Inspector general trains her sights on waste, fraud
By LILO H. STAINTON
GANNETT STATE BUREAU, Asbury Park Press, January 21, 2005

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TRENTON -- Acting Gov. Codey has tapped an attorney with 26 years of experience investigating waste and corruption to serve as New Jersey's first inspector general, an office he created last year in his push to reform state government.

Appointed Thursday was Mary Jane R. Cooper, 63, a deputy attorney general for most of the 1980s in the state Division of Criminal Justice who prosecuted insurance fraud, sexual discrimination and construction industry corruption cases.

For the past 16 years, Cooper has investigated fraud, mismanagement and waste in public and private entities for Stier Anderson LLC, a law firm in Montgomery.

"A professional, not a politician," said Codey, praising Cooper's integrity, character and tenacity.

"I will put together a team that will uncover waste, mismanagement and fraud," Cooper said. Her assignment includes not only state government, but also local and county offices and school systems. "I don't know that it's there," she added, "but we must make sure there is no loss" of taxpayer funds.


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Cooper will be paid $141,000 a year to oversee a staff of about 12 with a $3 million annual budget that will be allocated in July. The Treasury Department will cover the inspector's expenses until then, estimated at under $1 million, aides to Codey said.
"First we have to find whatever waste, fraud and mismanagement exists in our own house," Codey said, predicting the audits will eventually save millions in taxpayer funds.

An executive order Codey signed in November made New Jersey the ninth state with an inspector general. He also drafted a team to review the state's ethics laws and rules, signed a law freezing certain campaign contribution limits and banned state contractors from donating to his election accounts.

Codey has also pledged to further curb pay-to-play, the practice of rewarding campaign contributors with no-bid government contracts. Some critics have said Codey's initiatives are not bold enough to truly eliminate government corruption.


GOP brass unimpressed
"I consider this a very modest step," said Senate Minority Leader Leonard Lance, R-Hunterdon. "We have to change the way government works in Trenton."
Several of the Republicans running for governor this year have said Codey's inspector general plan does not go far enough. Mercer County businessman Douglas R. Forrester and Morris County Freeholder John J. Murphy have called for an elected auditor or inspector; Murphy also recommended a staff of over 100 investigators.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Steven Lonegan, the Bogota mayor, blasted Codey's plan, saying it creates another layer of wasteful bureaucracy.

Codey, who is acting governor and Senate president, has not said whether he will campaign for a full four-year term in this November's election. The only Democrat currently in the race is U.S. Sen. Jon S. Corzine, D-N.J.

Codey said the inspector general's office will be able to recommend ways to reform waste and mismanagement -- backed by the Governor's Office -- and will refer charges of corruption to the state attorney general or the U.S. attorney.

"It's an effort to go much deeper into the operation of agencies and find the root causes of corruption and create an environment when corruption is less likely to happen," said Ed Stier, Cooper's current boss at Stier Anderson and a former director of the state Division of Criminal Justice.

Cooper, a resident of Hopewell Township, is a single mother of two. After raising her children, she graduated with honors from law school at Rutgers Camden in 1979. She has an undergraduate degree in education from The College of New Jersey.


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