GEESE LOUISE…… THIS IS CONFUSING!

You gotta scratch your head in wonderment when a long term sitting Democrat Freeholder like Rick Proctor of Rahway decides to run for mayor in the city where he is employed. Even more puzzling is that he is running instead of the equally long term incumbent Jim Kennedy.

If Proctor were to win he would of course have to resign his freeholder seat but also his job of Health Officer in the City of Rahway. Has he been offered some other job paying more somewhere else or is he planning on retiring and just serving as the mayor which pays about $60,000 a year. Upon reflection it would appear that there would be some glaring public pension questions to be answered here, and this just does not make sense when there are others who might feel that they are more deserving than the Chair of the Rahway Dem Committee. Did he simply put himself into the slot or did orders come down from King Street that taking into consideration the skeletons in his closet he felt obligated to follow?

And what of Kennedy? Why would a guy who just engineered the purchase of a $90,000 piano under the eyes of the citizenery like the magician David Copperfield coupled with $8Mil in borrowing for his beloved Arts District just walk away with his projects nowhere near completion? He has offered a couple of weak explanations to the media but the truth of the matter is none of this makes any sense as these two would never do anything unless there was some sweet political plum to be picked.

Perhaps they are planning on trading places with Kennedy slipping into the seat Proctor holds on the board should Proctor win the mayoral slot? Will another steadfast solider from the council who feels he has been left out of the mix step up and offer a primary race? Will the “new dems” do the same as well? All any of us can do is to sit back and watch what these two do and who is left standing or who has actually left town and is traveling around promoting clean water as he alluded to, but then that really doesn’t hold any water.

Boy, isn’t it a puzzlement?

Almost one half of Union County’s municipalities are served by the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority including Rahway, Clark, Mountainside, Westfield Scotch Plains, Cranford, Garwood, Springfield, Kenilworth and Roselle Park. The subject of privatization has come up more than once and as recently as last year with the commissioners divided as to the benefits that the participating municipalities would realize, needless to say that the jury is still out.

The following press release was put out the other day pertaining to the City of Rahway approving their spending plan for the year. Contained in the budget as approved was some fancy footwork in regard to the billing and payment of funds to the Rahway Valley Sewerage Authority. The release is fairly self exclamatory but residents of other municipalities in Union County would do well to keep an eye on Rahway as they lead the charge against the sewer authority seemingly supported in this effort by Clark and Woodbridge who along with Rahway are demanding an audit/investigation. The mayors of the aforementioned municipalities can claim that they are only looking out for their taxpayers, however, if they choose to follow in the footsteps of Rahway they also could find themselves going down a path that could ultimately give their residents the short shrift.

It would seem that if a municipality billed the tax payers for sewer costs specifically and that dollar amount was more than necessary to cover the fees due to the authority than the overpayments collected should go back to the residents in the form of a refund or a credit toward the next payment and not just dumped into the city’s general fund to cover other operating expenses.

RAHWAY DEMOCRATS PASS “SMOKE AND MIRRORS “BUDGET

RESIDENTS OVERCHARGED FOR SEWER FEES
AND ONCE AGAIN
KENNEDY SKIPS PAYING INTO PENSIONS

Rahway: Last Thursday night, 1/21/10, the 9-0 Democrat controlled Rahway City Council passed Jim Kennedy’s 20th budget as mayor.

How fitting that this meeting should have taken place in the basement of city hall because what transpired did not deserve to see the light of day as the council hit an all time low in tricking the tax payers and hurting city employees.

Who is doing the overcharging here?????

In a letter sent to Rahway residents just 24 months ago Mayor Kennedy stated that collecting sewer fees separately from property taxes would be necessary to “plug high sewer costs” and “would save tax payers money”. Now, according to city budget documents which show almost $2 million dollars in surplus collections, it is apparent that Rahway’s homeowners and small business’ are being overcharged. When questioned about the obvious over charges Rahway city officials stated that the practice of using surplus sewer collections was a way to balance the $44 million dollar city budget even though the monies are collected from Rahway residents specifically to satisfy what is labeled on the residents water bills as an RSVA Facility Charge. Despite inquiries by one lone citizen regarding the existence of the $1.9 million sewer surplus the all democrat council voted to continue using the sewer fee collections to fund day to day city operations

While Mayor Kennedy blames the Rahway Valley Sewage Authority for breaking the city’s budget, this year he will collect enough money to pay the RSVA $3.2 million in sewer assessments for Rahway, and still have $1.9 million left over to again go toward funding city operations.

*************************************************************This section was devoted to the pension deferrment the city approved********************

Cassio asks why the mayor hasn’t cut the salaries of his high paid cronies in management, “how many big shots in City Hall make over $100k a year?” He speculated that there has to be at least 20 “well connected” people.

Cassio went on to also ask why the mayor doesn’t collect the millions owed to the city by his developer friends. “The downtown has turned into a Black Hole where millions of tax dollars have disappeared over this decade. And I think this Mayor’s administration is running this city with smoke and mirrors and treating the taxpayers like they are selling them a used car.”

HOW MUCH MORE WILL THE PEOPLE IN RAHWAY HAVE TO PUT UP WITH??
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Click Here for RVSA Website http://www.rahwayvalleysa.com/rvsa_service_area/service_area.shtml

To review minutes of the RVSA prior to ‘09 visit our document folder
http://unioncountywatchdog.org/docs/

Submitted by:
Anthony Gencarelli
N.J Licensed Professional Engineer

It is with both disgust and dismay that I read the main headline story in the Union County Section of the April 6, 2007 Sunday Star Ledger. I was truly astounded how a newspaper that is supposed to provide unbiased information as a public service could publish such a once sided and, in my opinion, misleading article.

The article implies that the Rahway/United Water privatization deal has been benefited the City’s ratepayers. This claim has certainly been made publicly by Mayor Kennedy and his administration, but based on my investigations, nothing could be further from the truth. I have a copy of the privatization contract that I am willing to share with anyone interested. You don’t have to be a lawyer to understand from reading this contract that the citizens of Rahway are being taken for a ride and not a pleasant one. Also, the unwillingness or inability on the City’s part to provide billing information that I requested under OPRA also speaks volumes about this deal. Despite their recalcitrance in providing the requested information, I was able to review the City’s bills list which clearly document that United Water is receiving payment for a lot more then indicated by their contract. These are “extras” that the City fails to consider in their financial analysis of the benefit of the privatization contract. Anyone who takes the time to investigate the privatization deal for Rahway’s public water supply will have to conclude that it has actually been more expensive then it would have been to continue operating as a public utility.

Is it really believable that Mayor Kennedy is traveling oversees on this own dime to profess the benefits of privatization and for no personal gain? How many of you spend your own time and money so that corporations that you have absolutely no financial interest in or connection with can profit? Is there anyone besides me who finds it interesting that Mayor Kennedy draws an annual salary of over $60,000 from the City of Rahway, but is willing to incur travel expenses and spend his own time promoting privatization overseas without any compensation? If he is such a generous guy and so interested in doing what’s right for the public, why doesn’t he serve as Mayor of Rahway for $1.00 per year? Why doesn’t he volunteer his time for the benefit of U.S. citizens? Governor Corzine serves as Governor for $1.00 per year. Clearly privatization firms profit by taking over public utilities. There is something about this that just doesn’t seem right.

The most insulting remark in that article is where it says “Kennedy is happy that he’s able to see so many parts of the work and help people solve their water and waste problems.” If you want to learn about people helping others solve their water supply problems go to the Web site for “Water For People” at www.waterforpeople.org. There are people that are donating time and money to help the less fortunate have safe drinking water. Those are the real heroes.

If you would like to learn more about the Rahway Water privatization, or are interested in the supporting documents for my conclusions, please contact me at Gencare_97@yahoo.com.

Union County Directions - A Taxpayer Funded Campaign Piece

Two scant days before last week’s Primary Election, the “Union County Directions” arrived in my mailbox. Though they will deny it, this publication is an homage to the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders as well as other UC public officials who just so happen to be of the same political persuasion and are seeking reelection.

Lets not tiptoe around and get real here. Featured on the cover is Mayor John T. Gregorio of Linden, with a story about all of the wonderful things he is doing for the city.

The bottom half of page one is comprised of an article about the Union County Arts Center, located in Rahway and recently purchased by the Board of Chosen Freeholders. The article is accompanied by a picture of Rahway Mayor James Kennedy, Freeholders Deborah Scanlon, Chester Holmes and Al Mirabella.

The oddest thing about the picture is not that the president of the UCAC Board of Trustees, Richard Stender (ex-hubby of candidate Linda) is in the center of the pic, but that the Stender name is first rather than a “L to R” listing.

So, on the front page the sea of six smiling faces are those of five elected officials all with the same party affiliation and all on the ballot in November as well as the former spouse of another currently campaigning for a seat in Congress.

Freeholder Mirabella appears in six of the group shots accompanied frequently by Freeholders Scanlon and Holmes. It would appear that to cover their posteriors and not risk violating campaign laws that they threw in one picture each of Freeholders Sullivan, Ward, Estrada and Kowalski but for the second year in a row Freeholder Adrian Mapp of Plainfield was MIA. Mapp I understand is Chairman of the rival “New Democrats” party in his community and I imagine on the “outs” with “official County Democrats”. If I recall correctly the only time Mapp was in the publication was in the fall edition as a Council member in Plainfield when he landed on the Freeholder ticket in 2004. His term up next year it will be interesting to see if he is given prominence in the publication at that time. In view of present circumstances, however, that is doubtful.

The late Ann Baran, who held the position of county manager with both Republican and Democratic-controlled boards, was a co-founder of the Union County Alliance and an Executive Board member until her death this year. She worked tirelessly to foster the intent of the Alliance. This latest edition cannot be what she had in mind as a vehicle to promote an organization billed as a “bi-partisan coalition focused on economic revitalization and improving the quality of life for people who live and work in the region.” Rather it has turned into a thinly veiled campaign piece funded with tax payer’s money featuring incumbent freeholders patting themselves on the back just days prior to an election. In 2006 alone checks totaling $130,850 have been paid out to the Alliance which includes advertising.

It is puzzling that the corporations in the county affiliated with the Alliance aren’t miffed about being dissed. Perhaps they realize the futility of objecting and have settled on taking a backseat to the Gang of Nine. Only three companies purchased ad space of less than a quarter page each. What happened to PSE&G, Elizabethtown Water and Maher Terminals and what about the Bank of America, Wakefern or Wachovia surely they all have something to crow about? And wouldn’t the residents in towns such as Westfield, Scotch Plains, New Providence or Clark just love to see their Republican Mayors on the cover just once.

Chances of that happening are slim to none.

Tina Renna, our very own Princess of Public Information, has been the focus of an on-going “investigative reporting” series in the Devine Media newspapers.

Devine’s Rahway News-Record and the Clark Patriot have been hacking away at Tina and her hubby Joe, calling them responsible for wasting taxpayers’ money by requesting too many public documents.

Another article assails the Rennas as “outcasts” from county government, trying to exact their revenge on their former employers by suing and requesting public documents from them.

To say that these articles fail to mention facts would be an understatement. The Devine newspapers are rags bought and paid for by the county political machine. And James J. Devine is a party apparatchik who’s never known a corrupt county Democrat to do any wrong.

This is why J.J. Devine, purported journalist and publisher, is out trashing Ms. Renna for requesting information that the county government should already be volunteering.

While other journalists and friends of the First Amendment are hailing the federal Freedom of Information Act and our own Open Public Records Act, Devine suggests in one column (“The Cost of Open Government”) that citizens who seek to inform themselves are a public nuisance.

And while other journalists report the truth as they see it, Mr. Devine can’t be bothered with such details as “the truth.”

In his rants he (purposefully?) leaves out the facts that Ms. Renna has had to pay for all the information that she’s obtained, that the county has charged her thousands of dollars for information that every citizen is already entitled to, that the state records council has found the county government to be in violation of the law at least three times.

Details, details…

Never mind that the county government practices a culture of secrecy and backroom politicking - a culture that Devine sees no reason to attack in the same fashion as he’s done to activists.

Devine: Impostor Reporter Becomes Pol Impersonator

A story you won’t find in any Devine weekly any time soon is the scandal that Devine caused when his company put up a fake website that misrepresented itself as belonging to two Republican candidates in Monmouth and Middlesex counties.

Devine, falsly identifying himself as one of the candidates, sent out a press release inviting reporters to check out the GOP team’s website.

But the site wasn’t theirs! It was a phony put up by Honest Devine. The site, designed to hurt the real candidates, wrongly stated that the candidates supported same-sex marriage and legalizing marijuana.

When he was caught, Devine tried to blame a high school student for what his company did - but ho-hum, nobody bought it.

The Cost of Devine

Devine’s attack on Tina for “wasting taxpayers’ money” is amusing for two reasons. One being that the county freeholders spend over $1 million a day and yet he never writes a “Voice of the People” (what people?) column about that. And the other reason being that he himself is guilty of wasting public funds. Except that in his case, he’s taking home the dough.

In 2003, the Worrall family’s newspaper, the Rahway Progress, published a story about how the city’s Democrat-controlled city council would not buy public notice ads in the Progress but would place them in Devine’s competing News-Record, which charged more to run the notices.

The Progress pointed out that rates for public notice ads (those tiny print government announcements in the back pages of your weekly) are set by law. Every newspaper is supposed to charge the same.

But not James Devine’s newspapers.

In a public notice I randomly pulled out from a Devine paper, dated November 18, 2004, I found that compared to similar ads in Worrall newspapers, the Devine ad had font twice as big, lines twice as spaced, and white space twice as empty. Therefore, twice the cost to the government.

Of course, Worrall’s Progress failed to make the connection between Devine, a Democratic operative who always gives good press to the Democratic Kennedy administration and council, and the council’s granting Devine all the ads despite his charging more. (That’s OK because I made the connection for them in a column I used to write for the now-defunct Hillside Citizen Dispatch.)

It doesn’t seem fair that people like Tina get tarred and feathered by the machine with lies - lies that the machine is itself guilty of. But that’s how it is and we shouldn’t expect any better from career politicians.

But James Devine, a man who claims to speak for the people through his press all the while misusing it as a pro-government lackey, should be ashamed of himself. Pulitzer rolls over in his grave.