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: State probes Watley's dealings in Jersey City 
: Council backed aid for ex-commerce secretary's church 

: Wednesday, August 24, 2005
: BY JEFF WHELAN

: State investigators issued a subpoena at City Hall in Jersey City earlier this month seeking a wide range of records regarding an affordable housing project proposed by the church of the Rev. William Watley, the former state commerce secretary. 

: John Hagerty, spokesman for the Division of Criminal Justice, said the action was part of the "ongoing investigation involving the Commerce Commission," which Watley led before stepping down last summer amid questions about conflicts of interest and spending at the agency. 

: . . .

: Investigators are now turning their attention to $870,000 in grants and a free plot of land the city council in Jersey City approved last year for St. James A.M.E. Church in Newark, of which Watley is the senior pastor. The subpoena sought all documents related to the deal, including any correspondence from Watley or Devereaux. 

: The proposed housing project never got off the ground, and city officials say St. James never received the money. 

: Last year, The Star-Ledger reported that some city council members felt that lobbying for the project by Watley and Devereaux -- state officials at the time -- raised conflict of interest questions. Days before one vote, Watley wrote a $300 personal check to L. Harvey Smith, then the council president, who promptly returned the check and voted no, saying he found Watley's timing "strange." 

: When Smith later became mayor following the death of Mayor Glenn Cunningham, he changed his vote, saying the city needed the housing. Smith said yesterday that he had been contacted by state investigators last year and that he told them everything about his encounters with Watley, but he had not heard back from them since. 

: "They asked me what I knew about it," he said. "That was the last time I heard from them." 
: . . .

: For the complete article, please see the Link.


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