On Friday morning in Newark court, Judge Stephen Petrillo ruled against Montclair’s attorneys in the whistleblower suit against it, saying they had “no legal basis” for wanting a host of items in town CFO Padmaja Rao’s suit to be kept secret from the public.
“I can’t imagine that anyone anywhere … other than the CIA or maybe the NSA, has this need for secrecy, but for … a town … that is being accused of awful conduct, it is inconceivable,” Petrillo said. “It should make a person shudder when a municipal government has this need for secrecy.”
On the issue of “walling” Rao off in her job from duties similar to those she performed in incidents described in her suit, Petrillo also dismissed the town attorneys’ arguments. The only exception was to exclude her from accessing the billing records of Riker Danzig, the firm defending the town and former manager Tim Stafford in the lawsuit.
Excluding Rao from doing her job “makes no sense,” Petrillo said. “They want to keep secret much of what it is the plaintiff has to say, and then they want to keep secret much of what it is they don’t want the plaintiff to be able to do anymore.
“Kafka would be proud.”
Local:Judge in Montclair whistleblower suit: 'We have some ride ahead of us'
Petrillo said it was also “contrary to good sense” to wall Rao off from her responsibilities given her record as CFO. When she began working for the town in June 2015, the town’s bond rating was AA3, but was upgraded to AA2 in December of...
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