CAMDEN, N.J. (AP) – From the moment the FBI confronted him with evidence he took $14,000 in bribes to help steer contracts to cronies, Atlantic City Councilman Ramon Rosario sang like a bird.

Before he had even hired a lawyer, he admitted what he had done, started implicating others involved in the scheme, and even wore a wire to secretly record conversations for the government.

On Wednesday, Rosario, who resigned last summer, was rewarded with a prison sentence less than a third of what he could have received. The grocery store owner and Latino community leader was sentenced to five months in federal prison, followed by five months of home detention. He could have gotten 30 months.

“He went so far as to make consensual recordings that played a significant role in the government’s effort to prosecute and stop corruption in Atlantic City,” said Federal prosecutor Judith Germano.

Thomas Eichler, another Federal prosecutor U.S. Attorney, said Rosario did not record conversations with former council president Craig Callaway, who earlier this year began a 40-month prison term for corruption. Eichler said Rosario implicated people who have not yet been charged, “but that will be resolved very soon.”

Rosario admitted last fall that he took $14,000 worth of bribes between August 2004 and August 2005.

He said he did it so that area contractor Terry Jacobs, 43, would be named general contractor or construction manager at a development site. Jacobs is due to be sentenced Wednesday afternoon on a drug charge for possessing a brick of cocaine that weighed between 5 and 15 kilograms.

At his sentencing, Rosario apologized to the voters and his family.

“I went into politics to make a difference,” he said. “Somewhere along the line I lost my way and made a mistake. I have betrayed the trust of the citizens of Atlantic City, I have betrayed the trust of my family and friends by making this shameful decision.”

So far, a third of last year’s nine-member council has pleaded guilty to corruption. And another council member was charged last week with helping carry out a sex blackmail videotaping of a fellow councilman.

Also on Wednesday, former councilmen Gibb R. Jones, 80, was sentenced to five years probation. The judge noted his age, ill health – having had two heart surgeries since 2004 – and cooperation he gave the government investigating corruption in Atlantic City.

Jones admitted taking more than $5,000 in 2003 from Atlantic City businessman and political operative Edward J. DiNicolantonio so that his nephew could land Atlantic City’s $780,000 risk-management contract.