Glen Vetrano: Man of the Year???

If anyone wonders why Sussex County is getting a reputation as a corrupt backwater, look no further than who was named "man of the year" by the Branchville Businessmen's Club.  No, it's not the 1970's.  Yes, it is a businessMEN's club.  Sussex County still has them. 

For some reason, the Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority (SCMUA) promoted the event, which was held last week.  So who did they name? 

The Branchville Businessmen’s Club announces the recognition of Glen Vetrano as its Man-of-the-year, 2014. He will be honored at the open meeting of the organization to be held at the Walpack Inn on November 20, 2014.  A 6:00 PM cocktail hour will be followed by a brief meeting and sit down dinner with recognition activities to honor Glen specifically citing his many contributions to the club and Sussex County Community.  Glen is a long term member of the club and has served actively on the executive committee with special attention to the Membership function of the Club.  He is a past President of the BBMC, serving back to back during 2012 and 2013.  Glen is a retired Firefighter with the rank of Lieutenant for the Paterson Fired Department. Glen will be recognized for his contributions to the our club and to Sussex County including: past freeholder, Board Member to Sussex County Community College, The Sussex County Farm and Horse Show/NJ State Fair and many other contributions to other organizations.  We invite friends and associates to join us to recognize Glen.  The cost is $30 for dinner, reservations are recommended.

Shouldn't that be former "Board Member to Sussex County Community College"?  Isn't he the guy who had to resign after he got caught breaking ethics rules, voting on a contract for a vendor he took money from, not reporting it on his official financial disclosure, and then not telling the truth about it?  After finally admitting to it, he had to resign.  How does that sort of behavior merit an award or the title "Man of the Year"? 

Maybe Sussex County can't help itself?  Maybe it is stuck in a kind of small town mentality that won't let it grow up and recognize that people can be capable of both good and bad?

The Republican Mayor of Sparta gets in trouble, the former Democratic County Committee Chairman is sentenced to six months in prison, a former Sussex County newspaper editor is convicted of abusing two girls, a Franklin Councilman has to resign over juvenile Facebook posts, and everyone uniformly expresses shock and cannot understand why such a "nice guy" suddenly turned bad.  Maybe the bad was there all along but they couldn't get past the small town smile?

Take the case of former Sussex County Undersheriff and Byram Councilman Rick Meltz.  He was the quintessential "nice guy" and small town "goodfella".  Everybody liked the guy -- until he was arrested in 2013 for his involvement with New York's infamous "cannibal cop", the NYPD's Gilberto Valle, who planned to stalk, kill, and eat his female victims. 

In January 2014, the Honorable Councilman Meltz pleaded guilty to planning to kidnap, rape, and murder women.  According to the New Jersey Herald, Meltz and his co-conspirators planned to "attack and kill multiple victims, including the wife, children and other family members of a co-conspirator."  Meltz and his co-conspirators also discussed what they referred to as the "snuffing" of "women, children, and infants."  With the FBI's tapes rolling, the former Undersheriff dispensed tips on how to kill without getting caught, such as "removing a victim’s teeth to avoid dental identification, taking off the fingers to avoid fingerprint identification, and chopping off and disposing of the head."

This is an extreme case for sure and nobody is trying to equate the crimes of Councilman Meltz with ethics violations.  The example is used because even in this extreme case those interviewed by the Herald expressed complete shock that this "nice guy" was capable of anything improper.  Take the poor Mayor of Byram for example.  He told the Herald:  "I was shocked when he was arrested and now equally shocked that he pleaded guilty. . . I took over Rick’s spot on the council and lived in the same neighborhood as he did."  The Mayor added that Meltz was always a "nice guy" and that "his house was the one in the neighborhood that one would consider safe."  The Byram Mayor told the Herald, "His was the house that you told the kids to go to if something bad happened."

On June 2, 1998, Rick Meltz nearly won the Republican nomination for Sussex County Sheriff.  Meltz lost to incumbent Bob Untig 4,406 to 4,752.  A close call.

“Transparency” Sussex County style

The setting:  Sussex County Community College. 

The host:  The New Jersey Herald. 

The event:  A debate between challenger Ron Bassani and incumbent Freeholder Phil Crabb. 

The menu:  More b.s. than a Sussex County resident should be forced to stomach.

Yesterday’s debate between Wantage Committeeman Ron Bassani and Freeholder Phil Crabb was a gentlemanly enough affair.  For 90 minutes the two sparred in a gentle, sleep inducing back and forth that produced no waves, no froth – until the last minutes.  In his final question to Committeeman Bassani, Freeholder Crabb asked him to identify the appointment to the SCMUA Board that he had objected to in an earlier campaign communication.  In a long and rambling answer, Bassani did finally drop the name “Gary Larson”, with Crabb blankly stating that he had no knowledge that Larson had ever been under consideration for the appointment to SCMUA.  The Herald moderator ended the discussion by characterizing it all as “hearsay”.

Remember that this is Sussex County, a corrupt rural suburb of New York City.  If ever a book is written about the goings on here it should be called “Corruption in a Small Place”.  This is the place where the Sunshine Law has set and where Open Meetings consist of the blank stares and uniform Ayes or Nays of unanimous vote after unanimous vote by the Freeholder Board.

It is a good thing for the citizens of this overtaxed county, with fewer jobs and mounting foreclosures, they have Watchdog to help dig up and report the facts. 

You will all remember that in last year’s Republican primary, Gary Larson ran for Freeholder against George Graham.  Graham, who was closely allied with Surrogate Gary Chiusano, won that contest.  Larson, an ally of Glen Vetrano, lost.  Both were well qualified candidates having served in local elected office.  Graham, of Stanhope, ran as a “Ronald Reagan conservative”, while Frankford’s Larson, a member of the teachers’ union, was the liberal in the race.

Phil Crabb has served as the Freeholder liaison to the SCMUA or Sussex County Municipal Utilities Authority Board.  For more information on what SCMUA does and how it affects your life, visit it on the web at http://www.scmua.org/

So Crabb has this relationship with SCMUA and there’s this open seat on the SCMUA Board (SCMUA Board members are called “commissioners”, which is a title with “status” we’re told).

Larson was considering running for Freeholder again this year, much as Dennis Mudrick had done after his loss to Crabb in 2011.  Then in January, Freeholder Director Rich Vohden told people that a deal had been struck and Gary Larson would be appointed to the SCMUA Board and would not be a candidate for Freeholder challenging incumbent Crabb.

That’s when the push back started.  A couple of the Freeholders objected.  Among their reasons for objecting was that (1) Larson was from Frankford and Frankford isn’t serviced by SCMUA, and (2) the vacant seat didn’t need to be filled and leaving it vacant was a savings to taxpayers.

Now all this maneuvering was going on behind the backs of the taxpayers of Sussex County – out of sight of the public.  Kind of makes you wonder why they even have laws like the Open Public Meetings Act?

If you want more information on the NJ Open Public Meetings Act (also called the Sunshine Law), you can access it here:  http://www.dmlp.org/legal-guide/new-jersey/open-meetings-laws-new-jersey

Larson was never appointed to SCMUA.  We don’t know why, but we do know that at least one Freeholder complained in writing about the way the pros and cons of the appointment was being discussed as “gossip” and not discussed in open public session the way the law said it should be done.

Freeholder Crabb must have had a lapse of memory.  It happens.