Head of state watchdog agency quits amid residency flap after just 5 days
Tiffany Williams Brewer, the CEO of the State Commission of Investigation, announced her resignation Friday just five days after being appointed to the position, after a media report raised questions about her residency.
Williams Brewer, named CEO on Monday, had helmed the commission in an acting capacity since July, when its previous CEO, Chadd Lackey, died in a Hamilton car accident. But Williams Brewer said the controversy about her residency — first reported Thursday by the Asbury Park Press — had become a distraction that threatened to undermine the agency’s crime-fighting mission.
“While I remain dedicated to public service, the recent events, including the revelation of employee-driven mischaracterizations of my actions to the media, have created a toxic climate that dissuades me from continuing in this role. I am disappointed that this environment, which undermines the integrity of the SCI, has necessitated my resignation,” she said in a statement issued Friday.
Asbury Park Press reporters discovered Williams Brewer listed two principal residences, in New Jersey and Maryland, where she bought a home in March. They also found she has two full-time jobs — her commission job and a full-time position at Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she’s scheduled to teach three days each week, according to the report.
New Jersey law, though, requires public employees’ primary residence to be in the state within a year of their public employment.
The report spurred calls for her resignation from some lawmakers.
In her statement, Williams Brewer insisted she had not breached the state’s residency requirement.
“My dual residency in Maryland and New Jersey has always been transparent and in full compliance with all relevant regulations. It has never interfered with my duties at the SCI or constituted an ethical lapse,” she said. “Let me be clear — my residency status has never run afoul of the NJ First Act.”
The commission’s three members, Robert J. Burzichelli, Kevin R. Reina, and John P. Lacey, issued a statement Friday praising her “compassionate leadership” after Lackey’s death created “one of the most challenging times in SCI’s history.”
“While we did not choose or request her resignation, we respect her decision and remain deeply grateful for her extraordinary contributions to the SCI and the public we serve,” they said.
Williams Brewer made $175,000 in the job, with a raise effective Jan. 1 that boosted her annual salary to $210,000, said Sen. Declan O’Scanlon (R-Monmouth), who was among those calling for Williams Brewer to step down.
Lawmakers created the State Commission of Investigation in 1968 to combat mob influence in government, though its investigations in recent decades have covered a range of topics including the flow of illegal firearms, abuses in the used car industry, and public procurement, among numerous others. She testified last month in Trenton to urge lawmakers to tighten oversight of sober-living homes.
Before ascending to the commission’s top post, Williams Brewer was the commission’s chair. She was previously an administrative law judge and a faculty member at Rutgers, Kean, and Seton Hall universities.
Some celebrated her departure.
“I applaud all cooler heads for prevailing. This is an unfortunate situation, but it worked out exactly the way it needed to,” O’Scanlon said.