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NEWS RECORD:
The campaign treasurer accused of stealing money from the election fund of a former state assemblyman was admitted into a pretrial intervention (PTI) program over the objections of the state Attorney General’s office.
Rosemary McClave, 66, of Hillside, was indicted on March 23 with one count of third-degree theft by deception and six counts of third-degree tampering with public records. MORE
STAR-LEDGER:
If McClave, who lives in Hillside, successfully completes the program, the charges against her will be dismissed.
[Peter Aseltine, a spokesman for Attorney General Anne Milgram] said it’s not an appropriate punishment for McClave, whose alleged crimes carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison and a $15,000 fine. MORE
STAR-LEDGER:
A state appeals court today struck down the use of standardized request forms many towns and counties require citizens to fill out to view public records, saying letters, faxes and even e-mails containing the specific request suffice under the state’s Open Public Records Act. MORE
STAR-LEDGER:
Union County has created an audit bureau to conduct internal investigations and monitor internal controls for the county government’s 2,000-member work force. . .
Tina Renna, whose website, the County Watchers, bills itself as citizen watchdogs of Union County government, dismissed the new office as “silly.”
Renna said the office will “be used for two things: as a weapon against internal enemies, and as a public relations tool. It’s like putting the fox in charge of the henhouse. How objective can they be?” MORE
The state Assembly this week approved a bill sponsored by Assembly members Vincent Prieto, D-Secaucus, and L. Grace Spencer, D-Hillside/Newark, to require ATMs to inform customers when they’ll be charged fees for balance inquiries. MORE
Charlotte DeFilippo
But what does she do exactly for that cool $143,410 she makes a year?
The short answer: Who knows?
NJ.com columnist John Bury explains:
Basically, if you want something big built in Union County and don’t want to ask the taxpayers in any meaningful way, you run it through the UCIA. They bond to get the money for it; get it built; then bill the city or county to lease the property to repay the debt.
“For this they take $528,000 to run the office and funnel tax money to “vendors” of their choosing,” Bury says.
Some of those vendors — one of whom has collected over $4.3 million from the UCIA over the last four years — then give some of that money back to DeFilippo in the form of campaign contributions to her committees and candidates.
The operations of the UCIA are so out of the way, so removed from public scrutiny, that it’s practically impossible to know what they, er, she is doing with public money.
In fact, the UCIA operations are conducted from DeFilippo’s Hillside home, where she can smoke and surf the Internet all day at the same time she’s running her campaigns and keeping tabs on her freeholders.
“These people seem to think that their work schedules or lack of are something that they are entitled to,” writes Patricia Quattrocchi in her PolitickerNJ column about county “no-show” jobs.
“It appears that it is not against the law to have a no show job as long as one’s employment contract does not call for one to actually report to a job site where the work is expected to be carried out.”
Nice work, if you can get it.
Tonia Hobbs at a Hillside community forum she organized last year.
Last month, Hillside community organizer Tonia Hobbs went to a Union County Freeholder meeting looking for help. Instead, as Rod Serling might say if he were narrating this farce, she wound up in The Twilight Zone.
At the meeting, Hobbs voiced concerns she had with the Hillside township budget, the relationship between the council and the mayor, and the lack of information residents have about their government.
You can WATCH her short speech here.
Hobbs bemoaned the “partisan politics in Hillside,” which, for instance, prevents regular, qualified folks from serving on municipal advisory boards in favor of political allies and friends.
Tina Renna, the founding president of the Union County Watchdog Association and editor of The County Watchers, has been cleared in a defamation lawsuit brought against her blog and The Elizabeth Reporter by Union County spokesman Sebastian D’Elia.
The blog post in question, posted in 2006, compared D’Elia and his tactics to Hitler. The post was later changed after the Hillside school board election, during which school board member Nathalie Yafet and former Hillside Mayor Barbara Rowen claimed they were harassed by D’Elia while campaigning outside A.P. Morris School. (D’Elia does not live or vote in Hillside, but the county Democrats like to bus in out-of-towners [many of them county employees] to work the elections in Hillside.)
County Watcher Patricia Quattrocchi, now a columnist for PolitickerNJ, laments how President-elect Obama’s tide of “change” missed Union County at a local level. The old county freeholders are back and it’ll be more politics and bad governing as usual, she writes. READ
EDITOR’S NOTE: Patricia Quattrocchi was an unsuccessful Garwood council candidate in Tuesday’s election.
Union County Clerk Joanne Rajoppi is urging voters to “seriously consider” voting by absentee ballots after a judge blocked the release of a report detailing the reliability — or lack thereof — of New Jersey’s 10,000 electronic, Sequoia brand voting machines.
Back in the spring, Judge Linda Feinberg ordered Sequoia Voting Systems to hand over information about its machines to independent analysts after vote tally discrepancies were discovered after the presidential primary.
In Hillside, a voting machine spit out a wrong total when it added up the number of voters for each party.
A 33-year-old being held at Union County jail died after complaining since Monday of having shortness of breath and upper respiratory problems — yet another victim in a long line of deaths at Union County correctional facilities, the County Watchers report . . .
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A Hillside candy company, aptly named Hillside Candy, will be among 500 international exhibitors at the annual 2008 All Candy Expo this month at Chicago.
Hillside Candy, located on Hillside Avenue, was founded in 1945 and produces GoLightly, Hillside Sweets and GoNaturaly brands of candy.
According to the Star Brite food blog, the expo is “the largest confectionery and snack trade show in the United States . . . The All Candy Expo draws visitors from nearly 70 countries.”
Who would have thought the Board of Chosen Freeholders — who use the county as a virtual employment agency for the politically connected and their kin — cared so much about saving money?
The County Watchers report the latest lawsuit against the county claims the government circumvents the law against hiring seasonal employees for more than six months by continually firing then rehiring them. Doing so avoids having to pay them benefits and afford them tenure rights.
But this was not about saving money at all; it was a way to punish whistleblowers, the suit by former county employee Catherine Alexander claims.
Alexander’s job was to find and correct encroachment onto county-owned land. She discovered, however, that the county only selectively pursued violators and many went unpunished.
The lax enforcement cost Union County $5 million in state Green Acres funds.
And Alexander’s diligence cost her her job.
Read the full complaint at the County Watchers.
Union County Watchdog Association President Tina Renna is suing to get unredacted legal bill invoices from the Union County Improvement Authority.
The Authority, which floats bonds for county projects, is controlled by Hillside and Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo.
Renna, who blogs on the County Watchers, said her group asked to review two bills that seemed suspicious.
“The amounts $28,529.66 and $36,095.30, respectively, for a total of $64,624.96 seemed rather high to be marked ‘general file’ and not assigned to a specific UCIA project,” Renna said.
“Given the knowledge that the taxpayers are footing the bill for DeFilippo’s lawsuit, which was brought by a county employee who alleges DeFilippo routinely intermingles her political business . . . with the management of county government, I thought a closer look at these legal bills was in order.”
DeFillipo’s office was also raided by the state Attorney General’s office last year. The public awaits the fruits of the AG’s labor.
Records obtained from the UCIA show that the law firm DeCotiis, FiztPatrick, Cole & Wisler was paid over $1.3 million in 2007 and $1.09 million in 2006. This includes almost $42,000 to defend DeFilippo in the employee lawsuit.
Third Ward Councilman John Kulish is a registered Republican.
But that doesn’t stop him from taking his orders direct from Hillside Democratic Commiittee Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo. He’s been doing it for years and has been rewarded nicely.
 JOHN KULISH |
While Hillside municipal elections are supposed to be non-partisan, the Democratic committee gets heavily involved, backing candidates — including Kulish.
The County Watchers report that the county freeholders has been using Kulish to fill appointments that call for elected Republicans:
Mr. Kulish’s appointment by the Freeholders to the Open Space, Recreation and Historic Preservation Trust Fund Committee is outrageous, he is a NOT an Elected Republican Official, he is an elected official to a nonpartisan governing body, so it would appear that he does NOT fill the bill even if his voter registration is Republican.
A side note: The Hillside Republican Committee is currently inactive, but when it was active Kulish shunned it. In fact, he’s one of DeFilippo’s biggest cheerleaders.
County Watcher Tina Renna writes that officials shouldn’t just be concerned about the electronic voting machine errors — which happened, among other places, in Hillside.
And Senator Scutari isn’t embarrassed that we have a far more rigorous and thorough approach to ensuring the fidelity of our slot machine operators than our election poll workers?
Read more here.
The Freedom to Tinker blog has evidence of a vote tally discrepancy from a voting machine in Hillside.
The electronic machine, which was used in the presidential primary last month, lists the total number of votes each Democratic and Republican candidate received. But when it adds up how many votes each party had, the math is wrong!
“This wasn’t an isolated instance, either,” the blog reports. “In Union County alone, at least eight other AVC Advantage machines exhibited similar problems, as did dozens more machines in other counties.
The voting machines’ maker has rebuffed an effort by Union County to have an independent review of the machines — which apparently can’t handle simple arithmetic.
Charlotte DeFilippo, the all-powerful chairwoman of the Union County and Hillside Democratic committees, couldn’t use her weight to spare Hillside a 6 percent county tax increase — but many of her township committee people have gotten jobs and appointments through the county, the County Watchers report.
Those currently benefiting from the county’s bloated budget include three school board candidates running with the Democratic machine’s backing: Jamar Cherry, Salonia Saxton-Thompson and Richard Samiec.
Cherry is a laborer in the county public works department. Saxton-Thompson is a $49,000 a year employee in the Union County’s Clerk of the Board’s Office. And Samiec is listed as a $67,000 a year housing development analyst.
Saxton-Thompson and Samiec also serve on the county’s Motion Picture and TV Advisory Board.
County Watcher Patricia Quattrocchi says that with so many Hillside committee people holding county jobs or county appointments (and sometimes both), “this arrangement allows Charlotte to keep on top of what is going on with County and Hillside Government inside and out.”
You can look at the full list of Hillsiders here.
Hillside taxpayers will be whammed by a 13 percent increase on the county portion of their property tax bills this year thanks to a $436.8 million budget approved by the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders.
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That comes to about a $130 average increase.
The Star-Ledger reports that the county is raising taxes $15.4 million to accommodate $22 million in new spending. And this at a time when Gov. Corzine and the state Legislature are looking to cut state spending by billions!
The freeholder board is completely controlled by the county Democratic machine. The party’s chairwoman, Charlotte DeFilippo, is a Hillside resident. But obviously, that didn’t make an iota of difference for township taxpayers.
Any benefit the boost in state school aid would have provided will likely be obliterated by the increase to the township and county’s property tax bills.
The Democratic-controlled county freeholder board is seeking to raise their taxes by about 6.5 percent to fund a $22 million spending increase for a $436.8 million budget.
The county raise would follow a hike in the township government’s budget, which will increase by $400,000 over the 2.5 percent increase cap suggested by state law.
Considering that the township council majority is itself controlled by the county Democratic machine, it’s unlikely we’ll hear any of them criticize the freeholder board the way they blast the school district’s modest budget increases.
There is much to lambast in the county’s budget, which the County Watchers estimate will cost $1.357 million each day. Since 2000, county taxes have increase nearly 60 percent, the Watchers report.
Despite the increase, Charlotte DeFilippo’s freeholders will eliminate Meals on Wheels, a prescription drug program and concerts in the parks.
These cuts are “very odd,” writes County Watcher Patricia Quattrocchi. “[S]eniors contribute to the cost of their meals, the prescription drug program is paid for by the participants and the concerts, according to county officials, are funded by sponsors. How did these items impact the budget?”
Meanwhile, the county hired 177 more employees last year, bringing the total to over 3,300.
And what does Hillside get from all this? If the Open Space Trust Fund is any indication. . . not much.
Since the inception of the Union County open space tax in 2001, Hillside taxpayers have contributed $1,527,261 only to get back $466,768 in grants. That’s a net loss of $1,060,492. Hillside would be better off keeping all that money and taking care of its own open space needs. But our council doesn’t make that argument.
The County Watchers report on a county building official who is assigned his own take-home car, free gas, home Internet service, a Blackberry phone and a county-rented home — and all despite a county rule that all employees live within Union County, (he lives in Monmouth).
IN OTHER NEWS:
What once was lost, now is found.
When Tina Renna’s watchdog group requested a video recording or transscript of a recent freeholder meeting, she was told that no such recordings existed.
That’s odd, Renna thought, because the county just recently spent $110,000 to upgrade video recording equipment for freeholder meetings.
But after Renna’s group requested that the Prosecutor’s Office investigate the matter — citing that the county manager read a statement regarding the county’s response to the jail breakout, and that the proceedings might be helpful to investigators — the county sent Renna an apologetic letter saying — ta da! — that a recording of the meeting was indeed available.
The “Shawshank Redemption” inspired breakout from Union County Jail should leave everybody in county government ashamed. Here’s what today’s Star-Ledger had to say about the “chronic problems” at the jail and youth correctional facility:
For Union County’s jail, it has already become another unfortunate episode in an often ignominious history. During the past three decades, the county’s correctional facilities have seen riots, escapes and suicides; clashes between the jail’s management and its corrections officers’ union; federal intervention over inhumane conditions, and a steady trickle of scandals involving corrections officers and their treatment of inmates.
. . . Overcrowding, understaffing, changing management, poor morale among corrections officers and a host of other issues identified by county officials and representatives of the corrections officers’ union alike. Even the security problems being identified by Romankow have been previously discussed. In 1993, an inmate named Marco Crespo escaped by jumping off the same roof.
In more recent times, the suicide of 17-year-old Edward Sinclair Jr. brought attention to appalling conditions at the county’s juvenile detention facility and resulted in a $780,000 lawsuit settlement paid to the boy’s mother. And Sean Higgins, a guard accused of fondling up to 17 different women, pleaded guilty to a single charge of sexual contact.
Tina Renna, president of the Union County Watchdog Association and blogger at the County Watchers, pointed out in an e-mail this morning:
“The [1995 inmate] riots is what led to Union County being one of only two counties to have both a Sheriff’s Department and a Police Department. The other is Bergen County. It was the freeholders’ way of wresting control of the jail away from Ralph Froehlich who was thought to have been incompetent. [Sheriff] Froehlich is now involved in hunting down the escapees – who are still on the loose.”
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IN OTHER NEWS:
The creation of new captain positions at the Union County Sheriff’s Office means lucrative promotions for the kin of two major county politicians, the County Watchers report.
With the new captains in place, the daughter-in-law of Hillside and Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo will be promoted to lieutenant, while Sheriff Ralph Froelich’s stepson will be promoted to sergeant.
Lt. Melissa DeFilippo will get a raise of $15,884 to earn $94,503 in 2008, while Sergeant Frank Coon will get a $5,620 raise to make $77,652, the Watchers report.
The total cost for all raises next year in the department will be $271,604.
Hillside Township sends more tax money to the county’s Open Space Trust Fund than it gets back in annual grants, the County Watchers have learned.
Since the inception of the Union County open space tax in 2001, Hillside has sent the Board of Chosen Freeholders $1,527,261 only to get back $466,768 — for a net loss of $1,060,492.
This year, Hillside received a grant for $15,446.49, which Council President Leonard Gilbert said will go toward upgrading parks in the township. [For a video clip of Gilbert and councilmen Edward Brewer and John Kulish accepting the chump change from the county, click here.]
Hillside is not alone in losing tax dollars to the open space scheme. According to records obtained by the County Watchers, Union County towns have funneled $58,565,562 into the fund and received just $10,165,402 in grants.
Westfield has lost almost $5 million into the trust; Elizabeth and Union about $4.7 million each; Linden about $3.8 million; and Summit $4.9 million.
Only tiny Winfield got a bargain, receiving $85,900 more than the $15,433 its taxpayers paid.
So basically, the way this Open Space Trust Fund works is this: Towns send a big chunk of their taxes to the county in the name of “open space preservation” and then receive just a fraction of what they sent to preserve open space.
Wouldn’t it be smarter to just keep the money?
Tina Renna of the County Watchers writes about this week’s Union County Freeholder meeting in which family, friends and civil rights activists addressed the callous politicos over the suicide death of Eddie Sinclair Jr. at the Union County Juvenile Detention Center. Read it here.
The Watchers also posted video of the event. You’ll cry listening to the boy’s anguished mother and family, and you’ll be angered by the freeholders’ typical behavior.
Did the Star-Ledger wait until after the election to report that Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo had been served with a flurry of subpoenas months ago?
That’s what the County Watchers and Politicker NJ are wondering. . .
The County Watchers blog reports the state Attorney General’s Office may have served subpoenas at the Union County Improvement Authority’s office on Cherry Street in Elizabeth.
A spokesman at the AG’s office yesterday said the office is not allowed to comment on cases and could neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation.
The UCIA, which bonds for municipal and county projects, is headed by Charlotte DeFilippo, the chairwoman of the Hillside and Union County Democratic committees.
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 Watchers report.
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. CONTINUE READING. . .
From today’s Star-Ledger:
Two men, one armed with a handgun, were arrested yesterday after they crashed their luxury sedan while trying to flee from police, authorities said.
Hakim Conover, 51, of Stock ton Place in Irvington was charged with possession of a 9 mm semiautomatic handgun and resisting arrest, according to Capt. Lou Panares . . . the driver of the 2002 Mercedes S430, Josiea McGriff, 31, of Elizabeth Avenue in Newark, was charged with eluding police and resisting arrest.
After cops gave the pair chase:
McGriff apparently lost control of the vehicle and struck a parked car and fire hydrant at Walcott Terrace and Nye Ave nue, police said. Both men exited the car and tried to run away but were caught after a brief chase, Panarese said.
It’s happening all over the state. Public employees “retire,” qualify for a taxpayer-funded retirement pension — then get rehired for the same job while, of course, still collecting their pension.
Union County’s no different, the County Watchers report.
Four years ago Union County Runnell’s Specialized Hospital’s administrator accepted a county retirement package which included life-time health benefits. One month later he was hired back as a consultant under the firm Aruspex, LLC to provide the same duties he performed one month earlier as a county employee. CONTINUE READING
The Union County Watchdog Association has got a lot to say about the county’s MusicFest 2007, especially its $328,000 price tag (so far), the Star-Ledger reports.
Hillsiders should note that while the township’s county taxes fund this annual event at Nomahegan Park in Cranford, the county plans no such concerts in Hillside’s own Conant or Elizabeth River parks.
The County Watcher’s reporting this year on the MusicFest is here:
- Politician charges video a ‘slur to the Irish’ — Wrap-up of video and audio of officials boozing it up at a public park last year.
- The ultimate headliner — Do the taxpayers of Union County really want over a quarter million of their tax dollars spent on a concert in the park that most of them will not be attending?
- On the Road to Kathmandu and You are either in…or you are O-U-T — Patricia Quattrocchi details how the county may be browbeating its employees into participating in the county manager’s pet charity.
IN OTHER NEWS
CRANFORD — A Cranford township commissioner can’t recall what he and six other Union County residents did as paid members of a county committee drafted to look into shared services.
The committee, which was created in 1999 and disbanded in 2001, was paid a collective $30,000 for their service. Yet, no records of any meetings or reports by the committee exists, according to the Union County Watchdog Association, which made a formal request for such documents.
Watchdog president and Cranford resident Tina Renna, who edits the County Watchers blog, posted the above video on YouTube showing an exchange she had with Cranford Commissioner George Jorn, who was paid $4,500 for his time on the committee.
When Renna asks Jorn what he and the committee did for two years, Jorn says he doesn’t remember.
“I don’t know. It’s 10:30 at night, I’m not going to debate back and forth with you at this time of night,” Jorn says.
“I’m not asking for a debate, I’m not looking for an argument,” Renna replies. “I just want to know what that money was spent on.”
“I don’t even recall, to be honest with you,” Jorn, a Democrat up for election, says.
At Renna goes on to criticize county government spending, Jorn tries changing the subject, saying Renna “doesn’t seem to be concerned with the hundreds of billions of dollars being spent on foreign policy.”
“I am the president of the Union County Watchdog Association,” Renna reminds, “Which means we focus on county government.”
In an e-mail, Renna denies her question to Jorn was political.
“I didn’t make this clip to personally attack Jorn. It was an opportunity to shine a light on a state-wide problem, because this incident is common across the state,” Renna said.
Other members of the former committee, along with their salaries, were: Hillside resident and former health inspector Angelo Bonanno ($4,500); Democratic committeewoman Patricia Plante ($4,500); former Garwood mayor Michael Crincoli ($3,750); former Kenilworth councilwoman Carmela Colosimo ($3,750); former Roselle Park councilman Gregory Kinlock ($4,500); and Springfield Democratic Committeewoman Jodi Bergen ($4,500).
A Union County Superior Court judge upheld the county’s use of standardized request forms for public records requests after groups sued, protesting the forms slowed down the public’s access to information.
The suit was brought by the Union County Watchdog Association, which blogs at The County Watchers, and the New Jersey Press Association.
Watchdog president Tina Renna vowed an appeal.
“This state has such issues with open government, and it’s the basis for all the corruption here. It’s insane that you need a form to request public records. Somebody has to do something about this,” she told the Star-Ledger.
 DISGRACE:Aptly-named Assemblyman Steele |
- How Jersey’s remarkable sting occurred — “I thought I could no longer be surprised by a combination of brazenness, arrogance and stupidity. But people elected in this state continue to defy description,” U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie said after the arrests.
- Good riddance: Both assemblyman caught in sting resign
Moments after the PoliticsNJ Web site linked to a County Watchers and a Plainfield Today discussion about a county official’s appearance of a conflict of interest in a county development project, the post on the popular political site disappeared.
Dan Damon at Plainfield Today has the original PoliticsNJ post here.
The County Watchers and Plainfield Today wonder if Hillside and Union County Democratic Chairwoman Charlotte DeFilippo — who’s also in charge of the agency overseeing the development — or Sebastian D’Elia, the county official in question, pulled any strings to get the posting pulled. We’d like to add to consideration PoliticsNJ owner Jared Kushner, whose family makes its money on real estate, as a candidate for mystery editor.
The well-read PoliticsNJ site, meanwhile, remains mum.
SPECIAL FROM THE COUNTY WATCHERS
As the Union County Improvement Authority builds new senior citizen housing in Plainfield, a government watchdog group is asking questions about a county official’s relationship to the project.
Reacting to a post on Plainfield Today, freeholder candidate and County Watcher Patricia Quattrocchi points out that county spokesman Sebastian D’Elia is a licensed real estate salesman associated with the realtors selling the housing units in Plainfield.
But wait, there’s more.
D’Elia also serves on the Improvement Authority’s board, which, as you’ve just read, is managing the project’s construction.
“Coincidence????” Quattrocchi asks, “Major Conflict of Interest???? Decide for yourself.”
The Minneapolis bridge collapse this week was a public official’s nightmare realized — which is why Gov. Jon Corzine is spurring New Jersey officials to update him on the status of the state’s bridges. Out of nearly 6,500 bridges, 760 are labeled “structurally deficient” by the Federal Highway Administration.
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One of those bridges is on Route 22 passing over Chestnut Street in Union, according to federal statistics published by the Star-Ledger. With 95,500 cars passing over each day, the bridge has an abysmal 25.2 percent structural rating.
Another Route 22 bridge, this one over Liberty Avenue in Hillside, has also been slated for replacement sometime in the future. Years ago, the crumbling bridge was known to rain concrete debris onto vehicles and pedestrians on the town’s main street below. The state’s response was to install metal netting under the bridge in 2002 to catch falling chunks.
“[A] dozen members identified themselves as being part of a broad political spectrum. There were registered Democrats and Republicans, and at least one member of the Green Party.
“‘Despite how the county tries to paint us, we have a broad range of people who are just trying to keep county officials accountable,’ said [UCWA President Tina] Renna.”
Union County has settled a lawsuit brought by the Union County Watchdog Association, which challenged the county’s policy for charging an $8 an hour fee for work associated with public record requests.The UCWA was asked to pay the new fee when the nonpartisan group asked for backup documentation on expenditures listed in the county’s check registry. [Read the original Times story here.]
 TINA RENNA being arrested once for going over the public comment time limit during a freeholder meeting . |
The county will now pay a $1,857.45 legal tab, group president and County Watchers editor Tina Renna said.
“The taxpayers now have to add these legal costs . . . to the cost of the freeholder meeting refreshments and travel expenses, the county manager’s mother’s catered luncheon, and his home Internet bills, and various other perks included in the withheld vouchers,” Renna said.
“These types of financial roadblocks are intended for the sole purpose of discouraging tax-burdened residents from demanding accountability from a county government that is clearly out of control and unconnected to the people,” Renna said in an earlier statement.
The Open Public Record Act states that government bills, receipts and vouchers should be made available immediately upon request.
Highlights of the bills/receipts in question:
Freeholder refreshment bills included:
The chairwoman of the Hillside and Union County Democratic committees has been named as a defendant in a lawsuit by a former county employee who says he was the target of vicious discrimination and retaliation by county officials, culminating in his termination from work last year.
 CHARLOTTE DeFILIPPO: Named in civil rights law suit. |
The explosive suit — first reported by the County Watchers — provides a rare glimpse into the inner workings of Union County government, with the Democratic Party leader Charlotte DeFilippo calling the shots and those who fall out of favor with party officials being subject to vindictive repercussions, the suit alleges.
In the suit filed in May in Union County Superior Court, Robert J. Travisano, 61, a former manager in the Union County Department of Economic Development, claims county officials targeted him based on his age, disability and politics. He is suing the county for violating his civil and constitutional rights and for emotional distress and is seeking unspecified back pay, lost wages, pension contributions, punitive damages and legal fees.
In 2006, Travisano, an 18-year veteran with an outstanding record, was put on a layoff list as part of a county plan to replace older workers with cheaper, younger employees. Soon, County Manager George W. Devanney “embarked on a malicious campaign to force Mr. Travisano to quit because they knew his ultimate lay-off was not justified,” the complaint reads.
That “campaign” included DeFilippo — the Union County Improvement Authority director — who harangued Travisano’s sympathetic boss and referred to Travisano, who suffered from facial paralysis, as “the man with the crooked face.”
DeFilippo and gang’s “animus” toward this employee seems to have been either partly or entirely based on Travisano’s dealings with former county manager Michael LaPolla, who had a “fractured” relationship with Devanney “based upon their association with different and competing political factions within the Democratic Party.”
According to the suit, the chain-smoking DeFilippo “summoned Devanney’s political rival, Richmond LaPolla, the brother of Michael Lapolla ,to her home for a meeting regarding County business, and demonstrated her unlawful animus toward Mr. Travisano when she maliciously asked him why his family was ‘so loyal to the man with the crooked face.'”
DeFilippo — who is considered one of the most powerful political figures in the state — “often told Mr. Richmond LaPolla who to hire or fire and what consultants to use within the County,” the complaint says.
LaPolla was allegedly told by DeFilippo and Devanney to further marginalize, demote and embarrass Travisano by taking away his county-issued truck, laptop and home computers on top of transferring him to another job and moving him from his spacious office into a small cubicle.
When LaPolla refused, Devanney reportedly told him he would have to because his “open defiance would make him appear weak.”
In addition to DeFilippo and Devanney, the suit also names the Freeholder board, Elizabeth Genevich, the deputy manager of Administrative Services, and Alfred Faella, director of the Department of Economic Development.
DeFilippo will be defended by the Improvement Authority’s moneybag lawfirm DeCotiis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Wisler. Among the authority’s Democrat stalwart board members is former Hillside councilman Samuel T. McGhee.
Want to know just how Union County is wasting your money? It’ll cost you extra to find out.
That’s why the Union County Watchdog Association is suing the county in Superior Court, claiming county officials are improperly charging citizens an $8-an-hour fee for public records requests. The fee is on top of fees charged for making copies of documents.
The association was told about the hourly rate when it sought backup documentation for reimbursements put in by county employees and officials, writes UCWA President Tina Renna on her County Watchers blog.
Among the reimbursements are $1,112.78 to the county manager, $519.78 to the sherrif, 11 vouchers totaling $3,857.02 for “refreshments” including $1,773.75 for Gourmet Dining and a $42 cake, and a voucher for $1,200 representing the cost of indoor plants, the County Watchers report.
County mouthpiece Sebastian D’Elia told the Star-Ledger that “this looks like just another frivolous lawsuit, another monumental waste of taxpayer money.”
He was referring to the request for information, not the reimbursements.
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