"I wasn't kissing her, I was whispering in her mouth."
- Chico Marx to his wife when caught kissing a showgirl backstage.

This morning (June 1), Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes has a place of prominence on the front page of the Bergen Record. This time it's not just another photo op or vanity piece. Quoting reporter Maya Kremen:

Mayor Michael Wildes has stocked Englewood’s Planning Board with campaign contributors and personal friends who have, in turn, voted for projects presented by other friends and donors.

In response, Wildes makes blanket denials, claiming, "There's no connection between contributions and appointments." For this and other boldly absurd statements, our Mayor earns the ER's very first CHICO Award.

Of course, those who have been following Mr. Wildes' political career find this neither new nor surprising.

One of Englewood's latest development controversies actually dates back to 2002, when Mr. Wildes was a councilman. At that time, Councilmen Wildes and Drakeford voted to give a generous tax abatement to the Town Centre developers. Now the chickens are coming home to roost. According to the Bergen Record:

City officials say they learned of the tax abatement deal with Towne Center after its developers, The Real Estate Equity Co., claimed they were overcharged $294,500 in taxes this year. Interim City Manager Bob Casey informed officials about the claim in a memo this week.
"Obviously this is an explosive issue, but all we can do is clean up the actions taken in 2002 so that they conform to the law and/or minimize the financial impact on the city," he wrote.

Since this news broke, Mr. Wildes has been trying to duck responsibility for his 2002 vote with his now familiar "The Buck Stops There" defense, saying:

The city manager and the professionals were pointedly clear that this was an overwhelming financial win for the city. 

What Mr. Wildes fails to mention is that he also accepted thousands in campaign donations from Town Centre developers (Atlantic Realty).

Whoops. 

In talking about this latest tax fiasco, it is clear that Wildes and Drakeford would rather spin themselves as unwitting, feckless rubber stamps than political enablers.  Quoting Drakeford: 

... it was not up to council members to parse the details of development agreements.  We have an attorney, we had a city manager and they — as far as I can see — they recommended a proposal... We relied on the professionals to give us the best advice at the time.

Yet, it's hard to believe that dodgy decisions like the 2002 tax giveaway are merely cases of Wildes' and Drakeford's gullibility and incompetence.  Just last year, Wildes' stacked Planning Board passed a resolution that would allow developer HKT to change its Route 4 South project from condos to rentals.  This deal would have resulted in yet another loss to Englewood taxpayers worth an estimated $2 million per year. Fortunately, the current Council immediately threatened legal action and remediated the problem, getting back the millions Wildes and his Planning Board had given away. 

As The Englewood Report previously recounted, Bergen County Boss Joe Ferriero was the attorney for HKT, the developer of the South of Route 4 project.  As well, Michael Kasparian, the K of HKT, employed Mr. Ferriero as his personal attorney and, later, hired then-Councilman Doug Bern as Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority (BCUA) attorney.

So why would Wildes attempt to curry favor with Boss Ferriero? As Wildes' very own campaign manager David Sivella explains:

Joe Ferriero controls the money going to Democratic candidates for county offices the way the player with the most real estate in Monopoly has all the cash come to him...the valuable real estate is Column 1 [on the ballot], the party line. He owns it, and when you land on it, if you want to be there, you have to pay a hefty price.

This primary season, voters have the chance to take a stand against these inside traders and back scratchers. We have the opportunity to cast our votes for Real Bergen Democrats Scott Reddin (Third Ward) and Ken Rosenzweig (First Ward). The local candidates in Column 3, The Real Bergen Democrats, have taken a stand against the continual onslaughts of inside traders, self seekers and their marketers.

As well, voters in District 1-1 should write in Dr. Earl Marsan for Municipal Committeeman in place of the beloved, but now deceased, Wally Reid. Dr. Marsan has a long and distinguished record of volunteer service to Englewood, both as a member of the Board of Health and as a past candidate for public office.

Less than two years ago, First Ward Councilman Rosenzweig was supporting Michael Wildes in public appearances during the Mayor's bid for a second term.  Now that the Councilman is running for his second term, the Mayor has reciprocated by running Anita Sniderman, the Mayor's own longtime, paid "executive assistant," against Rosenzweig in the primary.  Why has the Mayor decided to undermine his former friend and do such a painfully obvious power grab?

Clearly, Dr. Rosenzweig has delivered on his promise to serve the public interest over political and special interests.  In so doing, the Councilman has had to oppose Mayoral actions deemed not in the interest of Englewood.  Notably, Councilman Rosenzweig helped overturn the sweetheart tax deal the Mayor's Planning Board gave the Rt. 4 South developer -- a corporation originally represented by none other than County Democratic pay-to-play Boss Joe Ferriero.  In taking this courageous and responsible action, Ken Rosenzweig, Scott Reddin and the Council majority got millions of dollars of tax relief for the people of Englewood.

It is clear to Mr. Wildes, and anyone paying attention, that currying favor with Joe Ferriero is the key to political advancement in Bergen County.  This is not idle speculation. In the last update of The Englewood Report, we quoted David Sivella, Wildes' 2006 Mayoral campaign manager:

Joe Ferriero controls the money going to Democratic candidates for county offices the way the player with the most real estate in Monopoly has all the cash come to him...the valuable real estate is Column 1 [on the ballot], the party line. He owns it, and when you land on it, if you want to be there, you have to pay a hefty price.

In the past, Mr. Wildes actually tried to advance himself by opposing BCDO Boss Ferriero and the Boss's friend, Jack Drakeford. After all, Wildes had -- and still has -- enough cash to fund his own campaigns without the Boss's money.   But, that tactic clearly didn't work, as Wildes still needed the ballot position that the Boss controls. 

In 2005, Wildes had apparently decided that if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, cozying up to the Boss in a failed attempt to advance himself to the Assembly.  Since then, our City has had to endure the Mayor's continual and brazen attempts to use his mayoral appointments, bank account and marketing machine to purge City government of those who do not serve his BCDO ambitions.  Last year the Mayor used his Planning Board/developer pal Marvin Anhalt to oppose Real Bergen Dem Charlotte Bennett Schoen.  This year, he has recruited his staffer, Anita Sniderman, to challenge Ken Rosenzweig.  As well, Wildes purged his Planning Board of independent-minded Fitz Haney and ex-Mayor Sandy Greenberg.  With the Planning Board, the Council and the mayorlty controlled from his office, Wildes might finally be able to reliably deliver Englewood for the Boss without meaningful opposition.

How have the Mayor's continued attempts to purge the Council and permit boards already impacted government in Englewood?  For one, the Mayor's Planning Board now notably lacks qualified experts and architects. According to The Suburbanite (April 15, 2008):

None of the current members has professional planning expertise. And that's exactly what the mayor said he wants.

At the very least, purging agencies and boards of professional expertise on political grounds will lead to "Good job, Brownie" moments. But that is clearly not a concern for a politician who prioritizes proving his worth to the gatekeepers of his political advancement. To accomplish this, Michael Wildes (like George Bush writ small) apparently chooses appointees who can demonstrate political friendship and loyalty to him, not those with professional expertise and independent judgment.

After ten years of trying to propel himself beyond Englewood, Michael Wildes knows he can no longer sell himself as a political boy wonder.  The clock ticks, the years go by and the stark contrast between the Mayor's PR story and his political actions becomes unavoidably clear.  After all, what do you think Michael Wildes stands for?  Answer these two simple questions for yourself:

What has Michael Wildes' core mission been for Englewood?
What has Michael Wildes' core mission been for himself?

After a decade of Wildes in government, isn't it amazing that the first question is so hard to answer and the second so easy?

The Primary is June 3. The Council's 4-1 majority (Rosenzweig, Reddin, Bennett Schoen, Johnson) stand as a veto-proof bloc against our Boss-pandering Mayor. A vote for Scott Reddin and Ken Rosenzweig is not only a vote FOR government by and for the people of Englewood.  It is a vote AGAINST the use of our city and its people as political stepping stones,  bargaining chips and pay-to-play profit centers.

It is official.  The Pew Center on the States report card on governance shows New Jersey to be a cartoon of government dysfunction.

As a March 8 Bergen Record editorial states:

It took years of pension increases, pork, patronage and other profligate spending to get us to this point. Now the state's debt load is almost the size of the budget itself.

Of course, the blame can't just be placed on our elected officials.  We, the people, have been – and pretty much remain – AWOL (Asleep With Open Lids).  We pay taxes not to play, outsourcing our state's political system to Boss controlled pay-to-play machines.  These monopolistic County Party Organizations stack municipal committees with government patronage employees who, in return for their jobs, make their Boss/patron happy.  How?  By rubberstamping his dictatorial monopoly over YOUR electoral choices, the candidates allowed to appear on your party's line.  And, in turn, these candidates do the Boss's bidding on no-bid contract awards and patronage jobs. Slick.

Justifiably, we regular folk tend to see politics like the sewer system.  We know it is vital and that it needs maintenance and attention.   But few of us want to climb in there and deal with it personally.   So the patronage/pay-to-play insiders have the field more or less to themselves.  They reward themselves with contracts, jobs and money -- and it is all quite legal. And it is only remarkable elected officials who are willing to be independent or bite the hand that feeds them.  After all, according to State law, County bosses have a special legal advantage: they can collect up to 17 times more per donor than any candidate is allowed to collect on his or her own!  Isn't that a recipe for loyalty from those running on the party line?  No wonder public financing is an idea pay to players hate.

We at the Englewood Report urge you to dig deeper, inform yourself and friends. Don't just buy the political talking points of the politician/marketers.  Inoculate yourself with a healthy skepticism and familiarize yourself with the Orwellian methodologies the insiders, the Bosses, spinmeisters, trash talkers, PR pros, patronage cronies and no-bid contract profiteers use to manipulate us into electorally ratifying their political power and selfish business plan. 

What to do? 

Short of volunteering to run for an elected position (please do!), exercise a healthy skepticism when reading or hearing political content. Apply such a skepticism to all sources...yes, even us.  So, we urge you to not only view our hyperlinks and sources, but to go further. Seek your own sources of data and facts (not just talking points, spin, assertions, namecalling or opinion).  Share them with us and your friends and neighbors.  It takes more effort, but the easy consumption of political marketing has led to voter ignorance, compliance and confusion.

And that has earned our State its duncecap.

"Do you solemnly swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God?"

The credibility of the word and testimony of police officers is at the heart of our justice system.  If their word cannot be believed, then they are not credible witnesses and their arrests are suspect.

In matters of truth-telling regarding criminal investigations and prisoner custody, we have Englewood officers Scott Jenkins, William Hollenfer and, now, Shawn Bland on one side and Chief David Bowman on the other.  Logically, they cannot all be telling the truth.

No amount of taxpayer money or symbolic reinstatements can paper this credibility gap over.  Without factually resolving issues of personal and professional integrity, the only sure thing is that the Englewood Police Department will be a confirmed refuge for mendacity -- the source undetermined.

In this light, Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes' equivocation in The Suburbanite (Feb 11) is hard to understand:

I hold each officer with the highest esteem but would suggest politics in any department is not productive," he said. "This must end."

Really?  Each officer, even a prevaricator?  Knowing what we know about the unresolved issues of truthfulness in the Englewood Police Department dating back to when Mr. Wildes was a Councilman, how can we make sense of the Mayor's current choice of words?

Only by rewriting it.  Substitute the Mayor's word "politics" with the word "integrity" and the fog is suddenly lifted, making the meaning appallingly clear.

No, Mr. Wildes.  There is no time limit on integrity.  And your assertion that law enforcement professionals who care deeply about their Department's reputation are just playing office politics is hardly holding them in "highest esteem."

The thoroughness and competence of past and current investigations into matters of integrity in the Englewood Police Department should no longer remain cloaked in the excuse that these are, most importantly, "confidential personnel matters."  They are far more than that.

The full disclosure and factual resolution of these matters strikes to the heart of public trust in law enforcement and the intentions, quality, transparency and ethics of our government.

I admit it.

I find the deal struck by the City Manager and David Bowman utterly mystifying.  The handshake agreement allegedly has Mr. Bowman returning as Chief of Police for 6 months and then agreeing to leave the job.
 
What are citizens, police and taxpayers to make of this "deal"?  On its face, it looks like David Bowman will make little more than a symbolic cameo appearance as Chief and be paid generously to just go away.

But, on reflection, should we be surprised?  This "deal" is consistent with way the public sector seems to function in this State, County and City.  Whatever happens, be it waste, cozy deals, corruption, dysfunction, ineptitude, intra-department fights, lawsuits between government people, document tampering (as in the notorious Englewood Lifetime Free Health Benefits Ordinance...whatever…the cost is simply added to the taxpayers' tab. And, predictably, it is sold as a cost-effective public benefit.

For all the money, controversy and posturing, it is rare that any responsibility is assigned or trusted resolution achieved. No matter what happens, every government official or employee --  be they the whistleblower or the accused, the prevaricator or the truthteller -- seems to get back his or her job and get rewarded.

Case in point: in Mr. Bowman's first term as Chief, neither the whistleblowers who made serious allegations nor Chief Bowman, whom they accused, lost their jobs.  In neither case was the truth determined and responsibility assigned.  Instead, the taxpayers ended up just paying them all  -- and generously -- including the lawyers.

Feeling victimized?  Then let's definitely not start on how the public treasury is being used to legally shower our tax dollars on political cronies and donors!

Considering all the taxes we pay, why are NJ budgets increasingly in trouble?  Governments at all levels seem to be black holes into which geometrically increasing, yet strangely insufficient, quantities of public money are poured. Government people seem to continue to write huge treasury checks for each other to go away, to shut up, to cover up, to collect more pay, to up their pensions, to continue working or to retire early -- and with more lifetime benefits than any average taxpayer has a prayer of ever getting.

What to do?

First step: we can stop being played for gullible, manipulatable chuckleheads.  Let's be skeptical of what government officials say and start paying attention to what they actually do.  All we have to do is take a few minutes to occasionally look.  If we do, we'll see them kissing each other while we, once again, kiss our money good-bye.

Manipulation. Bias. Spin. Dishonesty.  American public life is riddled with the symptoms of obfuscation and doublespeak Orwell so vividly diagnosed. A Big Brother-style dystopia has not come to pass, but tools are available to spinmeisters and image-makers that allow them to detach politics from reality on a daily basis.

-What Orwell Didn't Know

Let's face it – we are often too busy to vet the candidates we have to choose from.  So, we generally just "go with our gut," as Stephen Colbert likes to say.  The political class knows this and has developed some very effective methodologies to spin and distract voters from inconvenient facts. These include:

1. Visual Symbols – flag pins, religious symbols, family pictures, photo ops, or even a flight suit on an aircraft carrier.
2. Empty Assertions – "Candidate X is a good man." "Candidate Y cares about children." "Candidate Z is a patriot...a family man...a person of integrity...an animal lover who prays a lot."
3. Outright Deception – Swiftboat Veterans for (un)Truth, Defense of Marriage (and Gay Discrimination) Act, Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (and Big Oil Drilling) Act.
4. Denials of Reality – "I did not have sex with that woman," "I am not a crook," "I did not take the money," "I've never used steroids," "I cannot be bought."
5. Character Assassination (or Shooting the Messenger) – Plamegate, Whistleblower Retaliation, Global Warming Deniers Attacking Gore.

For an example of a local politician putting these methodologies to work, let's turn our attention to Cristina Kumka's investigative article on Vernon Walton in the January 30 edition of The Suburbanite.  Here we find the following facts concerning the developer ERA's political donations to Vernon Walton's campaign fund:

In February 2007, Walton voted to approve a deal between the city and ERA for a $200 million project to be built on the city's largest and most valuable land south of Route 4. At the time, Walton was a member of the city's Planning Board.

...in 2006, records show, Walton reported on a May 2006 ELEC form that he accepted $2,500 from "ERA properties" directly.

Walton refutes the record. He said he never accepted money from a developer with an application on the table.

"That was ERN. That issue was already addressed. It wasn't, period," Walton said last week. Walton said he did speak to someone about the name of the donor on the ELEC form, but couldn't remember that person's name.

ERN Properties of Paramus did not make a donation to the Walton campaign, according to a list of campaign contributions reported by the company.

So, here's a blatant example of a politician utilizing methodology #4, Denials of Reality, after getting caught casting his vote in favor of a contributor's project. In other words, Walton is employing the classic "Who Do You Believe, Me or Your Lyin' Eyes?" defense.

I invite you to read the article and check out how the BCDO pay-to-players are utilizing all 5 methodologies to spin us.

This past week, Bergen County Democratic Organization Boss Joe Ferriero endorsed Rev. Vernon Walton for County Freeholder, making sure everyone knew that the politically obscure Walton would become the first African-American to hold that office. 

The Boss issued this heartwarming communiqué:

What's most important is the Democratic Party has always been a party of inclusion, a party that is there to work for the under privileged, to work for seniors, to improve education.

Well, isn't that special!

Cloaking his BCDO pay-to-play operation in the progressive mantle of the National Democratic Party brand does seem a canny, if baldly bogus, marketing ploy for Ferriero.  Seasoned Record columnist Mike Kelly has joined others in finding their bogometers pinned to red, writing:

How ironic. Ferriero, the epitome of closed-door politics, is trying to portray himself as an inclusive liberal who invites blacks into his circle. Don't believe it.

Walton, who is also a Baptist minister, was a Ferriero ally when he was an Englewood councilman. And that alliance cost Walton his councilman's job. He was defeated in 2006 by another African-American, Gordon Johnson, who just happens to also be a state assemblyman and an opponent of Ferriero's boss-like rule of county Democrats. (Record, 1/20/08)

By announcing his choice of Walton, Mr. Ferriero intends to give Bergen County's first African-American Freeholder the inspiring opportunity to steer no-bid contracts back to Mr. Ferriero's political donors.  Perhaps only in New Jersey could a Party Boss proudly promote this as a socio-political milestone.
But, in our democracy,  how significant is Joe Ferriero's endorsement, really? 

Ferriero's endorsement carries near-absolute influence among the 1,100 members of the Democratic County Committee, who will gather by early February to choose an occupant for the seat... Other candidates may also enter the race. But members of the county committee, many of whom are county employees and elected Democratic officials, are expected to overwhelmingly back Ferriero's choice. (Record, 1/16/08)

It's the least they'd better do for their patron.  After all, they owe their livelihood to him! 

This kind of raw consolidation of power through dispensing patronage jobs, public money and quid pro quos is not new.  And it is not new in Rev. Walton's public sector résumé.

Back in 2002 (Record, 10/22/02), Rev. Walton, a relative newcomer to Englewood, obtained a controversial part-time position as a nebulous "community liaison" for Superintendent John Grieco at $37,500 for ten months' work. What work product was expected and what value was gotten is not known. But Walton's contentious employment was certainly advocated for by Grieco's County employer, Bergen County Tech School Board Trustee and Ferriero associate Jack Drakeford.   

In 2003 (Record, 6/24/04), County Boss Ferriero then enlisted Rev. Walton as an Englewood City Council candidate over the choice of our city's Democratic Municipal Committee.  Englewood's Democrats had selected longtime resident, community activist and African-American health professional Dr. Earl Marsan.  In 2004, (Record, 6/3/04) Ferriero exercised his power over ballot positions by banishing the rebellious Englewood Democrats to the Lyndon LaRouche column (there's that name again!).

In 2004, Joe Ferriero appointed Rev. Walton to the Ramapo College Board of Trustees. At that time, machine Democrats were trying to install Hudson County politico Joe Doria as Ramapo College President over the objections of a broad coalition of students, citizens and professors. (Record, 12/21/04)

In 2007, Ferriero acolyte Mayor Michael Wildes put Rev. Walton on the Englewood Planning Board, where Walton voted in lockstep with Wildes' Board in granting variances and tax deals to Mr. Ferriero's original clients, Hekemian, Kasparian, Troast.  The extraordinary timeline of this project can be seen at our "Duck Test" article.

Rev. Walton's three year term as a City Councilman from 2004 to 2006 was undistinguished.   According to a former colleague, Councilman Walton almost never opened his mouth except to vote with the Ferriero bloc of Drakeford and Bern.  Despite his County machine support, Vernon Walton lost his reelection bid to Gordon Johnson by an overwhelming margin.

I sincerely hope that when confronted with the inevitable conflict between serving the public interest and serving the Boss's interests, Freeholder Walton will choose the former.  But, if history is any guide, he has already seen what other ambitious politicians have experienced: the smoothest and most profitable road up New Jersey's political slagheap runs through a toll plaza controlled by a County Boss. The other road, the road too often not taken, is the risky road of public service integrity and courageous independence.

It has become evident to everyone, including Michael Wildes, that a decade of incessant celebrity photo ops, ribbon cuttings, ceremonial grandstanding, vanity magazine articles, mayoral costumes (including his blue windbreaker with the word "Mayor" emblazoned on its chest) and campaign fundraisers has failed to move him out of Englewood and up the New Jersey political foodchain to Trenton or Washington.  Now, it appears that Mr. Wildes is resorting to some political arson to spice up his aging act.

The most recent faux fire that Wildes has set can be spotted in the pages of the December 22 Record ("Mayor vetoes increase in severance pay"), running as a double feature with the Englewood police chief spectacle he also inflames. In this latest performance art piece, Wildes continues his public attacks on the Council majority for not hiring a full-time City Manager while he actively works to prevent them from having the ability to do so. 

As City Councilman Ken Rosenzweig explains in The Record article:

This (severance package) is to get someone here and not be worried that a couple months later, or a year later, if political winds change, they wouldn't find themselves without a job.

What "political winds?"  Take a look at the following:
 
If Mr. Wildes can draw enough voters into his reality distortion field and fool them into blaming the independent-minded Council for the fires he himself stokes and sets, the stirred up "political winds" might just blow in a Council more friendly to a certain someone that Mr. Wildes desperately wants to impress.  A certain someone who would appreciate getting his pay-to-play crony hired as Englewood City Manager.  Someone who, not coincidentally, owns the particular ballot position on the Democratic Party line Mr. Wildes so desperately covets.  And, if past experience is any guide, our Mayor doesn't want another repeat as the designated fall guy who gets sacrificed to popular and powerful Senator Loretta Weinberg.

Can't you just feel Bergen County Democratic Organization Boss Joe Ferriero's growing appreciation for Mr. Wildes' mischief and showmanship in a State Assembly kind of way?

Here we go again...Lights, camera, smile!

OK.  I personally like David Bowman.  And while I appreciate Greek Tragedy as drama, I like stories of redemption and resurrection better. I was expecting just that after Mr. Bowman's acquittal on criminal charges (Record, 11/19/07).   It would have been great to see David Bowman have the opportunity to either retire with dignity or take the time to check the waters to see if his return would be good for him and for Englewood. 

There is much to admire in David Bowman.  I've seen the former Chief do great hands-on work managing difficult people in public places.  You have to have a great instinct for people to do this as well as David Bowman does. Through the years, I have experienced him as a supremely friendly, calming presence even under the most stressful circumstances. This is a man who deserves kindness and respect.  And, after his long legal ordeal, it is certainly understandable that he wants that kind of treatment.

Yes, he has had difficulties in the past, publicly admitting "I'm no poster boy." (Record, 9/24/00)   And, yes, during his last tenure as Chief we had Police Department personnel issues (Record, 5/6/00), lawsuits (Record, 7/21/02) and expensive legal settlements (Record, 1/3/01).  And, yes,  as Chief his handling of overtime in his department was called "not fiscally responsible"  by Councilman Jack Drakeford, who was also a Councilman when Mr. Bowman was first suspended. (Record, 11/13/03).

So certainly, granted his past travails, Mr. Bowman needed and deserved the support of friends who had enough regard for him to help him realistically assess his options.  In that spirit, I regret to report the following:
 
The Mayor, Councilman Drakeford and others have attempted to promote Mr. Bowman's immediate return as Chief not by lining up broad community and professional support for him, but by opportunistically using this affable man as a political battering ram to inflame passions in an attack on the City Manager and Council.  In doing so, they did not even bother to make a case for Mr. Bowman as someone who might be a professional step up for the Department and the entire City.  Rather, they diminished Mr. Bowman, reducing him to a generic racial litmus test which, if not passed, would -- as some implied -- lead to unrest in Englewood. 

This is a clear disservice to our City and is outrageously disrespectful to Mr. Bowman. To add insult to Mr. Bowman's injury, the Mayor, Mr. Drakeford and others left him hanging and vulnerable.  How vulnerable?

At the December 18 Council meeting, a large number of diverse, uniformed officers of the Englewood Police Department stood in the back of the chambers as the President of their union, Fred Pulice, spoke at the microphone during the public session.  Mr. Pulice expressed regrets at feeling compelled ethically and professionally to weigh in on the discussion on behalf of his membership who were, obviously, concerned about the direction the process was going.  Mr. Pulice stated that a critical mass of the Englewood Police felt that Mr. Bowman's past conduct and violation of proper protocol had disgraced the Department and its reputation.  In a referendum of the Englewood Police Department, 71% of the officers voted "no confidence" in Mr. Bowman as their Chief. The same 71% of the Englewood police force voted in favor of retaining acting Chief Arthur O'Keefe as their leader.

I regret to say that now, no matter what decision the City Manager and the City Council makes regarding who will be our Chief in 2008, Englewood and Mr. Bowman will be poorer for it.  And this lamentable state of affairs rests at the feet of our Mayor who fanned the flames, Councilman Drakeford who stirred the pot and those others who saw fit to use Mr. Bowman as a pawn in inflammatory race politics. David Bowman deserved much better from his so-called friends.

What we are witnessing is the political exploitation of a man, David Bowman, not his redemption or vindication.  And that is a tragedy for Mr. Bowman and our City.

We need public services. And we need people and contractors to supply them. And that can be costly. And the public unions and private contractors are not the problem.  After all, people in the public sector have as much entitlement to personal ambition as those in the private.  Why blame them for getting the best deals for themselves?  But, if you want to know why your state and local taxes are going up and up – and will get worse exponentially – you owe it to yourself to check out The Record series on the pay and benefits of our state's 500,000 public employees.

The balance of power between the bill payers (you, the taxpayer) and the powerful, politically connected payees (public employee unions, pay-to-play contractors and developers, patronage jobholders, insiders) has been radically skewed.  Those entrusted with representing you in negotiations with service providers have a conflict of interest.  Our pay-to-play system allows politicians to use our public money to reward campaign donors. County political parties are the buffers for the transaction.

All politicians need organized support and money so they can fund their campaigns and careers. Unlike most of us, unions, contractors and political organizations are organized and supply the predictable support/money needed.  No one gets something for nothing.  The players know the game and profit from the political system without much interference from the vast number of us, the citizens, who are unengaged. In point of fact, it appears that we "normal people" pay NOT TO PLAY. We want to go on with our private lives.  We don't want to deal with the messiness, ugliness, turmoil and difficulties of the public sphere, so we outsource that stuff. And we hope that everything, from law enforcement to bridge safety, is well stewarded on autopilot.   But, from the national level to the local, that bit of citizen naivete continues to drain the public treasury as it subverts the public interest and puts us at risk.

Here in pay-to-play New Jersey, county political party organizations like County Boss Ferriero's BCDO, connect the private players to public money. County machine candidates get generous funding from County bosses who, according to state law,  can legally collect way more than any candidate (17 times more per donor!). The pay-to-play quid pro quo occurs when the elected machine politicians give the shirt off YOUR back to their "friends" by means of no-bid public contracts and favorable employment packages from your public treasury. This continues unopposed as voter/taxpayers seem disengaged and distracted.  Evidence?  The latest Quinnipiac poll reveals that voters care more about their latest property tax rebates than the corruption that hijacks their money and causes the problem.

The budgetary crisis has evolved gradually.  Years ago, when public wages were lower than those in the private sector, benefits and pensions were an enticement to prospective employees.  Now that public sector wages have more than caught up to the average taxpayer's income, these benefit enticements seem carved in stone  even as the costs for them have skyrocketed exponentially.

At this time, taxpayers seem more apathetic than upset.  But, without an organized demand for systemic change (like public financing of elections), politically plundered public budgets and the taxes that fund them will become unsustainable. How serious is the situation?  When the Governor would rather sell state assets like the NJ Turnpike than discipline the system, you know we're in trouble.

Next time: Public funding of elections

Politics
n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
-The Devil's Dictionary, Ambrose Bierce

In Washington, we have seen the political abuse of the Justice Department. Who doubts that political considerations were behind the midterm firings of US Attorneys?  As well, even the most benign public health matters have fallen prey to politicization.   Former Surgeon General Richard H. Carmona stated that Administration officials discouraged him from attending the Special Olympics because it was founded by the Kennedy family!

In Bergen County, things are no different. On page one of this past Sunday's Record, we find the same old story.

Ever go to Rutherford's Williams Center?  Most likely not.  Apparently very few people in Rutherford do either. Nor do they donate to it.  But County Executive Dennis McNerney, who is on the bergenPAC board (!),  is throwing millions of County tax dollars at it while giving nothing -- ZILCH -- to bergenPAC.  Why be on the board if you won't steward the organization?

If we look at all of this through the lens of politics, the nonsensical starts making sense. After all, the Williams Center is where Ferrierocrat County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson holds yet another office concurrently: Mayor.  The County Machine is generous to its friends.  It'll give the shirt off YOUR back to them.

Let's make this short:

Englewood's Frank Huttle, husband of the Ferriero-independent Democratic Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle, is the founding president of the board of bergenPAC.

Eunice Kennedy Shriver and the Joseph Kennedy, Jr. Foundation founded the Special Olympics.

The Huttles should be proud.  The Huttles are to Ferriero and McNerney what the Kennedys are to Bush and Cheney.

Now, don't get me wrong.  I'd love to see the Williams Center right itself and thrive.  But the cart is before the horse.  County money is being thrown at the Williams Center before it has an artistic mission, an executive director,  real private support and a business plan. Where's the County leadership's fiduciary responsibility to us, the taxpayers?  Don't you need professionals with a plan before you spend our money? 

Perhaps the County Executive and Freeholders would like to deny the political narrative above and prove us wrong.  They could do so by giving as much support to our real/functional arts center in Englewood as it does to the virtual/dysfunctional one in Rutherford.

Is this another example of New Jersey living down to its inferiority complex?

New Jersey has two football teams that play on this side of the River but identify themselves as New York teams.  We have an NBA basketball franchise that is moving out to Brooklyn (!). We have a hockey team that deigned to stay here because it got a $377 million arena, mostly paid for by taxpayers.

And what about culture?

New York City spends over $130 million per year to maintain and support cultural assets.  It has dedicated an additional $800 million in capital funding for these assets over the next 4 years.  The Carnegie Hall board pays NYC exactly $1 per year to lease the world famous facility.  The same goes for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. $1 per year for rent.  Apparently New York City believes that the arts have something to do with the economy, value, soul and spirit of the place.  Recently, they have increased support to even more arts groups.

On the other hand, the entire State of New Jersey, the most taxed state in the nation and the most affluent per capita, spent a total of…I'm not making this up… $18 million in 2006!  Is that an acknowledgement of our dependence on NYC or merely a reflection of our governments' lack of regard for the quality of life, creativity, imagination  and, yes, economy of New Jersey?

Are we really just the clueless "bridge and tunnel crowd"  conned by and voting for our abusers, sleeping in the Tony Soprano State while commuting to more worthy places?  Perhaps we might consider insisting on something more befitting our true nature as NY-independent, energetic people living in a proud, self-sufficient state.

It's time for all of us to make our voices heard in the letters sections of the Record (letterstotheeditor@northjersey.com) and the Suburbanite (suburbanite@northjersey.com ) and in the halls of Hackensack (tpadilla@co.bergen.nj.us and webmchale@co.bergen.nj.us).

We have all experienced the rush of new development in Englewood.  According to the latest Suburbanite, we are in for some more. But once burned, twice shy.  This time, I hope that a more skeptical citizenry will be examining the motives and operations of those political and corporate interests who oversell the cost/benefit ratio of their pet projects.  

But what principles might guide development that supports the health and happiness of our citizens?

A Conference on Urban Planning

I was privileged to attend and present at an international symposium on “Urban Governance and Public Health” hosted by Michel Cantal-Dupart, Professor of Urban Architecture at the French National Conservatory of Arts and Trades in Paris. Readers may remember Professor Cantal from our short video of his tour through Englewood. Englewood residents and leading American public health experts, Drs. Mindy and Robert Fullilove of Columbia University, co-chaired the meeting.

I had the opportunity to conduct a short interview with Robert Fullilove and get his take on the purpose of the conference:

Principles of Urban Planning

During the conference, I learned about Professor Cantal's central principles of urban design, which are well demonstrated in the beautiful and functional capital city, Paris.  Englewood would do well to consider them.  Dr. Mindy Fullilove was kind enough to explain these principles in the following interview:



So how can these principles be applied to Englewood? Here are some examples:

Principle #1. "Open The Perspective"

In other words, extend sight lines and create a sense of spaciousness in the urban environment.

For instance, widening the sidewalks on Dean Street and providing a sense of spaciousness would encourage people to use Englewood as a destination, not just another North/South car route.  Let 9W,  Washington Ave and the Palisade Parkway fill that job. 

Principle #2. "Make Connections"
Simply put, we should create pathways that invite visits to our parks, shops and neighborhoods.

For instance, the alleyways on Dean Street are now dead zones.  They could be made more inviting, encourages people to explore the area of City Hall and bergenPAC.


Principle #3. "Make Investments"
The healthy development of an urban environment calls for cost-effective investment in our parks, public spaces and interconnections. 

For instance, if we are to encourage people to visit bergenPAC and the area around City Hall, it must be an inviting place to be.  Currently, it is simply an ugly, sad parking lot facing the back end of Dean Street buildings.  This is hardly the view City Hall and bergenPAC should be providing.

Likewise, our city should provide maps and graphics that reveal the connections to the great attractions of our city. Such mapping and signage would also help create zones of attraction, such as our restaurant, shopping and theatre districts.

Successful Planning in Other Cities

Cities like Pittsburgh, Pa. are using these principles to change their way of development. For instance, the city's NHL Hockey team, the Pittsburgh Penguins, is working with people in the immediate neighborhood to design, provide and fund development that both remediates past damage and provides benefit to the people who live in the area. One presenter at the conference, Denys Candy, is a organizational community development consultant in Pittsburgh. He discusses this new kind of development in the following interview:

Conclusion

I urge our city's leaders to avail themselves of the connections Englewood now has with local and international expertise.  We needn't reinvent the wheel.  And we needn't leave the future of our city to the economic ambitions of developers and their cozy political advocates.

Last week, a gunman shot 5 people at Ashanti, a neighborhood restaurant in Englewood. As usual, Mayor Wildes' immediate reaction was to play politics with this tragedy. This time, Wildes blames the shooting on an absence of basketball courts in the 4th Ward. Here is Bob's response, as printed in yesterday's Bergen Record:

Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes is shameless.

In response to the recent shooting in Englewood, he asks: "How can we build million-dollar projects and not have a basketball court and an arts studio for children in the 4th Ward?"

Good question – to ask of himself. After all, he has had more than eight years as a councilman and mayor to answer it.

Wildes' Planning Board has provided millions of dollars in tax breaks to the developers of these "million-dollar projects." And unlike representatives in neighboring towns, Wildes has never gotten these developers to build more facilities for our youth. Meanwhile, he doesn't seem to be complaining about the tens of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions he gets from developers.

Most embarrassingly, Wildes ought to know that the 4th Ward's McKay Park has seven lit basketball and tennis courts, along with playing fields, a public swimming pool and an indoor skating rink. If Wildes wants to fight crime and help our city's youth, he should learn what facilities Englewood already has, stop sucking up to developers and start getting developer-funded facilities.

Robert Stern
Englewood, July 11

You can find additional letters on the shooting at the Bergen Record's website. For further information of this tragedy, read this article.

The public realm has to inform us not only where we are geographically, but it has to inform us where we are in our culture, where we’ve come from, what kind of people we are — and by doing that, it needs to afford us a glimpse of where we’re going in order to allow us to dwell in a hopeful present. 

Think about those young men and women in places like Iraq spilling their blood in the sand and ask yourself what is their last thought of home?  I hope it’s not the curb cut between the Chuck E. Cheese and the Target store. - James Howard Kunstler

The rush to convert Englewood into CondoBankMallville has stalled somewhat as the overheated market, over-leveraged developers and oversold taxpayers are cooling to the process.  Exacerbating the costs to residential taxpayers is the continuing granting of variances to projects that take properties off the tax rolls and the special deals given to politically-connected developers.

And what of the stewardship of keystone community assets?

One prominent leader objects to restoring the decimated Little League field at McKay Park while he led the Opening Day Parade to it.

I recommend that policymakers seek both to have non-residential property owners pay their fair share of taxes and  have the City invest in the stewardship of shared community assets.  While this may run counter to the goals of special interests, this is the kind of leadership that supports the common public interest. 

The one thing that market forces won't  change is the trend towards increasing energy costs and decreasing social capital.  Irreplaceable shared community assets like our trees, parks, playgrounds, historical and architecture assets, nature and performing arts centers will become even more important for Englewood in the future.  As a community of neighbors and citizens who live together, we ignore our responsibility to steward these shared assets at the peril of our quality of life.  Let me explain.

The era of open roads, convenient commutes and limitless carbon emissions is over. More and more, the most viable alternative is to stay local — for agriculture, work, recreation, education, health and professional services.

The era of diverse daily, local interactions of neighbors is almost gone. In Bowling Alone: America's Declining Social Capital, Robert D. Putnam traces the continuing decline of civic interaction and "social capital." Americans are becoming increasingly multitasked, segmented and solipsistic, separately confronting our own challenges and seeking our own comforts.   Be it just bonding to Fox News or Comedy Central, the internet, iPod headphones or, perhaps eventually, "virtual reality helmets," Americans are increasingly chosing input to reinforce, not diversify, our individual politics, beliefs and interactions.  A city becomes a community of more than individuals by increasing its social capital.  This happens by working to expand and diversify our social, intellectual, informational and relational networks. The vitality of our public realm is key to making that happen.  It's where we find diverse opportunities to expand the reservoir of spirit, excitement and goodwill necessary for a city to thrive both socially and economically.

If our city is to be more than a site for sleeping, taxing and selling, it will require the stewardship of the "public realm."

What are some of Englewood's keystone public assets and what are the factors preventing their proper stewardship?  I will examine these in my next column.

Last week, the Bergen Record printed an editorial which proclaimed that the Bergen County Republican Party "...needed a leader as smart and pragmatic as the Democrats' Joe Ferriero." Here is Bob's reply, as printed in yesterday's Bergen Record:

“R.I.P. to the Bergen GOP” (Editorial, June 7) states that Bergen County Republicans need “a leader as smart and pragmatic as the Democrats’ Joe Ferriero.”

Really?

The Record has, up to now, put a priority on ethics in government, excoriating the pay-to-play corruption that has permeated and distorted our state’s public sector from top to bottom.

If Bergen County’s newspaper of record holds the view that winners in the pay-to-play game are worthy of emulation, then New Jersey truly is doomed to become no better than a Third World kleptocracy with indoor plumbing.

Record Columnist Mike Kelly asked if county Democratic boss Joe Ferriero and pay-to-players “have no shame” (“Have they no shame?” March 29).

Good question for your editorial board.

Robert Stern
Englewood, June 7

Like the national Republican Party, the Bergen County Democratic Party has been illserved by the Party Machine dedicated to winning without principle. In Washington, the Machine is made up of special interests, cronies ("loyalists"), ideologues, manipulators and well-connected contractors. In Bergen County, Boss Ferriero's BCDO Machine has its political cronies, dirty tricksters, blatant self-seekers and pay-to-player contractors.

When the 37th District incumbents (Senator Weinberg, Assemblyman Johnson and Assemblywoman Huttle) split with the Bergen County Democratic Organization's pay-to-play machine, they were facing a slate of candidates selected by Boss Joe Ferriero.  The Weinberg team, calling itself “The Real Bergen Democrats,” headed a complete slate of candidates dedicated to the proposition that the County Democratic Party brand had to be reclaimed by those who believed in public service, not blatant self-service.

Early polling indicated that the Boss’s slate of legislative candidates was going to be trounced at the polls. Democratic voters knew and trusted Weinberg, not Ferriero or his substitute candidate. So there was a situation -- the Boss had the money and “The Real Bergen Democrats” had the stars.

So, in a tactical move, THE DEAL was somehow made: “The Real Bergen Democrat” team of Weinberg, Johnson and Huttle would be the supermodels heading the BCDO line and Weinberg, Johnson and Huttle would avoid the agita of raising money and pounding the pavement to win their spots in a contested primary.  THE DEAL was spun as the resolution to a “family squabble.” The BCDO pay-to-play machine was safe…for now.

Yet, THE DEAL now leaves courageous Real Bergen Democrats like Sheriff candidate Allen Gailes and reform municipal candidates like those in Bergenfield and Englewood appearing abandoned by the leaders who encouraged them to run.

As Senator Weinberg and her legislative team are now running unopposed in the June 5 Democratic primary, it is my opinion that the important votes to be cast are straight down the Real Bergen Democrats line in Column 1.

By casting votes in The Real Bergen Democrat column, the voters will be sending a message:  Democrats want to reclaim their brand, their principles and their honor from the political manipulators who have hijacked the party.

You are a busy person.  And, like other concerned citizens, you would like to see what is going on but can't make many, if any, council or board meetings.  Well, the New Jersey Supreme Court may have the perfect solution.

Two months ago, our state's highest court ruled that citizens have the right to videotape public meetings.

The ruling was made after the Borough of Pine Hill arrested one of its residents for videotaping a council meeting. The court justices unanimously sided with the resident. In his ruling, Chief Justice James R. Zazzali wrote:

Openness is a hallmark of democracy -- a sacred maxim of our government -- and video is but a modern instrument in that evolving pursuit...The use of modern technology to record and review the activities of public bodies should marshal pride in our open system of government, not muster suspicion against citizens who conduct the recording.

Similar issues have arisen on the federal level. Just last week, Senator Barack Obama submitted a letter to the Democratic National Committee requesting that "video from any Democratic Presidential debate be available freely after the debate, by either placing the video in the public domain, or licensing it under a Creative Commons license." Meanwhile, a bipartisan alliance of advocates, from MoveOn.org to RedState.org, from conservative pundit Michelle Malkin to liberal commentator Ariana Huffington, have called on both parties to make all footage freely available for citizens to watch, share and edit.

Granted the importance of video access on both the local and federal levels, isn't it time to make the content of our own public meetings available to all Englewood residents?

As it stands today, if you miss a meeting, you've missed out. The city council provides little more than the official minutes of each meeting. Important public announcements are printed in the back of the Press Journal in the smallest font available. And with so few residents with the time or energy to sit through Englewood's many public meetings, there aren't many of us who know how local politicians are spending our tax dollars or granting special dispensations to, say, insiders or developers. Perhaps some politicians would prefer to keep it this way.

Yet, there is simply no excuse for this. We live in a multimedia age when broadband internet is widespread and online video access is free. Posting meetings online would require the same technology used by the millions of Americans who regularly frequent YouTube.com and Google Video.

There is no reason why public meetings shouldn't be videotaped and placed online. Our city spends far too much money rectifying errors that could have been avoided with more citizen participation.

Such a program could be administered cost-effectively. In Niagara Falls, New York, high school students videotape and produce a cable access broadcast of each council meeting. Likewise, Englewood could set up a community service program that gives school credit to students who videotape and post meetings online. The program would teach students about politics, civics, video production and multimedia technology while providing an important service to the community.

We are a city of 27,000. It is simply unconscionable that the proceedings of our local government are only available to the two dozen residents who regularly attend meetings. A program that encourages more civic participation will ensure more public scrutiny of government operations as our city's population and taxes grow.

Ignorance is no longer bliss for Englewood. It is time to let the sunshine in and the cameras roll.

County boss Joseph Ferriero recently sent out copies of a column to delegates of the upcoming Bergen County Democratic Organization convention. The column, entitled "For Democrats, Bergen County Spells Success," was lifted from the pages of The Rothenberg Political Report, a Washington-based, "non-partisan" newsletter. I contacted editor Stuart Rothenberg to find out if the mailing of his column should be viewed as an endorsement of Ferriero's political tactics.  The following is his response, which he has agreed to let me share with you:

Hello, Bob.

My comment wasn't meant to indicate my approval of the current political/patronage/organizational system or an endorsement of the way things in NJ work, but, rather, a criticism of the Bergen County Republican Party, with its personality and ideological in-fighting. I would have thought that by now NJ voters would have come to their senses and placed a greater importance on ethics and character, but they don't seem to care about the things you do. That's not my fault.

Folks in NJ are going to have to deal with the state's political culture. I wish them -- and you -- good luck. Personally, I think the system stinks. But I'm just a political handicapper, and I figure that the only way to change things is for reformers to fight fire with fire -- and that means more than writing letters to the letters or wringing your hands about the corruption in the state and the influence of political bosses.

Best wishes,

Stu Rothenberg

Mr. Ferriero is putting up Mr. Rothenberg's column as an endorsement. Yet, it couldn't be clearer from Mr. Rothenberg's reply to my email that he neither endorses nor approves of Joe Ferriero's pay-to-play tactics. In fact, Mr. Rothenberg is merely stating that Joe Ferriero succeeds in a system that the people of New Jersey should end.

Is that really something Boss Ferriero wants to brag about?