Bernard Kenny

Senate President Richard Codey says he will not invoke executive privilege in the investigation of the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development Grants program approved during his fourteen months as Governor, and said he will support the release of all documents.

"Although legally we have the right to invoke executive privilege, to the contrary we want this information to be released.  People have a right to know how their money is being spent.  I think the public will see, as they scrutinize these lists, that this money helped support many good causes,” Codey said. “The release of these documents will help clarify many questions surrounding the grant program.

In what could be one of the top political scandals of the year, the Senate Democratic budget staff testified in federal court today that at least two former legislators, Wayne Bryant and Bernard Kenny, each had $4 million in discretionary spending.  The Star-Ledger, reporting from Bryant's corruption trial, says that "masked by an obscure state budget account dedicated to property tax relief, key state lawmakers were given millions of taxpayer dollars to hand out to their constituents as they pleased, testimony in the corruption trial of former Senate Budget Committee Chairman Wayne Bryant revealed today.  The $40 million Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program lawmakers added to the state budgets in 2004 and 2005, was parceled out directly to individual lawmakers for them to spend on pet projects, George LeBlanc, Democratic budget officer, testified."

"To my knowledge, individual legislators were the deciders," LeBlanc told jurors, according to the Star-Ledger. "They were the ones who designated which entities would receive amounts of money from the accounts."

A witness at former State Sen. Wayne Bryant’s corruption trial gave what could amount to blockbuster testimony today, detailing a little-known practice that the legislature engaged in during 2004 and 2005.   

George LeBlanc, a Democratic budget aide, testified that a program ostensibly dedicated to property tax relief was used to hand out millions of dollars to key legislators to spend on pet projects hand out to their constituents, reports the Star-Ledger. 

According to the testimony, Bryant was allotted $4 million from the Property Tax Assistance and Community Development grants program.  The only other legislator named in the report is former State Sen. Bernard Kenny, who also was given $4 million. 

“The testimony contrasts with claims by lawmakers that individual grant recipients had to apply to the state Treasurer for funding from the $40 million pool, and that grants were awarded competitively,” reported Dunstan McNichol. 

Richard Codey will resign as Senate President on Monday so that Bernard Kenny can take the post for the final day of his twenty-year career in the Legislature, according to a report in Sunday’s Star-Ledger.  

The last time the Senate did that was in 1962. Robert Crane, a 40-year-old two-term Senator from Union County (and the publisher of the Elizabeth Daily Journal) was dying of cancer.  He was elected Senate President and resigned two hours later.  He died four months later.

The Senate Democrats have a new version of events that led to state police protection for lame duck Majority Leader Bernard Kenny: now it was Senate Majority Executive Director Kathleen Crotty – not Senate President Richard Codey or the bi-partisan State House Joint Management Commission, as originally reported – that authorized a State Trooper to drive Kenny between Hoboken and Trenton.  Initial reports identified Codey as the authorizing party, but then a Codey aide said it was the JMC.  After numerous inquiries by PolitickerNJ.com’s Matt Friedman, Senate Democrats then said it was Crotty.

Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny

Update: The request to the state police to assign a trooper to Sen. Kenny was made by Kathleen Crotty in her capacity as Executive Director of the Senate Democratic Office, not from the Joint Management Commission, as was originally reported. Crotty is acting chair of the JMC.

If police know what happened to state Sen. Bernard Kenny, they’re not saying. But enough scenarios exist to warrant providing him with protection from a state trooper.

The authorization to assign a trooper to Kenny was given by Captain James O’Neil, who heads up the State Government Security Bureau. It was requested by Kathleen Crotty, Executive Director of the Senate Democratic Office and Acting Chair of the Capitol Joint Management Commission.

Kenny was found by police disoriented and bleeding on a curb with what turned out to be extensive injuries. Although Kenny at first said that he tripped while jogging, police are focusing on the case as a hit-and-run.

Something smells fishy at the State House Joint Management Commission, which apparently authorized a State Trooper to drive Senate Majority Leader Bernard Kenny back and forth from Trenton until his term expires next month.

The JMC seems to believe that Kenny is in need of police protection after he was seriously injured outside his Hoboken home last July. Kenny initially told police he tripped and fell on a pothole while out for an early morning jog. Later, he changed his story, suggesting that he was the victim of a hit-and-run driver. Around Hudson County, there is no shortage of rumors about who may have hit Kenny, and why.

There are not many sure things in New Jersey politics, but here’s one: you haven’t heard that last of Bernard Kenny.  The Senate Majority Leader, who decided to retire rather than fight Brian Stack in a Democratic primary (or challenge Jerramiah Healy to keep his Hudson County Democratic Chairmanship), continues to be the topic of considerable mystery these days as Democrats from Hudson County – and beyond – wonder what really happened on the morning of July 18.  That mind of speculation won’t go away, even after Kenny leaves office in a few weeks.