Arnold Webster pleaded guilty to illegally paying himself $20,000 in school district funds after becoming mayor. Serving as mayor from 1994 to 1997, he faced a potential sentence of 16 months in prison and $250,000 in fines. In August, he was sentenced to six months of house arrest and ordered to repay over $20,000 in salary from the school board.
Before his mayoral election in 1994, Arnold Webster was the Superintendent of Schools in Camden for nearly a decade. While some credited him with avoiding a state takeover of Camden’s schools, this period is now seen as disastrous for Camden’s children and the city as a whole. Throughout the 80’s and 90’s, the city’s school board and school system were riddled with corruption and charges of nepotism, with at least one high-ranking school official convicted of crimes in office. The state finally stepped in to oversee Camden’s school system in 2003.
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Arnold W. Webster
Arnold Webster pleaded guilty to illegally paying himself $20,000 in school district funds after becoming mayor. Serving as mayor from 1994 to 1997, he faced a potential sentence of 16 months in prison and $250,000 in fines. In August, he was sentenced to six months of house arrest and ordered to repay over $20,000 in…
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Aaron A. Thompson
AARON A. THOMPSON served one term as Mayor of Camden, from 1990 to 1993. He replaced Melvin “Randy” Primas. Upon election as Mayor, Aaron Thompson made a good faith effort to stand up for the people of the city against the influence of political power broker George Norcross. When the next election came around, he…
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Camden’s Mayors
1828 – 2024 Mayor Term Political Party Samuel Lanning 1828-1830 Gideon V. Stivers 1830-1838 Elias Kaighn 1838-1840 Lorenzo F. Fisler 1840-1844 John K. Cowperthwaite 1844-1845 Richard W. Howell (Declined) Charles Kaighn 1845-1846 Thomas B. Wood 1846-1848 Benjamin A. Hammell 1848-1849 Charles Sexton 1849-1851 Lorenzo F. Fisler 1851-1852 Charles D. Hineline 1852-1853 Lorenzo F. Fisler 1853-1855…
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Webster, Ex-mayor of Camden, Dies at 73
Camden Courier-Post – August 8, 2004 By ERIK SCHWARTZ Arnold W. Webster, 73, a former Camden mayor and schools superintendent who fashioned a long career in education and city politics, died Wednesday. Webster left public life in disgrace after pleading guilty to taking $20,833 from the school district when he left the superintendent’s post for…
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Officials Pocket Cash As Sewer Crumbles
Camden Courier-Post – October 22, 2000 By CLINT RILEY The brick sewer main running beneath Howard Archie’s street is crumbling. Archie, a 42-year-old forklift operator, worries the 1880s-era brick row-home in which he has lived his entire life might collapse with the street. He points to sinking slate curbs, front steps separating from homes and…
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Thompson endorsed by firefighters
By KEVIN RIORDAN, Courier-Post Staff Camden Courier-Post – May 4, 1993 CAMDEN – A fraternal organization of city firefighters has endorsed Mayor Aaron Thompson’s bid for re-election. “The mayor has moved the city forward,” Frank McGuckin, president of Local 5 of the Fireman’s Mutual Benevolent Association, said during a City Hall press conference Monday. He…
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