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EDITORIAL:
Following the Money Trail
By Joe Renna, Candidate for Freeholder
"Pay-to Play". I am raising this issue as an example of a policy that the Freeholders can easily change and result in saving the County millions of dollars and receive better value for our money.
Contributions are public record as well as all the companies that have contracted to do work with the County. Not only can these businesses be found on the contributors' lists but people employed by these businesses can be as well. Unless you know the names of the principals and employees of companies it is impossible to check this out. Some searches reveal that campaign contributions were made from the same address to different committees under different names and combinations of names.
Companies don't have to contribute directly to the local government they are working with. They may donate to a committee elsewhere in the state and that committee can transfer the funds to another. Connecting the two lists is very difficult.
Like I mentioned before, there is nothing illegal about giving contracts to companies that donate to your campaign fund, but, in the interest of the county, why do it?. Why isn't it dealt with openly? I think it is a bad practice, especially when no bid contracts are involved. There is no way to know if the county is receiving the best service for the lowest price. Even some contracts that are supposed to go through the bid process somehow are able to skirt around it. It is almost impossible to find the money trail for some work done for the County.
My background is in printing. I first stared looking into this issue when I owned my own business and was doing work for the County. Printing had to go through a bid process and I could never figure out who was getting the printing work and at what cost. Even today while doing research for my campaign, I noticed that the County gave printing jobs to Royal Printing In Jersey City. There are about 100 printers in the County of Union. It is questionable why the County went to Jersey City for a simple print job. Why not keep the business in our own County? Did the job go through the bid process? Was this the lowest price we could have gotten the printing done for? These are simple question that should be asked of any contract.
It didn't surprise me that Royal Printing turned up as a Democratic campaign contributor. Even if I remove the political aspect of the situation, I still think that this is bad management. And this is small potatoes. When I look into contracts upwards to the million dollar mark then the matter becomes very serious.
On March 13, 2003, Worrall newspapers reported "at least a third of the contributions to the Union County Democratic Committee last year came from firms, or people connected to firms, that do business with Union County government."
In 1999, I conceived and produced a newsletter for the Union County Alliance (UCA) called Directions. The County of Union would be supplying the information and the UCA would be paying for the job, so no bid was needed. The UCA operated on money given to them by the County and used some of it to produce this newsletter. I gave a quote to the UCA to print and mail the newsletter but I did not get the job. It went to a printing broker doing business as SVO Printing in Rockaway, NJ. SVO printed the first two issues. I would have liked to have done the print job and thought I was very competitive in my quote, but I was happy with at least doing the production.
Last year I came across a receipt that showed that UCA paid $40,000 more for the printing than I quoted. The owner of SVO happened to be Rich Stender, husband of Linda Stender who was a Union County Freeholder and who also sat on the Board of Directors of the UCA.
It would take a legal expert to know what the legal and ethical implications of what went on with this job but as a citizen it raised allot of questions in me. For instance would this be considered taxpayer's money or is it once removed because UCA paid for the job? Was there a conflict of interest because Linda Stender was a sitting Freeholder and on the UCA board? Was any of the money used in Linda Stender's campaign when she ran for the assembly seat she won?
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY'S MONOPOLY
The problems in Union County, as they relate to the government, stem from the control of the Freeholder Board by one party. In Union County's case, all nine Freeholders are Democrats. The Democrats enjoyed the majority power for nine straight years. The climate of the government over the years has been overcast by the party politics to a point where a hurricane is brewing. The winds are so strong that debris if flying and now it's hitting people.
The problems stemming from an autocratic system, as in Union County, compound to a point where they are unmanageable. The environment created by the Union County Democratic Committee has blanketed the Board of Freeholders. The power of the Freeholder Board lies with the party not the elected officials. The situation has gotten to a point that the party has such a stronghold on the electorate that the election of their selected candidates is almost guaranteed.
This system has caused problems within the ranks of the party. Democrats not in lock step with those controlling the party are alienated. Individuals wanting to participate in government, be it as an elected official or an employee, feel pressure to maintain a persona grata status. Democrats who do not succumb to the pressures, and do what they feel is right, are denied fair opportunity in their government job along with opportunity to run on the party line. This didn't leave many options. Some took the consequences of not selling out, through a job change, or by losing the party's endorsement. Most stayed working and went along to get along.
The ability for County employees to work diligently has been diluted. Union County Government does not work efficiently. There is a tremendous amount of waste and it leads a trail to the coffers of the Union County Democratic Committee. The $340 million County budget has been used to leverage both financial and political support for the party. This secures the chances that the Freeholder Board will retain their absolute power.
The eye of the storm is upon us. If granted another year of business-as-usual our County government will be ripped from its foundation. People must turn out on November 4, 2003 and vote for a change.
Joe Renna is an independent candidate foe Union County Freeholder in November.
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