Twenty years ago the Daily Journal of Elizabeth covered Union County politics. Many municipalities had their own weeklies. The Star-Ledger covered state and national issues but rarely bothered with this county. At least some things don’t change.

After the Daily Journal folded in 1992 a gap developed in coverage of county issues. Some weeklies consolidated but focus remained on the towns, which is what their readers primarily cared about. So for the last few years the freeholders have essentially gotten a pass on coverage by the media and gotten fat. Maybe with the Local Source consolidating countywide there will be much-needed light shed on what the freeholders are doing.

Though most things thrive with sunlight when it comes to government budgets it’s a lack of sunshine that induces growth. Since 2000 the county tax levy has risen 68% from $150.1 million to $251.7 million. Included in those are vanity projects like the restoration of the UCPAC, studies for a children’s museum, and annual musicfests where the costs get passed on to taxpayers with only token debate and apparently little forethought. If the taxpayers don’t care, why should the county? But taxayers would care if they were fed the information from a reliable source.

The internet was supposed to supplant newspapers for local coverage but it remains unreliable and sporadic often consisting of little more than rumor and innuendo. There are a lot of writers but not a lot of editors. You can easily get information out there but, without an effective filter, anyone with an internet connection can propagandize, sometimes under various aliases, about whatever would benefit them personally. Couldn’t a job of a county public relations department be to go on websites anonymously and denigrate any critics of their policies?

A newspaper editor might get ten items to choose from for inclusion in a paper and pick three. On most internet forums all ten items would be viewed, with quantity trumping quality, leaving it to the reader to also adopt the role of editor. The problem comes when readers often have time to read only the three items and they gravitate to stories that feed their prejudices or taste for sensationalism.

It’s as if your mother were to set out ten food items for dinner and you could only eat three. Too many people would be subsisting on diets of chocolate cake, jello, and pork rinds. The spinach and kidney beans that you need for sustenance would go to waste with their necessary nutrients. Hopefully, the new Local Source will lay out a balanced diet and we will all be stronger, wiser and richer for it.

When the New Jersey State Attorney General’s office served subpoenas at the Union County Improvement Authority where the Director is the Union County Democrat chairman Charlotte De Filippo just weeks before the general election in 2007, the Star-Ledger chose to suppress the news claiming it is their policy not to interfere with local elections.

As was previously posted on the County watchers: Election Day was November 4th, 2007. Appearing on the “Breaking News Page” of the NJ.com website and calling it “real time” news at 12:02 AM, Friday, November 9, and in the middle of the night, the Star Ledger announced that an investigation had been launched by state officials into the business and personal dealings of Charlotte DeFilippo the Chair of the Union County Democratic Committee and Director of the Union County Improvement Authority. The news article went on to explain that DeFilippo had been served with subpoenas in September and October so one could say that the Star-Ledger was “late in breaking the news”.

In direct contrast to that policy on Friday, May 30, 2008 just 4 days prior to the Primary Election, and today May 31 just 3 days prior to the Primary Election, in which Elizabeth Board of Education board member president, Armando Da Silva, an outspoken opponent of Elizabeth Mayor Bollwage and the Union County Democrat Committee is running for City council, the Star-Ledger chose to break a story and continue by publishing another story the following day about the Corzine Administration sending a team of inspectors to the Elizabeth school district that week after auditors alleged they have found far-reaching spending abuses. Lucille Davy, the state’s Education Commissioner whose husband James was in Governor James McGreevey’s cabinet and currently has a no-bid county consulting contract, issued the subpoena on behalf of the state Board of Education.

Quoted in today’s Ledger article is Kirk Nelson, general counsel for the Elizabeth board “The politicization of the state Board of Education is frightening on the weekend before a municipal election.”

What is more troubleling and of a great public concern is the Star-Ledger is Union County’s only daily newspaper and it appears they are playing politics in support of Senator Raymond Lesniak, Inc.

The Star-Ledger should include the names of those politicians who apparently are influencing their reporting on the mast head along with their editors and publisher.

Although they boast in advertisements that they are the most read newspaper in Union County The Star-Ledger has not had a reporter covering Union County government for over 9 months now.

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.

Submitted by Bruce Paterson

Here is a Paul Harvey “The rest of the story” moment. But instead of something inspirational or uplifting, this unfortunately reveals greed, arrogance and abuse of power.

As you may be aware, the NJ state legislature is considering cutting state aid to small towns under 10,000 population of which my Garwood is among one of them. This in order to address our state’s fiscal crisis problems. An elected Garwood boro official expressing concern for Garwood’s constituents reached out to the local senators and assemblymen covering this area. The assemblymen showed compassion. However, one senator, Senator Lesniak, decided to write an editorial in the March 6 edition of the Star Ledger New Jersey section. Although the town wasn’t mentioned by name he noted our .8 square mile size and the loss of $350,000 in aid and used our concerned “boro official” and our Garwood as a example of how small towns don’t want to help themselves. He said we had a large development proposed that would bring in large ratables but our planning board had turned it down, with Senator Lesniak stating, “this town chose higher property taxes because development proposals weren’t quite what it wanted”.

And now “the rest of the story”. The development which Senator Lesniak claimed was beneficial to Garwood was located on a back neighborhood off the main streets. Where 9 houses are allowed the developer proposed to put 47 apartment units in a 3 story building with underground parking for 95 automobiles. Indeed, Garwood would have garnered $400,000 in ratables, but at what cost? The neighborhood is zoned for two family homes and is mostly cape cods. But the real dirt lies beneath this project. This developer was using a local legal firm as his application attorney. Three months before the application was to be heard, the applicant changed his law firm to a firm by the name of “Weiner Lesniak”. Senator Lesniak is the principle. Two months before the hearing, a $7,500 donation was given by the project applicant to Senator Lesniak’s political committee. It appeared to Garwood that Senator Lesniak was possibly strong-arming himself into this application to make good money off of the applicant and Garwood. He then sent his best lawyer to the hearing but alas, Garwood planning board turned it down.

A few years ago, Senator Lesniak bragged to the Star Ledger that he is the “political boss” of the area. He “controls” elections, political appointments and which developments are for the towns in his so-called kingdom. He has become quite good at his destruction on the residents all to his financial gain. He has wrested control of our Rahway valley Sewerage Authority over the years. His Weiner Lesniak legal billings went from $80,000 to $500,000 in 10 years, all paid by tax monies. He was able to manipulate his nephew into the Union County Manager job, now paying $155,000/year. This fellow had no experience or education for this position 12 years ago and still doesn’t. The nephew’s incompetence has allowed the county taxes to skyrocket 70% since year 2000 as pay to play, cronyism, lawsuits and nepotism run rampant at the county. And collateral damage occurs as the county manager’s wife had a good paying county job and even his mother was on the county payroll, where another hard pressed senior could have had that job.

Senator Lesniak has feathered his nest lucratively for himself, his law firm and his relatives, thanks to his corrupting the system and the abuse of his Senatorial powers. How many other “small towns” are the subject of his greed and manipulation? How many towns have refused his self-serving greed and now have his wrath for their resistance, going so far as him using Garwood as some kind of example? And now you have the rest of the story.

Their wish isn’t our command
Posted by Ray Lesniak March 06, 2008 10:22AM
Categories: Policy Watch, Politics
A famous philosopher once sang, “The times they are a-changin’.” Another sang, “You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.”

Those profound words came to mind recently in the aftermath of Gov. Jon Corzine’s budget proposed cuts.

There’s no question that gov­ernment is too big and the cost of government has made living in
New Jersey too expensive.

But to ease that burden, we have to start looking at local gov­ernments, not just state expenditures.

Willie Sutton wouldn’t be plan­ning a heist at a 7-Eleven. He would go where the money is — in
this case, school boards and local governments.

The state’s operating budget is $4.4 billion. Another $23 billion, or about 73 percent of the budget, is spent at the local level, primarily for schools, local governments, hos­pitals and property tax relief in the form of rebate checks.

Add to that the $21 billion spent and raised at the local level and you quickly see where the best op­portunities are for cutting spend­ing.

Oversight of local spending, along with restructuring of small municipalities and school districts
to eliminate unnecessary adminis­trative and capital expenditures, is required if we are serious about making New Jersey a more afforda­ble place to live.

The state should continue to provide local governments and boards of education what they
need. But what about what they want? Case in point:

A local official complained to me about losing $350,000 from Cor­zine’s proposed budget cuts.

I pointed out that the town turned down a development pro­posal for age-restricted housing –
i.e., no school-age children — which would have brought $400,000 yearly tax revenues to the community.

The proposal was too dense, the official responded. We wanted fewer units.

Don’t expect the taxpayers of the state to pay for what you want, I explained.

The official countered: The four-story buildings proposed would have required the purchase of a
bigger firetruck, which we can’t af­ford.

What? I asked. Your town is 0.8 square miles and you have your own fire department? An agree­
ment for fire protection with sur­rounding communities would save money, lower response time and potentially save lives and proper­ties.

It’s a volunteer department; they’re all residents, voters and very vocal. They would complain,
the official said, so we need the $350,000 from the state.

This town chose higher prop­erty taxes because development proposals weren’t quite what it
wanted. The town also chose higher property taxes and less pro­tection from fire hazards because it didn’t want to give up its own fire department.

When I told this story to others, they all thought I was speaking about their town.

The option of having state tax­payers pay for what local residents want, rather than what they need, is gone — and not coming back.

“You can’t always get what you want. But if you try sometimes, you might find you get what you need.”

Thank you, Sir Mick.

“The times, they are a-chan­gin’.” Thank you, Mr. Dylan.

Just what is the role of the Fourth Estate in the everyday lives of the people and whatever happened to “who, what, when, where and how” reporting?
Appearing on the “Breaking News Page” of the NJ.com website and calling it “real time” news at 12:02 AM, Friday, November 9, and in the middle of the night, the Star Ledger announced that an investigation had been launched by state officials into the business and personal dealings of Charlotte DeFilippo the Chair of the Union County Democratic Committee and Director of the Union County Improvement Authority. The news article went on to explain that DeFilippo had been served with subpoenas in September and October so one could say that actually the Star Ledger was “late in breaking the news”, and shame on them.

Even in these times of high tech gadgets and gizmos many people get the news of their communities from the local newspapers, both dailies and weeklies. We want to know that those local papers will deliver the news in an up to date easy to read format, bringing us the facts relating to our local government, schools, sports, births, deaths and local business in a timely manner.

Yesterday’s news is basically useless as we live our lives in “real time” and need our news to be the same. We want to hear it all and prefer to decide for ourselves what information we will keep in our mental files for later use because it is important to us and what information we will discard. News in real time is what happened yesterday, today or what we can expect tomorrow, not what happed last week or last month because what are we going to do with old news, how will it benefit us now or in the near future.

The Star Ledger’s recent performance has been disappointing to say the very least. To claim that they choose to not report the details of the Union County subpoenas and their contents so that they would not be viewed as interfering with the recent elections is absurd. Should not the residents be informed of the unbiased facts of what is going on with their government and those running it in, shall we say “real time”? If the reporting of those unbiased facts coincides with some public event such as an election than so be it, and can holding back on news information be it good or bad also be viewed as interfering, why not just let it rip? Unless of course there are some forces that are actually running the presses and the newspaper is not, now, isn’t that sad?

Many would have to agree that what we really want from the news media is just the N-E-W-S!

Please just….tell me the facts,
give them to me in an expeditious & timely manner
and let me decide for myself what I will ignore and what carries some weight in my decision making.

To the Star Ledger: You are not my mother so don’t try to protect me from what you perceive to be evil or detrimental for me to know. And kindly refrain from attempting to cast the news in a good or bad light, which just annoys me because if I wanted an opinion I would have visited the editorial page.

Further in the case of government … the last I checked it was by and for the people, not, by the news media shaped in their image for the people, this is manipulation of the facts, and inexcusable. Perhaps the Star Ledger should include the names of those who apparently are influencing their reporting on the mast head as they appear to be the ones steering the Ledger’s ship.

Ocean County maintains a kiosk at the Ocean County Mall, yet Union County taxpayers are shelling out $131,745 more for what the freeholder’s consider “public information”.

The County of Union is spending more on public information department salaries than any other county in the state. A hell of a lot more. From sightings on the campaign trail, a video on you-tube, the ELEC site, and in offices of local newspapers, citizen watchdogs and the local media can’t deny the fact that these employees are involved in campaigns.

Listed in the Laws of Union County is a code that requires that every full-time employee “shall devote his entire time during business hours” to the job.

That means when a public information department employee calls a local newspaper editor to make a campaign interview appointment –they are not devoting their entire time during business hours to their job. When a public information department employee accompanies campaigning freeholders on media interviews involving their campaign – they are not devoting their entire time during business hours to their job. Unless their job description encompasses working on freeholder re-election campaigns.

The head of this department, who is quoted often in the press as the “Union County Spokesperson” has been said to be on call 24 hours to disseminate information to the public. In a 2005 memo in which the county manager recommends this department head for a raise he acknowledges that “Seb works around the clock, and handles major issues and hostile inquires on a daily basis”.

Then when can it be appropriate for this tax-payer funded “round-the-clock spokesperson” to be working on freeholder campaigns? And why is the local media, who by the way folks are supposed to be the government watchdogs, not exposing this abuse of the public trust?

Westfield homeowners pay more property taxes to the County of Union then they do to their town. If the Mayor of Westfield had a town employee arrange a campaign meeting during business hours, would the local media wink and nod at this as well? Most likely it would be reported on the next few published editorial pages.

It is illegal
At the time of this posting, former Essex County Executive James Treffinger couldn’t be reached for comment on the legalities of this campaign staff/public employee issue. Treffinger was convicted, and was sent to prison, for having county employees working on his campaign for U.S. Senate.

Outside information
In addition to spending $445,173 on public information department salaries the county maintains a $232,000 yearly contract with Strategic Media for the purposes of providing media consulting and marketing services. They also have a separate firm “All Access Marketing and Media” which they pay $15,000 to market the Musicfest. Yet another firm provides management services for the Musicfest. Strategic Media, which has changed its name several times also does work for the all-Democrat freeholder campaigns.

What counties are spending on Public Information staff salaries:

$445,173__Union
$313,428__Ocean- Maintains a kiosk at Ocean County Mall
$311,717__Somerset
$243,462__Burlington- Head of PI is also Custodian of Records
$238,389__Cape May
$204,200__Atlantic
$187,437__Monmouth
$184,425__Bergen
$154,066__Essex
$128,912__Warren- Confidential Assistant also takes meeting minutes
$105,192__Passaic
$ 83,590__Morris
$ 82,410__Hudson
$ 79,826__Cumberland- PI Officer is also the Director Dept. of Planning
$ 43,577__Gloucher- PI Director is also the Clerk of the Board
$ 41,560__Salem- PI Officer is also Head of Human Resources

Counties with no Public Information Departments:
Camden
Hunterdon
Mercer
Middlesex
Sussex

Research is based on Open Public Records Act requests for 2006 public salary information.

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.

There are coincidences and than there are those coincidences which are just too unbelievable to be coincidental…….take for instance the article below from the blog “Plainfield Today” regarding the new Senior Citizen project in Plainfield, the construction is being managed by the Union County Improvement Authority.

The Needler in the Haystack provided a photo of the billboard erected at the project bearing the logo of Century 21 Atlantic Realtors Inc. rather inconspicuously in the lower right hand corner.

The Needler also provided another piece of information in his rather inconspicuous note:

(An aside: While sorting through some business cards recently, I found I had picked up one of C21 Atlantic’s agent’s cards somewhere in my travels. It was the card of Sebastian D’Elia, sales associate. Who also happens to be Union County’s public information officer)

It is certainly no secret that Sebastian D’Elia is in the county’s employ as the Public Information Officer/Spokesperson, but what may not be on the top of the average person’s need to know list is that Mr. D’Elia is also listed as a member of the Union County Improvement Authority, see above 6/6/07 minutes of the UCIA. See http://www.unioncountywatchdog.org/

Checking the State of NJ website to find out if Mr. D’Elia was still a licensed real estate sales person, presented a bit of a mystery:

DELIA,SEBASTIAN M
0122884
COUNTY WIDE REALTY INC 325 EAST WESTFIELD AVE ROSELLE PARK , NJ 07204
SALESPERSON
ACTIVELY LICENSED
N/A

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm….that is odd isn’t it?

Who the heck is County Wide Realty Inc.???

But, wait a minute…notice below the address of Century 21 Atlantic Realty taken from the NJ Multiple Listing agency roster:

C-21 ATLANTIC REALTORS
0195
325 E. WESTFIELD AVE.
ROSELLE PARK
NJ
07204
908-245-6767
908-245-6969

That is certainly a coincidence isn’t it???…

Perhaps both the companies just coincidentally have suites in the same office building, that could happen, couldn’t it????

Naaaahhhhhh…….Check out the following business profile compiled by D & B (Dun & Bradstreet)

http://www.manta.com/comsite5/bin/pddnb_company.pl?pdlanding=1&referid=3550&id=6xdklv

County Wide Realty Inc (Century 21)
325 E Westfield Ave, Roselle Park, NJ 07204-2317, United States (Map) (Add Company Info)

Phone: (908) 245-6767

Also Does Business As:Century 21; Century 21 Atlantic Realty

http://www.blogger.com/www.century21atlantic.com, www.casasmagazine.com

SIC:Real Estate Agents and Managers
Line of Business:Real Estate Selling & Leasing Agent & Mortgage Broker Arranging For Loans Using Money Of Others
Detailed County Wide Realty Inc Company Profile
This company profile is for the private company County Wide Realty Inc, located in Roselle Park, NJ. Century 21’s line of business is real estate selling & leasing agent & mortgage broker arranging for loans using money of others.
Company Profile: County Wide Realty Inc

Year Started:1990
State of Incorporation:NJ
URL:www.century21atlantic.com, www.casasmagazine.com
Location Type:Single Location
Stock Symbol:N/A
Stock Exchange:N/A

Also Does Business As:Century 21; Century 21 Atlantic Realty
NAICS:N/A
SIC #Code:6531
Est. Annual Sales:$2,500,000
Est. Employees:82
Est. Employees at Location:82
Contact Name:Leonor Dominguez
Contact Title:Vice President
Data above provided by D&B.

Points of Interest:

1. UCIA is managing the construction of the new Senior Citizen Project with 63 for sale units in Plainfield.
2. Century 21 Atlantic Realty Inc. 325 E. Westfield Avenue of Roselle Park is the agency on the billboard who appears to be handling the sale of the 63 units.
3. Sebastian D’Elia has an active real estate sales license listed with County Wide Realty Inc. 325 E. Westfield Avenue of Roselle Park
4. Mr. D’Elia’s business card once read Century 21 Atlantic Realty Inc. County Wide Realty also does business as Century 21 Atlantic Realty Inc.
5. Mr. Sebastian D’Elia is listed as a voting member of the Union County Improvement AuthorityCoincidence???? …..

Major Conflict of Interest????

Decide for yourself.

Submitted by: George DeCarlo
Board Secretary of the Union County Watchdog Association & State Chair of the Green Party of New Jersey

The Union County Watchdog Association puts considerable time, energy and funds into shining a light on Union County government.

Our newest endeavor is making freeholder meetings available on our website www.unioncountywatchdog.org. According to a study conducted by the UCWA, the county of Union is spending more on public information than any other county in the state, outside of Ocean County, who maintains a booth in the Ocean County Mall.

Taxpayers need to demand to know why it takes a volunteer citizen group to offer state-of-the-art public information. For much less than the cost of one taxpayer-funded glossy mailing featuring freeholders at election time, the County of Union could be providing citizens with web-access video meeting minutes as the Union County Watchdog Association is doing.

In a Worrall Newspaper editorial this week the county complained that we present the meetings with a partisan slant, I’ll let their examples speak for themselves. One example was “The $110,000 new video equipment malfunctions”. This was tagged because the video equipment cost $110,000, and it did malfunction during their February 15, 2007 meeting (see for yourself by clicking HERE).

Another example was “chairwoman says you can comment but we will not answer questions.” This was tagged because Chairwoman Kowalski actually stated this during the meeting. This statement by freeholders has been made countless times through the years. In fact, during the February 15 meeting a Linden resident asked a question and was told this; and what was tagged were the Freeholder Chairwoman’s exact words, “There is a misunderstanding this is for public comments if you want to raise questions we have a procedure for that which you can discuss with the clerk afterwards. But if you have something you’d like to comment on we’d be happy to listen”. The citizen then just sat down without commenting. (See for yourself by clicking HERE.)

Mrs. Renna then approached the microphone and explained the procedure to the Linden resident, “The procedure is that you place an Open Public Records Act request with the Clerk and if the answer to your question isn’t in a document than you don’t get an answer.” (See for yourself by clicking HERE.)

Worrall’s editorial was correct stating that videotaping public meetings is only one tiny step toward truly open government because most county decisions seem to be made behind the scenes. The UCWA is striving to expose the lack of public information at the county level of government which spends well over 1-million of our tax dollars a day and is in charge of our public safety. What better way than making freeholder meeting videos conveniently accessible and allowing the freeholders to speak for themselves without the expensive taxpayer-funded ad campaigns and press releases they call public information?

These meetings show residents more of what isn’t happening at public meetings than what is happening.