A New Jersey health care union honcho steered $1.4 million in legal fees to her longtime boyfriend without disclosing the relationship, according to court papers.
The accusation recently surfaced in a bitter Garden State federal court battle involving the state’s nurses union.
Five members of the AFL-CIO’s Health Professionals and Allied Employees group claim president Ann Twomey has since 2006 “awarded virtually all of the union’s legal work to her live-in boyfriend,” attorney Richard Loccke.
The no-bid contracts directly benefit Twomey, who has been dating Loccke for 30 years and resides in his spacious Rutherford, NJ, home, the suit says.
The Department of Labor requires Twomey to disclose the potential conflict of interest, according to court papers filed on March 31.
Members Judith Freemantle, Anne Picogna, Adrian Rojas, Linda Hegarty and Kathleen Fonti are suing Twomey and other union officials over alleged mismanagement of their retirement fund.
Rojas, 46, a pharmacist at Palisades Medical Center and a union member since 1991, said “in today’s economy, every nickel and dime has to be accounted for. It all comes down to accountability and transparency.”
The members claim the union only paid out $28,000 in benefits last year, but spent $210,000 on administrative costs, according to court papers.
But the union’s policy director, Jeanne Otersen, said the suit is retribution by one of the plaintiffs, Fonti, a former union officer who pleaded guilty in 2009 to using union funds for personal use.
“HPAE believes that the lawsuit is entirely without merit,” Otersen said.
“All of HPAE’s legal expenditures are approved by the union’s executive committee,” Otersen said.
Union attorney Sam Lieberman added, “It is our position that Ms. Twomey and Mr. Loccke’s personal relationship does not constitute a conflict of interest.”