By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — Councilman-elect Dave Boyne is calling for the resignation of Business Administrator Joy Tozzi because a witness in Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo’s bribery trial has testified she gave Ms. Tozzi cash, meals, clothes and a paid vacation while Ms. Tozzi was a Hamilton school board member.
Ms. Tozzi, a Hamilton resident who became the permanent township business administrator in April, has not been charged with any crime. Ms. Tozzi is taking “accrued (paid) personal time” from work and has not been suspended from her job as another newspaper has reported, both Mayor Dave Fried and Council President Ron Witt said Sunday. Ms. Tozzi did not return a message left on her cell phone.
Mr. Boyne, who was elected to the council Nov. 6 and will be sworn in Nov. 29, called for Ms. Tozzi to step down Sunday.
”Based upon the information I read in the newspapers about the allegations made during the Bencivengo trial, I believe Joy Tozzi should resign or they should release her,” Mr. Boyne said.
Mr. Boyne was reacting to reports in the Trenton Times and Trentonian last week about prosecution witness Marilese Ljuba’s testimony in Mr. Bencivengo’s corruption trial, which implicated other public officials who have not been charged. The jury convicted Mr. Bencivengo on Tuesday in a case that was based largely on Ms. Ljuba’s testimony.
Ms. Ljuba, the former insurance broker for the Hamilton school district who said she received more than $500,000 a year in commissions there, testified she gave Mr. Bencivengo $12,400 in 2011 to use his political influence with the school board to make sure her company remained the district’s insurance broker. Mr. Bencivengo’s attorney told the jury the money was a loan from a friend, not a bribe.
According to both newspapers’ accounts, Ms. Ljuba also testified under oath that she gave money and gifts to other Hamilton public officials as well, including Ms. Tozzi. She testified she gave Ms. Tozzi gifts, including money for clothes, meals, a minivan and an all expenses paid trip to Disney World for her family.
Ms. Ljuba also claimed to have used Ms. Tozzi to funnel thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to various Hamilton candidates, the newspapers said.
Ms. Ljuba also testified she helped Ms. Tozzi obtain a government job in Robbinsville in 2008. According to the Trenton Times, Ms. Ljuba testified she wanted to be sure her employer at the time, Allen & Associates, remained the health benefits insurance broker for Robbinsville.
Allen & Associates had handled the public employee health benefits account for Robbinsville from 2007 until April 2012. Mayor Fried terminated the contract with Allen & Associates shortly after the federal criminal complaint was filed, alleging the insurance broker’s bribery scheme in Hamilton.
Ms. Ljuba had been the “broker of record” for Robbinsville, Township Attorney Mark Roselli told The Messenger-Press last April, but he said the town dealt with other employees at Allen & Associates as well.
The Robbinsville School District also had used Allen & Associates as its health benefits broker until November 2010, school district officials have said.
Ms. Tozzi earns $85,000 year as Robbinsville’s business administrator. Prior to her promotion in April, she had been acting business administrator for three months and the assistant business administrator since 2009. Ms. Tozzi came to Robbinsville in 2008 as a constituent relation specialist earning $42,000 a year.
Mayor Fried declined to comment on Mr. Boyne’s call for Ms. Tozzi’s resignation, saying Mr. Boyne was entitled to his opinion, but the mayor also noted the government witness in the Bencivengo trial had not accused Ms. Tozzi of any wrongdoing as Robbinsville business administrator.
”All of the allegations revolve around alleged events prior to her coming to work for Robbinsville,” Mayor Fried said.
He said he was not able to comment further on “personnel matters.”
Council President Witt said Sunday that Ms. Tozzi has been a “tremendous business administrator” for Robbinsville, adding, “I have never seen any indication of impropriety on her part.”
Ms. Ljuba, the government’s key witness, was granted immunity from prosecution. Ms. Ljuba testified last week that the deal she made with prosecutors also allows her to keep all money she received as the Hamilton school district’s insurance broker, according to the published accounts of both Trenton newspapers covering the trial.

