Senate President Steve Sweeney, the guy who gets booed at Rutgers, is at it again Save Jerseyans, under the guise of increasing transparency and savings taxpayer money, Sweeney is taking a stand on a new issue. Last week it was punishment for municipalities who refused to take shared services orders from our overlords in Trenton, complete with a special agenda for Camden County.
This week, Steve Sweeney is letting everyone know that the excuses he used back in 2010 to avoid transparency on the Gloucester County Freeholder Board are no longer valid, and certainly not for apolitical organizations that actually save money rather than spend it.
For a little background, take a peek at the video below. It shows then-candidate Larry Wallace scolding the GlouCo Freeholders for not adhering to the Open Public Meetings Act. After demonstrating that Sweeney’s board simply could not follow the law, in letter or spirit, the court appointed a babysitting to make sure the Freeholders exercised open and free government. The only board in the state that needed such a watchdog.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0BmiwPZGPA
Sweeney’s response in 2010 was essentially that they should not have to worry about following the law, because everyone was doing it. Sweeney relied upon the advice of his lawyers, and therefore must be in the right…court appointed babysitter or not.
Oh how far we have come in just two years.
Trico-JIF, which stands for Tri-county Joint Insurance Fund, is a group that serves Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland Counties insurance needs. According to the Gloucester County Times, they do a pretty good job at it too,
Trico-JIF was initially established by area municipalities to achieve savings through comprehensive insurance, safety and claims management programs. By pooling resources, Trico-JIF — one of 18 joint insurance funds within New Jersey’s Municipal Excess Liability (MEL) system — has saved taxpayers millions of dollars since its formation in 1991.
MEL currently has an annual budget of $175 million and a statutory surplus of $125 million. It’s considered the third largest governmental self-insurance pool in the country.
Sweeney is now attacking this group because he claims that they have violated Open Public Meetings law, and do not use a competitive bidding process in awarding contracts. One of these is apparently true.
Trico-JIF does not use a competitive bidding process for its contracts. Instead, it uses what is known legally as “non-fair and open process,” which is really a horrible name to give something that is not nearly as bad as the moniker suggests.
Under that scheme, Trico-JIF can award contracts to anyone so long as that contractor does not make any political contributions, at all, with a year before or during the entire contract term. This removes politics from the process completely. It avoids pay-to-play because, well, if one pays, then by definition you cannot play.
Sweeney doesn’t like it. He wants to see the bidding process opened up to local insurance companies in the three counties for competitive bids. The problem is, if that happens, the board instantly becomes politicized, because contributions will be allowed. Sweeney’s seemingly random interest in this JIF suggests that he is looking for a way to get contracts for his own political contributors in GlouCo and beyond. But wait, there is more.
The solicitor, or the lawyer, for the Trico-JIF is former State Senate candidate David Deweese, who lots a relatively close election to Jeff Van Drew in LD1 last year. Sweeney is alleging that Deweese is giving preference to contractors who gave him political contributions.
The problem with that?
DeWeese has asserted, however, “there’s nobody that has a non-fair and open contract with us who’s made political contributions to my campaign.”
Both of these things cannot be true.
Deweese, as the group’s lawyer, has stated that they also did not violate Open Public Meetings law, as the Senate President has suggested. An excuse that seemed good enough for Sweeney and his board just two years ago. But of course, a politically appointed lawyer for the Freeholder Board would definitely offer a more objective and unbiased opinion than a lawyer for a nonpolitical group that actually saves money rather than spends it, right? Especially a group that was honored for its “outstanding transparency” only a year ago.
Sorry Senator, but I think your hypocrisy is showing.
Sweeney is weak. He admitted following the advice of the lawyers. His lawyers were wrong. They should be terminated for bad advice. I'm sick of the BNorcross Sweeney alliance that is seeping into all parts South. This used to be a nice place to live.
God Bless Andrew Breitbart.
Maybe Sweeney is looking to get rid of the current insurance system so that his Norcross buddy at Connor- Strong can move in and pick up some new business. He was accused of that a year or so ago. Crony capitalism.
Sweeney is not the problem, the career politician is. America has been hijacked by lawyers and thieves. Think about it, Congress was never meant to be a career, and it was never meant to be run by all lawyers. Congress, at least the House of Representatives was intended to be filled with a cross section of Americans, not all lawyers
Imho, the reason America is in trouble is because the den of lawyers and thieves we jokingly refer to as OUR Congress trades their votes like so many baseball cards.
Read a bill?
Why bother? let the lawyers have at it and vote the party line. Who cares if it's good law or bad law.
We the people have been conned into believing that one must have little letters after one's name before that person will be taken seriously. I say hogwash. Joe the plumber is running for Congress. What America needs is many more Joe the plumbers to run, and we the people need to support them.
" Hey, I'll trade you 2 XL pipelines for 1 increasing the debt limit" This is how the most honorable deliberating body in the world does things. We wonder why we get 2000+ page bills that "we have to pass in order to find out what's in it".
It's long pass due for this "good old boy's club" to be dismantled. These congresscritters have been lying to us, stealing from us, and making fools of us for too long.
The only thing at stake is America.
We the people must remove all of those who hate America this November, starting with Obama. America does not need to be "fundamentally transformed", what America needs is to clean House, (pun intended).
The founders left us with the proper way to run America, citizen government. Until we the people remove the hogs that think their version of America is better than the model left us, these people who believe America is bad to the bone, this country will continue to decline.
I was born and raised here in Jersey and as a lifelong citizen I can't understand why my fellow Jerseyians, keep electing the same idiots who've been picking your pockets for years.
Career politicians only care about one thing, their next election. when will the citizens of New Jersey wake up and stop reelecting career politicians to Congress.
We the people must rid America of all career politicians, federal, state, and local, until we do, America will continue to ride the swirl down the toilet.
just sayin
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