In this week’s episode of How New Jersey Works, we learn that the chairman of the Casino Reinvestment Development Authority (CRDA) will be inducted into the Rutgers Athletics Hall of Fame. It’s long overdue recognition for Robert Mulcahy, who was asked to resign as Rutgers’ athletics director in 2008 (his words). His firing came three weeks after an independent committee criticized Mulcahy for lax oversight and poor financial management. Fast-forward almost a decade and Mulcahy is toiling at the helm of the development authority for an under-appreciative (and disenfranchised) Atlantic City and slogging two hours to and from North Jersey for monthly meetings that he only recently started to be compensated for. And Rutgers is now in the Big Ten (even if it’s “a lousy deal”), so it’s about time someone remembered Mulcahy’s career at the university for something more than overspending and hiring Greg Schiano (who was on the books of Mulcahy’s son’s company). The octogenarian until now has had to be content with no memento of his time at Rutgers beyond a measly monthly pension of $13,533.21 (more than some CRDA employees who collect trash and needles from the Tourism District earn in a year). He told the CRDA board meeting yesterday he was happy to have the recognition, even it was a long time coming.
Oddly enough, one of the people who praised Mulcahy for his work at Rutgers (after contributing to the report that criticized him) was George Zoffinger, former director of the NJ Sports and Exposition Authority (NJSEA) and friend of AC DevCo’s Chris Paladino. Zoffinger is also on the board of Paladino’s New Brunswick DevCo. Mulcahy, also a former NJSEA boss, was nominated chairman of CRDA by Gov. Chris Christie in 2011. (How New Jersey Works is brought to you by a small cast of aging white males who frequently pass through Atlantic City collecting money when they pass Go, rarely stopping to spend any time outside the Tourism District).
In other news, CRDA yesterday approved a 2018 budget that will reduce its spending.