BERGEN COUNTY REPUBLICANS

CALABRESE  HELLER & DUGGAN 

 GOP FREEHOLDERS PROMISE MORE TRANSPARENCY IN COUNTY GOVERNMENT  

Hackensack  At a time when the trend in  New Jersey is to push for  more government transparency, the Bergen County freeholders have been successfully operating in the dark – out of sight of  the public and avoiding criticism of their votes.

Following up on an article in today’s  Record newspaper by Oshrat Carmiel, in which  she detailed the freeholders’ habit of rushing through public meetings, spending millions of taxpayer dollars without discussion or dissent and quickly exiting, the 2008 Republican Freeholder candidates said they will change business as usual in Hackensack and create more open and transparent government.

“The Bergen Democrats have gotten away with operating behind closed doors for so long they think they can do anything they want with the public’s money – and unfortunately  they are doing exactly what they want,” said Jeff Heller, a former Ramsey councilman and first time freeholder candidate. 

The Republicans point out that the all Democrat freeholder board oversees a $400 million budget that doles out millions each year to cronies and Democrat campaign backers – often without scrutiny..

“They are rewarding contributors with consultant contracts  worth millions, with no discussion or accountability for the performance of those contracts, “ said Heller.

The GOP candidates note that recent abuses of public money have ranged from routinely approving hundreds of thousands of dollars in no-bid contracts to engineers and architects – including the brother of Democrat state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-36) --- to $15,000 to  pay for campaign trinkets emblazoned with County Executive Dennis McNerney’s name on them  when he ran for re-election in 2005.

“There is no real scrutiny of how the county spends the public’s money, said Heller’s running mate,  32 year-old Chris Calabrese,  a Rutherford based  business owner. Calabrese  says the freeholders’ defense of their lock step voting – that the discussion  takes place at work session meetings that no one attends – is “political doublespeak.”

“The Democrats hold meetings in the late afternoon when taxpayers are working and they supposedly hash out their differences at meetings that no one attends. Then when it comes time to a public vote, all seven Democrats vote in unison. They want us to believe that this is open and responsible government? That’s absurd,” said Calabrese

“This isn’t open government this is backroom politics raised to an art form,” he added.

Paul Duggan, the third GOP freeholder candidate said the real decisions in county government aren’t made  by freeholder, but by the political bosses who run the Democratic Party.

“Dissent is not allowed in the current county government. Dissenters are either attacked or isolated to the political gulag,” said Duggan, a Bogota resident.  “That’s not giving us better government. That’s giving us a political empire that has to be dismantled.”

TRANSPARENCY  PLAN  

Heller, Calabrese and Duggan say they will fight for more openness in government the day they are elected. “We want meetings televised and webcast,” said Calabrese. “The technology is there to let people know how their county government operates – let’s use it to inform people” 

Heller added that he will work to have county freeholder agendas posted on the county web site 48 hours prior to each meeting. “We did this when I was on the council in Ramsey and it worked well to let people know in advance what we were doing.”

The Republicans also endorse later starting times for county meetings, including work sessions and committee meetings so more people can attend. They also will support  a return to the short-lived practice of moving freeholder meetings to various communities in  the county rather  than Hackensack.

“There are 70 towns in the county, some quite far  from Hackensack. We need to bring  county government to where the people are, and not demand that the people come to the government,” said Duggan.