Hamilton Township School District has started advertising for the Assistant Business Administrator position, a new post created in the wake of the Bencivengo scandal on the board.

The board created the new position at a meeting Thursday night.

Current Business Administrator Joe Tramontana was placed on administrative leave after testimony in the federal corruption trial of former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo. Marliese Ljuba, the prosecution’s key witness, said she gave Tramontana and his wife gifts, trips meals and tickets while she was the health insurance broker for the school district.

Bencivengo was found guilty of federal corruption charges in November. He was accused of taking $12,400 in bribes in exchange for influencing members of the school board on Ljuba’s contract.

Over the course of the past several months the board has also raised questions about the conduct of the business administrator during meetings. Since his suspension Board members questioned why Tramontana signed off on a unilateral purchase by the district's food services subcontractor for new kitchen equipment.

In addition, they raised concerns over whether Tramontana sat on a request to expand the distrcit's annual audit that the Audit Committee put forward.

At the time, the district's auditor, Bob Morrison, said had he known about the accusations against Tramontana, he would have submitted his proposal to the board or Parla instead.

Superintendent James Parla said the position will not act as a redundancy for the business administrator but will supplement their work.

You can see the advertisement here.