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

"Back Room" Vohden

Beware the misinformation.  Freeholder Richard Vohden is trying to call the decision to investigate the bailout of the Sussex solar scam a "backroom deal".

This is the same Freeholder Vohden who for the last five years has supported every backroom deal hatched by Rich Zeoli or Phil Crabb or John Eskilson.  Case in point -- the decision in January 2013 to allow the then County Attorney to go from being an outside vendor to being a full-time county employee with benefits, just in time for him to get a nice pension bump that the taxpayers will pay for the rest of his natural life.

Who got advance warning of that deal when it popped up on the first day of business of the new Freeholder Board?  Who got to debate the merits of that scam?  In fact, a bullying Freeholder Vohden explained that it was not job of elected Freeholders to question the contracts put before them by County Executive "Boss" Eskilson, it was only their job to ratify them.

Beware the misinformation.  The entire Solar scam was a series of backroom deals notable for their extreme lack of transparency.  And for the five years that Vohden and his ideological storm troopers have controlled the Freeholder Board with shouts of "Boss Eskilson uber alles" they consistently shouted down any attempt at reform or open government.

The "shrunken heads" are attempting to blame the Sussex County Republican Committee headed by Chairman Jerry Scanlan and State Senator Steve Oroho (R-24).  This is a calculated lie and an attempt at misdirection.  

They should know that it was Morris County Republican politicians who came into Sussex County and who sold the solar scam to gullible Sussex County.  Beware the misinformation.

Sussex solar scam and presidential politics

Some of you have been emailing Watchdog for more on how the Sussex solar scam is relevant to this year's campaign for President of the United States.  Here, listen to it for yourself, here is the moment when presidential candidate Chris Christie focused national media attention on the public-private solar energy scam hatched by people close to him for many years, from his home county:

Ever since Christie mentioned these words in a nationally televised debate hosted by CNBC in October, the Watchdog website has been getting visits and emails from the national media.  He brought it up, so they checked it out, and guess what?  They found this scam, run by some of his closest associates from the old days, centered in his home county, where he was Freeholder.

Of course, the history of solar in New Jersey (and in America, for that matter) is one of a series of private-public "partnerships" in which professional scam artists get very rich and the taxpayer is left with the bill.  Solar doesn't appear to get built without a whole lot of corruption and a whole lot of insiders striking it rich.  It has an unusual economic model to say the least.

And we got to warn Freeholders Vohden and Crabb.  You make perfect "central-casting" old white guys for the national media's purposes.  Add a conservative talk-show host from the Philadelphia media market to that mix and you'll be making MSNBC very happy.  It has all the elements to make this Christie's own Solyndra.

Of course, the national media will lose interest if Christie fails in New Hampshire.  If he does well there, or even better than expected in Iowa, if his political stock continues to rise, look for some intense unwanted scrutiny. 

 The Christie people are not happy with the timing.  An investigation would not be done in time to affect the outcome of the presidential contest, but Freeholders Vohden and Crabb (with an assist from former Freeholder Zeoli) have delayed the investigation.  The Herald's Rob Jennings reports that it might not even happen.

NOTE to the Herald:  This could be a chance to land a journalism award or two.

That's good for the national media, because they will be free to write that "Republicans" (last time we checked Sussex, Morris et al have ALL Republican Freeholder Boards) are covering up what could be illegal activity.  It is certain that, whether legal or not, this activity hasn't benefitted taxpayers.

And guess what?  Republican primary voters HATE solar anyway.  Even when it works right and nobody gets ripped-off.  We will leave you with these two facts from a polling memo floating around Sussex County:

In Sussex County, 48 percent of all voters OPPOSE "using taxpayer money to build solar energy projects on public buildings."  Just 42 percent  off all voters -- Democrats, Independents, Undeclared, and Republicans -- support the idea.

Among Republicans in Sussex County, 68 percent oppose solar even when it works right.  Only 23 percent support it.

Somebody is gonna get pregnant!

Vohden: Scared witless of an investigation

Freeholder Richard Vohden is stuck between a rock and a hard place.  On the one hand he has politically-connected insiders from Morris County pressuring him to stop the independent investigation into the county's failed solar program (an investigation that both Vohden and his remaining ally on the Freeholder Board, Phil Crabb, publicly supported last year).  On the other he has the taxpayers of Sussex County who are demanding to know the facts behind how their money was wasted and why more was wasted in the bailout that followed the program's failure. 

There's polling data circulating around Sussex County that has some eye-popping numbers if you happen to be a Freeholder facing re-election this year.  In a clear reflection of Eskilson-Vohden-Crabb circus that's become county government, half the voters think Sussex County is "on the wrong track" with another 20 percent "not sure".  The solar bailout is opposed by voters 81 percent to 9 percent, while an investigation is supported 86 percent to 10 percent.  Yep, it sounds like somebody is going to get pregnant.

The Morris County insiders who sold the corporate-get-rich-quick solar scam to the Sussex County Freeholder Board are trying to bury an investigation before the national media links it to the presidential campaign of a certain Governor, because once it's national news a whole lot of people are going to get pregnant. You got to know that while you might be able to threaten a reporter from the Daily Record or from the Herald or from one of the weeklies, there's not a whole heck of lot you can do once the Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, New York Times, ABC, NBC, CBS, FOX, and CNN have it.  They won't be impressed and they employ plenty of legal muscle.  Those news organizations have pieces of boys like those insiders from Morris County in their stool. 

 In preparation for yesterday's reorganization of the Freeholder Board and his no-holds-barred attempt to delay (if only for two weeks) the solar investigation the voters demand, Freeholder Vohden travelled down to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to huddle with former Freeholder Director Richard Zeoli, the politico who first introduced the Morris County toxin into the bloodstream of Sussex County.  They also had a prominent county lobbyist (a former Republican elected official from a leftish tribe of Democrats) busy making phone calls to Tea Party members and others in a desperate attempt to delay finding out who robbed the taxpayers of Sussex County.  You see, these people argue no investigation is needed because they know perfectly well who ripped-off Sussex County.  And let's not forget the dupes they have done favors for who will post a negative comment or two against the right of free people to question their government about how their tax dollars are spent.  Let's call them the "shrunken heads" because in a way they occupy the same role as those captive spirits.

So while everyone in Sussex County is surprised that the Freeholder Boards hasn't "buried the hatchet" and sung a chorus of "Kumbaya", those in the know understand that the Morris County insiders who sold the scam and who call the shots cannot allow peace unless it is on their terms -- no investigation, no more talk about the solar rip-off, just make the taxpayers pay and pay and we'll see how well it spends.

Playing games with SCMUA

In 2012, Sussex County Freeholders Phil Crabb and Rich Zeoli tried to sell a "crisis" to Sussex County taxpayers:  The county landfill was nearing capacity and would be full by 2018.  Something would have to be done. 

That something was a special "subcommittee" made up of Crabb, Zeoli, and three insiders.  That subcommittee took decision making away from Sussex County’s 24 municipalities -- which had control over the future of waste disposal for the county’s residents -- through each municipality's representation on the Solid Waste Advisory Council (SWAC). 

According to the Herald, the subcommittee had planned to give the Freeholder Board its recommendation by the end of 2012.  The Herald reported that Zeoli said “the subcommittee also is interested in ideas from private businesses as to what to do with trash generated in the county.” 

Another private-public partnership?  Like solar?

As it turned out, the municipalities rebelled at the idea of a subcommittee taking away their decision-making.  The subcommittee was scrapped, the idea of turning the landfill over to private developers was dropped, and -- surprise, surprise -- the threatened closure date of 2018 turned out not to be true and now the county landfill could remain viable until 2066. 

Now Crabb is back at it again.  In a few weeks, he and Freeholder Vohden will lose the power they have over Sussex County -- the power they've exercised since 2011, when they assumed control over the Board and came to an arrangement with the then County Administrator and other establishment figures.  That ended in the dust of the solar scandal.

Crabb and Vohden are desperate to appoint as many allies as they can before the clock runs out.  So they are attacking anyone who gets in their way.  Their most recent victims are the SCMUA board members who were attacked for receiving benefit packages for their work.  The attackers ignored the fact that Crabb, alone among Sussex County Freeholders, receives taxpayer-paid benefits. 

If you thought this transfer of power was going to be dignified, think again.