Gray-Gorman website praises solar scam

Yesterday we lauded the first mailer sent out by the Freeholder campaign of David Gray and Kathleen Gorman.  We sincerely thought that their first piece of mailed campaign literature was well done.

Within an hour of our post praising their mailer, the Gray-Gorman camp sent out an email blast in which they lied by claiming to be Watchdog.  And for perhaps the tenth time, they used a false Pennsylvania address in an attempt to place the blame for their attacks on the shoulders of Senator Steve Oroho, who employs a consultant from the same town and state.

David Gray is a lawyer.  Gray is an officer of the Court and a candidate for public office.  We asked if this kind of false misrepresentation was really allowed by the New Jersey Bar Association and it was suggested to us that we file an ethics complaint.  Actually, we feel kind of sorry for David Gray.  Why does he need to lie and claim to be someone else? 

The Gray-Gorman email attacks Gail Phoebus and George Graham for refusing to support the bailout of the solar scam last year.  You remember that scam, don't you?  In February of last year, the Sparta Independent reported on the solar scam and asked these questions:

How did a solar power company that had only been in business for two years get loan guarantees of nearly $90 million from Sussex, Morris and Somerset counties?

And why would Sussex County, with a budget of about $100 million, put at risk $27.7 million through bond guarantees for a private company?

Sussex County Administrator John Eskilson says Sussex County is potentially facing $26 million in losses after SunLight General Capital, a solarpower energy company, was unable to pay back most of the $27.7 million in bonds the county took out for them through debt issued by the Morris County Municipal Authority.

The solar bailout that Gail Phoebus and George Graham voted against took another $10 million -- all of the "rainy day" money the county had put aside from the sale of the county's nursing home plus $3 million more -- and threw it at the failed solar project.  The three Freeholders who voted for the bailout -- Richard Vohden, Phil Crabb, and Dennis Mudrick -- are big supporters of Gray-Gorman and held a big fundraising event to fund the Gray-Gorman effort.

Now you might be asking why are Gray-Gorman attacking Gail Phoebus, who was elected to the state Assembly and isn't even a Freeholder anymore.  Gail Phoebus isn't even on the ballot this year, so why would Gray-Gorman waste the effort? 

Well, it is very clear that the Gray-Gorman campaign is being directed by the solar lobby and the vendors and lawyers responsible for the scam in the first place.  They will never forgive Mrs. Phoebus for standing up to them.  In the words of one solar watcher:  "They want her dead." 

Remember the Solar Proposal Evaluation Team that wrote the 2011 document used to sell the solar deal to the Sussex County Freeholders?  The Gray-Gorman email praised the members of this corrupt or incompetent team and criticized those who held them accountable.

Birdsall Services Group was a big part of the Solar Proposal Evaluation Team and the Group pleaded guilty in 2013, was fined $1 million and its assets sold in bankruptcy proceedings.  Birdsall's top executive recently got a prison sentence of 4 years, while another executive pleaded guilty late last month.  The Asbury Park Press reported:

BIRDSALL GOES TO PRISON FOR CORRUPTION

Toms River - Howard Birdsall, the former head of one of New Jersey's oldest and most prestigious engineering firms, was sentenced to four years in prison Friday in the pay-to-play corruption case that brought about the demise of the company that bore his family's name.

...Birdsall and six other of the firm's executives, as well as the firm itself, were indicted in 2013 on charges that they masked corporate campaign contributions as individual political donations in order to skirt the state's pay-to-play laws and get contracts it otherwise would have been disqualified from.

The evaluation team was put together by then County Administrator John Eskilson.  In 2015, Freeholders Richard Vohden, Phil Crabb, and Dennis Mudrick supported the bailout of the failed solar scheme.  These same freeholders later rewarded Eskilson with a position as a Trustee with the Sussex County Community College. 

Why are Gray-Gorman plainly aligning themselves with the solar scammers who raped Sussex County taxpayers for upwards of $40 million?  It is all about killing the county's investigation to put together a lawsuit to get our money back.  If the scammers can keep the money and plea bargain their way into paying a fine to resolve the criminal investigations, then they will come out ahead.

That's how these things often work out.  The fine is just a cost of doing business.  United States Senator Elizabeth Warren complained bitterly when HSBC Bank was caught laundering nearly a billion dollars in drug cartel money and ended up paying a fine with no prosecution.  Here is the Senator at a hearing discussing this subject:

Gray and Gorman are campaigning hard

In contrast to their opponents' anemic  campaign style, Republican Freeholder candidates David Gray and Kathleen Gorman dropped a solid piece of direct mail this week.  Styling themselves "outsider conservatives" is a smart move -- open to controversy -- but smart given the reticence of the other side to even bother itself with a retort.  Their slogan of "a fresh conservative perspective" is spot on and could only be improved by underlining the word "fresh," while their three-point "conservative plan" to "cut taxes, reduce the size of government," and "protect property rights" is succinct and understandable.  We might add that it is not too early to put the date of the election -- June 7th -- on your literature.  Overall, a job very well done!

As for the other side, Watchdog thinks the incumbent is listening too much to a county bond counsel's advice -- who is probably part of the same crew behind Gray and Gorman.  All this points to an underhanded deal to screw Hopatcong Mayor Sylvia Petillo and her husband, SCMUA chief Ron Petillo.  The Petillo family are long-time stalwarts of the GOP in Sussex County, who have generously given to the party and to Republican candidates, both their time and money.

In years past, nobody would have even considered doing dirty a family that has given so much to nearly everyone involved in the county GOP, but the solar scam, the bailout, the ongoing criminal investigations, and especially the county investigation, has changed all that.  Now money is flowing into the county from new sources with a very different agenda.  Even the Space family has hedged its bets. 

Looks like Sussex County is all grown-up and joining the ranks of counties dominated by the likes of John Inglesino.  That's nothing to cheer about.

Why must wannabe politicians lie?

Freeholder candidates David Gray and Kathleen Gorman claim that they "are anxiously waiting for the results of the investigations that are being done by the federal government and the attorney general."

Note the lawyer language.  The two wannabe freeholders never say that they "support" these investigations.  They don't even mention the independent county investigation designed to get back the $34 million the solar scammers ripped from the pockets of Sussex County taxpayers. 

Look, we have no personal beef with either David Gray or Kathleen Gorman or the people who support them.  We do have a beef with ANYONE who supports the solar scam, the bailout, or the language in the bailout.  And we especially have a beef with ANYONE trying to cover-up or protect the scumbags responsible for the solar scam.  We agree with Harvey Roseff and John Snyder -- investigate the hell out it, make the on-going project totally transparent, support all the investigations, hold a public hearing,  sue the scumbags to get the money back, and -- per the criminal investigations -- send those responsible to prison.

Now forgive our skepticism, but we find it highly unlikely that candidates Gray and Gorman share our views on solar.  For a start, they enjoy the support of the three knuckleheads who voted FOR the bailout! 

And not only do Gray and Gorman enjoy the support of Freeholders Vohden and Crabb, and former Freeholder Mudrick, but Gray and Gorman have allowed these idiots (who defended the bailout language and OPPOSED the investigation) to hold a big fundraiser for them.  Gray and Gorman have willingly climbed into the sack with and taken money from the politicians responsible for the bailout and for delaying the investigation.  Do they still want us to believe that they're virgins?

We'd like to believe, but then we watch lawyer Gray skip a charity event in Sussex County to attend a political fundraising event for one of the Morris County Freeholders responsible for solar.  What is that about?  You shouldn't be anywhere near those scumbags if you want to represent the taxpayers of Sussex County.

If Gray and Gorman want to purify themselves, this is what they need to do:  (1) Stay away from Morris County solar scam money; (2) Stay away from the three knuckleheads (Vohden, Crabb, Mudrick); (3) Join with reformers like Harvey Roseff and John Snyder and demand that every vendor connected with solar be canned.  Amazingly, despite everything that has happened, some are still on the payroll, collecting tax dollars.  Shame on the Board and shame on these wannabes for not shaming the Board and instead sucking up to solar and their allies.

You have a chance to correct yourselves.  Take it!  Say NO to SOLAR!

Yikes!  The three knuckleheads are hosting a fundraiser for Gray and Gorman

Another vendor linked to solar pleads guilty

The Star-Ledger reported yesterday that another one-time executive from the now defunct Birdsall Services Group admitted his role in funneling more than a million dollars to politicians in exchange for contracts and favors -- all this in direct violation of the state's ban on pay-to-play schemes.  Reporter S.P. Sullivan wrote:

A top executive of the politically connected engineering firm toppled by an investigation into illegal campaign contributions admitted Monday to his role in the scheme, authorities said.

Former Birdsall Services Group senior vice president William Birdsall, 67, pleaded guilty to a single charge of third-degree misconduct by a corporate official in front of Superior Court Judge James Den Uyl in Ocean County.

Birdsall, of Manchester, is the brother of the firm's former CEO Howard Birdsall, who received a four-year sentence for the scheme last month.

The Monmouth County firm folded in 2013 after investigators found the Birdsalls and their employees were reimbursed by the company for donations they made individually to New Jersey politicians, in violation of the state's pay-to-play laws.

The Star-Ledger has obtained documents that meticulously outline how one politically connected firm parlayed campaign donations into millions of dollars in government contracts. It's the ultimate pay-to-play handbook — and we're naming names.

Under a plea deal, William Birdsall is banned from bidding on public contracts in the state and prosecutors will recommend he serve a 270-day sentence in county jail. He also paid the state the $129,115 he illegally donated on behalf of the firm, along with a $75,000 public corruption profiteering penalty, according to the state Attorney General's Office.

William Birdsall is scheduled to be sentenced on July 11.

The Birdsall Services Group was at the center of the Sussex solar scam that has cost county taxpayers upwards of $38 million.  Two of its members were part of the Solar Proposal Evaluation Team that wrote the 2011 document used to sell the solar deal to the Sussex County Freeholders. The evaluation team was put together by John Eskilson.  In 2015, Freeholders Richard Vohden, Phil Crabb, and Dennis Mudrick supported the bailout of the failed solar scheme.  These same freeholders later rewarded Eskilson with a position as a trustee with the Sussex County Community College.

Solar Scam is about $34 million NOT $250,000

Freeholders Richard Vohden, Phil Crabb, and ex-Freeholder Dennis Mudrick are at it again.  They want us to forget how they bailed out the Wall Street solar scammers and left Sussex County taxpayers on the hook for $24 million.  They want us to forget how they took the blood money they got from selling the county nursing home and gave it away to the solar scammers as part of that ill-fated bailout attempt.  This cost taxpayers another $10 million.

Now Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick are trying the old bait and switch on us.  They want us to forget the $34 million the taxpayers are on the hook for -- thanks to them -- by focusing our attention on the cost of the county investigation designed to get some of that money back.  That's like muggers telling their victims not to press charges because of the cost of investigating the crime.

The taxpayers of Sussex County were mugged -- twice!  Once by the solar evaluation team that sold the project to the Freeholder Board.  That team actually included representatives of a criminal enterprise whose CEO was recently sentenced to 4 years in prison for his crimes. 

The taxpayers were mugged again in 2015 when Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick voted for the bailout that sucked another $10 million out of the pockets of taxpayers , while covering up the misfeasance of the Wall Street scammers and their political accomplices in Morris County.  Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick went so far as to support language in the bailout that prevented people from freely speaking the truth about the scammers -- under threat of lawsuit.  It took great courage for people like Gail Phoebus to stand up and speak out against the scammers and to resist their threats and intimidation.  At least one person working with state and federal law enforcement was offered a bribe. 

Big spenders Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick are trying to sell us the line of b.s. that they fought to prevent a county solar investigation because they thought it cost too much.  Really? $250,000 is too much but $38 million isn't worth crying over?  Who taught these festered bungholes math?  (Well, wasn't it Phil Crabb who told us the bailout was only going to cost $7 million?  Oh well, just $3 million off on the math for that one).

Why did they fight the investigation?   Was there any fear of who it might implicate?  Several Freeholders -- past and present -- have voluntarily met with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the United States Justice Department, and the Office of the Attorney General of New Jersey and have --openly and freely and without counsel present -- on the record told everything they knew to those investigating possible criminal wrongdoing in Sussex County.  Has Freeholder Richard Vohden been in to see the FBI?  Has Freeholder Phil Crabb?  Has former Freeholder Dennis Mudrick?  Are they assisting the criminal investigation?

The reason Sussex County needs a county investigation is simple.  The solar scam cost $88 million.  Sussex taxpayers are on the hook for $34 million of that.  It's going to affect the property taxes we pay -- big time!

It is not the job of state and federal law enforcement agencies to protect the interests of Sussex County.  They could even end up citing Sussex County officials for malfeasance and who would pay for that?  The federal authorities will try to claw back the federal money involved in the scam.  Who is looking out for Sussex County taxpayers?

That's where an independent county investigation comes in.  It is a fact-finding mission to build a case to get some of those millions back through civil action. 

The FBI and State Attorney General's office are looking for criminal indictments.  That may punish those responsible, but it won't get our money back.  That is why the investment in an independent county investigation is money well spent.

So don't be misled by emails coming from the Freeholder campaign of David Gray and Kathleen Gorman.  Gray is a Morris County attorney with ties to solar scammer and Morris County powerbroker John Inglesino.  Gorman is Gray's client.  Together they screwed Wantage taxpayers out of $1.2 million.    

Don't be misled by emails that use the address of an attorney from Hillsborough, Somerset County.  The attorney, Frank 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.