APP Editorial: Make storm aid fully transparent

In today's Asbury Park Press there is an excellent editorial regarding governmental transparency in regard to Hurricane Sandy relief aid.

As the editorial states regarding Governor Christie, you can't rip into others (the National Flood Insurance Program) unless you yourself are willing to be held to the same standards instead of  "a weak-willed bureaucrat."

As the editorial also states Christie isn't the only one that has issues with transparency, in a paragraph that all too well describes Middletown the APP states, "More transparency should be viewed as a necessity, not an option. Governing bodies in New Jersey, on all levels, cannot be trusted to spend money appropriately without substantial public oversight. They’ve proven that time after time after time, and far too often the degree of abuse is only discovered after the fact, when the money is gone and there’s little to be done beyond pointing a few fingers." It is nearly impossible to get a straight answer from anyone associated with the Middletown governing body when the issue deals with any type of finances.

New Jersey's elected and appointed officials need to do a much better job at being transparent. Holding back information lead to corruption and the dishonestly of our officials and the distrust of the citizenry.

Here's what the APP editorial has to say:

Politicians can make some very strange distinctions when it suits them.

Consider Gov. Chris Christie, who has generated so much good will — and scored quite a few political points for himself — with his fist-pounding, bipartisan determination in demanding aid for Sandy recovery and vowing the resurrection of the Jersey Shore.

He wants money, he wants relief for residents, he wants to get moving with reconstruction efforts, and he wants all of it fast. On Tuesday, he ripped into the National Flood Insurance Program for a lack of urgency in resolving claims, no doubt earning more than a few “Go, Governor” responses from victims struggling in the storm’s aftermath.

Yet when it comes to additional government transparency to assure that the funds pouring into the state for recovery purposes are being spent properly and efficiently, Christie’s tone changes dramatically. The can-do, make-it-happen governor is instead transformed into a weak-willed bureaucrat.

Democrats are pushing a bill that would require online document postings detailing the distribution of storm recovery money and the issuance of state contracts. Christie has been hesitant to agree to the plan, conceding the potential value of such transparency, but not if it “takes away from having bodies on the ground.”

So our state government doesn’t have enough manpower to be transparent? That’s nonsense — and Christie knows it. What does “on the ground” really mean in practical terms anyway? Are we to believe that someone’s going to stop hammering nails to repair a roof or fail to hand-deliver an aid payment for someone’s next meal so they can instead post a few documents online?

Christie wants everyone else to come through for New Jersey; he pulled no punches insisting that federal officials do whatever it takes to speed the processing of the flood insurance claims. He should demand the same efficiency from his own state government. And we find it difficult to believe the state can’t manage to provide more spending information online without somehow compromising the overall response to the storm.

More transparency should be viewed as a necessity, not an option. Governing bodies in New Jersey, on all levels, cannot be trusted to spend money appropriately without substantial public oversight. They’ve proven that time after time after time, and far too often the degree of abuse is only discovered after the fact, when the money is gone and there’s little to be done beyond pointing a few fingers. That distrust has been earned by both parties and by countless means, and it does not change with a new leader, or an overhauled administration. It is a permanent stain.

That doesn’t mean every politician is dishonest. Far from it. But it does mean policies must be dictated by an assumption that corruption could be anywhere, and that the best antidote is as open a government as possible.

It is a certainty that less public scrutiny of Sandy recovery spending will lead to more of that money being wasted. Lawmakers need to help avert that before the funds evaporate. So let us all see exactly what’s going on.