Does UCIA Owe "PILOT" Money?

Among the 99 comments posted so far on a Star-Ledger article about Charlotte DeFilippo, one alleges that the authority she heads has dodged paying money owed on the downtown Park-Madison building:

"The Union County Improvement Authority, under her direction, screwed the City of Plainfield in a big downtown development deal. They never completed all of the requirements in the developer agreement nor what was required by the Planning Board. The City is too scared of her to get this resolved. Until these things are finished the UCIA IS NOT paying the $200,000+ due annually to Plainfield for the payment in lieu of tax. Umm since 2006 - till now =$1,400,000 through 2012! Any other developer would have been in court and had their project closed down."

 Besides being executive director of the Union County Improvement Authority, DeFilippo is also the formidable chairman of the Union County Democratic Party. If in fact a "payment in lieu of taxes" agreement is not being honored, will any local Democrats dare ask why?

DeFilippo last month decreed that incumbent Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs would not get the party line in the 2013 June primary, echoing a similar last-minute dumping in 2005 of the two-term  incumbent's predecessor, the late Mayor Albert T. McWilliams. Blogger Dan Damon,writing about the recent opening of 2013 Democratic Party headquarters across from the Park-Madison building, suggested this: "You may want to speak to Assemblyman Green about getting UCIA approval for use of the parking deck by the public during the primary campaign season." In other words, Green, also the Plainfield Democratic Party chairman, should ask his county political superior for this favor. DeFilippo is probably too astute to fall for that particular okey-doke, i.e., giving access to a public building for political purposes, but even the suggestion confirms who has the power.

In the early days of the Robinson-Briggs administration, the UCIA was entrusted with responsibility for major economic development in Plainfield. But questions lingered over the Park-Madison site, which was occupied despite failure to fulfill numerous conditions imposed by the Planning Board. In addition, although the governing body was promised full review and approval of other UCIA projects, some faded into oblivion without any public accounting. See Plaintalker posts here and here. 

DeFilippo flipped off Local Finance Board Chairman Tom Neff's concerns about her role as "election year nonsense." Neff is a Republican appointee and Gov. Chris Christie is running for re-election, so that dart was an easy one for DeFilippo to throw in her role as county Democratic Party chairman. But given her seemingly absolute power over local politics, would she also skewer anyone in her own party who dared to raise embarrassing questions about the UCIA? The last audit report for the city contained the repeat recommendation "That efforts be made to collect delinquent Payment in Lieu of Taxes (PILOT) receivables." If UCIA is indeed among the delinquent payers, will the city make that effort?

--Bernice