Star Ledger: A campaign donation is powerful medicine. It’s a bit hard to follow how deep the rabbit hole really goes, but Joan essentially calls out the appointment of Antonio Ciccone as the city’s first referral doctor as political back scratching in return for a $10K contribution during Booker’s campaign. This would appear to be in direct violation of the city’s Pay to Play ethics reform, which Booker himself introduced last November, and of which Joan expressed immediate skepticism.
Is there an ethics violation here? If Ciccone got the job because of his contribution, it would appear to have been in direct conflict with this law. If the appointment was made early enough in the Booker term (i.e. before November), it wasn’t illegal, just very sketchy.
Newark budgets about $8 million a year for worker comp. Instead of paying premiums to an insurance company, Newark pays the bills for injuries on the job. Yet, under the old administration, claims were seldom challenged. Every claim was paid in some years. Did anyone ever lie or defraud the city? Do ya think?
Newark has hired a firm, Cannon Cochran Management Services Inc. of Illinois, to manage the program. The firm’s contract de pends on performance: It gets a cut of what it saves the city. Kemp said that in two months claims were down 20 percent and the firm had saved the city $131,000. Great.
That’s when I asked about the campaign donations.
Kemp and Aney Chandy, head of the city’s Law Department, suggested I concentrate on the story about improved worker compensation, not innuendoes about campaign donations.
No innuendoes here. Donations are a matter of public record: Oprah Winfrey, a friend of a friend of Booker, gave $20,800; actor Ben Affleck gave $10,000; most of the legal firms with big city contracts donated; Cannon Cochran Management Services gave $350, and Ciccone gave $10,000.
Kemp said Cannon Cochran is creating a managed care network for Newark. Employees will eventually be sent to doctors who agree to provide services for negotiated fees instead of charging each time someone walks through the door. Ciccone is providing services in the interim through Cannon Cochran. Kemp said that he believes the city sent Cannon Cochran a list of possible doctors and that Ciccone, who had been a police doctor, was probably on it.
Someone sent me a memo, issued by Kemp’s office back in February. It said anyone being treated by UIC would get a phone call to schedule an appointment with Ciccone. Get to the nearest hospital for emergency care, then go see Ciccone, the memo continued. For non-emergency treatment, fill out the appropriate forms, send one copy to the Law Department, one copy to—guess who.