TRENTON — Assembly Speaker Vincent Prieto, a code inspector who holds three public jobs, has begun consulting for private clients , including a Camden County-based firm whose owner is a major donor to South Jersey Democrats, The Star-Ledger has learned.
Prieto (D-Hudson) declined to say what kind of consulting work he’s doing, other than to confirm that one of his clients is All Risk Property Damage Experts, a disaster recovery firm that employs state Sen. James Beach (D-Camden).
Prieto, a 53-year-old Secaucus resident, is the code official for his hometown, as well as the construction official in nearby Guttenberg. Those two jobs, combined with his $65,000 salary as speaker, earn him well over $200,000 a year.
After the Star-Ledger inquired, Prieto said he began consulting in the private sector this year, but he declined to name any of his other clients.
Prieto said his consulting work is “based on a lifetime of education, experience and expertise in the building inspection industry.”
“I will of course disclose all the relevant information as required in upcoming financial disclosure reports, all while continuing to properly balance my public service with my private business,” he said. Prieto’s financial disclosure form for 2014 is due next May.
Prieto — who was a plumber before becoming a code official — said he began consulting for All Risk this year, but declined to say how much he’s been paid, or to detail his work there other than part of it is “work development.”
“I consult for other plumbers and companies… So I don’t particularly work for them. It’s just consulting,” Prieto said. “I have not one client, I have multiple clients.”
All Risk says on its website that it provides “24/7 emergency response, restoration and mold remediation services to companies of all sizes in the tri-state area.” The firm works for private companies and lists no government contracts on a disclosure website operated by the state Election Law Enforcement Commission. And though it’s based in Somerdale in Camden County, the firm has done some work in Prieto’s backyard. According to a 2013 Philadelphia Inquirer article, All Risk set up generator power to 23 Hoboken residential complexes in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy.
Prieto became speaker as part of a power sharing arrangement between South Jersey power broker George Norcross and state Sen. Nicholas Sacco (D-Hudson), among others. And All Risk’s owner, Frank Messina, has supported Norcross’s preferred candidates through political donations.
Messina, his wife, daughter and the company itself have made nearly $85,000 in state and local political donations or loans to political organizations since 2000, the vast majority of them to South Jersey Democrats – especially those in Camden County.
The donations included more than $10,000 to state Sen. Donald Norcross (D-Camden), a candidate for the U.S. House and the brother of George Norcross; and $13,000 to Assembly Majority Leader Lou Greenwald (D-Camden)– the Assembly’s second-in-command.
Beach, a Norcross-aligned Democratic lawmaker, has worked for the company since at least 2008, earning more than $50,000 a year – the maximum amount shown on lawmakers’ state-mandated financial disclosure forms.
Beach, who lists his job on his legislative website as a “property damage specialist” for All Risk previously worked as a teacher, educational administrator, high school football coach, freeholder and county clerk from Camden County. He holds a master’s degree in personnel services from Rowan University.
Beach did not respond to a phone call seeking comment.
Messina did not respond to a phone call to his office seeking comment about Prieto’s or Beach’s work for his company.
Daniel Fee, a spokesman for Norcross, said that Norcross knows Messina but “they have no relationship.”
Bill Schluter, a former Republican state senator and former vice chairman of the New Jersey ethics commission, said Prieto’s arrangement with All Risk and its owner’s donations to Norcross-backed candidates “raises red flags.”
“It raises the question of what is Prieto going to do if Norcross comes to him and says we want this particular government policy to be enacted or this bill to pass,” Schluter said. “Is Prieto going to say no to Norcross?”
Prieto disputed the notion that consulting for the firm could make him susceptible to political pressure.
‘I am and always have been my own man, and that includes my recent consulting work,” he said.
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