A former manager for a nonprofit that oversaw Newark, New Jersey’s water supply was sentenced to eight years in prison for taking kickbacks uncovered by U.S. prosecutors investigating the bankrupt entity’s activities, Bloomberg News reported yesterday. Donald Bernard Sr. was a consultant and manager of special projects at the Newark Watershed Conservation and Development Corp. He admitted last year in federal court that he took $956,948 for himself and his boss in exchange for helping award work to contractors. He was sentenced yesterday in federal court in Newark. Bernard and Linda Watkins Brashear, the former executive director who also pleaded guilty, solicited payments from contractors. A 2015 report by the state comptroller’s office said that from 2008 to 2011, the commission "recklessly and improperly spent millions of dollars of public funds with little or no oversight” by its board or the city. The nonprofit, which got almost $10 million a year to manage the city’s 35,000-acre watershed, reservoirs and water-treatment plant, filed for bankruptcy in January 2015.
