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The New York Times
Charged in Scandal,
Passaic Mayor Rallies
His Supporters, and
Himself
By ANDREW JACOBS,
nytimes.com on the Web, September 16, 2007
PASSAIC, N.J., Sept. 14 —
Samuel Rivera, the mayor of this rough-hewn river town, has never shied away
from a good brawl.
In his younger days as a fireplug-size professional wrestler, he regularly
vanquished opponents who towered over him. In the late 1960s, when he was
a narcotics detective here, he eagerly tussled with drug-dealing thugs and
emerged from one such encounter with a bullet in his shoulder.
“Sammy is as tough as they come,” said Steve Ontell, a retired police officer
who was Mr. Rivera’s patrol partner three decades ago.
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Sylwia Kapuscinski for The New York Times
Wearing
the message “He returns again and again,” Pedro Ruiz, 18, showed
loyalty to Mayor Samuel Rivera of Passaic at a Council meeting last
week |
But when he woke up the morning of
Sept. 6 to federal agents pounding on his door, Mr. Rivera found himself in the
ring with a formidable opponent: Christopher J. Christie, the United
States attorney who has yet to lose a fight with the dozens of ethically
challenged elected officials he has taken on since he was sworn in more than
five years ago.
Mr. Rivera was one of 12 public officials and municipal employees across New
Jersey who were arrested in a sprawling bribery scandal that included an
assemblyman from Paterson, an assemblyman from Orange who is also its mayor, a
quintet of school board members from the town of Pleasantville and two other
Passaic officials who are longtime allies of Mr. Rivera.
All of those charged are accused of accepting thousands of dollars in cash in
exchange for their muscle behind no-bid roofing and insurance contracts.
Mr. Rivera, 60, who has been mayor since 2001, after spending six years as a
councilman, is accused of accepting $5,000 from a cooperating witness who
represented the insurance brokerage in question.
During exchanges in a parked car and at a local diner, Mr. Rivera assured the
witness he could make the Passaic City Council and the Passaic Valley Water
Commission direct business his way.
“We can get you that easy, easy,” Mr. Rivera is reported to have bragged,
according to court papers.
In the days that followed the parade of handcuffed defendants with bowed heads,
some of the officials, including the assemblymen, have resigned or been forced
out of their jobs. Those still collecting paychecks have at least stayed
out of public view.
Not Mr. Rivera, who came to work last week filled with defiance. “I’m not
going down,” he said from his City Hall desk, suggesting that the F.B.I.’s
recorded evidence had been doctored. “I’m going to beat this.”
Many Passaic residents feel the same, or at least the 200 or so people who
showed up at a City Council meeting on Wednesday carrying placards and wearing
T-shirts that declared their love for Mr. Rivera, a registered independent who
was born in Puerto Rico and is the city’s first Hispanic mayor.
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Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Samuel
Rivera reading the Bible in his office. "I'm not going down," he
said |
“To us, he’s innocent,” said Ana
Fuentes, 48, a teacher whose shirt read, “Y vuelve y vuelve,” which translates
to “He returns again and again,” a reference to the mayor’s 2009 re-election
bid. “Besides, everyone makes mistakes. He’s done a great job as
mayor. We elected him for a reason.”
The Council hearing that night resembled an episode of “The Jerry Springer
Show,” with a crush of residents streaming up to the lectern to express their
devotion to the mayor as the audience cheered and applauded with glee.
The only speaker to diverge, a former Board of Elections member, Mary Guzman,
was loudly booed when she said, “All of you are here out of fear, because
someone picked up the phone and told you to come. Today I can say I’m
embarrassed by what the mayor has done.”
Willie Cook, 42, came next, crediting Mr. Rivera with giving him a city job
directing a team of street cleaners. “Sammy believed in me when everyone
else was kicking me,” he said. “Because of the mayor, I have a 2008 Chevy
Equinox parked outside.” The crowd went wild.
Nearly everyone who lives and works in this faded former factory town has a
strong opinion about Mr. Rivera. Friends and foes agree that he can be
heavy-handed and gruff, but that he tends to get things done — his way, of
course.
He is widely credited with cleaning up Passaic’s trash-strewn streets and
graffiti-stained buildings, and he has added 50 police officers to the
200-member force, a move that increased the city’s budget but also may have
contributed to a steady drop in crime. Passaic has gained nearly 9,000
residents in the last decade, according to census figures, a contrast to the
population loss experienced by many of the state’s distressed urban areas.
He has also managed to ease tensions between Passaic’s Hispanics, who make up
two-thirds of the city’s 68,000 residents, and the small but growing population
of Orthodox Jews, who hold three of the Council’s seven seats.
(Passaic’s other indicted elected official, Marcellus Jackson, is the Council’s
only black member; the other three seats are occupied by Hispanics.)
“This city was really going downhill, and Sammy has made things better,” said
Rosa Ortiz, the owner of a local beauty salon who is also president of the
United Puerto Rico Council, an advocacy organization. “What he does in his
personal life has nothing to do with his job as mayor.”
Mr. Rivera’s private life tends to spark a lot of interest here. A father
of eight, he has been cited by a judge for failing to provide child support.
The local press recently reported on his fourth marriage, just as he was facing
the accusation that he bit a previous wife during a domestic dispute. He
has denied the accusation.
Two of his children are Passaic police officers, and last year he was criticized
for giving one of his daughters a job in the Police Department, even though she
lacked a high school diploma. (She resigned after the county prosecutor
looked into the matter.)
Then there is a murky episode, nearly three decades old, in which Mr. Rivera
slashed himself in an attempt to cover up the murder of a drug suspect by his
partner while he was working as a police officer in Puerto Rico. Mr.
Rivera pleaded guilty to failing to report a crime, a felony, a fact that nearly
derailed his mayoral inauguration in 2001. (The judge hearing a challenge
to his victory ruled in his favor.)
Marge Semler, a former mayor, said Mr. Rivera controlled every aspect of the
life in Passaic, from the Board of Education to the Water and Sewer Authority.
Since her retirement from City Hall in 2001, Ms. Semler, 84, has become one of
the mayor’s most persistent critics; her reward, she claims, was having her car
tires slashed after she spoke out against Mr. Rivera during a Council hearing.
“Passaic is a world unto itself, and with Rivera in charge, it’s run by fear and
intimidation,” said Ms. Semler, who won office after her predecessor ended up in
jail on corruption charges.
Sitting in his office on Thursday, his expression laced with worry, the mayor
seemed far from intimidating. As he sat at his desk with his Bible open to
the Book of Samuel in front of him, Mr. Rivera’s once-booming voice was thin,
the boasting and defiance largely confined to his achievements as mayor.
He said he was relieved that many residents still supported him, but also
expressed disappointment that some Jewish leaders, the Council president most
prominently, had not rallied by his side.
“What I have learned is that when you have something to give, you have all kind
of friends around you,” said Mr. Rivera, the son of a farmer whose Spanish
accent is still thick. “But when you slip, they push you, so you fall
faster.”
Gary Schar, the Council president, who is often mentioned as a future mayoral
candidate, said the bribery case was “a tremendous surprise and shock.”
“To work so closely with someone and develop trust,” he said, “and you believe
that trust is mutual, it kind of throws water on those feelings.”
Even if he beats the charges — he faces up to 20 years if convicted — Mr. Rivera
says he is not sure whether he will run for a third term. After suffering
what he said was a series of small strokes in recent months, he said he was not
as strong as he once was, although he did succeed in losing 85 pounds.
“I’m going to fight until the last,” he said flatly.
As he spoke, he glanced up at walls thick with honorary plaques, official
citations and a large Israeli flag. Behind him was a paper shredder, and
to his right, a video monitor that allowed him to see anyone entering the
waiting area to the mayor’s office.
When asked about a biblical verse, its words framed behind glass, Mr. Rivera
seemed to perk up. “For the just man falleth seven times and riseth up
again,” it read. “But the wicked shall fall into mischief.”
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