NJ mayor charged with using town hall to run corrupt business

🔴 Attorney general says Mayor Sal Bonaccorso used township resources to run his business

🔴 Bonaccorso falsified documents to get around permits, state says

🔴 State also called for police chief and sergeant to be fired

UPDATE: The mayor responds to allegations

CLARK — The longtime mayor of this Union County township is facing corruption charges after state prosecutors accused him of using municipal resources to run his landscaping business.

Mayor Salvatore "Sal" Bonaccorso, who has been in office since 2001, ran Bonaccorso & Son out of his office, using township resources to store and maintain records including computers and fax machines, Attorney General Matt Platkin said Monday.

According to the criminal complaint, the Republican leader fraudulently used an engineer’s name and license number, as well as forged the engineer’s signature on permits for the removal of tanks. This allowed work to proceed without supervision from the engineer or any legally required tank inspectors to be present at job sites.

False documents

The mayor's company was able to remove hundreds of underground storage tanks with the false paperwork submitted to nearly two dozen municipalities, according to the complaint.

Platkin said that neither Bonaccorso nor his company had the necessary licenses for underground-storage-tank-removal required to do such work.

“Any elected leader who abuses his power and position and misuses public property and public employees for his own benefit, at taxpayers’ expense, betrays the public’s trust,” Platkin said in a statement.

“In this instance, the complaint charges that the defendant also abused the trust of officials in other towns, allegedly submitting fraudulent documents with forged signatures to enrich his company while circumventing New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection regulations.”

During the investigation, Platkin said that Bonaccorso advised a witness who was being questioned to provide false information.

Bonaccorso's attorney, Michael Robertson,  told New Jersey 101.5 he had no comment on the allegations.

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