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By KIM MAIALETTI
Courier-Post Staff
CAMDEN
The city Parking Authority in April used $6,000 in public money to pay for engineering plans that might benefit former executive director Anthony Scarduzio's business partner and personal attorney, municipal court judge Paul Sonstein.
It is at least the second time in just more than a year the authority spent money on projects linked to the private developer, documents obtained by the Courier-Post show.
In another instance, Sonstein bought a downtown parcel, which once was the site of a Rite Aid, after the Parking Authority paid for an appraisal and then abandoned its plans to purchase the property.
Sonstein sold the property six months later for $431, 000 - $101,000 more than what he paid.
Sonstein has been a municipal judge in Cherry Hill since 1997 and was reappointed to a three-year term this year.
He refused to respond to repeated requests for comment. His secretary at his Voorhees law office said Wednesday he would not be available until today.
Sonstein has not been publicly accused of any wrongdoing.
Just days before the state Division of Criminal Justice was set to file corruption charges against the former Parking Authority leader, Scarduzio died of a shotgun blast. The Gloucester County medical examiner ruled the July 9 death a suicide, but the prosecutor's office continues to investigate the shooting and plans to release further details about it this morning.
Meanwhile, as the state's criminal investigation of the Parking Authority proceeds, new details about Scarduzio's dealings within the agency continue to surface.
Specifically, the Parking Authority voted April 2 to pay $6,000 for a subdivision plan for a parcel of land along 5th Street across from the Hall of Justice.
The parcel, which the Camden Redevelopment Agency owns, is part of a larger plot commonly referred to as Block N. The Parking Authority had a two-year option to enter into a redevelopment agreement on the 2.25 acres, but the option expired in December.
On Jan. 19, Sonstein signed an agreement with the redevelopment agency to pay it $70,000 for about half the property, on which he plans to build a three-story office complex with retail space on the ground floor.
According to the agreement, Sonstein was to have the entire 2.25 acres subdivided and surveyed.
That's where Scarduzio and the Parking Authority helped out.
Even though it no longer had any rights to the land, the agency hired Boswell Engineering of South Hackensack to prepare a subdivision map that would later be submitted to the Camden planning board for approval.
The commissioners voted 3-1 to pay for the survey with the idea the authority was going to build a parking deck on the parcel, opposite the land Sonstein wants to develop. The commissioners have said they were unaware the option had expired.
Commissioner William Jenkins cast the dissenting vote.
"I didn't see the necessity of us paying for it," Jenkins said Wednesday. "We don't own any property. Why do we keep paying for all this crap?"
Authority attorney Carlos Morcate said he was unaware of Sonstein's agreement with the redevelopment agency and would have advised the authority not to pay for the full survey had he known all the facts.
"If there are two parties, A and B," Morcate said, "who each have an option, it seems fair each of the parties should pay half the costs. That would have been my legal decision."
"This is public money we're talking about," continued Morcate. "They (the commissioners) were not told the full story."
The city planning board on June 12 approved the subdivision application, which cost the authority $300 to file.
However, it is contingent upon approval from the redevelopment agency, which a month ago began investigating the relationship between Scarduzio and Sonstein and whether Sonstein benefited from his close ties to the Parking Authority's former leader.
"It has been brought to our attention there may have been a relationship between the developer and Mr. Scarduzio," said Martin McKernan Jr., lawyer for the redevelopment agency. "We would want to determine whether public money was used for a private purpose."
McKernan added: "The question of the continued viability of that project is under review."
Mike Bertino, a general contractor who works with Sonstein on development projects, said the Parking Authority's plans to build a deck were dependent on Sonstein constructing the office building.
"The parking garage didn't work without the office building and the office building didn't work without the parking garage," Bertino said. "Tony (Scarduzio) was very cooperative on behalf of the city of Camden to make the the development happen."
When asked about Scarduzio's close ties to Sonstein, Bertino replied: "You can take and pick any two people in Camden and find friendships and close relationships."
Indeed, Scarduzio and Sonstein were close.
Scarduzio's brother, Jack, described them as business partners and "very, very, close friends."
He and others said Sonstein represented Anthony Scarduzio after he was in a car accident last year.
In an interview Thursday, Jack Scarduzio recalled a day two months ago when his brother brought him to the property across from the Hall of Justice.
"He said, `This is my property right here,'" Jack Scarduzio said. "He said `Me and Paul own it.'"
Jack Scarduzio said his brother planned to open a lottery stand and a sandwich shop on the site, where Jack would cook up sausage and peppers and roast pork.
"It was perfect," Jack Scarduzio said.
It is unclear how far back Scarduzio's relationship with Sonstein goes, but the Block N project isn't the only one in which they shared an interest.
In March 2000, Scarduzio convinced the authority commissioners to pay $1,800 for an appraisal on the former Rite Aid property at 5th and Market streets.
He suggested the authority should move its offices closer to the city's center, saying the Rite Aid property would be a suitable site.
According to meeting minutes, Scarduzio told commissioners there had been a previous appraisal done on the property stating a value of $400,000, but that he believed the building could be purchased for much less.
However, the appraisal done for the Parking Authority had estimated the value at $478,000.
Morcate, the authority's attorney, said Scarduzio had been negotiating a purchase price for the parcel, but then dropped the project "like a hot potato."
"All of the sudden he changed his mind. He didn't want to go after it," Morcate said.
Scarduzio had told commissioners the property was too expensive and they should concentrate on other projects, explained Morcate and commissioner Linda Jones.
Jones is a real estate agent who, upon Scarduzio's request, did some preliminary research on the site.
Less than six months after the authority dropped the project, Sonstein and Bertino bought the property for $330, 000, a deed dated Oct. 3 indicates.
On April 9, 2001, they sold the property for $431,000 to Camden Recovery Holdings LLC, a North Jersey-based company.
The company plans to open medical offices there, Bertino said.
Jones wonders whether Sonstein's involvement with the property was just coincidence.
"There is still that space for coincidence," Jones said.
Nonetheless, she acknowledged the commissioners are concerned.
"We all are really shocked with some of the things that are being presented," Jones said. "These things are starting to come out now, and we're like, `Where did that come from?' It makes you look kind of stupid."
Scarduzio resigned as the Parking Authority's executive director June 1 as part of a $130,000 buyout agreement that occurred just before the state notified the agency that Scarduzio was a target of its investigation. Former commissioner Peter McHugh, who voted in favor of doing the Rite Aid building appraisal, called the latest developments "outrageous."
"I don't think it's a coincidence," McHugh said. "I think he deliberately did that appraisal to help Sonstein. You don't just do something like that and say `Aw, forget it.'"