Tuesday, September 19, 2006
GUILT BY ASSOCIATION?
THE OCEANPORT MAYOR'S ASSOCIATION WITH A QUESTIONABLE SENATOR MENENDEZ
In response to the posting "Councilwoman Kahle....Guilty As Charged" by "Oceanport Reports" on the blog located at this link http://oceanport1-reports.blogspot.com/ it appears that the writer attempts to question the credibility and character of Councilwoman Kahle, who is currently a Mayoral Candidate. The writer associates Ms. Kahle with Freeholders Burry and Barham by putting a negative spin on the issue. This writer also stated that the words "Truth and Honesty" are not in Ms.Kahle's vocabulary.
Now here are undisputed facts concerning Mayor Chaump's association with a high powered politician, named Senator Robert Menendez. According to the Town Council Minutes dated, August 17, 2006, there was a Town Council Meeting on Thursday, August 17, 2006, which was called to order at 8:00pm.
When the Mayor commented during her portion of the meeting the minutes state the following verbatim.
Mayor Chaump met with Senator Menendez and Congressman Pallone on Saturday, July 22, 2006. She was contacted in the morning by Senator Menendez to sit down and speak with him and the other 2 Mayors, Mayor Tarantola could not make it a 5pm he could only make it at 4pm and Mayor Peter McCleary was away on vacation for 2 weeks. However, she was able to attend and it is a suggestion that also came from the National Parks System to assist the 3 towns and he was going to submit a letter to the Department Of Defense in Washington DC to try to stop the clock and slow the process down because of the late start that they had because of the authority and the bill.
Recently the ethics and credibility of State Senator Menendez have come into question by way of a Federal Subpoena, where the Feds are investigating what is perceived to be an unethical rental deal, and yet our Mayor met with this individual behind closed doors?
Furthermore, Senator Menendez, is also the State Senator who backed and pushed the Corzine administration to nominate Zulima Farber as the State Attorney General. After a short time in office, Farber's morals came into question and she was found guilty of ethics violations concerning the motor vehicle stop of her boyfriend in Farifield Township.
What is most disturbing is the fact that the Oceanport Mayor met with Menendez and Pallone without any other Mayor or Republican Councilperson being present at the Oceanport Borough Hall. And this meeting took place on a Saturday, when all the Borough Employees are scheduled off and the building is empty? Hmmm....... Why is that, one would ask.
This certainly has the perception of being sneaky. Why wasn't this meeting postponed, until the other Mayors could attend? I am sure the other mayors and the citizens they represent certainly have an interest in the outcome of Fort Monmouth's property.
Also there are witnesses who say that Councilman Brisicone was present at this meeting, but that was never mentioned in the minutes. Now, whose vocabulary are missing the words " Truth and Honesty"?
In fact, Councilman Briscione parked his vehicle behind the building not out front. Why the hiding? There are plenty of parking spots in front of the building. Again, you need to ask why? Why wasn't a Republican Councilperson invited to this meeting or placed on the Reuse Committee? Again is there something sneaky going on at Borough Hall the public needs to know about? Was this meeting in the best interest of the town? Sure has all the ingredients of appearing to be a clandestine meeting.
Recently the Mayor was seen at the "End of Year Festival" walking around Blackberry Bay Park with the Democratic Representative of the 12th District, Rush Holt, campaigning. This is just wrong. This was a Town Function for the citizens of the Borough, not a Political Event.
This is obviously the wrong venue for this and nothing more than politicking in hopes of garnishing votes for the upcoming election. In essence the taxpayers basically financed a campaign gathering for the mayor. Wrong! Wrong!. Wrong!!!! This was a bad decision. But, this is business as usual.
This town is desperately in need of change. Now, whose character comes into Question?
The Republican candidates showed a lot of decorum and class by not politicking or inviting Jennifer Beck, the Republican Representative for the 12th District to the park to bother the citizens attending the function with political nonsense.
It was stated in your post We do not need the "The Good ol' boy network" in Oceanport. That network was severed 22 years ago.
I believe the posting had a typo. I think the writer wanted to say "That Network Has Served for the Last 22 Years".
Then the issue of "Pay to Play". The writer failed to do his, or her homework. There are public documents that verify the three Democratic candidates who ran for the 2004 Election accepted a campaign donation from the contractor who was awarded the contract to renovate Blackberry Bay Park. Although the contribution was later returned, it was after the date the contract was awarded. However, the writer questions the credibility of Ms. Kahle on the issue of "Pay to Play"?
Read the below articles and you can formulate your own opinions
Thursday, September 07, 2006
Authorities delivered the subpoena to the North Hudson Community Action Corp. earlier this week, according to three sources familiar with the move who requested anonymity because of the ongoing investigation.The action comes two weeks after The Star-Ledger reported that Menendez collected over $300,000 from the organization over a nine-year period while he represented Hudson County in the U.S. House of Representatives. During that period, he also helped the agency win millions of dollars in federal funding.
State Sen. Tom Kean Jr., Menendez's Republican challenger, has called the arrangement a case of profiting from official action. Two of his Republican allies filed an ethics complaint against Menendez in Congress, accusing him of a conflict of interest. Independent watchdog groups have also said it was a conflict for Menendez to seek federal funds on behalf of his tenant.
Kean issued a statement through his campaign office saying "After years of embarrassment, it should be perfectly clear to New Jerseyans that we must have leaders with the highest ethical integrity. Today's developments illustrate the need to clean up the corruption and scandal that has plagued Washington D.C. and our state, so we can finally restore the public's faith in government." Contributed by Jeff Whelan and Josh Margolin
FAIRVIEW TRAFFIC STOP INCIDENT
ATTORNEY GENERAL ACTIONS FOUND TO BE UNETHICAL
On May 26, 2006, Attorney General Zulima Farber's boyfriend, Hamlet Goore, was stopped by police in Fairview, in Bergen County, for driving an unregistered vehicle. The police issued at least one ticket to Goore and were going to impound the vehicle. As this was happening, Goore called Farber, who had her New Jersey State Police driver drive from Newark to Fairview. At the scene, Farber met up with Fairview's mayor, Vincent Belluci. Farber claims that she was there just to help Goore remove items from his car before it was impounded. However, the tickets that the Fairview police issued to Goore were withdrawn and his car was not impounded. As a result of this incident, a retired state appellate judge from Atlantic County, Richard J. Williams, headed a special investigation at the request of the New Jersey Governor's Office to look into whether Farber abused her position as Attorney General or broke any laws
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Williams' report, released on August 15, 2006, concluded that Farber violated the state's code of ethics but did not commit a crime when she showed up at the scene of her boyfriend's traffic stop in May 2006. The report found Farber innocent of the more significant ethical violations she was accused of. She was found not to have requested special favors from any officer or ticket-fixing, nor any "fixing" or inappropriate favors from the Motor Vehicles Commission as regards the restoration of her boyfriend's driving privileges.
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Williams' report, released on August 15, 2006, concluded that Farber violated the state's code of ethics but did not commit a crime when she showed up at the scene of her boyfriend's traffic stop in May 2006. The report found Farber innocent of the more significant ethical violations she was accused of. She was found not to have requested special favors from any officer or ticket-fixing, nor any "fixing" or inappropriate favors from the Motor Vehicles Commission as regards the restoration of her boyfriend's driving privileges.
Today is Zulima Farber's last as state attorney general. She was a disaster from the start and turned Jon Corzine's administration into a national laughing stock. Not sure what, if anything, Corzine learned from this, except not to take Sen. Bob Menendez's recommendations. Menendez was Farber's chief backer for state Supreme Court (Jim McGreevey rejected that) and attorney general. Farber is a typical arrogant Jersey political hack who thought she was above the law.
Menendez Is Concerned About The Political Fallout From His Association With Attorney General Zulima Farber. "A state Democratic insider said Thursday that U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez is concerned that state Attorney General Zulima Farber's role in a Fairview traffic stop involving her boyfriend could become a thorn in the side of his reelection campaign. "I know he's extremely concerned about the potential political fallout," said one Democratic insider following a recent conversation with the senator. "What transpired with Zulima's boyfriend....is an unfortunate situation, and he doesn't want it to blow back in his face. And that's a legitimate concern."‘ (Mitchel Maddux, "Menendez Fears AG Flap May Hurt," NorthJersey.com, July 14, 2006)
# posted by Stop The Corruption @ 5:43 PM
