Ex-Clark Mayor Sentenced For Abusing Town Resources, Barred For Life From Public Office

CLARK, NJ — Ex-Clark Mayor Salvatore Bonaccorso was sentenced on Friday for using Township employees for his private oil tank removal business and submitting fraudulent applications to various municipalities to unlawfully obtain permits for the tank removals.

Bonaccorso, 64, of Clark, was sentenced to three years of probation and fined $15,000, which was consistent with the terms of a plea agreement Bonaccorso reached with the State, announced Attorney General Matthew J. Platkin and the Office of Public Integrity and Accountability (OPIA).

"The former mayor misused taxpayer-funded resources in Clark to benefit and enrich himself at residents’ expense," said Platkin. "This successful prosecution by OPIA’s Corruption Bureau ensures he will be unable to ever again abuse his authority. We will continue to hold accountable anyone who abuses the public trust no matter how powerful they may be."

The former mayor previously pleaded guilty on Jan. 10 to a two-count accusation charging him with conspiring to commit official misconduct (third-degree) and forgery (fourth-degree).

As part of his agreement with OPIA to plead guilty, Bonaccorso immediately forfeited his office as mayor of Clark and agreed to be permanently barred from holding any future public office or employment.

Bonaccorso as well as his landscaping and underground storage tank company, Bonaccorso & Son LLC, also agreed to a five-year ban on bidding for public contracts, entering into any public contracts, or conducting business with the State or its political subdivisions.

Additionally, they are barred for three years from conducting, or contracting to conduct, any storage tank removals for any private commercial or residential property owners.

"Today's sentence comes after former mayor Bonaccorso pleaded guilty to two serious crimes related to his abuse of office," said Drew Skinner, Executive Director of OPIA. "The career prosecutors in our office are committed to ensuring justice is done and that no one is above the law."

Bonaccorso was charged by the OPIA on Nov. 20, 2023, after an investigation by the Corruption Bureau found that, while acting as Mayor, Bonaccorso operated his oil tank removal business out of his township office using municipal resources.

The complaint claims Bonaccorso stored and maintained the records for the business at the mayor’s office, using township equipment including computers and fax machines, and directing or using township employees to perform duties while those employees were working for and being paid by the township, solely for the purpose of running his business.

OPIA also found that Bonaccorso and his landscaping and underground storage tank company, Bonaccorso & Son, fraudulently used an engineer’s name, license number, as well as, in many cases, forging the engineer’s signature on permit applications submitted to municipalities for tank removals — knowing the engineer was neither supervising nor in any way involved in those projects, and without any legally required tank inspections actually taking place at the job sites.

Neither Bonaccorso nor his company have the necessary underground-storage-tank-removal license required to do such work, said Platkin.

It was found that Bonaccorso misrepresented to municipalities that the engineer was the on-site supervisor of the removal work, as required by New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) regulations, for all of the tank removals done by Bonaccorso & Son, said Platkin.

The investigation also found that Bonaccorso arranged to have the engineer get a storage-tank license and insurance, and Bonaccorso directly paid to maintain both. The value of the removal jobs associated with the fraudulent permits submitted by Bonaccorso between 2017 and 2023 amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars, said Platkin.

This isn't the first time Bonaccorso landed in hot water. In 2022, Gov. Phil Murphy called for Bonaccorso's resignation due to a released recording of him using "racist and sexist" language. Read More: Gov. Murphy 'Disturbed' By Clark Mayor Scandal, Calls For Resignation

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