"Tender" feelings in the Sussex GOP

It wasn't too long ago when Freeholder Rich Zeoli expressed outrage that a Republican would dare submit an open records request (OPRA) asking for the public records of an elected Republican official.  Zeoli had a fit of histrionics over it.  Then again, this is the same fellow who, in 2004, suggested that Steve Oroho's run against an incumbent Republican Freeholder was unpatriotic.  Silly.

And despite his failing to file required campaign finance reports with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission for four years, Freeholder Phil Crabb never had anyone report him to NJELEC or file a complaint to generate an investigation.  How times have changed.  Now people call the police over a mistake.

If the email circulated yesterday -- you remember, the one that attempted to impersonate this website -- is anything to go by, somebody has eaten too many chili peppers and is suffering a tough morning after.  The email claimed that one of the freeholders listed his former campaign chair on his new campaign form.  It turned out that the former campaign chair didn't want to be listed again, but they had apparently failed to communicate.  So she flipped and called the police and filed a formal complaint with NJ ELEC.  This former campaign chair is an elected member of a township council and is political enough to know better. 

As if this wasn't enough low-brow drama for the week., now a new drama is emerging.  This one involved a judge, a local elected official, and a SCCC official who are locked in a three-way controversy that has the judge and SCCC official getting cozy to the detriment of the local guy.  Why?  Well it seems that some men suffer the same monthly cycles that women do.  Every so often, at somewhat regular intervals, they become "tender."  It looks like the judge and the SCCC official have gone tender.  Poor things. 

Look for more of these personal meltdowns and look for them to get a lot messier as the internecine battles between Freeholders gets hotter and the election gets closer.

Former Trustee makes a re-appearance

Glen Vetrano, the former Sussex County Freeholder who was forced to resign from the Sussex County Community College's Board of Trustees over ethical failures made a rare public appearance Wednesday evening.  Vetrano accompanied Freeholder Rich Vohden and former Freeholder Dennis Mudrick to the Skylands Tea Party meeting held that evening.

Vetrano was a public employee union leader when he first ran for Freeholder a decade and a half ago.  He won a party convention but was defeated in the Republican primary by Hal Wirths.  When the next open seat became available, Vetrano ran again and was elected.  He served a couple terms on the Freeholder Board before leaving office and becoming a member of the Board of Trustees of the Sussex County Community College (SCCC). 

Vetrano was forced to resign when it came to light that he had accepted money from a firm he voted to give a contract to while a college trustee.  The story was covered extensively by the Herald, Star-Ledger, Sparta Independent, and other media outlets.  Here is what the Star-Ledger reported on August 15, 2014:

"When Glen Vetrano resigned as a trustee of Sussex County Community College last month, a statement from the college lauded him as an asset to the community who had given freely of his time to volunteer in the position.

Amid the college's accolades, however, was an unusual admission. It said Vetrano voted on a contract for a company that paid him $13,000.

...Since the resignation. the college's finances have come under scrutiny from a law firm hired by the school.

In internal emails, board of trustees members spent weeks this summer going back and forth discussing Vetrano's apparent conflict and what would be best for the college....

CP Engineers, a Sparta company, developed the master plan to renovate the college's main classroom building on the Newton campus. In his farewell statement, Vetrano admitted he was getting paid by the company when he voted on June 25, 2013 to approve the $143,200 contract." 

Notice how Sussex County "insiders" cover-up for each other?  In the middle of a letter of praise for one of their own is the admission that he was breaking the most basic ethical rule in the book -- and doing so while accepting money.  These people have no shame. 

Only days ago, the SCCC Board of Trustees got a new member courtesy of a process rigged by these same insiders.  County Administrator John Eskilson hand-picked the "search committee" to find a new SCCC trustee.  Their heads were so far up Eskilson's butt that, of course, his name was put forward.  And, of course, the person who made the final decision had also been hand-picked by Eskilson, with all this being finally ratified by Freeholders Vohden, Crabb, and Mudrick. And all these machinations are paid for by our property taxes.

But that's how it works with these insiders.  No wonder our property taxes never go down. 

Here is a video from a "third world country" that helps to teach ethics there.  It should be required viewing for some in Sussex County.  Maybe the SCCC will host a forum on ethics in public life?  Don't bet on it, but enjoy the video anyway...

Will "Dick" Eskilson get away with it?

Sussex County might have more trees than people, but that doesn't mean fresh air in the political sense.  When it comes to politics it resembles the filth and corruption you find in any old urban hell hole made that way by an entrenched machine.

Case in point:  The taxpayer-funded Sussex County Community College and its Board of Trustees.  The Board already has plenty of people with political connections on it.  There is a vacancy.   Maybe time for someone with a background in education (it being the Board of a C-O-L-L-E-G-E)?  

No way.  Because this isn't about the students or the taxpayers.  It is about who gets what contract, and the way to ensure that the "right" people get to trouser the taxpayer's money is to appoint the "right" people to the Board.  

So a "search committee" was hand-picked by county boss John Eskilson.  This was before he got into trouble over the solar bailout and then watched as voters threw out a sitting Freeholder who backed him on the bailout. 

So who'd the "search committee" pick?  Eskilson, of course, and a former mayor who was also defeated at the polls.  So the choice is between two political players who have been firmly rejected by the voters.

You'll remember that Boss Eskilson resigned, somewhat prematurely, from his position as County Administrator in the middle of last year.  Now the man Eskilson took from corrupt Essex County and groomed to be his successor will choose between the two.

You couldn't come up with a more corrupt, self-dealing process if you tried.  It is along the lines of what Dick Cheney did when he put together the "search committee" to find a Vice Presidential running mate for George W. Bush.  Cheney was in charge of the "vetting process" and the process picked him.  So now we have "Dick" Eskilson. 

Really?  Now they don't even try to hide their scumbag behavior?   At the next meeting of the Freeholder Board, Freeholder Director Phil Crabb might just as well stand up and give the audience a middle-finger salute.  "This is for all you taxpayers... Here in Sussex County we do what we please and you don't get to know squat."  To which Freeholder Vohden could add, "Just remember to pay your property taxes on time."

The press has been doing its job.  The New Jersey Herald's Rob Jennings caught them red handed in a column titled "Artful dodge by college's trustee search committee."http://www.njherald.com/article/20151220/ARTICLE/312209963

We blame the Sussex County Democrats who have failed and failed again -- for over a decade -- to provide any scrutiny or opposition to anything at the county level.  It's like they think county government is too unimportant for them and that kitchen table issues like property taxes and job creation are not worth their time.  Instead they want to ban meat and spend their time on international issues like the war in Syria.  They could be a valuable check and balance to the people of Sussex County and instead all they want to do is support the extermination of unborn children and adopt bears.  Come on, pull your heads out of your butts.

As a comedian once asked of the hapless Tory Party in Great Britain:  "Is it match-fixing?  Is someone bribing them to be terrible at politics?"

Our Readers Speak

On the nasty tone of some anonymous comments on the NJ Herald website:

Those of us who live in Sussex County South do so for the weather, the sane gun laws, and particularly for the lower property taxes. There are a lot of us who were involved in politics moved down here to form a colony. I know it is insane but believe it or not when you move south you don't leave your hate up north. I had two friends up north and we all opposed the Littells. Circumstances changed and one of my friends changed his opinion. He's lives up north and is still my friend but my other friend moved down here and now hates my guts because I stayed friends with the one who changed his mind. It is crazy hate and the hate travels.

On the NJ Herald's involvement in the GOP primary:

The Herald isn't even from New Jersey. It is an out of state corporation run by a very rich family with its own agenda. They make money off Sussex County. I'm sick of this.

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http://www.whig.com/

Look familiar?

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OMG pinch me I must be dreaming! How is it that finally there is Anti-Heraldism! Yes! 

WENDY - PLEASE ELABORATE or tell me where to find out this information - I have for long time now had suspicions about those behind the scenes at the Herald.

On the politics of contracts and the Sussex Borough water utility:

Your statements are totally accurate, but I ran against two parties and the newspapers, who wrote press statements for a bad, truly bad water company! Please keep your voice of truth! You kept me going! (Bill Weightman, former Democrat candidate)

On the Scandal at the Sussex County Community College:

Thank you for sending this.  I have been watching this story every day as it unfolds. I guess more tax payer money was wasted hiring this law firm.  They, I am sure will be paid a good sum for this dribble. Their answer is really out there for a top law firm.  I sure would not hire them for anything.

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We don't know each other. But I think we have similar perspectives on our county and the way it has been run.

The college needs your help. Shine a light in those dark corners. The Herald won't cover SCCC anymore apart from planted PR pieces. Witness the Herald's refusal to cover Perez's letters to Parker and the trustees illegal actions, but pictures of Mazur and Elvidge planting trees on the campus and announcements on Halloween dances being published. I am told that Gavan, Parker and Mazur decided to go to the bosses at Quincy and threaten to pull the college's ads if the Herald didn't back off. Look at annie's comment here:

Freeholders OK funds for SCCC building work

		Freeholders OK funds for SCCC building work NEWTON — The last piece of financing for the Building D upgrades on the campus of Sussex County Community College was put in place Wednesday with the county's Board of Chosen Freeholders 4-1 vote to allow yet-to-be-used funds from a 4-year-old bond issue to be moved to the...
		View on www.njherald.com	Preview by Yahoo

RIP, Fourth Estate.

SCCC Board meets on 10/27 at 5:00. Go. Listen. Report back on your website, which everyone reads. We need you.

Sussex County Watchdog believes in reform and transparency on all levels of government. It is committed to citizen journalism with a local, independent-minded perspective. We seek to provide a layer of scrutiny of Sussex County politics and government that we find lacking in corporate journalism.

To contact the Sussex County Watchdog with a lead, question, or to submit a post for publication: 

info@sussexcountywatchdog.com 

Was that wrong?

" After speaking with each of the three Trustees who had relationships with CP, it became apparent that none of them recognized or appreciated what the College's  Ethics Code or New Jersey law required of them when votes relating to CP came before the College's Board. Rather than making full disclosure to all members of the Board of their relationships with CP, the three Trustees did not disclose their various relationships with CP   and merely abstained or, in some instances, voted on these matters."

 It is beginning to sound like a Seinfeld episode.