Nevada News

How does a man who’s “product” is legislation make so much money that he can build up more than four and a half million dollars of net worth?

Its small wonder that Reid believes in the power of government to make things good. They’ve certainly made things good for him. He’s risen from the son of a hard-rock miner to a fabulously wealthy Senate Majority Leader. Being in government, for Reid, has been like finding the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. He hasn’t had to work for money, but he’s managed to acquire quite a lot of it.

But is this what we want? Do we want people who enter politics poor and leave it very rich? Nothing wrong with a poor man being in government. Nothing wrong with being a rich man in government. But to start poor and end rich while never doing anything in the private sector is a clear indicator of trading on one’s position.

And this is why Reid wants so desperately to remain in power – because it’s all he’s got.

The whole of Reid’s position in life has been built on his government office. Wealth, power and prestige, for Reid, are dependent upon his remaining in office. To lose office is to lose the ability to, say, build up another four million dollars. It’s not like Reid has any marketable skills for the private sector – even his skill as a lawyer is probably rusty as he hasn’t done any real legal practice since the 1960′s.

Reid, out of the Senate, is a nobody.

Reid is asking us to entrust him with 6 more years in the United States Senate. Before we do such a thing, it is fair for us to ask: “Reid, how did you become a rich man?”

All evidence indicates that Reid has enriched himself off his government position and unless we get evidence, from Reid, to the contrary, we daren’t re-elect him. Nevada is in trouble and we need leaders who are for us, not just living off us.

An indicted mayor facing federal corruption charges and an engineering firm whose executives were indicted for making illegal contributions.

What could possibly happen when these two are combined?

In February 2011, Birdsall Services Group performed survey work for Cadwalader Park for $3,520, according to documents obtained by The Trentonian in an open records request.

The year prior to the work, Mack received three secret donations from Sea Girt-based Birdsall totaling $5,300, according to a database made public by the Star Ledger.

Trenton Deputy Clerk Cordelia Staton said Friday no request for proposal (RFP) or formal bidding was required because the cost of the project was less than the bid threshold of $17,500.

But the records request from The Trentonian asked for a purchase order of the work performed.

“I asked about a voucher and a (Purchase Order) and finance didn’t have either,” Staton said. “All they could show me was a check.”

A purchase order is required before the city cuts any check.

After hearing of the purchase Friday, Councilwoman Phyllis Holly-Ward said even though a bid isn’t required for work under $17,500, officials are still supposed to get three quotes for professional services.

“I could strongly suggest that there have been many instances where they’ve selected the person they wanted to,” Holly-Ward said of the Mack administration awarding jobs without quotes. “I don’t even know if they even cared about rules and regulations. They just came in with the mind set they could do whatever they want to do with this money.”

A federal grand jury in December returned an eight-count indictment charging Mack, his brother, Ralphiel Mack, and Mayor Mack’s close associate, Joseph A. “JoJo” Giorgianni, with extortion, bribery, and mail and wire fraud.

Mack and his co-defendants pleaded not guilty to the charges, which stem from an alleged scheme to accept $119,000 in bribes in exchange for using the mayor’s influence over the development of a parking garage on city-owned land.

Birdsall hasn’t fared any better.

More than half a dozen of its former employees and top executives have been indicted on charges that they tried to circumvent the state’s election reporting standards by compensating employees for political donations.

The indictments, from March, said the company’s executives allegedly hid more than $686,000 in political contributions by having employees make donations under the $300 reporting threshold then paid them back for that amount

According to a database, employees of the company, Birdsall Services Group, were reimbursed for donations allegedly made to several Mercer County politicians, including Mack, County Executive Brian Hughes, former Hamilton Mayor John Bencivengo and other politicians on both sides of the aisle.

The first executive to plead guilty, Phil Angarone Jr., admitted to funneling campaign contributions through the firm’s employees in November. In addition, he plead guilty to falsely reporting that the company had complied with the state’s pay-to-play law in annual disclosure forms required of companies that receive more than $50,000 in public contracts.

Holly-Ward said the Birdsall work performed in Trenton is another red flag against the Mack administration.

“At this point, everything they do sends up a red flag for me,” she said. “I trust nothing they do.”

The Mack administration did not respond for comment.

APP

Two months after it began offering grants to business owners struck by superstorm Sandy, New Jersey has provided money to eight companies, the Christie administration said Tuesday, blaming the delay on a slow-moving Congress that spent valuable time haggling over the details of federal aid.

At least two of the businesses at the Jersey Shore approved for grants said the money will help them rebuild. They noted they were denied loans from the U.S. Small Business Administration, and they still are fighting their insurance companies.

“Things are very tight,” said Diana Ruggiero, 62, who owns Rossi’s Rent-A-Rama, a business in the Ortley Beach section of Toms River that rents a variety of items to tourists. She was approved for a $50,000 grant. “Every week we try to buy or replace something.”

Gov. Chris Christie is scheduled to visit Rossi’s and two other Shore-area businesses today — Eastern Lines Surf Shop in Belmar and Casa Comida in Long Branch — calling attention to the Stronger NJ Business Grant Program. The $260 million program offers businesses damaged by Sandy up to $50,000, or $250,000 for businesses with multiple locations. Unlike loans, the grants don’t have to be repaid.

In a story Sunday, the Asbury Park Press found that eight months after Sandy, only a fraction of the more than $300 million in government aid earmarked for businesses had reached its target. It has left the mom-and-pop merchants that make up the Shore’s tourism industry frustrated by the red tape and increasingly worried that they won’t be able to save the summer season.
Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak said he expects the grant approvals to pick up momentum. “The program is ramped up and will now unfold more quickly,” he said. “It’s important to remember that, unfortunately, time was lost due to months of haggling and delay from Congress. That lost time at the front end of the aid process has now been added to the back end.

“It’s something the governor warned would happen and explains why he was so impatient and outspoken on the need for Congress to act. So, while regrettable, we are moving forward as quickly as possible to help our small businesses.”

Don Tarrant, 59, of Eastern Lines Surf Shop in Belmar, could use the help. The store that he has owned for 32 years was flooded, and it lost about $160,000 worth of inventory.

Tarrant said he was rejected for an SBA loan, and his insurance claim was denied. He reopened only after cashing in his retirement savings. He was approved by the state Economic Development Authority for a grant for $38,135.

It wasn’t easy. Planning to use the money for working capital and buy inventory, he needed to present invoices and checks in a process that left him feeling like a forensic accountant.

“I do a lot of bookkeeping anyway, so I’m used to the task,” Tarrant said. “But it definitely is time-consuming.”

Scrambling for money
The Shore’s tourism industry has scrambled to rebuild, cobbling together money from savings, insurance payments, commercial bank loans and aid from government programs.

The government programs include: SBA disaster loans that have an interest rate as low as 4 percent; EDA grants for working capital and future storm-related construction; and another EDA program that began Monday and offers low-interest loans.

The Asbury Park Press on Sunday found about 17 percent of the total loan amount approved by the SBA for businesses Monmouth and Ocean county business owners have been disbursed. The EDA declined to disclose how many grants were approved since the program began May 1.
On Tuesday, the EDA said 1,247 applications had been opened, 200 applications had been submitted and 22 grants have been approved for $1.2 million. Of those, it had disbursed a total of $247,067 to eight companies — four in Monmouth County, two in Ocean County and two in Hudson County.

The grant program is designed to make up for the gap in what business owners receive from other sources and what they need to survive. Business owners first must apply to the SBA, as long as the agency accepts applications.

After they are approved, business owners are reimbursed only after sending receipts and invoices.

The money for the program comes as part of the Community Development Block Grant program approved by Congress in January and follows rules set by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Both business owners and EDA officials have said the process is cumbersome.

With little money at their disposal, Diana Ruggiero of Rossi’s said her husband, Robert, has spent his weekends repairing the building, filling a 60-foot sinkhole, and braving cold weather in a town that still is awaiting natural gas. While they lost much of their inventory — cribs, beach chairs, beach umbrellas — they salvaged enough of their bicycles to reopen.

She plans to use the grant to pay property taxes, salaries, utilities and to purchase some equipment.

“It wasn’t all that easy, but I was able to do it,” she said. “You have to have a lot of patience.”

On June 19th the Lakewood planning board approved the Smart Growth plan that has been brought to them many times before as a supposed solution to the explosive growth that Lakewood has experienced.

Included in the smart growth plan was a proposed 3000 units more or less to be added to our already overburdened infrastructure system. I will not go through all the obvious reasons why adding 3000 homes is a burden to taxpayers, a loss to homeowners that have their life savings in their homes, and a danger to those already living here. The purpose of this short article is to discuss how such an obviously flawed plan could possibly get past our planning board. I could go through all kinds of funny little hints and riddles to get my point across. I could say things like "did anyone have any undue influence on two members of the planning board?" and then simply allow people to comment and fill in the blanks. But I thought, why not? Why not just say it? it was the elephant in the room the whole night at the planning board meeting.

The night of the meeting had all those in the audience that spoke out saying the same thing. "How is this a good idea?" Was the general statement. No real answers came. "We have to grow and this tells us how we can grow responsibly" was the answer from one board member. Such an answer seemed not only absurd but rehearsed. Almost as if someone told him to say that in response to any opposition. If you listen to the audio tapes you can faintly hear Shuie Shmukler telling Moshe Neiman that he wants to just vote and go home already. Neiman tells him that they have to at least listen to what the people have to say. But whatever was said fell on deaf ears. It was obvious they were voting yes to the plan, and for one reason only.

There was a meeting.

A meeting with the CEO of BMG in which they were told to vote for the smart growth plan. They were neither convinced nor charmed. They were simply told that there is no other choice. Shmukler most probably did his duty for his future political hopes. He is still looking forward to all of the "perks" that he would be able to get if he were on the committee once it is his turn. And Mr. Neiman? Let's just say he doesn't have the strength to fight someone with as much stamina as Aaron Kotler. John Franklin also voted yes while at the same time warning the board of all the new roads and other infrastructure that we would need to pay for. He obviously also had no strength to fight. One member abstained understanding that his vote was meaningless and another member voted no, not wanting to be responsible for the misdeeds of the planning board.

So in summation, in case I did not make it perfectly clear, the reason that the fatally flawed smart growth plan passed was because Aaron Kotler CEO of BMG had a meeting with Shuie Shmukler and Moshe Neiman and told them to make sure it passes. It wasn't done for the good of the Klal or even for the good of the current students of BMG. It was done, like many other times before, because one man said so.

Hershel Herskowitz

Taxpayers could be asked to support a $100 million referendum to build two new public schools and big ticket improvements including air conditioning and recreation fields, according to township district officials.

The schools are needed to get preschool and special needs students out of trailers at the Early Childhood Center and to replace the Ella G. Clarke Elementary School.

Yechezkel Seitler, a school board member, said the trailers are in disrepair and “there are serious issues with the Clarke School.” He said after a new school is built, the old school can be sold “to offset the tax impact.”

School officials have made no decisions yet but a potential referendum will be discussed further July 18 at the next Board of Education meeting.

The referendum was announced Thursday night at a township Board of Education meeting at which the school board also approved the purchase of five, 54-passenger buses for $400,000 and eight minivans for $161,680. School officials said owning the vehicles could save about $500,000 a year in transportation costs.

The school district spends $30 million annually transporting township school children. The purchase of five full-sized school buses and eight minivans, which seat a driver and six passengers, will help reduce the costs of public school transportation, though the district will never be completely independent of contracted bus routes.

The vehicles will be used to reduce money spent on some routes for public school children, said Gus Kakavas, transportation consultant for the district. The vans will be put to use immediately and the buses will be for the 2014-15 school year.

The buses, priced about $80,000 each, have a three-year lease purchase option. If the district feels it is not saving money after the third year, the buses can be returned with no future costs and the district can return to using contractors, Kakavas said.

The vans will be used to transport children “who are unfortunately displaced and are in a Lakewood school but living in a hotel” in another town, Kakavas said. “The district is mandated by law to provide transportation for a displaced family in crisis. The vans will pay for themselves in the first year.”

During discussion of the referendum Thursday, Lisa A. Gorab, the district’s bond counsel, gave a presentation about the options for funding school construction and repairs using debt service or grants. The state is offering to pay 40 percent of costs in most cases, she said.

If the referendum passes, the district hopes to snag a portion of the $425 million in state funding available to 559 districts.

The taxpayers would be better served to use debt service, which would spread the cost over 20 to 25 years, Gorab said.

Another option would be a short-term loan, which comes with a 15 percent surcharge as well as additional criteria for state funding, Gorab said.

The district has a long history of making patchwork repairs, which eventually lead to higher costs than buying new, school board President Carl Fink said. Recently, the district spent millions of dollars to replace the roof on the Lakewood Middle School as well as making costly repairs to the air conditioning for parts of the township high school.

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