Solar scams are not only taking place at the county level. Corporate scammers are targeting individual consumers too. Be careful and notify law enforcement if you are a victim of a solar scam.
If Freeholders Richard Vohden and Phil Crabb were not such stubborn old men, they would realize that they are only a small part of a nationwide group of victims of taxpayer-supported solar programs -- "a no brainer" as Crabb called it -- that turned out to be an old fashioned scam. It is happening all over.
What is it about Vohden and Crabb that leads them to want to own the solar scam? Too proud to admit they made a mistake? Or are they protecting someone?
Elected officials hate scrutiny. But elected officials on government bodies made up of only one political party deserve extra scrutiny. Especially when they have governing philosophies like those of Freeholder Richard Vohden, who has told many people on many occasions he believes that the elected representatives of the people on the county freeholder board should follow the direction of the appointed county administrator and his bureaucrats.
What we have here is a philosophical difference. Apparently, Richard Vohden isn't much of a political philosopher because he has chosen to approach this disagreement in a juvenile way. Vohden has taken to calling Watchdog names on Facebook.
It is not a particularly literate effort. Short sentences and a lack of punctuation are its hallmarks. Surely the Freeholder can string a paragraph together. And this from a man who complains about others being "stupid".
Freeholder Vohden appears perplexed over Watchdog's anonymity. He claims to not understand why when, in fact, he knows perfectly well why.
The New Jersey Herald isn't anonymous. That leaves them open to blackmail. Ever notice how the newspaper stops coverage of a big story mid-scandal? It happened with the coverage of the ethics scandal involving the trustees of the Sussex County Community College. It happened again with the coverage of the solar bailout. Coverage suddenly stopped.
In the case of the solar bailout, maybe we got a hint of the reason why. The week before the coverage abruptly ended, an ally of Freeholders Crabb and Vohden stood up at a board meeting and threatened the Herald with a financial boycott. The Herald, which depends on advertising revenues to pay its bills, must be ever mindful of such threats -- especially when they come from a source close to the politicians who control such a large share of its advertising revenue.
Watchdog is out of reach of such threats. This loss of control irks some people.
Of course, Freeholder Vohden could man-up and join the conversation. We invite him to explain his philosophy of government here. We will publish it. Instead of petulant name-calling, explain why you believe the way you do. Tell us your side of it.
Bernie Re is Sussex County's longtime, well paid Treasurer. The finance officer of Sussex County. Bernie Re pockets $148,060 every year, plus benefits, health care, and a nice fat pension when he retires, aged 62, this year.
The average property taxpayer, doesn't have a pension, or paid benefits, or free health care. And if he or she retires before 66 on Social Security, it is subject to a penalty. Oh, and the average family income (husband and wife together) in Sussex County is just $87,335.
Bernie Re was one of three Sussex County bureaucrats who were part of the Sussex County Evaluation Team. This is the committee that recommended to the Freeholder Board that they agree to the solar scheme. These are the assurances, Bernie Re and the other bureaucrats made to the Board:
"The SunLight/MasTec team possesses high quality management, installation capabilities, and sound solar development experience. In addition, the SunLight/MasTec proposal provides Sussex benefits in the following key areas:
- It provides substantial direct energy cost savings;
- It provides the Local Units the potential for additional savings through the sharing of revenues from the sale of Solar Renewable Energy Certificates (SRECs) and other environmental benefits;
- Due to SunLight/MasTec's proposed capital investment, which reduces the required size of the Authority bonds, it provides a strong level of protection for Sussex from financial risk;
- It provided additional financial protection for Sussex in the form of a debt service reserve fund; and,
- It includes a restoration security providing for additional Local Unit protection at the end of contract.
Back in 2011, Bernie Re and the other county bureaucrats gave their assurances as professionals, their word, as men of honor. Apparently his word isn't worth much and his professional standards are simply nonexistent.
In today's New Jersey Herald, Bernie Re -- a man who Sussex County taxpayers have paid handsomely year after year -- essentially laughed in their faces and said "let the buyer beware".
Here is Bernie Re's exact quote:
Re, though, acknowledged that he had been upset by the political storm surrounding the solar issue. He said county officials provided thorough information and that decisions were always up to the freeholders.
“Elected officials have a job to do. Nobody put a gun to anybody's head,” Re said.
"Nobody put a gun to anybody's head." Isn't that what scammer Bernie Madoff said about his victims? Yes, and scammer Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street himself, said it too. Isn't that what every scumbag scammer says?
Yes, elected officials do have a job to do. They should have been better judges of character in selecting the county's top bureaucrats.
We've just been through tax time. Imagine if something was really wrong and you got audited and the person who you trusted to advise you on preparing your taxes said, "Nobody put a gun to anybody's head."
Of course, that wouldn't happen because the IRS holds the tax preparer to account. Unfortunately, the majority on the Sussex County Freeholder Board of Crabb, Vohden, and Mudrick will not be holding Bernie Re to account. If they did hold him to account, they would ask for their money back for the years 2011 through 2015.
Bernie Re will soon be retiring. Laughing at the taxpayers. Laughing all the way to the bank. "My advice was crap," but they still paid me. "The Freeholders should have never trusted a thing I wrote or said, ha, ha... but they still paid me."
But there still is something we can do to make sure that a lesson is learned and that others with the same professional attitudes as Bernie Re holds are not allowed to prey on people who look at their credentials and forget to examine their character. We can file a professional complaint against Bernie Re.
Filing a complaint cannot undo what Bernie Re did to the taxpayers of Sussex County. But it will stand as a rebuke to every financial officer who says of the people he is supposed to provide honest advice, "Nobody put a gun to anybody's head."
Sussex County Watchdog