The following letter appeared today in the
Asbury Park Press. It should be of particular interest to Middletown residents, it does bring up a few questions about some of "Christie's Team" members have been entrusted to run our town:
Thanks to the Asbury Park Press for reporting the many ways in which “Friends profit from Christie connections,” in its aptly titled March 9 article. Fortunately for Gov. Chris Christie’s allies, the cronyism has made its way to the local level, too.
In 2010, Christie appointed his friend and fellow Republican Gerald Scharfenberger, a sitting member of the Middletown Township Committee, to the position of director of the state Office for Planning Advocacy at a starting salary of $95,000.
Scharfenberger, who today remains both a local elected official and a state-appointed official — the kind of conflict Christie vowed to address when he took office — “gave back” by throwing a gubernatorial fundraiser at his palatial new Middletown residence last year.
In 2012, Scharfenberger and the all-Republican Middletown Township Committee, including then-Mayor Anthony Fiore, backed the governor’s choice of AshBritt for storm cleanup, a contract mired in political backscratching that was twice the price it should have been. AshBritt made nearly $15 million in Middletown alone.
Add to the well-connected list Middletown township attorney Brian Nelson, a member of Christie’s 2009 transition team who was appointed in 2011 to the board of the state’s powerful Economic Development Authority.
The EDA decided it was OK for taxpayers to fork out an extra $2.2 million for a tourism campaign featuring the governor himself. It would be nice to know how Nelson voted in that scandal, but, alas, someone decided to black out the names of the scorekeepers.
Hopefully, taxpayers are keeping score, too.
Paul J. Jansen
MIDDLETOWN
7 comments:
And Scharfenbaggers publicly funded pension got a huge boost by being loyal to the gov.
He did just what R. Peters did regarding pension benefits but reform could have changed the formula !
Politics pays well if you know how to play the game !
quite a stretch if you ask me. I think you are reaching where there is nothing to reach for. As for the pension, get rid of all the state pensions and make them pay into a 401k like the rest of us.
Well, it looks like Mr. Jansen is throwing his hat into the ring for this Fall's election.
Too bad he shows that he has about as much substance as the failed candidates of the last few years.
Let me ask Mr. Jansen:was the Governor supposed to appoint Democrats to his administration? Did earlier Democratic Governors appoint Republicans?
Give s a break with this stuff, nobody cares about it...
Anon 8:13,
Go soak your head !
You're just one of this crowd of flawed republicans in this town and that crowd has really reached the bottom of the muck in the barrel !
See the Star Ledger today.
The Governor cannot use his BULLY CORPS to film those who speak out against his policies at his town hall meetings.
It's about time someone started to inform this bully about the facts of life in the real world.
Anon 3/19 8:13, Unfortunately yes, but this Gov told us he was going to "turn Trenton upside down". All we got was more of the same, huge contracts and nice jobs go to cronies, lies and new heights of legalized political corruption. He has been a failure for the average guy, and a financial windfall for the political faithful at our expense.
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