Credit Card Records Show Former Newark Mayor on Far-Flung Trips
Dr. Kardasz -
Read the following report and consider:
1. Which typology of unethical behavior was exhibited by the accused?
2. Which decision making process might have prevented the accused from making the wrong decision?
Typologies of unethical behavior - http://kardasz.org/CorruptionTypologies.html
Decision making processes - http://kardasz.org/Decision_Making_Tools.html
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Credit Card Records Show Former Newark Mayor on Far-Flung Trips
08-23-06, AP
Newark, New Jersey - Former Newark Mayor Sharpe James used a credit card issued by the city police department to rack up tens of thousands of dollars in charges at taxpayers' expense, according to a published report.
Among the $80,000 expenses was a more than $6,500 tab for a five-day trip to Rio de Janeiro during the final week of James' 20-year tenure as mayor of New Jersey's largest city, according to credit card records reported in The Sunday Star-Ledger of Newark.
The charges, for a card paid for with Newark police department funds, came on top of more than $70,000 in expenses on a previously disclosed card billed to City Hall.
James told the newspaper that he went on the June trip, which included a stay in a luxury hotel and dining in fine restaurants, to follow up on a 2004 visit in which he lectured on "affirmative action, sanitation, housing and poor people."
"I went to the consul general and met with him to discuss these issues. I wanted to see if my (earlier) visit paid off, and I found it did pay off," James said. When asked about the two bodyguards he took with him, James said, "Brazil is a hot spot for crime - everybody knows that."
The $80,000 in charges over two and a half years were for a Platinum Plus Visa card issued to "Sharpe James Newark Mayor Sec Pol Bus" and paid for with Newark police funds, according to records. The mayor's use of the card had not been previously disclosed.
The Star-Ledger in 2005 had made a public records request for James' expenses, and then received information on another Visa card billed to City Hall. On that card, there were charges for more than $70,000 from 2002 through 2004.
Newark Mayor Cory Booker said Friday that he had only recently learned himself of James' police department account. He said he had directed his staff to conduct a review of it. "Our investigation thus far appears to reveal an egregious and unacceptable use of public funds, especially in light of our urgent community needs, current fiscal crisis and common values," Booker said.
James said he needed two credit cards, instead of one, to cover his expenses because, "Sometimes the city doesn't pay properly." "If one account gets rejected, they use the other card," he said.
Credit card records on the police department account covered November 2003 through June 2006, but the records also said that James had had the card for a total eight years. The card also paid for multiple trips to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Florida, Martha's Vineyard, North Carolina and Atlantic City. Every trip in which the taxpayers paid the bill was city-related, according to James, who said he reimbursed the city when expenses weren't for city business.
An official with the Center for Public Integrity in Washington, D.C., described James' expenses as "audacious." "It probably doesn't get any more clear-cut than using a public credit card ... and taking yourself to nice events _ not even fancy dinners in town, but resorts in exotic locales," said Leah Rush, director of state projects at the center.
James said traveling for Newark was a good thing."As the last of the civil rights mayors in America, I had to travel and sell this city and the world about the Newark success story," he said.
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