Harvey Roseff asks tough questions

Citizen activist Harvey Roseff has been asking tough questions all summer long.  He scored a big victory for taxpayers when he organized a ballot initiative that stopped Byram Township from spending $11 million on new municipal facilities.

Mr. Roseff, who once ran as an independent candidate for the Sussex County Freeholder Board, raises so many important issues that we've decided to collect them and update the public from time to time.  This is our first such installment.

Sussex County Freeholder Board

There is a controversy over a key county appointment that revolves around the question of whether or not there should be a vote of the elected Freeholder Board to confirm said appointment.  The appointment is that of Carol A. Novrit, the county's social services director, who was promoted to administrator of the Department of Health and Human Services.  We believe Ms. Novrit to be highly qualified, but as the appointment was made by an unelected official, we must join with Freeholders Vohden and Crabb in insisting that the entire elected Freeholder Board be given the opportunity of a public vote on the confirmation.

We are particularly concerned with Freeholder Director "Boss" Graham's assertion that he doesn't need to do things in public.  The NJ Herald's Rob Jennings reported:

The decision to elevate Novrit, who started her new job Tuesday, was made last week by Acting County Administrator Ron Tappan.

Tappan consulted with the freeholders but did not seek a public vote.

Vohden, near the end of the 21/2-hour meeting, charged that state law required a public vote.

"When did I vote? Where is my consent?" he said.

Freeholder Director George Graham, in response, asked County Counsel John Williams whether the process that was used -- Tappan consulted with freeholders before making his decisions -- had followed the law.

Williams replied that it had.

Undeterred, Vohden said he planned to revisit the situation.

Tappan did not attend Wednesday's meeting.

Should the unelected Acting County Administrator be deciding on an appointment by backroom "consulting" out of the public eye?  That is what public freeholder board meetings are for.  Then he has the balls to skip the public meeting when questions could have been put to him about his behind-the-scenes "consulting" process?  Wasn't this what "Boss" Graham criticized the old county administrator for?  It would be base hypocrisy for Freeholders Graham, Lazzaro, and Rose to allow this and we hope the latter two will stand up to the former and ensure that he allows a public vote.

Mr. Roseff summed it up by commenting:  "A lawyer, seeking his 30% payday by filing a piece of paper for a fee that buys a good lunch, should not be allowed to muzzle a government official. That's the role of a Judge after a trial. Freeholder Vohden - your opinion is why you were elected. Represent the people."

Hopatcong School Board

Referencing the fact that New Jersey has the nation's highest home foreclosure rate, largely because it has the highest property taxes in America, Mr. Roseff writes:  "The BOE rains a foreclosure pox on its people. Hopatcong has had a 33% drop in student population and a 27% local revenue increase in budget over the past 10 years. In a deflationary time, that is a huge local burden increase for an aging homeowner demographic."

Roseff goes on to suggest that the candidates in this year's school board elections should "advocate for an immediate 10% cut in the budget with an additional 15% cut in the following 5 years."

Getting back to foreclosure rates for a moment.  As of August 2016, these were the states with the top foreclosure rates in the country:

United States

1 in every 1388 homes

Top 5 States

New Jersey

1 in every 544 homes

Maryland

1 in every 622 homes

Delaware

1 in every 740 homes

Nevada

1 in every 807 homes

Florida

1 in every 824 homes

Sussex County, NJ

1 in every 325 homes

In Hopatcong, the foreclosure rate is more than double the state's rate, coming in at one in every 219 homes.  Vernon, at one in every 190 homes, is even higher.

Frankford Township School District Board of Education

Earlier this week, voters in Branchville and Frankford approved $1.46 million in new school spending to replace the school roof and upgrade security at the Frankford Township School.  The vote was taken in a special election, called for the purpose, and not at the November General Election. 

The referendum passed with a nearly 65 percent majority -- with unofficial vote counts of 476 residents in favor and 260 against.  There are 554 registered voters in Branchville Borough and 3,911 in Frankford Township.

Harvey Roseff commented:

"Here we have a BOE who derailed public participation. By calling a special election, it organized to avoid the full electorate participation of the November general election turnout. Yet the public's request to have fiscal responsibility is disturbingly countered by the excuse that BOE meetings are not attended. 

This wasn't about 'architects', it was about correctly addressing an out of control tax and spend BOE personality.

At only 520 students, at $20,000/student, this BOE has not performed in the public's interest. Costs have soared - chasing Frankford/Branchville residents out of New Jersey. The BOE overhead and spending needs to right size through a consolidation process."

Stay tuned...

Gray and Gorman are Solar Scam Insiders

Freeholder candidates David Gray and Kathleen Gorman were recruited to run by the three Freeholders who voted for the taxpayer-funded bailout of the Sussex solar project that went bust last year.   That is a fact that nobody disputes.

http://www.njherald.com/story/29199152/solar-project-payments-may-have-skirted-federal-law

Then, those same three Freeholders (Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick) held a big fundraiser for Gray and Gorman.  Insiders from Morris County showed up to lend their support, making Gray and Gorman the candidates of the corrupt Morris County grease machine.  That's another fact beyond dispute.

At Tuesday night's debate, Gray and Gorman lied to the voters of Sussex County when they said that they "opposed" the solar scam. They are supported by the very people who voted for it, the same people who bailed it out, and they are running using the money of the insiders who are responsible for it.  How is that "opposing" it?

This could be the most ethically challenged political team in Sussex County history.  For months now they have been lying in the emails they send out, pretending to be this website and using a false address.  Gray and Gorman have viciously attacked a single-mother, her family, and her children -- and then tried to make it appear as if the attacks came from Watchdog.  Real dirtbag behavior.

But what can anyone expect from lawyer David Gray and his client, Kathleen Gorman.  Gray is being sued under New Jersey's Conscientious Employee Protection Act.  The plaintiff, Juliette Bresnahan, is a single-mother of three who worked full-time as the office manager of David Gray's law firm.   Here's what the lawsuit alleges: 

". . . around mid-October 2015, Gray informed Bresnahan that he received a tax bill for around $62,000.  Gray indicated that he was unsure how he would pay this bill. . .

. . . Gray's directive was aimed at intentionally falsifying and fraudulently increasing the bills to generate more revenue to the firm to extricate it from its current financial predicament."

Read the entire complaint against Gray here.

Freeholder candidate in serious trouble?

Another email was circulated yesterday claiming to be from Watchdog.  Only we didn't authorize it or send it.  The physical address that appeared on the email was false.  It included the town of New Hope, Pennsylvania, in an apparent effort to implicate Senator Oroho's consultant.

In past emails, the address of an attorney from Somerset County, Frank Whittlesey, was listed as the physical address.  Whittlesey works for the Somerset County Freeholder Board and is affiliated with that county's improvement authority -- the same agency connected with the solar deal that has cost Sussex County taxpayer's millions. 

Watchdog has been the victim of several of these emails.  Freeholder George Graham likewise had his identity stolen.  These emails always carry the same message of hate for Freeholder Graham.  He is their target.

Yesterday's email contained a copied column from another blog -- CNJ Politics -- that was pasted into the body of the email.  Watchdog contacted one of the owners of the CNJ Politics website, which no longer operates.  Watchdog explained what was happening and the owner told us that CNJ Politics used advanced software for tracking and identifying its readers.

The owner checked for us and found that CNJ Politics had only been accessed twice since December 31, 2015.  Just two people on planet earth had gone to that website and guess what they had accessed?  Yep, they accessed the exact same column that was copied and pasted into yesterday's email.

Every computer has its own fingerprint.  It's called the IP address.  Using the IP addresses of the two people who had accessed the CNJ Politics website, the owner found that one IP address was connected with the Alcatel-Lucent Corporation and that the other was connected to a location in Sparta, New Jersey.

Alcatel-Lucent was recently in the news, having merged with Nokia in January of this year.

The owner could tell us that the column that was lifted from his website and pasted onto yesterday's email was accessed by the Sparta IP address at 11:48 AM, March 23, 2016, and by the Alcatel-Lucent IP address at 12:04 PM, March 24, 2016.

Below are screen shots of some of the other identifiers CNJ Politics turned over to us.  First, let's look at the Alcatel-Lucent IP address:

Note that the following appears in connection with the Alcatel-Lucent IP address:

URL: file://C:\Users\kgorman\, avg.

Curiously enough, there is a Kathleen Gorman running against George Graham in the Freeholder race.  According to Rob Jennings of the New Jersey Herald (April 3, 2016), "Gorman works as a buyer and planner for Nokia, located in Murray Hill."

Now here is the information associated with the Sparta IP address:

Note that the following appears in connection with the Sparta IP address:

 URL: file://C:\Users\fvohd_000\

We would rather not comment on who this might be.  Sigh.

This could well be a serious matter, especially if Freeholder George Graham chooses to make it so.  Remember that one of these emails actually used Graham's identity so that it appeared as if it had been sent from him.  Two recent cases, one involving a campaign in Passaic County, the other a campaign in Monmouth County, illustrate the pitfalls of hijacking a candidate's identity.

Man pleads guilty to deceptive phone calls (The Record, February 21, 2012)

Prosecutors: 4 A.M. Robocalls In NJ Senate Race Were Placed By Rival Campaign (CBS, New York, August 12, 2014)

Happily, there is no evidence that candidate for Freeholder Dave Gray, of Byram, has any connection to this matter.

Dave Gray praises Oroho's consultant

Poor candidate for freeholder Dave Gray.  He and his running mate need to work on their inter-candidate communication skills.  First, Gray reached out to Bill Winkler, long time consultant to the Littell family and to Bob Littell's successor, Senator Steve Oroho.  Gray asked Winkler to run his campaign. While Gray and Winkler were discussing it, Gray's running mate -- the bodacious and ever flavorful Mz. Kathleen Gorman -- started doing a very public dump on Winkler.  Gray was too late in restraining his teammate (she had already started).  End of discussion. 

But it didn't end there.  Gorman recruited the ridiculous Annie Sprinkle and together they made war on old Wee Willy Winkler.  This prompted Wee Willy to write a letter to the New Jersey Herald, causing further attacks.  Here's that letter:

Mate not heeding the warning

Posted: Apr. 5, 2016 12:01 am Updated: Apr. 6, 2016 6:19 pm

Editor:

In a comment posted under Sunday's column by Rob Jennings, candidate for freeholder Kathleen Gorman warned readers against "well paid political advisors" (the emphasis is hers). I wonder if she realizes that her own running mate, David Gray, personally contacted me on several occasions by telephone (I still have a voice mail he left me, if anyone cares to listen) with a view to hiring me to manage their campaign for freeholder.

We spoke, and I found David to be a pleasant and interesting young man. David told me that in the event that I could not accept his offer, he had planned to meet with the Philadelphia political consulting firm of Jamestown & Associates. Having worked with Jamestown's owner, Larry Weitzner, for more than 20 years, I highly recommended Jamestown to David.

The fact is I simply don't have the time to devote to the Sussex County freeholder race this year. Since 1993, I have fought a number of successful campaigns in Sussex County, but have learned to minimalize my local involvement during a presidential year, when there is so much to do that I cannot give Sussex County the full attention it deserves.

I wish all the candidates well and I am sure that Ms. Gorman will find, in Jamestown, the well-paid political adviser that she and her running mate require.

Bill Winkler

New Hope, Pa.

It also prompted candidate Dave Gray to send his own message of support and praise to Winkler:

From: David Gray <dgray@foremangray.com>

To: "baseline@sprynet.com" <baseline@sprynet.com>

Subject: herald comments

Date: Apr 5, 2016 4:48 PM

Bill,

I just wanted to send you a quick note to say that I have never met, nor have I ever spoken with Ms. Smulewicz – who commented in the Herald on your well-written letter.

Frankly, I have a lot of respect for you and thought we had a good conversation.  You are known in Sussex County to be one of the best political consultants around.  That  is why I called you and I thank you for your time discussing issues concerning Sussex County with me.  I hope to meet you in person in the future.

Best,

-Dave

David E. Gray, Esq.

--

Foreman & Gray, LLC

Attorneys at Law

760 Rt. 10 West 

Suite 204 

Whippany, NJ  07981 

Ph (973) 240-7313 

Fax: (973) 240-7316

ForemanGray.com

We got our hands on this directly from Winkler, who emailed Watchdog, and who doesn't seem to be too happy about being attacked and not being paid for it.  "I don't even have a candidate in the race," he wrote, adding, "Do you think they have a fetish concerning me?  It's like I'm being stalked! Could I be the focus of their bizarre fantasy?"   

Winkler's email referenced a further attack on him by a website some say is run by Freeholder Rich Vohden and energy lobbyist Wendy Molner.  The website uses various aliases when it blasts out its messages and has attempted to masquerade as Sussex Watchdog, Freeholder George Graham, and Mr. Winkler.

Things were going to be so boring without old Wee Willy.  Now, thanks to the desert dry team, and to the delight of everyone who follows the Watchdog, it looks like we're in for a real shatstorm. 

The county freeholder who opposes democracy

Freeholder Richard Vohden never held public office before becoming the hand-picked candidate of county insiders in 2010.  He should never have survived the primary for freeholder, but for the steadfastness of his very honorable running mate, who both underwrote the campaign and took considerable damage on Vohden's behalf. 

Without the guidance of that running mate, Vohden fell under the influence of two of the county's most accomplished operators -- Freeholder Richard Zeoli and County Administrator John Eskilson.  With Vohden's running mate gone, Zeoli became the "big man" on the Freeholder Board.  As a county employee, Eskilson had always worked for the Freeholders, but with Zeoli, they formed a partnership.  Zeoli's wife found employment at Eskilson's wife's company.  They began making deals, one of which -- the solar deal -- haunts Sussex County to this day. 

After Zeoli moved to Philadelphia and decided it was too far a commute to run for re-election, Eskilson found that he could convince those remaining board members to let him run the show.  Gone were the days of Freeholders like Oroho,  Wirths, Chiusano, Parrott, Vetrano, and Zellman.  In Vohden, John Eskilson found someone who not only would believe his bullshit, he would preach it.  And to this day, he does.

Reporter Vera Olinski of the Advertiser News ran a story on March 21, 2016, that covered the recent meeting of the Freeholder Board at which, and we quote:

"Freeholder Richard A. Vohden read portions of the administrative code aloud to the board. Vohden said he wanted the administrator to do his job and for freeholders to only be liaisons, including on the Engineering Committee."

It appears that Vohden mistakes the administrative code for the State Constitution.  Heck, he mistakes it for the Constitution of the United States of America. 

Vohden, who has no legal background that we are aware of, fails to understand that the Freeholder Board is the Legislative AND Executive branch for Sussex County.  It is the same in most counties although, in a few, they have decided to have an ELECTED County Executive.  In those counties, the Freeholder Board is the Legislative branch only. 

In no county -- anywhere in America -- is an UNELECTED BUREAUCRAT the Executive and Legislative branches of government, with the elected members merely serving as his "liaisons" to various parts of the bureaucracy.  That's just undemocratic -- and it is also deeply authoritarian.  It is the philosophical redux of the Fuhrer Principle. 

"The Führerprinzip was not invented by the Nazis. Hermann Graf Keyserling, an ethnically German philosopher from Estonia, was the first to use the term Führerprinzip. One of Keyserling's central claims was that certain 'gifted individuals' were 'born to rule' on the basis of Social Darwinism.

The ideology of the Führerprinzip sees each organization as a hierarchy of leaders, where every leader (Führer, in German) has absolute responsibility in his own area, demands absolute obedience from those below him and answers only to his superiors. This required obedience and loyalty even over concerns of right and wrong.

...This principle became the law of the National Socialist German Worker's Party (Nazi Party) and the SS and was later transferred to the whole German society once the Nazis took power. Appointed mayors replaced elected local governments. Schools lost elected parents' councils and faculty advisory boards, with all authority being put in the headmaster's hands.  The Nazis suppressed associations and unions with elected leaders, putting in their place mandatory associations with appointed leaders.

In practice, the selection of unsuitable candidates often led to micromanagement and commonly to an inability to formulate coherent policy... Rules tended to become oral rather than written."

(Wikipedia)

With Vohden and at least seven others having announced or considering a run for the two freeholder seats up this year, a discussion on how each of them view the governing relationship between the elected Freeholder Board and the appointed county bureaucracy is important.  We will be reaching out to each candidate to get their thoughts.

And while we are at it, we would like to urge two advocates of reform not on that list of seven to consider adding their voices to this election:  Independent Harvey Roseff and Democrat Bill Weightman.  Both would elevate the level of discourse and add to the debate.

Freeholders Zeoli, Crabb, and Vohden with then County Counsel McConnell