Perez, Boxer, and the $518,000 solar study scam

Matthew Boxer was the State Comptroller from January 2008 until December 2013.  Before taking this position, Mr. Boxer was an associate with the New York City law firm of Lowenstein Sandler.  After leaving office, he returned to that firm as a partner.

Most residents of Sussex County are aware of the scandal that involved a public-private partnership to install solar panels on local government buildings, using federal subsidies.  As it turned out, the private entity responsible for the work was under-capitalized, failed to pay the contractor doing the work, was sued by the contractor, and the project stopped.  The cost to taxpayers in Sussex County is estimated at upwards of $40 million.

Sussex was one of three counties involved in this project -- Somerset and Morris were the others.  Lacking its own agency, Sussex County worked through the Morris County Improvement Authority (MCIA), although each county made its own individual contracts with the entity, called Sunlight General, a new creation with a board of directors drawn largely from a French bank.

In February 2011, the Board of Chosen Freeholders of Sussex County authorized a shared services agreement with the MCIA to implement the solar project.  In July 2011, the project was sent to the Office of the State Comptroller for review.  After reviewing all the project documents, the following month (August 2011), the project was given the okay by the Office of the State Comptroller -- headed up by Mr. Matthew Boxer.  Based the affirmative review given by Mr. Boxer's office, the Sussex County Freeholders went forward with the project.

Apparently, the project was so fashioned that by October 2011, Sussex County had received just one bid -- from Sunlight General.  And so, in that month, the Sussex County Freeholders awarded the contract to Sunlight General.

The Freeholder Boards of Morris, Somerset, and Sussex Counties all signed agreements -- reviewed by the Office of the State Comptroller (Mr. Boxer's office) -- that used taxpayer-secured debt to back up SunLight General's operations.  Unfortunately, the contracts were poorly written, the expected flow of capital was fanciful, the projects poorly planned and executed.  Allow us to quote from the documents supplied by the federal court:

Yes, the Office of the State Comptroller -- Mr. Matthew Boxer's office -- let down the taxpayers of Sussex County.  Matthew Boxer got to move on to his law partnership and the Office of the State Comptroller just keeps on reviewing what it reviews and the residents of Sussex County are left to deal with the $40 million loss in their (higher) property tax bills.  In March 2015, the Freeholder Boards of both Sussex and Morris Counties reached out to the Office of the State Comptroller and formally requested that the State Comptroller review the project -- for a second opinion.

About this time, the name Matthew Boxer resurfaced again, only now it was as part of a proposal to bring in "outside counsel" to review the solar project and what went wrong.  Two members of the Sussex County Freeholder Board, who are very close to Democrat Freeholder candidate Dan Perez, pushed for Mr. Boxer to be brought in for this purpose.  Below is a memo from attorney Dan Perez (now himself a candidate for Sussex County Freeholder) to then Freeholder Gail Phoebus:

In April 2015, the Office of the State Comptroller turned down both Sussex and Morris Counties' requests to review the solar project.  No official reason was ever provided.  However, there is an "unofficial" explanation provided in a May 26, 2015, memo from the MCIA to the Morris County Freeholders.  It goes as follows:

So it appears that the Office of the State Comptroller had conducted a review of the solar project it had signed-off on, but was unwilling to share said review.  The memo continued:

The "post-review decision not to review the matter..."  Wow. 

The Office of the State Comptroller's recalcitrance to share the review that they had already conducted or to take that review further was a loss to the taxpayers of Sussex County, but a boon to former State Comptroller Matthew Boxer, who was now being touted as the only man to do a review that was to be paid for by fresh taxpayer's money.

And so, it came to pass that in January 2016 a new Freeholder Board in Sussex County -- now controlled by the very same individuals who had been for months advocating for the selection of Matthew Boxer as the only man to review the solar project -- handed Matthew Boxer a contract for $500,000 to conduct said review.

The manner in which this contract was provided to Mr. Boxer was curious, and remains unexplained to this day.  In a letter, dated January 19, 2016, a Sussex County Freeholder wrote to Mr. Boxer's firm inquiring how he came by it.  Here is what he wrote:

To this day, this Freeholder -- a respected member of the community in Sussex County and a veteran of the Korean War -- has never received the courtesy of a reply.  Why not? 

So the Freeholder wrote to the State Ethics Commission and noted the following:

To which the State Ethics Commission replied:

The word "facts" is used when "representations" might be more appropriate.  As the State Ethics Commission did not conduct its own review of the Office of the State Comptroller's "records and emails... correspondence... other documents", it is clear that they are simply accepting Mr. Boxer at his word.

Doesn't it seem strange to claim that the person in charge of an office was so lax as to have no knowledge of what was a three-county project involving -- to start -- $100 million.  And that his office reviewed nearly a dozen similar contracts involving many more millions in public money.  Okay. let's accept that Mr. Boxer was a "delegator" without direct, day-to-day knowledge about the office he was responsible for.  How did he come to be recommended as the sole recipient of a $500,000 contract to review what his office failed in reviewing at the start? 

In its reply, the State Ethics Commission expressly invited further inquiry:

It is time for the Freeholders to establish a citizen's commission to investigate this corrupt mess and call those who have benefited to account.  Make someone like Harvey Roseff the chairman and you won't need to spend a half million dollars of taxpayers' money (property tax money!) to get the job done.

The fringe cracks-up

They must have deluded themselves into thinking they were winning.  This is a phenomenon we see more and more and it is due to social media and to the ability to screen out all but the news and information that pleases you and supports your view of the world.  Many people have produced safe spaces for themselves where they are free to revel in a kind of solipsism that alters their perception more thoroughly than a strong narcotic.

And so we have Harvey Roseff, a local activist of some merit, posting on the New Jersey Herald about "mind control" as the reason for his candidates' crushing 75% to 25% loss.  He simply cannot understand the fact that people do not have the same priorities that he does, that they do not perceive the world as he does, and that they therefore do not act accordingly. 

The very things that make Harvey so unique, separate him from the Everyman.  So he plays his role -- something of a Cassandra -- but he plays it largely alone. 

The candidates Mr. Roseff supported are not his equals.  Career DOT bureaucrat Bill Hayden is an example of the waste and burdensome regulation that is a by-product of any government bureaucracy.  That Hayden attacked his opponent for funding him as a by-product of funding the state's transportation infrastructure was rather weird.  It reminded us of a German Expressionist novel. 

Nathan Orr needs to get away from home, out from under the shadow of past failures not his own.  Perhaps when he stops channeling the blind pride and arrogance that appears to be this candidate's inheritance, he will open his eyes to the people around him.  David Atwood lacks focus and seems obsessed with silly things -- like his ancestry.  Hopefully, this is just down to being new.  Young and new and as green as one can be.  He might get better with time.

All of these candidates spent the last months in a bubble fashioned by their earnest friends, supportive family members, and especially by loud-mouths like Mark Quick and Bill Hayden.  Many of their supporters fell into the same bubble -- and never questioned their perception and assumptions.

They still don't.  Now some are laughably making threats -- with Hayden threatening to lead them to a Democrat Party nirvana this November.  It has all the makings of a Jim Jones inspired soap opera:  The cult's bubble keeps bumping into reality so they defiantly isolate themselves further (for the sake of the "purity" of the cult), so when reality still invades they commit the ultimate pointless gesture of... Democrat Party nirvana.  Go ahead, drink the kool-aid. 

While the Democrats will have more money than the GOP this November, they will not have so much that they can stupidly waste it.  What little hope the Democrat high command had for Legislative District 24 has been dashed by the Republican incumbents' 50-point victory.  Such victories are generally reserved for inner-city districts with machine "lines" -- to secure one without a line is remarkable and it has been and will be remarked upon by Democrat strategists.

The county is a different matter.  Republican freeholder nominee Herb Yardley's victory was an impressive 20-plus points, but the county GOP is not in the habit of raising the resources necessary to confront the kind of determined campaign that we expect from Democrat Dan Perez.  He is a formidable opponent with friends in the GOP establishment who have already shepherded his career to a seat on the Sussex County Community College's Board of Trustees and as a SCMUA Commissioner.

The Tea Party could play a role in the election of Herb Yardley, and in the defense of Congressman Rodney Frelinghuysen.  It is up to them how seriously they want people to take them.

Sussex Freeholders message is Spend, Spend, Spend

Sussex County Freeholders are feeling pressure, but won't acknowledge the public's needs.  At the Board's latest meeting, Freeholder Graham preached a message of spend, spend, spend (1:19:30).  This was met by comments from members of the public -- in particular Byram activist Harvey Roseff (who speaks at 2:38:00).  The public's mood is clear:  Cut spending and lower taxes.

Some of the Freeholders behave as if no savings can be found.  But as members of the public -- average property tax payers -- have pointed out again and again, there are huge savings that are easily found.  Potential savings from the operations of the 911 center is something that the Freeholders have refused to address and that the Herald should discuss.  The issue has surfaced many times.  The Sussex County Community College (SCCC) is another area for potential savings, but the Freeholders appear shy about addressing it and the Herald hasn't covered it.

Freeholder Graham is still defending a rudderless, redundant 911 center packed with what Roseff and others (like NJ Watchdog's Mark Lagerkvist) have identified as "double-dippers".  The 911 center gives towns like Lazzaro's  Fredon pretty much a free ride.  No police department has joined the County 911, which was supposed to be implemented to save the taxpayer money through a county-wide consolidation. Instead we have more centers now!  While it may have started out as a good idea, the implementation appears to have gone off the rails. All this center has now are some small town fire departments that provide cover for what has become a costly, poorly implemented boondoggle.

As Roseff recently noted:  "Double dippers rob jobs from our youth and lead to more foreclosures.  And orphaned facilities like this one end up costing huge amounts in on-going technology upgrades that deliver little benefit as their cost is not distributed properly.  If this center was closed, all the calls would be answered, just as they were before.  Huge savings would result from its closure and an inefficient, uneconomical kingdom would be dismantled."

According to Roseff's research, towns in this 911 center used to pay $30,000 to $40,000 yearly to the other 911 centers.  The County stole them away for around $10,000.  It's costing about $1,500,000 to run the center,  yet the participating towns in the County 911 only contribute approximately $100,000.  And as the contracts come up for renewal, they are not increased to even the proper economic competitive cost they were paying before!  The rest of the county taxpayers have to foot the bill for this, just as they do for solar.

It's a simple answer the call, dispatch a service system.  No real high technology service here, it's been successfully done for decades. Roseff and others suggest that by closing the county 911 service or merging it, there will be huge savings.

Watchdog invites other opinions on this and will be glad to publish them.

Is Sussex County looking to sell its landfill?

The manner in which the George Graham-dominated Sussex County Freeholder Board has handled the Solar debacle has cost county property taxpayers dearly.  This year's property tax increase is a harbinger of things to come.

As solar activist Harvey Roseff has pointed out time and again, the money produced from the solar program will never cover the cost and the indebtedness of the project.  Solar "underperformance" was always supposed to be the risk of the developer -- not the taxpayers -- so why did Graham hire back the vendors responsible for leaving county taxpayers holding that debt?

After the county Freeholder Board's special meeting to find budget fat last week, David Danzis of the New Jersey Herald reported that "a nearly two-hour-long special meeting of the Sussex County Board of Chosen Freeholders did not yield any significant changes to the 2017 county budget."

Some of the people on that freeholder board have openly talked about finding enough fraud, waste, and abuse to fund multi-billion dollar programs to pay for building and construction projects or indeed, the state's entire transportation infrastructure.  But when it came time to scrutinize their own budget they found... nothing.  Not one significant cut.

So it comes as no surprise that Watchdog has learned that a waste management company has contracted with a firm in Sussex County to explore the purchase of the County landfill.  Unwilling or unable to make spending cuts, the county appears to be preparing for a combination of property tax increases and selling off assets.

Watchdog intends to pass specific information along to reporters at the New Jersey Herald and Star-Ledger, so that they have the opportunity to run down the story and get the full details to the taxpayers of Sussex County.  Newspapers should be more effective at doing this than a blog.  There is something to be said for having a reporter show up with a microphone.  Let's see if it happens.  In the meantime, we will continue to keep our ears to the ground to keep you updated.

There is certainly a swamp that needs draining.  A county government swamp full of Hudson County Democrats who are clothed "Republican" for convenience.  And now they are attempting to extend their influence by taking legislative seats away from the GOP in Sussex County.

Stay tuned...

How the Herald almost started the Watchdog

On June 14, 2011, blogger Rob Eichmann met with Herald editor Bruce Tomlinson to discuss taking the Herald website statewide.  Eichmann brought along Bill Winkler, who had arranged the meeting on his behalf, and Tomlinson brought in Herald Internet director Amy Paterson.  The meeting was held at the Herald's Newton offices.

Eichmann saw the need for a conservative-leaning print newspaper in New Jersey, to provide balance to the left-leaning Newhouse and Gannett newspaper groups , among others.  With the Herald print edition serving a conservative county, a right-of-center tilt wouldn't hurt it any, while assuming the mantle as the state's "conservative" newspaper would open up the possibility of the Herald operating a website with statewide reach.  To that end, Eichmann was willing to share a reader base of over 40,000 emails with the Herald.

Unfortunately, Tomlinson wasn't having any of it.  During the meeting, he lashed out at the idea of the Herald becoming "New Jersey's Fox News."  Eichmann took his idea away with him and had found funding for it when he was diagnosed with a particularly aggressive form of cancer.  He died in 2013, before his idea could be launched.  But not before launching a few websites of his own, including Sussex Watchdog.

Originally called Sussex County GOP Watchdog, Eichmann launched the blog in the spring of 2012 with the help of restaurant owner Gail Phoebus, a candidate for Sussex County Freeholder at the time.  After he died, it was relaunched as Sussex County Watchdog and adopted a less partisan, more reform-minded posture.  Many different people contribute to it, including Harvey Roseff, a sometime independent political candidate. 

Of course, the Herald's Tomlinson was furious when Eichmann went ahead anyway.  Tomlinson had assumed that his rejection meant an end to it and did not appreciate Eichmann's determination.  The Herald -- especially Tomlinson -- have had a hard on for the website and its contributors ever since.

Sometime after Tomlinson's arrival at the Herald, the newspaper began to adopt the role of political arbiter in Sussex County.  If politics were a scale with Republicans on one side and Democrats/Independents/Greens on the other, Tomlinson attempted to play the role of a kind of god, using the Herald to balance out the prospects of the opposing sides. This became preposterously obvious in 2011, when he suppressed coverage of the criminal conviction of an independent candidate who used violence against a mother and a child.  When the Herald refused to write about it -- but the candidate lost anyway -- Tomlinson blamed the professionalism of the Republican campaign.

Curiously, he was joined in this by a consultant-turned-politician on the make by the name of George Graham.  Graham was a journeyman political consultant from Hudson County -- where he mainly worked Democrat municipal campaigns and did the government relations work for a major county contractor.  He was also a local elected official in Sussex County who had flipped from Democrat to Republican back to Democrat and then back to Republican again.  Graham contributed to Democrat legislative candidates and even voted in the Democrat presidential primary in 2008 for Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton.

Graham wanted to take a piece of the political consulting action in Sussex County and he also wanted to advance up the ranks of elected office.  He took over the Sussex County League of Municipalities and held it until the finances ran out.  He made an important alliance with attorney Dan Perez, who had been introduced to Sussex County legal circles by the Herald's own attorney.  Perez is currently the Democrat Party candidate for Freeholder in Sussex County.

Graham worked in a kind of partnership with the Herald -- and boasted about the hundreds of times he had met with the editor and senior staff.  Graham opposed reform legislation to end the newspaper subsidy, which counted for a great deal with the Herald.  In return, the Herald has been uniformly supportive of Graham's political career.  Last year, the Herald suppressed coverage of the challenge to Graham in his bid to be re-elected Freeholder.  The contrast between 2016 and 2017 could not be greater.

Aside from Graham, the Herald has adopted an antagonistic view towards political professionals -- seeing them as a direct threat to their ability to "play god" and place a thumb on the scale as seen fit.  This is strange, because political professionals have been working in Sussex County -- and indeed everywhere else in America and the free world -- for at least 40 years.  The political consultant is a well established staple of American political life, not the dangerous novelty that bizarrely the Herald would have us believe.

The Herald is part of a mid-western based media empire and we know for a fact that each and every one of those media units within Quincy Media corporation, every radio or cable station and the Quincy Whig, they all have professional dealings with political consultants.  Throughout the whole of the Quincy empire they are viewed as clients -- but not by the Herald.

With malice and premeditation, the Herald has worked to draw out and "expose" political professionals for the purpose of making them boogey men -- all except George Graham.  The Herald has imposed rules on subscribers who pay to use its website in order to identify them with the equivalent of stars and triangles -- for the purposes of making them objects of hate.  No other newspaper in the state of New Jersey has similar rules.  None.  Most newspapers don't even ask that you be a subscriber to comment.  None monitor political professionals.  None care if you post anonymously.  Only the Herald, with its agenda, and a stick planted firmly up its arsehole.

Not content with "exposing" political professionals, the Herald has worked to "expose" their family members and to apply the same rules to them.  The Herald actually trolls social media in order to determine relationships between paid subscribers who comment and elected officials.  That is how mental it has become.  The Herald has become so obsessed that, in our opinion, it crosses the line into restraint of trade. 

The philosopher Michael Oakeshott reminds us that journalism is not about persuading others but rather it is about reporting events clearly.  The Herald is very far removed from this ideal.  In fact, Tomlinson and company more often behave like marketing reps than reporters -- laying their hands all over a story to spin it this way or that.  But in the interest of whom? 

In contrast to the Herald, we have an open policy.  Please feel free to send Watchdog leads or indeed full columns and we will post them.  Thank you.