Crime & Safety

Engineer Pleads Guilty in Schools' Contract Scandal

Kenneth Disko admits to orchestrating bid-rigging in Westfield, Scotch Plains-Fanwood schools projects. Charges against Westfield's suspended business administrator are still pending.

The construction engineer arrested in March for allegedly arranging thousands of dollars in kickbacks, rigged bids and fraudulently inflated costs on contracts he recommended to local school districts over a nine-year period pleaded guilty Wednesday to a second-degree offense of making false representations for a government contract, according to a press release distributed by the State Attorney General's Office.

Kenneth Disko, 48, of Mountainside, entered a guilty plea before Union County Superior Court Judge Joseph P. Donahue. Disko admitted to orchestrating bid-rigging and kickback schemes as the contracted engineer or engineer/architect on record for the Scotch Plains-Fanwood, Westfield and Tinton Falls school districts. 

Charges are pending the suspended business administrator of the Westfield School District and the three contractors who were charged along with Disko in March. 

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Under the plea agreement, the state will recommend that Disko be sentenced to three to five years in state prison, and that he be ordered to pay a penalty of at least $50,000 into the state's Anti-Trust Revolving Fund for anti-trust enforcement efforts, the press release states. Disko will be barred from public contracts in New Jersey for 10 years, and he must fully cooperate in the ongoing investigation and prosecution by the Division of Criminal Justice Corruption Bureau. 

"School districts and taxpayers can't afford to pay more for goods and services because corrupt officials such as this defendant inflate contracts and build in kickbacks for their personal enrichment," Attorney General Paula Dow said in the press release. "We will continue to root out public corruption through this type of investigation and prosecution." 

Find out what's happening in Scotch Plains-Fanwoodwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Judge Donahue scheduled sentencing for Jan. 20. 

Westfield Schools Superintendent Margaret Dolan said she had "no comment" because, "as indicated in the press release from the Attorney General’s office, litigation is ongoing.”

Officials at the Scotch Plains-Fanwood and Tinton Falls school districts could not be reached by press time. 

The state's investigation revealed that Disko prepared fraudulent quotes and estimates in connection with school district contracts, and directed contractors to inflate quotes and estimates. He admitted to the court that he submitted those quotes and estimates to the three school districts, and recommended that the districts approve the bid contracts in exchange for thousands of dollars in kickbacks from the contractors. 

The three contractors charged in March with making false contract payment claims – a second degree offense – are:

  • John Sangiuliano, 57, of Scotch Plains and the co-owner of Metropolitan Metal Window Company
  • Martin W. Starr, of Cliffwood Beach, and the owner of Starr Contracting
  • Stephen M. Gallagher, 50, of Cliffwood Beach, the owner of East Commercial Construction and Tara Construction.

In addition, Westfield Business Administrator and Board Secretary Robert A. Berman, 55, of South Plainfield faces a charge of second-degree bribery for allegedly accepting more than $13,000-worth of window glass and doors installed at his home by Metropolitan from 2004 to 2008, in exchange for making written recommendations that the Westfield Board of Education appoint Metropolitan as the district's "contractor of record." The Westfield School District suspended Berman shortly after the charges were field. 

Sanguiliano, Starr, Gallagher and Berman could each face up to 10 years in state prison and a criminal fine of up to $150,000.


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