Six short years ago, Monmouth County saw 13 local politicians hauled off to jail on charges of money laundering and political corruption. The Federal investigation and sting operation known as Operation Bid Rig targeted elected officials who extorted cash from developers in return for granting them approvals for various building projects.
Three years after Operation Bid Rig cast a harsh light on the pay to play sleaze oozing out of Monmouth, the county’s board of Chosen Freeholders passed a resolution aimed at cleaning up the rampant bribery and political payola. Once passed, it became the toughest pay to play law in the state, and was used as a model for other counties to adopt. In contrast, the state statute, which the Freeholders have now adopted, contains fatal flaws, loopholes, is unregulated and is ripe for abuse according to a report released last September by the NJ State Comptroller Matt Boxer.
In 2008, longtime Republican Freeholder Lillian Burry praised her fellow Freeholders for the tough rules and history-making legislation, declaring “Good business judgment is not a partisan matter.”
But now it seems good business judgment may very well be a partisan manner. Last November, the lone Democratic Freeholder on the board, Amy Mallet, lost her bid for reelection. Last month, the newly seated, all Republican Freeholders called their first meeting to order and promptly voted to rescind the 2008 law 5-0.
Ms. Burry then went onto berate the bill she had proudly campaigned on during her reelection effort in the fall, explaining that while in 2008 the tough new rules were “a very necessary thing to do,” but by 2012 they were in fact “too harsh” and “very confusing.”
Seriously, is she kidding us with this?
How hard is it to understand that if you want to do business with Monmouth County, you can’t buy off its elected officials with political donations? How confusing is it to create standards that ensure a fair and open bidding process for contractors and educate those who want to do business with the County on these standards? How difficult is it to put people before politics and protect the taxpayers from graft and corruption?
On February 4th, the Asbury Park Press railed against the world of one-party rule in Monmouth County, calling the Freeholder action ‘disgraceful’ and denouncing the board as shameless:
The freeholders would have us believe that the people who want to do business with Monmouth County were absolutely flummoxed by the 2008 county standard and could not fathom the differences between the county’s rules and the ‘fair and open’ process… those aren’t the sort of people the county should be hiring in the first place.”
We say the APP got this one just right. We say that it’s obvious the only thing Ms. Burry and her band of back room dealers want is to return to the good old days of politically connected vendors paying to play for lucrative public contracts. We also note that Ms. Burry’s fellow Republican, Freeholder Director John Curley, boasts in his online bio about spearheading reform of Red Bank’s pay-to-play ordinance – but makes no mention of his key role in reversing these same rules on the county level, ratcheting up the cynical view that Mr. Curley’s days of being a self proclaimed reformer have ended now that “County Club Monmouth” has returned.
We say the actions of the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders are a slap in the face of honesty, integrity and good government and that the voters of Monmouth County would be well served by expressing their profound disgust at these elected officials next November.
What do you say?
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