Max Pizarro writing for Politikernj.com today writes that Union County Freeholder Angel Estrada called in a request to Democrat officials that he wants to be considered as a candidate to replace Assemblyman Neil Cohen (D-Roselle).

Let’s consider him:

It is my humble opinion from watching Estrada for several years now that he doesn’t meet the requirements professionally to fill the seat. None of the sitting freeholders have the professional or political savvy to be a Legislator. A Legislator needs to have some skills, being a puppet for a machine is just one of them; Estrada has nothing else to offer.

Angel Estrada, who is the manager of an Elizabeth Motor Vehicle office, helped former Attorney General Zulima Farber’s boyfriend update his delinquent driving status which led to Zulima’s resignation. Estrada skated.

Estrada is quoted in Pizarro’s post today “I very much care about the needs of people, especially poor people in this district”.

This county watcher could swear on a stack of bibles that Estrada did not care about juveniles held in the county detention center, a dead boy or his family who he treated with disrespect during freeholder meetings.

Estrada also doesn’t care about the freedoms protecting citizens under the Constitution of the United States of America. During a 2003 freeholder meeting Estrada had me removed from a meeting for speaking 1 min. and 6 sec over the allotted 5 minutes a citizen is given to address the board. He could be heard laughing with Senator Raymond Lesniak’s nephew while 2 county police officers removed me from the room under his directive. I was speaking about the deplorable conditions at the center and the treatment of the juveniles.

Patricia-Auguste Perkins, another elected official who doesn’t care about the freedoms protecting citizens under the Constitution of the United States of America, is said to also be interested in the vacated seat.

At an April 10, 2001 Elizabeth City council meeting, Councilman Tony Monteiro was removed in handcuffs and subsequently arrested. It has been reported that Monteiro was arguing with then council president Patricia Perkins-Auguste about a proposed spending plan. Perkins-Auguste accused him of being behind anti-budget fliers distributed before the meeting, and Monteiro reportedly interrupted her. She ruled him out of order and ordered him to keep quite. Monteiro refused and Perkins-Auguste ordered officers to arrest him. He was led from council chambers in handcuffs. Monteiro sued the City and Perkins; the case went all the way to the State Supreme Court. Monteiro won and the taxpayers paid upwards of $250,000 in legal fees.

Cecelia Dallis-Ricks, a Roselle councilwoman, is another name mentioned as a possible Cohen replacement. It is noteworthy that Cecelia would come out ahead of loyal long-time foot soldier Roselle Councilman Jamel Holley. I don’t know how Cecelia feels about the U.S. Constitution.

Of course the 20th district is so safe anyone who is on the Democrat party line is automatically elected to office. No democracy needed here.

5. Cut down on paper.
In the U.S., paper is one of the leading sources of greenhouse gas emissions from manufacturing. Recycled paper products generally take far less energy to manufacture, so they’re a very good alternative to products made from virgin wood pulp. The greenest way to go is to reduce the amount of paper waste in your home or workplace.

The messages above come directly from the Union County website, specificly the web pages which talk about the county’s “Go Green Initiative”.

Freeholder Chairman Angel Estrada’s (up for reelection this year) along with Vice Chairman Alexander Mirabella’s mugs are featured in a glossy, color mailer which landed in county residents homes this week. The mailer urges county residents to “Be part of the Solution….be part of Union County’s Go Green Initiative”.

Now, the initiative itself is certainly commendable, but was it really necessary to spend money on a countywide mailer? One has to wonder if the county used recycled paper, as it doesn’t mention this anywhere on the piece which would have been a nice touch. The county itself recommends that we reduce the amount of paper waste in our homes or workplaces so isn’t it a bit hypocritical that they produced a four page mailer when a simple postcard would have done the trick and communicated the message just as effectively. But wait, after they listed the Recycling Hotline (908) 654-9889 or the web pages at www.ucnj.org/RECYCLE or some actual helpful information there wouldn’t have been any room left on a postcard for their pictures or all of the freeholders names with the reminder no less than three times that “We’re Connected to YOU!”.

The mailer was an absolute waste of time and waste of taxpayer monies to prepare and mail but does serve to remind the taxpayers that they should not be fooled and that the Union County Freeholders are really only connected to one thing and that is the taxpayers wallets.

Although an agreement to establish a children’s museum in Union County was entered into with much fanfare in 2003, recently the county very quietly terminated their agreement with the Children’s Museum of Central New Jersey (CMCNJ) after blowing through $377,499.

Of what was to be a $1,00,000 grant the CMCNJ had received an initial payment of $500,000 for seed money to better their fund raising capabilities. They spent $377,499 during the period of August 2003 through March 2007 on efforts to locate the museum in Union County with $181,052 spent to locate the museum at a Liberty Hall Museum site. The balance of the money $196,4456 was spent trying to locate the museum elsewhere in Union County. The CMCNJ has returned the unspent $122,501 of the $500,000 grant money.

The county and the CMCNJ have agreed that the Children’s Museum will return approximately $200,000 under terms and conditions that might as well state “When Pigs Fly”. The $377,499 is gone for good.

Although the county wasn’t recognized for blowing through $377,499 tax dollars, with little to no accountability, the termimation agreement incredulously states that if the CMCNJ “continues as an ongoing entity and should it succeed in locating and operating a children’s museum anywhere else in New Jersey, the CMCNJ has agreed to recognize the Union County Freeholders as a founding donor and to undertake appropriate commemorative and programming recognition for the county’s contribution.”

All the freeholders contributed was the tax payer’s money. Their is no evidence that they, or any employee of the county was overseeing the CMCNJ’s efforts.

An Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request seeking all correspondence, including but not limited to reports, letters and emails for the period of January 2001 to present between the CMCNJ and any member of the Union County freeholder board, county manager, and Open Space Trust Fund administrators was returned NO DOCUMENTS TO PROVIDE.

According to the minutes of the monthly museum trustee meetings, no freeholder, nor the county manager ever attended a meeting. The meeting minutes show a one-time visit from the Open Space Trust Fund Administrator on January 23, 2006. The responsible parties for this $377,499 loss of tax dollars is the county manager George Devanney, his wife the former Open Space Trust Fund Administrator Angie Devanney, current administrator Victoria Drake Durbin and all nine Freeholders especially the ones that were named as trustees to the CMCNJ, namely freeholders Debora Scanlon, Alexander Mirabella, Angel Estrada and Daniel Sullivan.

History:

The county freeholders unanimously passed Resolution #650-03 on June 19, 2003. The reso authorized the county manager, George Devanney, to enter into an agreement with the Children’s Museum of Central NJ (CMCNJ) of Westfield, NJ, to provide grant funding in the amount of $1,000,000, from the Union County Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund. At the time the county manager’s wife, Angie Devanney, was the administrator of the trust fund. This was for preliminary support toward the development of a Children’s Museum. This $1,000,000 was seed money. In 2003, the project was projected to cost $12 million to complete.

Meeting minutes obtained through the OPRA shows the CMCNJ board of trustees met 9 times in 2004; 5 times in 2005 and 1 time in 2006. The minutes show that appeals were made to trustees to contribute to the cause. Excerpt from minutes: Only 9 trustees have made gifts this fiscal year…It is a requirement of the Trusteeship to contribute financially according to one’s ability to do so. If you haven’t contributed yet, please do so before the end of the fiscal year, June 30. It is very bad form to ask others to make contributions when our own Board does not do so…..

In a Worrall Community Newspaper article dated August 7, 2003 then editor Mark Hyrbna quoted Freeholder Mirabella, who was chairman of the trust fund committee, at the time said the county’s contribution will help the organization get started with serious fund-raising. “It’s not a concern because I don’t think they’ve rally started fund-raising,” Mirabella said of the group’s fund-raising to date. “I don’t think they got outta the blocks yet.” This is a group that has a good vision, it knows what it wants to do.”

At the time documents filed with the state, the CMCNJ had raised $17,615, with all but $4,000 in “direct public support,” while spending $11,958.80 for “management and general expenses, leaving a balance of $5,656.10. The CMCNJ was aiming to raise between $10 million and $12 million for the project, with an expected timeline of three to five years before a facility would be in operation.

“They seemed to have some pretty good ideas of where they’re getting money from,” Freeholder Mary Ruotolo, who was chairman of the Open Space Trust Fund Committee in 2002 said. “It’s much easier to fund-raise when you have seed money; then fund-raising becomes a better sell.” “It’s certainly not our intention to pay for the construction of a museum” Ruotolo said.

In a Worrall Community Newspaper article dated May 20, 2004, it was explained that representatives of the children’s museum report to the county on a quarterly basis. They must provide reports of what they spent so the county can see if the m money is being spent in a way that is consistent with the Open Space Trust fund. “If they haven’t totally pent the $250,000 yet, they’re not permitted to come back to us for the next round of funding,” said Open Space Trust Fund Administrator and wife of county manager Angie Devanney.

By early 2007 the CMCNJ exhausted its efforts to find a suitable location for the museum in Union County, event though its board and stakeholders remained committed to locating the museum somewhere in central or northern New Jersey. The CMCNJ notified the freeholders that it would discontinue its efforts to site the museum in Union County and provided the freeholders with an accounting of grant funds.

Design & Feasibility $358,599
Accounting Services $12,650
Legal Services $6,250
Total: $377,499 – not to be reimbursed to taxpayers

$196,466 was spent trying to locate the museum elsewhere in Union County. The CMCNJ has agreed to return the money under conditions that seem to be impossible. But rest assured if they do successfully open a museum our trusty freeholders will be on hand for a photo op. I don’t expect any public comment until the pigs fly.

CMCNJ By Laws

Worrall Article 2003

Worrall Article 2005

Memo of Understanding

CMCNJ Termination of Memo of Understanding

CMCNJ Trustee and Committee names

CMCNJ 2004 Minutes

CMCNJ 2005 Minutes

CMCNJ 2006 Minutes

From: Nicole Dirado [mailto:ntedeschi@ucnj.org]
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 2:09 PM
To: tinarenna@unioncountywatchdog.org
Subject: RE: Open Space

Pursuant to OPRA, kindly submit a request form for the audit report which you have requested below. Thank you.

—–Original Message—–
From: tinarenna@unioncountywatchdog.org [mailto:tinarenna@unioncountywatchdog.org]
Sent: Friday, April 11, 2008 11:49 AM
To: Nicole Dirado
Cc: union@starledger.com; jcasiano@starledger.com; dwalsh@starledger.com; union@njnpublishing.com; editor@goleader.com; press@goleader.com; subnews@njnpublishing.com; letters@thnt.com; ipeditors@njnpublishing.com; cnletter@c-n.com; editorial@thelocalsource.com; Jersey@nytimes.com; letters@thealternativepress.com
Subject: Re: Open Space

Dear Mrs. Dirado,

Please forward this to your freeholder board:

My comments were in response to Freeholder Chairman Angel Estrada’s comments to John Bury who inquired, forgive me for not recalling the exact words “what has the open space trust fund accomplished to date”. This is the second meeting where Mr. Bury asked this question and Freeholder Estrada replied ,if not word for word than it was implied, “I will be happy to get you that information”.

I am requesting Freeholder Estrada hold true to his offer to Mr. Bury. Asking me to now place an official OPRA request in which I now have to fish for this information is disingenuous and business as usual for a one party ruled freeholder board who has proven time and again that it answers to no tax-payer.

I respectfully request that Freeholder Estrada keep his word and not waste any more of my or Mr. Bury’s time. Since this fund has spent millions of tax-dollars, as well as created dozens of new county jobs, there should be some form of audit that accounts for every dollar. As to how much came in, and how much went out, how much debt has been incurred and how Green Acres funds intermingle with the funds expenditures.

I refuse to waste my time on playing these unprofessional if not outright childish games in my quest for how approximately ¼ of county taxpayers property taxes are spent. I am also tired of the outright lies that are told during freeholder closing comments to dispel any questions the public asked during their alloted 5 minutes speaking time. Freeholder Sullivan surely remembers every election where at least one candidate not on the power broker appointed Democrat party line suggests that this fund be put on hiatus as well as the complaints that this fund is being used for brick and mortar projects rather than open space. There has been numerous letters to the editor written about this as well as public comment during freeholder meetings. There has also been numerous editorials written about such things as using this fund to purchase the Arts Center as well as to hire employees is not in keeping with the meaning of the fund.

If there is no documentation to which Freeholder Estrada eluded to than that would be an answer as well. More lies and smoke and mirrors, I’ve come to expect nothing better of this freeholder board and I will not allow them to lie to the public without speaking out.

Sincerely,

Tina Renna
President
Union County Watchdog Association, Inc.
cc: UCWA Member list
——Original Mail——

From: “Nicole Dirado”

To: “Tina Renna” ,

“Opra”

Sent: Fri, 11 Apr 2008 10:04:17 -0400

Subject: Open Space
Mrs. Renna:

As per your comments last night, kindly submit an OPRA request for the

documents you seek relative to the Trust Fund.

The county has proven again that it is awash in disposable tax revenue and disinterested in their constituents needs during this dire budget climate when the Union County Manager had his office drastically renovated during the start of the 2008 budget season recently.

During public comment at the last freeholder meeting I had a good laugh when I asked about Senator Raymond Lesniak’s newly renovated management wing and Freeholder Chairman Angel Estrada responded “I take exception to your use of the word renovation. This was done for security purposes”. I asked if he bothered to walk back there recently.

The county put a 1.3 million dollar atrium addition on the administration building a few years ago, they claimed this was also for security purposes.

Despite the Star-Ledger occupying an office on the 3rd floor of the same building there was only a slight mention of the renovations in the Westfield Leader.

As long as Union County can enjoy operating out of site of the public our county taxes will continue to sky rocket so the politically connected can feed at the trough. What mayor in Union County could escape media scrutiny over these recent events?

On February 13, 2008 employees began clocking in overtime to complete a total renovation of Union County Manager George Devanney’s office. The center point being a new royal entranceway.

On February 14, 2008 Devanney proposed the 2008 county budget with a projected increase of 6.5% that would raise taxes in every municipality but Winfield.

On February 26, 2008 Gov. Corzine proposed the 2008 State budget which drastically reduced municipal aid.

On February 28, 2008 an email shows that a county employee promises the Deputy County Manager that renovations will be completed by Monday morning. The county manger was out of town at the time, he was allegedly in Colorado on a ski trip with county vendor USA Architects. Most likely in celebration of the Arts Center 1st phase renovation completion. USA was given 700,000 in contracts for the Arts Center alone.

Although some bills and costs are obviously missing, an OPRA request for the costs of this renovation revealed:

Materials cost: $7,975.61
Employee overtime labor costs: $2,637.39
Employee regular hours labor costs: ?

Total: $10,613

The documents obtained through OPRA do not show the labor and materials costs of the furniture that was made in the county carpenter shop in late Summer/early Fall and stored on the 6th floor of the county jail. It appears that county management didn’t want Devanney’s new office to become a campaign issue so they waited for Freeholder Adrian Mapp, who fell out of favor with the democrat machine and was running as an independent democrat in the general election, to leave the board before renovations commenced and the furniture was installed.

The documents also didn’t show bills for the couch and chairs in the lounge area. These may have been old and not purchased recently from Devanney’s sister-in-laws furniture company.

Although work hasn’t been completed yet and plans didn’t show up in my OPRA request, I’ve been told that a sink area in the county management wing is also slated to be renovated. This is needed because the present sink is too small to wash dishes. The new sink will eliminate the need to walk a few feet into the freeholders conference room where a full kitchen complete with a dishwasher is at their disposal. By the way, have I reminded you lately that freeholders cater their board meetings to the tune of $250 - $350 per?

The public isn’t barred from walking into the public area where the county manager’s wing is located, so I walked right on in before the start of the last freeholder meeting. The royal nephew scampered away while I took some photos. I didn’t venture into the interior of the office uninvited. That would have been rude.

I thought of making an appointment to see the updates to the interior offices, but what is the point? I doubt I would be shown the secret button that would cause the fully stocked bar to flip out of a wall and the caged go-go girls to drop out of the ceiling as it does in the Springfield Mayor’s office.

Devanney has always reminded me of Mayor “Diamond Joe” Quimby of the Simpsons. Aside from the physical resemblance, Mayor Quimby is known to be an “illiterate tax-cheating, wife-swapping, pot-smoking, spend-o-crat”. In his defense Quimby maintains that he is no longer illiterate.

But seriously, this letter was sent to all Union County Mayors and council members today asking them to help raise awareness of Union County government’s waste, mismanagement and corruption.

You might well be reading an article on the Open Space Trust Fund, or at least glancing past a headline with the words ‘Slush Fund’ punned, had I gotten the freeholders’ perspective. This fund takes money from Union County taxpayers so the freeholders can dole it back to favored municipalities or for pet projects. To get balance for the article I went to a recent freeholder meeting and wanted to know what the board members considered to be the major accomplishments of this fund.

Comment time came and I posed my question succinctly with a good four and a half minutes allocated for their answers. I did not get any. Freeholder Chairman Estrada informed me that this was my time. I could speak for up to five minutes as long as I didn’t curse or insult the freeholders or wasn’t Tina Renna. This seemed pointless to me as I could just as easily have gone outside and chatted with the odd passerby outside the UC Administration building to greater effect.

Was this normal? Are we not supposed to question county government? I had to know so I asked, though not at any county meeting, of course. If they do not answer questions then going up there and saying the words: “do you ask questions?” ran the risk of reenacting a Beckett play without the dialogue and we might all still have been there if they didn’t happen to have a time limit. Instead, I went to 21 county websites and posed the question. Here is how a sampling of counties in New Jersey handle comment time.

Most open their meetings to the public first on only agenda items scheduled for that meeting and then on any topic. Some counties (Mercer, Warren. Burlington and Cumberland) begin their meetings with public comments. This allows the public who usually show up on time to give their input and skip whatever ceremonies or routine matters fill out the program if they wish. Contrast that to a recent Union County meeting I attended where, to discuss personnel matters, the freeholders went into executive session for well over an hour as the press (one guy from the Westfield Leader) and three civilians chatted amongst ourselves waiting for public comment time. What could the freeholders have been thinking? This was the equivalent of putting prisoners together to give them time to plan their next caper.

Of those counties that answered, a majority had a time limit on speakers. Only Cumberland, Warren, and Mercer had no time limit. Most common was 5 minutes but Monmouth and Gloucester indicated it was flexible and in Morris County “rarely enforced.” In Hunterdon the ‘new Director of the Board does not feel there should be a limit” though past Board Directors “have set a limit of 5 minutes per person.” Passaic has “a 3 minute limit that is strictly enforced. Questions may be asked and they are addressed at the end of the public portion. There are no questions from the public and answers from the Freeholder while the person is at the podium.”

Most county websites responding answered that questions were allowed at public meetings and presumably would be answered. Perhaps the 9 counties who did not respond by email, or phone like Bergen did, also do not respond to questions at their meetings. We may never know.

And what about Union County? They answered in their uniquely terse manner: “Questions are allowed, time limit is 5 minutes.”

Maybe Chairman Estrada didn’t get the memo at the time I took to the podium. Maybe they changed their policy after some soul-searching. Maybe whoever responded for the county somehow avoids being a seat-filler at freeholder meetings and only knows what official and not actual policy is. We might never know and I just don’t feel like asking.

New Jersey Policy Perspective released a report in July titled: How Much is Enough? Drawing the Lines on Multiple Public Job Holding in New Jersey. And this being New Jersey, the media didn’t pay any attention to this important work, no wonder that media disenfranchisement is mentioned in the report as a key problem.

I began my watchdog activities with a huge respect for the media. I now find myself bitterly disappointed and can still be shocked by what the Star-Ledger chooses to ignore. Unless it is sensational, the Star-Ledger backs off from exposing power brokers and their machines. When the self proclaimed “Voice of New Jersey” is afraid of the powerbrokers, it makes it that much harder for the local weekly papers to stand up to them. Lesniak, Cryan and the Chairwoman of the Union County Democratic Committee Charlotte DeFilippo, pull the strings of all 9 freeholders in Union County. Freeholders are hired and fired by the powerbrokers and exhibit no individuality. They are elected, but they have no power, they are simply replaced when they don’t please the bosses.

Along with dual office holding, we have found that nepotism is rampant in Union County government. A study which compared elected democrat officials with county employees found that 542 employees, out of nearly 3,000, had the same surnames of elected Democrat officials. We included the elected Democrat municipal committee people in our study; we believe that these positions are central to the party bosses to hold on to their power.

Of course we can not prove that all 542 employees are actually related to the elected officials, but consider that we have no way of knowing how many employees/relatives with different surnames as elected officials, such as in-laws and cousins, are on the payroll!

For instance, our appointed county manager, George Devanney, is the nephew of State Senator Raymond Lesniak. Devanney’s mother in-law is a county employee, her surname is Bowen. Another example is Freeholder Angel Estrada’s son-in-law who is the U.C. tax administrator, Christopher Duryee. He started in 2003 with a salary of $65,000.— 2007 his salary is $98,399. I don’t know of anyone, outside of public employment, who gets $10,000 annual salary increases.

We also have no way of knowing what relatives are working directly for, or are involved with, contractors and vendors. Following an anonymous tip we received, we investigated and found that Freeholder Debra Scanlon’s sister, who goes by her married name, was given a 2-million dollar no bid contract in 2005 which was awarded in a business deal that was not conducted in public view. Scanlon simply left the freeholder dais when the contract was voted on, therefore she did not have to explain herself. There is nothing illegal about this.

Unethical? Forgetaboutit. It isn’t an issue in this state.

The report also analyzes the legal background of an Undersheriff serving in elective office. We have Assemblyman Joe Cryan as an Undersheriff which is considered a full-time position here in Union County. It pays $109,582 and comes with a take home car. Assembly people are required to spend 2 days a week in Trenton, yet along with this Cryan is also the Union Municipal Democrat Chair and the State Chairman of the Democrat party. The hours necessary to complete all these commitments aren’t humanly possible. Yet here in New Jersey it isn’t illegal.

You can see our research into what Union County municipal officials are compensated and what other public jobs they hold HERE.

You can read the NJ Policy Perspective Report HERE. Since you labor so hard all year to pay your property taxes, it would be appropriate to print it out and read it this Labor Day weekend.

SUMMARY
How Much is Enough? Drawing the Lines on Multiple Public Job Holding in New Jersey examines the more than 700 elected state, county, and municipal officials who hold another, non-elected position in the public sector. The report is one of several NJPP research projects funded by a grant from The Schumann Fund for New Jersey. The series of reports will examine key aspects of the state’s political and governmental systems.

Among the report’s findings:600 men and women elected to municipal office have at least one other job on a public payroll besides their elected positions-more than 30 percent are employed in public education either as teachers or administrators; 20 percent work in county government; 14 percent for public authorities.

In the state’s 10 most populous municipalities, just over half of council members have their day jobs in the public sector.

At least 56, or more than 40 percent, of the state’s 137 county freeholders hold at least one other public sector job. Some 23 freeholders hold another elected office.

A dozen men and women in the 40-member State Senate in 2006 held at least one non-elected public job, and 26 of the 80-member State Assembly earn at least part of their living from public sector employment.

When the same people hold multiple elected and non-elected jobs the system suffers from less accountability, fewer checks and balances and less competition. Those who hold these dual offices may skimp on their duties in one of the positions. Their independence may be constrained by the need to keep the favor of the political leaders whose approval is needed to keep not just their elected position but also the job that provides their principal source of income.

The supervisor of an elected official may well be deferential when it comes to attendance and performance.

The checks and balances built into the system by the doctrine of separation of powers can be violated when, for instance, a law enforcement officer serves as a legislator.

An elected official who enjoys the perquisites of a low-show job in a public agency is shielded from competition that could open up the system to competitors.

When a Jersey City school superintendent spends part of the week in Trenton as an Assemblyman it is clear that he is spending less time as superintendent than his $210,520 salary should require.

Clearly New Jersey needs some general rules to be used in guiding the way through the wide range of incompatibilities and conflicts created by combining elected and non-elected positions.

New Jersey has chosen for years to deal with this problem by ignoring it. Such a policy is no longer tolerable. The first step forward is for the public and political leaders to recognize the threat the current system poses to government accountability, performance and perception. The study includes a detailed analysis of the problems created by legislators who are employed as undersheriffs, as 3 have been in recent years.

Now is the time for New Jersey to make combined elected and non-elected job holding the exception rather than the rule. Some states, such as Louisiana, explicitly forbid holding many dual offices that place officials in an unresolveable conflict of obligations. New Jersey should follow that course.

Whether you love, hate or are indifferent to the geese population in Union County one thing is for certain, the county lied about managing the problem. The freeholders dealt with the geese the same way they deal with most every public issue; by not dealing with it much beyond a photo op.

Although geese mate for life and dote after their young, since 2003 the county has been employing a company which swoops in while the geese are molting and can’t fly away, the birds are then picked up at random, leaving other members of their group behind. The geese are then brought to a slaughter house and the meat is distributed to a soup kitchen.

Taxpayers need to be made aware that the approximate cost to slaughter the geese is $336,850 to date. A cost comparison of instilling more humane efforts of goose control as compared to killing the geese is long over due.

The claim made by the freeholders that all alternatives to killing the geese have been exhausted is an outright lie. There was never a comprehensive plan to manage the problem. If there was, then the county can’t prove it. An Open Public Records Act request seeking documentation of what methods were tried and all records that were keep regarding their efforts was returned with a brochure about managing geese populations from the US Department of Agriculture. There were no internal logs, or memos kept by the county as to how the goose problem was dealt with.

The only internal paper trail of the county addressing the geese problem are press releases featuring freeholders that happened to be up for reelection in a particular year. These include a photo of a freeholder with a shovel planting high grass in Rahway Park. There was the motorized toy boat that would zip around the lake and that would be the cure. These releases all claimed that the county had the geese problem well in hand.

A press release regarding the use of boarder collies as a means of goose control dated April 2001 featured all 3 campaigning incumbent freeholders and the Sheriff. Stated Freeholder Mingo “a significant drop in the number of geese and their unhealthy droppings has been achieved”; Sheriff Froehlich said “Border collies are extremely effective in geese control…”; Freeholder Mirabella said “….our concerted efforts will keep the flocks of geese from spoiling our parks and golf courses…”;
Freeholder Ruotolo said “The dogs arrive and the geese just fly away, the geese stay away when the dogs leave. They eventually return, but in smaller numbers each time. The program is working.”

Fast forward to March of 2004 and a Worrall news article quotes Freeholder Estrada “everything that we have tried up to now has been unsuccessful”. The county manager stated “these methods proved to be ineffective on a large scale.”

The public has a level of trust in our elected officials and would like to believe that they would tell the truth. The county had been telling the public for years that they have implemented a strategy of dealing with the geese and that their strategies were working. They have pictures to prove it. Why would we believe otherwise? Now, after the fact, the county says killing is the only means possible to control the geese populations. Should this now be believed?

The reality is that there was never a comprehensive plan in place to deter the geese population until the county instituted a plan to slaughter the geese yearly. And we will never see a photo and press release with campaigning freeholders rounding up the defenseless molting birds to be sent to their death.

According to the State Ethics Commission the MVC did take action in this matter. The State Ethics Commission affirmed the basis for the action that the agency took. The administrative code regulations stipulate that disciplinary matters are not public record.

Angel Estrada doesn’t have to worry about his patronage job and can be as happy as he was pictured here…

Click Here f0r a complete history on the Farber/Estrada flap

Freeholder Estrada gets to cha-cha away and a fed-up with corruption public deserves to know exactly why not!

On September 20, 2006 the County Wathers blogged:

Will freeholder Estrada be indicted and charged with the same crime a former MVC Employee was in 2005?

It was a rhetorical question of course and today the Star-Ledger confirmed that back in December the State Ethics Commission declined to discipline Estrada. Unlike MVC employee Grace Hoogliviet who was fired and indicted for helping her friend with paperwork. This story bears repeating:

Countywatchers 9/20/06:

It has been over a month since it was widely reported that New Jersey’s motor vehicle agency has launched a probe into how Union County Freeholder Angel Estrada, who is the manager of the Elizabeth office, helped former Attorney General Zulima Farber’s boyfriend update his delinquent driving status.

The Union County Watchdog Association has learned that a MVC employee who committed a very similar act as Freeholder Estrada’s was forced to resign and was indicted for helping a fellow employee renew a driver’s license in 2005. Sharon A. Harrington, the head of the Motor Vehicle Commission, said regarding Estrada’s investigation that the agency would take action against employees if the investigation finds any wrongdoing. The agency “is working expeditiously to complete this investigation,” Harrington said in a prepared statement. “At the end of this process, MVC will take action, if warranted.”

According to an inside source at the MVC, who is surprised that Estrada is still reporting for work and is concerned that this is a sign that his political ties are going to put him above the law, a recent incident involving an MVC employee committing a similar offense involved Grace Hoogliviet and Tracey Scott.

Allegedly Hoogliviet was an investigator with the Security and Investigation Unit, Scott was a secretary in the same unit. Scott was unable to renew her driver’s license as she did not have a certified copy of her birth certificate. Hoogliviet escorted her to the Trenton Agency and approved the transaction. The matter was reported, and resulted in both employees being terminated. Documents obtained through the Open Public Records Act show that both employees resigned this past May. (You can view these documents by clicking here.)

Hoogliviet was also indicted and charged with conspiracy, tampering with public records and false records entry in 2005. Ultimately a deal was agreed to, and both employees were allowed to resign, with the agreement that they could never accept state employment. A check of court records backed up the sources claim that Hoogliviet had been indicted. View indictment document by clicking here.

According to a clerk at the Mercer County court criminal records division there was no conviction. He said there had been a pre-trial intervention, and that if Ms. Hoogvliet completes the program, the charges will be dismissed.

A probe into Farber’s actions that day showed that after being allowed to Angel Estrada personally took charge of the matter and renewed Goore’s expired car registration before he even arrived at the MVC office to sign official forms and pay a $137 registration fee. Motor vehicle agencies require that proper Identification such as a driver’s license be submitted to renew a registration. If the owner of the vehicle is not present for the transaction, they must submit a power of attorney; this documentation is kept on file with the transaction. “Mr. Estrada’s handling of this matter before Hamlet Goore arrived at the MVC agency raises questions about the propriety of his practices and whether they were in compliance with MVC procedures,” prosecutor Williams wrote in his report.

Farber was forced to resign because of her actions that day. Her boyfriend Goore also resigned as director of the Department of Community Development in Irvington. “He’s on vacation and won’t be returning,” Irvington Mayor Wayne Smith said, declining to state the reason why Goore was leaving the $81,000-a-year post.

There are other allegations of Estrada being on a MVC tape helping Gore take a test for a motor cycle license. Freeholder Daniel Sullivan is also Estrada’s boss at the MVC, there is no word on what his involvement was in all of this, if any. I doubt we’ll ever hear the entire story of what transpired between the three friends that fateful day. But if Angel Estrada doesn’t join his friends on the unemployment line and face criminal charges as Grace Hoogliviet did, the public deserves to know exactly why not.

State finishes probe of incident that led attorney general to resign
Thursday, March 22, 2007
BY JOE RYAN
Star-Ledger Staff
State officials have declined to discipline a Union County freeholder for helping Zulima Farber’s boyfriend reinstate his license following the 2006 traffic stop that led to the former attorney general’s resignation, according to a state Motor Vehicle Commission official. An internal investigation into the actions of Freeholder Angel Estrada, who manages the state Motor Vehicle Commission’s Elizabeth office and is a longtime friend of Farber, concluded in December, according to Michael P. Horan, the commission spokesman. Horan declined to discuss the investigation’s findings and refused to say whether Estrada had been punished, saying the issue was an internal personnel matter. But a Motor Vehicle Commission official who spoke on the condition of anonymity confirmed the agency has not taken disciplinary action against Estrada. Estrada, who has denied all wrongdoing in the episode, declined comment. Farber resigned last summer over the May 26 traffic stop in Bergen County, where her boyfriend, Hamlet Goore, was driving an unregistered van with a suspended license. The attorney general arrived at the scene in her State Police SUV with lights flashing, a move that a special prosecutor’s report concluded violated state ethics rules. Estrada came under scrutiny in July, after Farber acknowledged telephoning him shortly after Goore was pulled over. The freeholder agreed to meet Goore at the Elizabeth MVC office. Before Goore arrived, Estrada ordered a subordinate to renew his registration and record that a payment had been submitted, even though Goore had not signed necessary documents or submitted his check. In August, the Motor Vehicle Commission launched an internal investigation into whether Estrada overstepped his authority. In September, the commission forwarded its findings to the state Ethics Commission, which completed its own review in December. An ethics commission spokeswoman failed to return calls yesterday. Joe Ryan may be reached at jryan@starledger.com or (908) 302-1508. © 2007 The Star Ledger

The New Year is here and along with it come our resolutions which we hope, and I do mean hope, we will keep for at least the next 3-4 weeks.

There is one thing that my current employer, an Army Major Retired, did for me when I first started in his employ, and that was to provide me with a Franklin Planner, much to my objection as I thought I was one of the most organized people going. . I must say that 13 years later my Franklin contains my entire day to day life.

Three different binders and styles have come and gone, but my trusty handwritten planner is never very far from my side, though I am not quite as anal as some who carry a “satellite” where ever they go, my planner has come to be a dependable friend and traveling companion and admittedly at times my memory.

Franklin Covey has many programs that one can buy into intended to make people more productive and goal oriented thus, the marketing program goes, more successful. I am not so sure about the successful part, but, many major companies subscribe to the theory and have installed the Franklin Planner on their firm’s PC’s and purchase Franklin PDAs complete with seminars for their executives.

One of the Franklin tenets is that if humans write tasks and goals down then they are more committed to completing those tasks necessary to reach the goal. Also they espouse the belief that we will remember over 80% of what we write.

Personally I enjoy seeing the little checks rather than X’s or an arrow next to my daily planner entries, so there appears to be some validity in what they say. I should point out that 4 out of 5 of my fellow employees also use company supplied Franklin Planners and one, the retired major, is called by some, in our highly competitive industry, an Executive Search Superstar.

As I updated my planner for 2007 I pondered weather or not the Union County Freeholders were spending the day updating theirs for the New Year as well, that thought lasted all of about ½ a second, what was I thinking?

Though I no longer use all of the tools provided by my planner as my “personal goal” is to get through the day in one piece with my sanity in tact, I do assign my planned activities, both business and personal are intertwined, an A, B or C and an order of importance 1-2-3 and so on.

Planning for the day is akin to making resolutions daily and I am not suggesting that the Freeholders run out and buy Franklins, I am suggesting that perhaps they take a few minutes and make some resolutions for the upcoming year that they can stick to.

May I suggest the following?

Chairwoman Kowalski – please resolve to refrain from calling citizen speakers at the podium by their first names, as your predecessor Mr. Mirabella was in the habit of doing.

Freeholder Holmes – please resolve not to attempt to intimidate the citizens into silence by reminding them that county counsel is sitting on the dais and that their personal attorney’s are not present.

Freeholder Mapp – please resolve to lean on maintenance to get you a microphone that works, as you appear to have a lot to say and those in the back of the room would like to hear you.

Freeholder Sullivan – please resolve to curb your sarcasm as it is most unbecoming for a professional such as your self.

Freeholder Scanlon – please resolve to recuse yourself or to abstain from votes in witch you may have a personal interest, such as the upcoming approval of financial institutions which will be used by the county in 2007.

Freeholder Ward – please resolve to come to a meeting at least giving the appearance of being fully prepared.

Freeholder Estrada – please resolve to do what you know to be the right thing ethically this year, (enough said).

Freeholder Proctor – please resolve to review suggested resolution for Freeholder Estrada bearing in mind.that if the shoe fits etc.

Freeholder Mirabella – please resolve to remember that the citizens are indeed your equal and treat them accordingly; after all they put you where you are.

Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders As the Whole– please resolve to take whatever steps are necessary and not raise taxes this year.

As for me you may be asking just what is she resolving for 2007?

The answer is quite simple really, I publicly resolve to continue to do what I do which is to watch and comment on the activities of county government in Union County. I have already made it an A1 task in my Franklin Planner and intend to see a lot of little check marks this year.

Happy New Year to all of You and Yours!!!