wildstein. All three have resigned.

State law says the chairman of the ethics commission cannot hold any other post in state government, but Christie nominated Berns to the Rutgers board in late 2011, and he was confirmed by the state Senate in January 2012. He resigned as a Rutgers trustee after the ethics commission received the complaint against him.

"I was unaware of the statutory prohibition against my concurrent service until it was brought to my attention in late February 2014, at which time I promptly resigned from my position on the (Rutgers) board," he said, adding that he recused himself from all matters pertaining to the university while he held both positions.

The ethics commission last month dismissed the complaint against Berns, citing his "prompt resignation."

Franzese said she was nominated to the same Rutgers board but was asked to withdraw from consideration for that position before then-Gov. Jon Corzine appointed her chairman of the ethics commission.

She said Berns’ ignorance of the state ethics law was not acceptable.

"For the governor’s office, the commission’s executive director and its chair to not realize, for two full years, that the dual office-holding was a clear conflict of interest and violation of the law reflects either a lack of knowledge of the law or a disregard of its mandate," she said. The decision to dismiss Berns’ complaint, she added, gave the appearance of favoritism because rank-and-file state workers usually face fines for similar offenses.

Schluter said he decided to speak publicly about Wiechnik’s removal because — just as the George Washington Bridge scandal was beginning to unfold this year, placing Christie’s administration under an ethical cloud — the governor’s office pushed to get another insider approved as executive director of the watchdog agency. Susana E. Guerrero, an associate counsel in Christie’s office from his inauguration to 2012, who later became one of the governor’s assistant education commissioners, was voted in as the new executive director in January.

"For years, not much information surfaced regarding this matter. But now, one is able to connect the dots," Schluter said. "And the conclusion appears to be that the governor’s office has been successful in installing two loyalists as executive director of this watchdog agency. It is time for me to speak out. I hope my words will help to reinvigorate the State Ethics Commission with the high level of integrity which the public expects of this agency."

Drewniak said there is nothing stopping the governor from recommending candidates to lead independent agencies, and he said Tober and Guerrero were both fair-minded and highly qualified for the top job.

"While recommendations can be made by the governor, the appointment authority of the executive director rests exclusively with the ethics commission," Drewniak said. "The selection is independently considered and voted on by the bipartisan membership of the commission — or it doesn’t happen."

COMPLAINT DISMISSED

In 2011, after Tober took over the agency and Wiechnik was gone, its commissioners found that Panebianco did use her state email account on personal matters. But they dismissed the complaint, finding that she did not use it "to obtain any unwarranted benefit or advantage" and did not create the appearance of a conflict of interest.

"The Commission cautions you, however, that in the future you must refrain from using State resources, including your State e-mail account, for personal matters," Panebianco was told in a letter from the commission dated Sept. 21, 2011, the day after the agency dismissed her complaint.

Drewniak said Panebianco has been working in the governor’s office since the time of Whitman in the 1990s.

Meanwhile, the governor this year nominated Tober to the state Superior Court and he was confirmed by the state Senate.

"Mr. Tober received unanimous, bipartisan support for a Superior Court judgeship by both the Senate Judiciary Committee and full Senate on the same day," said Drewniak. "Something your readers should also know."

Tober declined to comment for this story.

Last year, Christie declined to reappoint Schluter to the ethics commission.

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