TRENTON - When Tiffany Williams Brewer formally applied for the full-time job leading New Jersey's top independent government watchdog agency, she didn't list a New Jersey address on her resume and curriculum vitae.

Instead, she included near the top of the resume, just under her name, an address in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Williams Brewer's resumes, obtained by the Asbury Park Press through a records request, were signs that her out-of-state residence was easily available to the three other commissioners responsible for filling the position, potentially disqualifying her.

Under New Jersey law, state employees are required to live in New Jersey or get a waiver from the state Department of Labor and Workforce Development − a waiver, records showed, Williams Brewer never received or applied for in the months leading up to her appointment.

Williams Brewer resigned from her $210,000-a-year job as chief executive officer at the State Commission of Investigation in January, days after the Press reported that she signed documents stating her principal residence was in Maryland, voted in New Jersey and had been teaching full time at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Since the Press report, the state Office of Attorney General has served the SCI with a subpoena seeking documents related to Williams Brewer's hiring.

The resumes shed more light on how much the three commissioners responsible for hiring for the position at the time knew − or could have known − before tabbing her. The documents belie official responses both from her and the agency to questions about her residency.

The Press received two resumes from its records request. The first, from before her time on the commission, listed an address in Randolph, N.J., along with her contact information. When she applied for the full-time director job two-and a-half years later, she replaced the Randolph address with one in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

Her second resume also listed her appointment as an assistant professor at the Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C., including four different courses she taught and her service as faculty advisor to the Howard Law Journal and Howard Law Gospel Choir.

Assistant professors are full-time, tenure track teaching roles, a Howard University spokesperson said. Williams Brewer was scheduled to teach two law school classes and two undergraduate political science classes in the spring 2025 semester, according to an official course schedule and an unofficial schedule posted on Coursicle, a schedule planning app for students.

In a statement announcing her resignation , Williams Brewer maintained that she'd been transparent about her living situation, saying: "My dual residency in Maryland and New Jersey has always been transparent and in full compliance with all relevant regulations. It has never interfered with my duties at the SCI or constituted an ethical lapse."

At the time, an SCI spokeswoman, meanwhile, said Williams Brewer "did and continues to reside in New Jersey as her primary state of residence."

Formed in the late 1960s to combat the influence of the mob in government, SCI is a unique agency built to have checks and balances. It is led by four commissioners − two appointed by the governor, one by the Senate president, and one by the Assembly speaker − who are evenly divided by political party.

Williams Brewer joined the agency in 2022, when Gov. Phil Murphy appointed her as chair of the commission. But when Chadd Lackey, the executive director who led the agency's daily operations, died suddenly last July in a car accident, Williams Brewer quietly took on the role as interim director.

She was appointed the SCI's full-time executive director and CEO on Jan. 6. But she resigned four days later, after the Press reported on her out-of-state residency and second job.

Williams Brewer also voted in-person in Monmouth County during the 2024 presidential election, and experts said she might have violated both election law and state residency rules. Monmouth County election officials removed Williams Brewer from the county voter rolls and referred the discrepancies to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office after the Press report.

What remains unclear is whether the three other SCI commissioners − John Lacey, Robert Burzichelli and Kevin Reina − took issue or inquired about Williams Brewer's Maryland home or residency status before hiring her for the job. (Murphy replaced Williams Brewer on the commission by naming Lacey as chair and appointing Joseph E. Kelly III).

Lacey, Burzichelli and Reina failed to return calls for comment.

Sen. Declan O'Scanlon, R-Monmouth, who called for Williams Brewer's resignation and sent a letter to SCI seeking more information about the hiring process, said he spoke to Lacey on the phone for about half-an-hour and described the chair as forthcoming.

Lacey told him that the agency was under pressure in the aftermath of Lackey's death to fill the position quickly, so it turned to Williams Brewer, who was familiar with the investigations under way, O'Scanlon said.

"At this point, I know they are working internally to make sure that nothing like this happens again," O'Scanlon said. "As part of the vetting process, certainly they should have been made aware, so they need to reform their vetting process."

Michael L. Diamond is a business reporter at the Asbury Park Press. He has been writing about the New Jersey economy and health care industry since 1999. He can be reached at [email protected] o r (732) 693-3804.