Should Sussex Freeholders get $100,000?

Ann Smulewicz, an ardent and often loud supporter of Freeholder Phil Crabb apparently thinks so.  At last year's June 27th meeting of the Sussex County Board of Freeholders Smulewicz told the Freeholders that they do not make enough money. 

According to the Alternative Press, Smulewicz said that the "freeholders deserve $100,000 a year."  That's more than four times what they are currently receiving from the taxpayers.  A Sussex County Freeholder currently receives $23,000 a year, with an additional $1,000 for the director.  Freeholder Crabb is the only Board member who receives benefits and a pension, so a salary increase could be especially beneficial to him.

The plan to increase the Freeholders salaries would make Sussex County's Freeholders the most expensive in New Jersey.  Smulewicz defended the idea, telling the Press:  "It's not a part-time job."  In fact, it is a part-time job.  No Freeholder works a 40 hour or even a 20 hour week.  All that is required is attendance at two meetings a month and an occasional additional meeting or two.

Oddly enough, while wanting part-time elected officials to be paid more, Smulewicz wants full-time elected officials to be paid less.  Smulewicz objected to paying the County Clerk and County Surrogate more than $107,000 a year, even though they work documented 40-hour weeks, plus attending meetings after hours.  

One thing is certain, Ann Smulewicz is an enormous fan of Freeholder Phil Crabb.  During this year's February 26th meeting of the Sussex County Board of Freeholders, Smulewicz spoke up and loudly proclaimed her support for Crabb, as the official minutes of the Board attest:  "Ann Smulewicz of Wantage came forward, she said she was pleased that Freeholder Crabb is running for his Freeholder seat again and will work to make sure that he retains the seat."

Should public meetings be turned into venues for campaign endorsement? 

Should Sussex County Freeholders get a $77,000 pay raise each?

Should paying the Sussex County Board of Freeholders go from costing county taxpayers $116,000 a year to $501,000 a year?  Freeholders serve 3-year terms, that's $348,000 vs. over $1.5 million!

Feel free to let us know what you think.

The Coziness of a One-Party County

Last Thursday night there was a campaign fundraiser for Freeholder Phil Crabb, who has become a kind of cause célèbre for the network of insiders who run most of what happens in Sussex County.  We won't go as far as George Carlin and call them "the owners" but often, it appears that way.

Crabb's event was a packed house and he collected a lot of money.  It was a very different story three years ago when Crabb was up for re-election.  Then his fundraiser managed to attract less than two dozen people and his campaign finance reports were anemic.  Ah, Crabb's campaign finance reports.

Three years ago Phil Crabb was under a lot of pressure.  He was up for re-election and was relentlessly peppered by party officials, county officials, freeholders, legislators, and operatives to clean up his act and file campaign finance reports that were then four years overdue.  These officials met with Crabb and sent him written emails that demanded that he follow the law or else they would push him off the ticket.  After assuring them many times that he had filed, which turned out to be untrue, Crabb finally did file and has, on occasion, filed on time since.

Phil Crabb broke New Jersey election law again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again, well, you get the idea.  It is the one consistent thing that defines his career as a Sussex County politician.

Crabb has been extraordinarily lucky in that nobody has ever filed a complaint against him with the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission.  Others who have done what Crabb did, but on far fewer occasions, have faced fines and penalties of tens of thousands of dollars.  In neighboring Morris County we have this example:

The N.J. Election Law Enforcement Commission also has accused (Freeholder Hank) Lyon of four violations of campaign finance laws during the 2011 Republican primary. Each violation could result in a maximum $6,800 fine.

One alleged violation involves a $16,000 loan made to the campaign a week before the primary but not reported until July 8. The state says that because the contribution was more than $1,200, it should have been reported within 48 hours.

Another alleged violation occurred when Lyon and his father certified the information on the loan and campaign report was correct but that they changed it in a subsequent report. Initially, Lyons reported that he had made the loan but it was later changed to identify Robert Lyon as the contributor, the state said.

Additionally, the state claims the information about the contribution was submitted after the June 27 deadline.

Further, the complaint says that $16,795 in expenditures were listed on July 8 but were due on June 27. (nj.com)

Last month, Freeholder Lyon was formally reprimanded by NJELEC and fined $8,100 for his late filing.  Lyon had only four violations, as opposed to the dozens Freeholder Crabb faces.

This leaves some people questioning why Crabb, who enjoyed only limited support in 2011, now has almost all the insiders supporting him in 2014.  Are they, with their words and their dollars, condoning behavior that they, as officials sworn to uphold the law, should have reported?  Why the radical turnabout?

Freeholder Crabb has proven to be useful to those with deep financial interests in the county and their allies.  In June 2012, Crabb was at the center of an attempt to take control of Sussex County's waste disposal away from the County's 24 municipalities and turn it over to a committee of five insiders.  Later the County dump's lifespan was magically extended just as it had once been magically foreshortened.  Blogger Rob Eichmann, who at age 48 died last October of cancer, extensively studied this and other issues.  His notes and papers have been preserved by his alma mater.

Since his current term as Freeholder began in January 2012, Crabb has been a point man for insider interests in Sussex County.  Last December, a dinner was hosted in his honor at the exclusive spot favored by those who run the County.  As a rule these events are priced just below the amount that triggers the state's disclosure laws.  Technically legal but morally suspect and ethically a no-go.  The spirit of transparency isn't flourishing here in Sussex County.

If Freeholder Crabb's problems do come to light and they end up reflecting badly on the County and on those elected officials who knew, but supported and funded him anyway, watch for the blame games to begin.

Is Rick Shaftan running Steve Lonegan's campaign again?

Steve Lonegan, last year's candidate for United States Senate and one-time Bergen County Mayor, is now a candidate for the U.S. Congress down in South Jersey.  Last year's campaign was noted for its frequent off-color mistakes by Lonegan -- everything from a tweet that Lonegan had to defend as "not meant to be racist", to an election eve meltdown by Sussex County's top political consultant, Rick Shaftan, who was running Lonegan's campaign.  Shaftan bashed Senator Cory Booker for acting "like a gay guy would".  Full coverage can be found here:

http://talkingpointsmemo.com/dc/top-aide-believes-steve-lonegan-is-surging-because-of-cory-booker-s-strange-behavior

There's something about Steve Lonegan's anger and arrogance that reminds us of George Wallace, the late Democratic Governor of Alabama.  Shaftan has always sought to reinforce that image, going as far as donning a Strom Thurmond tee-shirt for their moment of film celebrity in the documentary, Anytown U.S.A.

All this came to mind after Lonegan tweeted his newest campaign attack ad -- against the latest in a long list of opponents, Tom MacArthur of Toms River.  Lonegan attacked MacArthur, a former small town mayor like himself, for "promoting diversity" because a small number of affordable housing units are to be built in his small town.  Now Lonegan knows, as all 500-plus small town mayors in New Jersey know, that they have to comply with state law and allow affordable housing to be built.  And the reason this works for many small towns is that much of that housing is snapped up by seniors on fixed incomes who face having to move out of state, away from children and grandchildren, if they fail to find cheaper accommodation. 

This all brings to mind the 2008 municipal election in Sparta Township, the most overtly racist in Sussex County memory, that pitted incumbent Scott Seelagy against Carey Ann Shaftan, then the wife of Rick Shaftan.  Shaftan's campaign literature equated affordable housing with people of color migrating from Newark into Sussex County.  Shaftan warned against a wave of incoming "mental patients, ex-cons, drug addicts, and others" who would "increase crime and destroy property values."  Shaftan's literature used the same housing motif found in the attack ad Lonegan tweeted.

Shaftan ran on a platform that "no one has a right to live anywhere they want, people have a right to live where they can afford. That is what America is all about."   Shaftan lost that election, but not before a whole lot of people were offended.  Now, six years later, it's déjà vu all over again. 

If Steve Lonegan is serious about winning a General Election, he needs to curb his baser instincts and wise up. 

The pro-tax radical who runs Byram politics

Councilman Scott Olson made no bones about it.  He is supporting the candidacies of Jim Oscovitch for Mayor and Marie Raffay for Council.  And it’s easy to understand why – they supported Olson when he ran for Byram Council in 2011.

Led by Scott Olson, Oscovitch and Raffay make up the current political establishment in Byram Township.   Who is Scott Olson?

Well, you can tell a lot about someone by who he hates, and Scott Olson hates Republicans Governor Chris Christie and Senator Steve Oroho.  Olson runs a blog and he has posted a lot of nasty stuff about the Governor and Senator Oroho. 

Olson’s blog has attacked Senator Oroho for supporting Fair School Funding legislation that would bring more education money to Sussex County to provide property tax relief.  Olson attacks Oroho for fighting for Sussex County taxpayers.

Apparently, Olson wants most of the state income tax money we pay flowing to school districts like Hoboken to provide property tax relief for the millionaires and corporations there.  This ignores the fact that Hoboken has a far higher median income than Sussex County and higher education attainment levels.  Even some Democrats agree that Hoboken is now too rich to get so much of our tax money – but that hasn’t stopped Olson’s blog from attacking Senator Oroho for fighting for us.

Olson’s blog calls Senator Oroho “radical” for proposing legislation that would prevent companies who knowingly hire illegal aliens from receiving state contracts.  So let’s get this straight.  Is Olson advocating giving state contracts to companies who cut costs by BREAKING THE LAW to hire cheap illegal labor instead of American workers or Immigrants with legal work visas?

The Olson blog has opposed giving women the opportunity to have an ultrasound or sonogram prior to having an abortion. 

Olson’s blog has attacked Governor Christie and Senator Oroho for their success in passing the 2% cap on local government spending.  The cap has kept spending down with the result that property taxes have not gone up like they did under Jon Corzine.  Olson obviously misses the “good old days” of huge property tax hikes and wants them to return.

With winter heating costs what they are, it is nice to know that Olson supported the RGGI fuel tax.  He called the bi-partisan legislation to repeal the heating tax “right wing”.

Olson also backs the Highlands Act, in which sate government has taken the property use of Sussex County residents without compensation of any kind.  This is unfair any way you look at it, but Olson doesn’t seem to care about his neighbors and their rights.

Olson’s blog finds it “shocking” that Senator Oroho wants to make English the official language of New Jersey.

Olson’s blog advocates very strongly for abortion.  It has attacked Senator Oroho for suggesting that parents be notified when their minor children receive medical or surgical procedures relating to pregnancy.

Olson has described Sussex County as “militia-friendly” – which is a slur on the people he claims to represent as a Byram Councilman.  Does Jim Oscovitch and Marie Raffay share Olson’s contempt for Sussex County and the residents of Byram Township?  Do they share his agenda?

They should set the record straight and in a hurry.