The New Jersey Civil Service Commission is asking the administration of mayor Jose “Joey” Torres to provide Lydia Robles’ college transcript in order to determine whether she possesses the basic education requirement for the auditor position which she filled last October.
In a letter dated February 9th, 2015, the commission requested the city provide Robles’ “minimum qualification requirements for the title” which would include 21 semester hour credits of accounting that is called for in the civil service auditor title.
The letter specifically demanded the city provide Robles’ transcript before the commission approves a provisional appointment.
Business administrator Nellie Pou last week said she has provided the commission with Robles’ transcript. Pou would not say whether Robles’ transcript lists 21 credits of accounting. When asked if she continues to believe Robles is qualified for the post Pou responded in the affirmative.
“I’m still of the same opinion that she is still qualified and very capable,” said Pou on Tuesday evening.
Robles was hired as an auditor on October 27th, 2014 at a salary of $45,000, according to city payroll records. She secured a city job during last year’s mayoral election by dropping out of the race to endorse Torres.
During that time, Robles told reporters she was stay-at-home mother, a statement she would late recant. Her resume lists five work experiences running from 1999 to 2014. A majority of her work history overlaps: she lists working as an “internal audit” at Newark-based Arc Renovations from 2005 to 2014.
Robles lists working as a billing supervisor at Englewood Cliffs-based Sylvan Paper Corporation from 2005-2008. Did she simultaneously work at both companies in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008?
Her city employment application provides an answer of some sort; at the Newark-based firm she worked as a “seasonal” employee on an “as needed” basis.
However, Arc Renovations, in which she claims to have been working as a seasonal internal auditor from 2005 to 2014, is wholly missing in a resume she submitted to the Paterson Hispanic Council few years earlier that goes up to 2012.
In fact, it states she worked as a “community activist” – no company or organization listed – from 2007; then, she worked as a “community liaison” from 2012 – no company or organization listed.
One area in which both resumes conform is her education. Robles attended Passaic County Community College for three years, after which she obtained an associate degree in psychology; she then went on to Montclair State University from which a year later, in 2006, she secured a bachelor’s degree in psychology.
Neither degrees have much to do with accounting. When the Paterson Times asked the business administrator if she checked Robles’ transcript before hiring, Pou said she took the prospective employee’s word for it.