Weinberg and Ferriero blast each other over government reform

Four weeks before Election Day, the intra-party battle between State Sen. Loretta Weinberg and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero heated up today after three Democratic state legislators held a press conference to allege abuses by Democrat-controlled “shadow governments” – local authorities that they say have little or no oversight from Trenton.

The main target of the legislators was the Passaic Valley Sewerage Authority, where Ferriero serves as Chief Counsel. She says that the PVSA has spent over $3.2 million on government relations consultants and $12 million on legal fees since 2001 – with about $4.5 million going to Ferriero’s law firm.

Ferriero says that since Democrats have controlled the authority, legal bills have gone down., noting that combined fees for all law firms has dropped from $2.9 million in 2004 to a projected $1.2 million this year.

“I think other public entities should model themselves after what the director of Passaic Valley has done,” said Ferriero, who won the post after his party assumed control of state government. His predecessor was Peter Sheridan, who was the Counsel to the Republican State Committee prior to his appointment as a Federal Judge by George W. Bush.

Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission spokesman Rich Ambrosino said that the $3.2 million paid to government relations consultants was not wasted. Vision Media, for instance, did grant writing work and helped organize events – far more than just producing a news letter.

Ambrosino added that the commission paid $739,000 to Ferriero in 2006, not the $1.89 million claimed in the legislators’ press release. While the number may look high, Ambrosino said it’s not much considering the size and scope of the PVSC.

“With all due respect to the Senator, she throws a number out there that says we spent $13 million in legal fees,” said Ambrosino, who added that the PVSC has the lowest rates in the state of New Jersey. “This is the fourth largest wastewater treatment plant in the US. While it’s easy to add a number up and throw it out there and say ‘that’s a big number,’ I think it’s reckless.”

Weinberg also criticized a $105,000 expenditure on coloring books and newsletters designed by a Democratic political consultant who has a contract with the authority.

“The Messy Marvin Coloring Book” was one of the prime examples Weinberg and her running mates, Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle and Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, used to show wasteful spending by the so-called shadow governments.

“That is the only body of work that was turned over to us,” said Weinberg. “$105,000 for a coloring book for school children who might want to learn more about being messy and one newsletter, also for school kids.”

And while the specter of Ferriero loomed at the press conference, Weinberg insisted that this would be a concerted effort for reform -- not another volley in her long-running feud with the chairman.

”There’s no personal vendetta at all,” said Weinberg. “Democrats happen to control Bergen County, and (Ferriero) happens to be here.”

Ferriero strongly disputed the accuracy of Weinberg’s allegations.

“I think that it is an absolute joke for them to say that this is not political,” Ferriero told PoliticsNJ.com. “That is absolutely so ridiculous and, in fact, their press release is probably the most hypocritical document that I’ve ever seen in my career in politics.”

Sitting in front of two boxes brimming with the fruit of six months worth of formal requests, the District 37 legislators highlighted shadow governments as their first priority for reform. One bill already introduced by Weinberg in 2003 would give the Governor oversight veto authority over the PVSC and many others in New Jersey. And the newly created office of comptroller, they said, should have the authority to review independent authorities.

The legislators highlighted what they considered an absurd amount of spending on the part of public authorities as the centerpiece of their argument in favor of a seven point reform plan that they’d like to see implemented in Trenton against what they called “The Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Government.” This situation, they said, is emblematic of corruption not just in Bergen and Passaic counties, but throughout the state.

Weinberg, Huttle and Johnson say that the Bergen County Improvement Authority – where Commissioners are appointed by Democratic County Executive Dennis McNerney and the seven Democrats on the Board of Freeholders -- spent $1.86 million on government relations consultants and almost $1.2 million on legal fees.

“The authorities are shielded from public scrutiny, and we talk about lack of transparency and accountability. This certainly yields corruption,” said Huttle, who voted to confirm many of the BCIA Commissioners while she served as a Freeholder.

But Ferriero says that the analysis was selective, suggesting that Huttle should be asked why the shadow governments represented by her husband’s law firm were not reviewed. Frank Huttle III is a partner at DeCotiis, Fitzpatrick, Cole and Wisler, a politically influential firm based in Bergen County.

The District 37 Democrats also listed six other areas that they say are in dire need of reform – many of which already have bills pending, like a stricter dual office-holding ban, closing loopholes in the pay-to-play laws and requiring all local government officers to file financial disclosure statements within 30 days of taking office.

The call to ban dual officeholding especially annoyed Ferriero, who noted that Johnson serves as both an Assemblyman and as an Englewood Councilman.

“I think they should start with let’s clean up 37 first,” said Ferriero. “I expect Johnson will be resigning from either his council seat or his Assembly seat immediately. And let’s not forget that Valerie Huttle was a dual office-holder, and so was Loretta at one point.”

Also proposed was the renewal and expansion of Clean Elections program. The program, the legislators said, had worked well for them, though the paper work was a little too complicated.

“It gets people out in the grass roots,” said Johnson. “It gets the people involved in the electoral process.”

Ferriero also criticized Weinberg, Huttle and Johnson for accepting public financing.

“I think that it’s appalling that they are taking potentially $300k of the taxpayers’ money in a race where we have never spent that in a general election, and it is one of the safest Democratic districts in the state,” said Ferriero. “To squander the taxpayer money and take it is an outrage. When we look at cleaning up New Jersey, we have to look at the 37th district first."

And the Democratic County Chairman poked fun at Weinberg’s proposal to eliminate special interest money in political campaign.”

“Loretta Weinberg’s ELEC report is all about special interest money, whether it’s lobbying firms or industries that she regulates,” said Ferriero. “It’s a joke.”

Jim Walsh, program director for New Jersey Citizen Action, said that contrasting sewer commission rates was like “comparing rotten apples to rotten apples.” He said it’s no surprise that the legislators speaking out about the issue are Clean Elections candidates.

“The reality is that half the apple is rotten, and we need to eliminate that corruption from New Jersey and at the end of the day public financing of campaigns is going to give candidates the ability to stand up to these special interests,” said Walsh.

Representatives from the Democratic firm criticized by Weinberg also fought back today. Vision Media Marketing founder Paul Swibinski said that any money his firm earned relating to the coloring book was paid as part of his normal consulting fees. Also, $20,000 of the money paid to Vision Media was used for the news letter’s printing expenses.

“It is grossly inaccurate to imply that the PVSC paid $100,000 for the coloring book and that newsletter,” said Swibinski.

Weinberg has recently faced an ethical challenge from her opponent, Clara Nibot, who said she used Clean Elections funds to file the OPRA requests. But Weinberg said that the requests were made through her own campaign funds before she filed for the Clean Elections program, and that, if she had, it would have been ethical to use Clean Elections funds to gather the information anyway.

Earlier this year, Ferriero considered backing challengers to Weinberg, Huttle and Johnson in the Democratic primary, but in the interests of party unity – and to use his party’s financial resources to unseat GOP State Sen. Gerald Cardinale in the neighboring 39th district – he withdrew the challenge.

Matt Friedman can be reached at matt-at-politicsnj.com.