News
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
January 31, 2014
Hon. Patrick Scaglione, Director, and members of the
Somerset County Board of Chosen Freeholders
(via e-mail only to
Dear Director Scaglione and Board members:
In response to my Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, I obtained the minutes of five of the Board's recent nonpublic (executive or closed) meetings. For your ready reference, I have placed those minutes on-line here.
Several of the matter discussed do not appears to fall within any of the N.J.S.A. 10:4-12(b) exceptions. As you are aware, the Open Public Meetings Act requires all Board discussions to be held in public unless one or more of the N.J.S.A. 10:4-12(b) exceptions, construed strictly against closure, apply. Following is a list of some of the topics that I believe could have been discussed with the public in attendance.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Donna Faulkenberry, President and members of the
Spotswood Board of Education
105 Summerhill Road
Spotswood, NJ 08884
(via e-mail only to Board Secretary Mark Resnick at
Dear President Faulkenberry:
While I appreciate the fact that the Board posts its nonpublic (i.e. closed or executive session) minutes on its web site (most public bodies do not), I think that the minutes themselves fall far short of the "reasonably comprehensible" standard required by N.J.S.A. 10:4-14. As an example, please see the Board's April 23, 2013 nonpublic meeting minutes here.
First, they are not even labeled "Minutes" but rather as a "Resolution for Executive Session."
Second, they contain some boilerplate language followed by the only substantive portion which reads, in its entirety, "The Board discussed a contractual matter." Do you think that the "reasonably comprehensible" language in N.J.S.A. 10:4-14 requires, at a minimum, the identities of the parties to the contract under discussion?
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
On January 13, 2014, Clinton attorney Walter M. Luers filed an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) lawsuit on my behalf against the New Jersey Governor's Office. The complaint, letter brief and other papers filed in Paff v. Office of the Governor, Docket No. MER-L-66-14 are on-line here.
- Details
- Written by: Mark Lagerkvist
- Category: Selected Blogs
There’s a ‘Heck’ of hypocrisy in Chris Christie’s call for disability pension reform during his State of the State address.
“Our pension system is burdened by some who collect disability retirement because they claim they are ‘totally and permanently’ disabled, but are now working full-time,” said New Jersey’s governor, ignoring the problem in his own office.
Adam J. Heck, one of Christie’s state lawyers, has collected a $110,000 salary plus nearly $45,000 a year in tax-free disability retirement checks from the state.
At age 28, Heck retired as a Middletown Township police officer in 1993. He was struck on the hand with a hockey stick while responding to a domestic dispute, according to state pension records.
Heck is one of 18 ‘disabled’ state employees who double-dip $2.2 million a year – $1 million in tax-free accidental disability pay plus $1.2 million in salaries – named in a New Jersey Watchdog investigative report last year.
- Details
- Written by: Ed Krayewski
- Category: Selected Blogs
Yesterday, I wrote about the burgeoning Chris Christie scandal (please don’t call it #bridgegate), involving the apparently retaliatory nature of several lane closings on the George Washington Bridge last September. Christie was accused of creating a traffic jam to get back at the mayor of Fort Lee, a Democrat who declined to endorse him in his re-election bid. Christie initially laughed off the allegations, claiming the lane closures were part of a “traffic study.” My original first line for that blog post was “Governor Chris Christie may have shown how Jersey politics can rival the Chicago style,” but I excised it because, well, the scandal was about Christie, not President Obama.
Read the full story on Reason's Hit and Run Blog...
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
New Jersey Police Accountability Project of the
New Jersey Libertarian Party
P.O. Box 5424
Somerset, NJ 08875
January 6, 2014
Internal Affairs Unit
Highland Park Police Department
222 S. Fifth Ave.
Highland Park, NJ 08904
(Via webform submission)
Dear Sir or Madam:
I chair the New Jersey Libertarian Party's Police Accountability Project and ask that you accept this letter as our Internal Affairs complaint. We would like your agency to investigate whether Lieutenant Gary Panichella and other officers and personnel employed by your agency acted in accordance with department policy and the law regarding a September 18, 2008 incident involving Jerome Shaw and Ada Knowles.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Judge O'Connor significantly revises her "generator" decision
Judge O'Connor called both attorneys in Paff v. Warren County Prosecutor's Office today and held a Case Management Conference via telephone at 4 p.m. today (Monday, December 23, 2013). The judge's purpose in calling the conference was to modify her previous order so that the identities of the official(s) who misused the county-owned generators would also be redacted from the documents that will provided in the case.
O'Connor's December 18, 2013 order stated that the Prosecutor's office "shall redact from the documents the names of any person who provided a statement to [the Prosecutor's office], as well as his or her position of employment, birth date, home and cellular telephone numbers, home address, and any personal identifier."
Economist and former Libertarian nominee for Governor, Murray Sabrin, has written and produced the documentary "The Federal Reserve: 100 Years of Boom and Bust." Watch the entire documentary below.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Free-market Capitalism has helped a great many people who have been poor and down and out, move up the economic ladder, move up in mobility and has fostered the creative power and genius of individuals far better than other economic system that has existed and failed such as socialism, communism, fascism and feudalism. Capitalism as a system is not, nor it has ever been, a four letter word as some people would have us believe. However, what is an abomination to free-market capitalism, and freedom overall, is crony capitalism.
Crony Capitalism (Or State Capitalism as it is also called) entails government enacting laws, rules, regulations, tax monies and favoritism to one business over another. For example, if a small pharmaceutical company had founded a medicine to cure cancer and went to the Food and Drug Administration to get it approved, a bigger company with vast resources, money and lobbyists can influence am FDA bureaucrat or a politician to sit on the approval for years or reject it entirely. Another example would be when a regulation is enacted that forces smaller companies into compliance so that bigger companies do not face head to head competition. Or, when tax monies are given to companies because they are politically favored or to keep these companies afloat so they do not have face situations like bankruptcy or reorganization when the market is not to their liking.
Crony Capitalism, State Capitalism, is the norm in countries such as Argentina, Communist China, France, Italy and, sadly, the U.S. If people should be outraged and angry that anger should not be directed at Capitalism, but at governments the choose winners and losers. By showing no favoritism of one entity over another, society, freedom, the economy and free-markets can flourish. It is only when Crony Capitalism occurs that everything stays stagnant and stale. When government practices economic neutrality, equality of opportunity can bloom, and that is what real capitalism is all about.
- Details
- Written by: Jeffrey Morgenthaler
- Category: Latest News
Today is the 80th Anniversary of the repeal of Prohibition of alcohol! Celebrate by having a drink of your choice today.
From http://www.repealday.org/:
What is Repeal Day?
The turn of the twentieth century was a dark time in America. The Women's Christian Temperance Union, which had been promoting Prohibition for many years, believed alcohol was the cause of many, if not all, social ills. Mistruths like this were spread. Lines were drawn. Bars and taverns were vandalized. People were killed. On January 16th, 1919, Congress passed the Volstead Act, outlawing alcohol and ostensibly putting an end to drunkenness, crime, mental illness, and poverty.
Ironically, America's thirst for alcohol increased during Prohibition, and organized crime rose up to replace formerly legal methods of production and distribution. While proponents of Prohibition argued that the amendment would be more effective if enforcement were increased, respect for the law diminished and drunkenness, crime and resentment towards the federal government ran rampant.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
On Monday, April 8, 2013, I reported that Oaklyn Borough (Camden County) Councilman Ronald C. Aron, who also serves as a police officer in nearby Haddon Township, had sued in Superior Court to challenge a police disciplinary charge that had been lodged against him.
In the same blog entry, I also reported that Aron had settled his lawsuit and appeal with the Township and agreed to: a) plead guilty to "conduct detrimental to the good order of the police department," b) accept a 10 day unpaid, disciplinary suspension, c) forfeit 80 hours of accrued sick time and d) accept a "one year demotion from the rank of sergeant to patrol officer" which had already been served.
What I didn't know then, but have subsequently learned, is the nature of the conduct that caused the disciplinary action to be taken against Aron.
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Something interesting is going on with the Wildwood Crest Police Department. I've been submitting Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests to try to find out what's going on, and this is what I've found out so far.
On October 24, 2013, the Wildwood Crest Board of Commissioners passed Resolutions 1131-13 and 1132-13, which, respectively, a) hired Joseph Beisel as a "special outside investigator for purposes of conducting an internal affairs investigation concerning employees administrative proceedings," and b) hired William G. Blaney, Esq. to perform some unspecified, but apparently related, services regarding the same investigation. Yet, according to Borough Clerk Janelle M. Holzmer's November 26, 2013 responsive e-mail "no contract was entered into for Mr. Beisel."
- Details
- Written by: John Paff
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
Mayor Carl Groon, and members of the
Wildwood Crest Borough Commission
via e-mail to
Dear Mayor Groon and Commissioners:
In response to a recent Open Public Records Act request, I received redacted minutes from the Board's November 18, 2013 nonpublic (i.e. executive or closed session). I have placed these minutes on-line here.
I invite your attention to the sentence within the minutes that states that "[d]iscussion was also had regarding the hiring of a special investigator." As you know, this special investigator was hired to investigate a police internal affairs matter. The rumors circulating throughout the Borough are that the investigation relates to a police employee who has earned the rank of lieutenant or higher. Regardless of the truth of these rumors, this is a matter of great public interest and it's very important that there is sufficient information available so that Borough voters and taxpayers, at least at some point in the future, can understand the nature of the investigation and draw their own conclusions as to whether the Borough's elected and appointed officials acted reasonably.
- Details
- Written by: Webmaster
- Category: Open Government Advocacy Project
John Paff was interviewed on Channel 9's "Chasing New Jersey" news program regarding the lack of transparency at the Port Authority of New York/New Jersey. This aired last night.
- Details
- Written by: Jay Edgar
- Category: Latest News
Steven J. Uccio and the New Jersey Libertarian Party invite you to give Heat for the Homeless!
In Lakewood, NJ there is a community of about 100 people who live in a wooded area called "Tent City." These people have no where else to go and are not asking for any assistance from the local government. They live in tents, shacks, and are supported by mostly private charity to better themselves.
- Details
- Written by: Mark Richards
- Category: Letters to Editor
'Our View' editorial draws reaction
Suburban Trends
‘Our View’ editorial draws reaction
Dear Editor:
In your "Our View" editorial ("What do Republicans and Democrats look like?") in the Sunday, Nov. 10 Suburban Trends, you mention "the need for moderates or least not the ideologically-driven to stand up and help put an end to the endless partisan bickering." Isn’t that another way of saying that political leaders of both parties should be "wishy-washy" and not stand up for any real principles or convictions?
In the 1850s would you have approved of politicians who took a "moderate" stand regarding the expansion of slavery unto the Western territories? Or if it was the early 20th century would political leaders who only took a "moderate" stand on women getting the right to vote, have met with your approval? Somehow I doubt it!
- Details
- Written by: New Jersey Watchdog
- Category: Police Accountability Project
Originally published at newjersey.watchdog.org - republished under agreement. Investigative reporting by Mark Lagerkvist.
Double-dipping Sheriff Michael Saudino will ride again in Bergen County at taxpayers’ expense.
Armed with $100,000 in campaign cash, Saudino outgunned Democratic challenger James Mordaga at the polls last week. The victory assures the sheriff of nearly $268,000 a year from public coffers – $138,000 in county salary plus $129,984 from pension as retired Emerson Township police chief – for another three-year term.
Not only that, but Saudino’s posse of four undersheriffs are also double-dippers. Together, the five officials rake in nearly $1.1 million a year – $583,000 in salaries plus $512,256 from pensions as retired cops.
- Details
- Written by: Alex Pugliese
- Category: Selected Blogs
Over a period of decades, there have been political candidates and politicians that have campaigned at the federal level that have promised that if they were elected into office that they would “reform Washington,” only to discover that it is they who are reformed by going native, succumbing the D.C. culture and its way of doing things. It has become increasingly clear that if reform is going to take place, it would have to come through the people and through their elected representatives in the state legislatures in all fifty states. Under Article V of the U.S. Constitution, with the help of two-thirds of the states, a convention can be called for the purposes of introducing new amendments to the Constitution. Three-fourths of the states would be required to ratify them. If one state can get the ball rolling, I believe that other states would follow.