Political Campaign Mail: An Important Trust

According to a Postal bulletin dated 10/19/00: (See Bulletin) Any material accepted for mailing at first-Class or Standard Mail (A) postage rates that is mailed for political campaign purposes by a registered political candidate, campaign committee, or committee of a political party is classified as a political campaign mailing.

The Union County Directions Newsletter is sent out tagged “Political” which is a postal designation to ensure campaign mailings get delivered prior to Election Day.

The production of the newsletter, its content and timing is politically motivated as stories and design elements focus on selective candidates. This included a guarantee the newsletter be delivered prior to the day of election. (See guarantee)

A letter to the Elizabeth Post Master from the Union County Alliance asks for a refund of monies in a joint account the Alliance controlled with the County of Union. This account is still being used for the Directions mailings. (See letter)

Even though the Fall 2001 newsletter was produced and ready to go to press the county did not print and mail it because it wouldn’t arrive in mailboxes until after the election.



This posting is a third in a series. Next up will be -
The evil girlscout her wicked mother and the muted troup leader
The Union County Alliance, let the sunshine in!

Previously posed:
Political Graft & the Stenders
Rubbing out a Freeholder

Political Graft & the Stenders

Dictionary.com's thesaurus lists words for graft: Kickback, fraud, fix, dishonesty, corruption, con, collusion, and bribe

The publication “Union County Directions” is published by the County of Union through the Union County Alliance (UCA) using tax dollars and county employees. There is a mound of evidence that the publication is being used as campaign literature to promote candidates supported by the Union County Democratic Committee.

The Union County Alliance's (UCA) Newsletter "Directions" was originally a County of Union Newsletter. The county freeholders made the UCA the publisher and gave the money needed to pay for the production and printing to the Alliance. By doing this, the county could side-step the procurement bidding process.

The printing of the first two newsletters were handled by printing broker Richard Stender, d/b/a SVO Printing. Richard was the husband of then sitting Freeholder Linda Stender, who was also on the Board of the Union County Alliance. Stender is currently an assemblywoman and is running for Congress.

Richard was able to charge $20,000 more for each issue he printed than the next highest bidder.


See quotes and invoices mentioned below

PART 1
SVO, owned by Richard Stender, husband of Linda Stender, charged Union County Alliance $31,892.40 for printing and mailing the summer 1999 issue of Directions (see attached invoice E). This was $13,970 more than quoted by Rentec Design Studio, who quoted printing and mailing for $17,920.

The UCA was also charged an additional $634 for film that was not included in SVO’s quote but was in Rentec’s (see attached quote C). Stender also printed the Fall 1999 issue of Directions, this time charging over $18,000 not including the film charge.

For printing the first two issues of Directions, Richard Stender charged UCA over $33,238. The Union County Alliance has claimed that they are exempt from the Open Public Records Act so getting quotes, invoices and records is impossible without their cooperation. Their un-cooperation proves their guilt.

PART 2
In 2001, when Joe Renna was working for the County of Union he obtained a quote to print a 24 page full color version of Directions. AFL quoted the printing and mailing at $26,989. (see attached quote G). Richard Stender quoted the same job for $71,315, over $44,326 more than AFL. (see attached quote H). Concerns raised by Joe Renna about the difference in the cost of printing caused the county to use AFL. Renna was served with termination papers stemming from SVO not getting the contract. In the proceedings, evidence showed that e-mails used as evidence by the county were back-dated. The Judge found the county lacked credibility and ruled in Renna’s favor. The docket numbers for the case are: (OAL DKT NO. CSV 3196-03, Agency DKT. NO. 2003-2371)

Did Assemblywoman Stender try to obtain a contract for her husband?

The content of this newsletter is controlled by the County's Public Information Department. The Union County Watchdog Association (UCWA) argues that the UC Democratic Committee should reimburse the taxpayers for the cost of the newsletters, which are mailed to every postal patron twice a year just days before the primary and general elections, which we believe is a violation of Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) laws.

Mike Murray, who is now the president of the Union County Alliance was originally the director of public information for the county. Just as the current head of public information does, Murray made sure that the candidates up for re-election would be prominently displayed throughout the newsletter. The newsletter would be designed and redesigned to make sure that the Democratic party's selected candidates would be featured. Not only the freeholder candidates but those who could use help in their campaign in local elections as well.

For instance the two covers below show how the Summer 2002 issue of Directions was originally designed and then as it was actually printed. Note that the three freeholders that appear on the cover were the ones who were up for re-election that year. Freeholder Proctor needed a little extra boost since he was running as an incumbent by being appointed to fill a vacancy as most current sitting freeholders were.

Also note how the County of Union removed their name as co-publishers.

Original cover design featuring Senior Citizens:



Cover changed to feature campaigning freeholders:



This is the second in a series of findings. Previously reported:

Rubbing out a Freeholder

When sitting Freeholder Don Goncalves was up for re-election in 1999, he had fallen out of favor with the Union County Democratic Committee and did not get their support for the party line. His image was digitally removed from a photograph that appeared in the Directions Newsletter. This was done so it would not give Goncalves any publicity that may have helped his campaign. The before-and-after photos appear below.

Original photo of incumbent Democrat candidates for Freeholder Chester Holmes, Assembly Candidate Linda Stender, Freeholder Don Goncalves and Union County Alliance Director and Kean University president Henry Ross.



The photo as it appeared in the Directions Newsletter which was mailed to every postal patron before the election with Freeholder Don Goncalves rubbed out. Goncalves’ arm was made to look like it belonged to Ross.



Upcoming features in this series will be:

Political mail designation manipulations

Newsletter produced but not sent to press because it wouldn't make into mailboxes in time for Election Day

The Union County Alliance – let the sunshine in

Where (and What) in the World is the County Public Information Officer?

The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders has an official spokesperson holed up in the county administration building in Elizabeth, the seat of Union County Government.

According to the county Web site, this “office disseminates information regarding County Government operations to the general public and acts as a liaison for media inquiries regarding the actives of the Freeholders and various departments of County Government." www.unioncountynj.org

Well that certainly sounds extremely important, but oddly this office does not have its own budget and probing over the past several years has revealed that no one is quite sure how many people the office employs and who they are.

One thing for certain is that the guy in charge is listed on the county payroll records as Confidential Aide/Director of Public Information, working out of the Office of the Clerk of the Board and earning $99,533 per year.

The County Public Information Dept. churns out press releases by the dozens primarily extolling the “good works” of the freeholder board and announcing upcoming events, such as the so called free concerts in the parks series.

But this department's most important duty is to provide “damage control” to keep the freeholders looking good in the eyes of the citizenry.

Events such as the recent dumping of contaminated soil on county property and the passage by the freeholders of the county’s $400 million plus budget requiring a 4.8 percent increase in the tax levy on property owners are skillfully spun to either cast a positive light on or portray the freeholders as hapless victims of extenuating circumstances.

Whenever a freeholder is around it is a sure bet that the “PIO” will be there, joined at the hip.

It is no secret that he is compensated handsomely for his duties as a political worker for the UC Democratic Committee, as well as campaigns for specific party members; this is borne out by filings with NJ ELEC and can be accessed on the state’s Web site.

All of the aforementioned begs the question: just where do this “PIO’s” official duties end and where do his personal political ones begin?

County employees, it has been repeatedly suggested, are encouraged to do volunteer work for the party and support party fund raising efforts. When a single party administration is ensconced for a number of years one has to conclude that the line of demarcation could easily become blurred.

There is no argument that he is entitled to do what he wishes for whoever he wishes on his personal time. However, government employees holding positions which have the level of responsibility and status that he enjoys must be especially mindful to avoid all appearances of any conflict of interest or breach of ethics.

These employees must fully understand exactly where their work day starts and their personal life begins being careful in both their job performance and their attitude not allowing the two to become one and the same.

The Office of Public Information costs the taxpayers hundreds and thousands of tax dollars every year and it seems to me that it has become simply a vehicle to make everyone inm charge feel good and look good rather than to disperse useful information to the public in a courteous manner upon request.

Rank and File Workers are Smokescreen for Rampant Patronage

In December 2000, Worall newspapers reported “The Union County Improvement Authority has a new executive director: Charlotte DeFilippo, chairwoman of the Union County Democratic Committee.”

DeFilippo replaced Doug Placa, who was then Angie Devanney’s husband. Angie is now married to the county manager. Placa was the UCIA’s first executive director, appointed in February 1999 at an annual part-time salary of $40,000. The position was turned full-time when DeFilippo was appointed and the salary was set at 104,000. DeFillipo’s current salary is $132,910 up almost $100,000 since she took over.

Worrall reported in 2000 “There’s no way that job warrants $104,000 a year, said Wayne Smith, the lone Republican on the nine-member UCIA board.” He called it a blatant patronage job that does not even warrant $40,000 a year. The UCIA is doing a lot for the county but this is typical patronage and the UCIA really plays patronage to the fullest extent. He was the lone dissenter in a 7-1 vote to replace the part-time financial administrator with a full-time executive director.

Formerly the township clerk in Hillside, where she also is Democratic chairwoman, DeFilippo has worked for the county since Democrats took control of the freeholder board in 1998. She was a management specialist in welfare, a civil service position, with an annual salary of approximately $75,000.

In an editorial published in Worrall last week DeFilippo writes that public employees are being made scapegoats because of the perception among the public that they have overly luxurious pension packages.

Union County employee records show that in 2000, 868 employees made over $50,000. Today that number has almost doubled to 1,530 employees. In 2000, 29 employees made over $100,000. Today that number has almost tripled to 74. 542 Union County Employees have the same surnames as elected Democrat Officials.

It isn’t the rank-and-file that infuriates good-government watchers. What people are furious about are the politicos like DeFilippo who are abusing the system. They are using the workers as a smoke screen. She writes of rank-and-file employees as if she is one of them. Even more deceitful, she claims to be the defender of them - and more, calls herself a "Democrat."

What New Jersey needs is for people to stop blindly following a political party. So called Democrats like DeFilippo are making fools of the rank-and-file worker and are using them to the hilt. It’s the rank-and-file that are being taxed out of their homes to pay the patronage salaries and perks of the DeFillipos of New Jersey.

Pssst tax-payers....

....“County freeholders pulled the plugs on their meeting recordings when they realized you could hear them whispering to each other up there...."

When the county’s office of public misinformation planted a story in the Star-Ledger last week about the county’s video and PA equipment he didn’t mention (and the Ledger obviously didn’t ask) when or why they stopped “audio” recording their meetings. They also didn’t show any proof that the equipment was broken to begin with.

There is no documentation to support the county’s claim that the video or audio equipment wasn’t working to begin with or that the electronic recording of public meetings was discussed by management. The public would have to assume that they made a decision to spend $78,000 on equipment after June 23, 2006 since an OPRA request didn’t show any records pertaining to new equipment.

See the linked records in response to this OPRA request dated June 23, 2006: I would like to conduct an on-site inspection of all a) repair bills from 2004 to date; b) repair estimates from 2004 to date and c) all internal correspondence from 2004 to date including but not limited to memos and emails in regards to all video and audio equipment used to electronically record freeholder meetings including decisions and orders to cease recordings of these meetings.

What was wrong with the old equipment and when did they decide to spend $78,000 on new equipment?

At the June 22, 2006 freeholder meeting I stated during public comment that if they didn’t record meetings than the UCWA will legally challenge them and find a way to do it for them. The Star-Ledger article ran on July 7, 2006 there is no press release about the new equipment on the county web site.

The article quotes the head of public misinformation “We couldn’t go on the air because our tapes were basically a squiggle,” and…… roughly 18 months ago when the cameras and microphones at the county administration building in Elizabeth went kaput…..

When did they stop video taping meetings?

Approximately 18 months ago, on December 16, 2004, I was taped being tossed out of a FH meeting.



Yolanda Padilla also spoke and was treated very rudely by Freeholder Estrada. Padilla’s son Eddie met his demise while being kept in the UC Detention Center. The states Child Advocate investigated and released a report stating "The county’s persistent violation of applicable laws and JJC and Attorney General directives over several years, led directly to the conditions...". Padilla spoke about the freeholders and employees not deserving a pay raise because of the way they kept the J.V. Detention center and then as if that wasn’t entertainment enough folks in Freeholder Estrada’s closing comments he went on a ranting diatribe about bad boys deserving to be punished, meaning Padilla's son, and how they, meaning the freeholders who ignored the conditions of the detention center for years, did nothing “bad”.

That was the last tape I requested through OPRA and I was able to transcribe every word that was said. Including the words the freeholders and county manager were saying to each other while I was being tossed out.

When did they realize that they were on tape?

I’ve purchased two video tapes through OPRA to date. County officials obviously didn’t know that the microphone for their video equipment was picking up what the microphones for the room wasn’t. You can hear on the videos what they were saying under their breath to each other. Which by the way is a violation of the OPMA law. I believe they learned about this after the last video I requested and that’s BASICALLY why their equipment went SQUIGGLEY.

When did they stop audio taping meetings?

At the June 8, 2006 meeting Freeholder Chester Holmes reminded residents in the audience that “Our chairman here has his attorney sitting next to him. You need to ask yourselves do you have your attorney sitting next to you? You should keep that in mind when you cross the line while addressing this board”.

I placed an OPRA for any electronic recording of the meeting so I could upload Holmes homage to the First Amendment on our web site. My OPRA request was returned “no record to provide”. That’s when I learned that they weren’t even audio recording meetings.

In 2005 a Watchdog member told me she attended a FH meeting and was astounded when Freeholder Al Mirabella presented outgoing Public Information Officer Sean Carr with a resolution thanking him for “being an operative” and a “help to each and every one of us”. The meeting minutes and resolution didn’t use the word operative so I placed an OPRA for the Video. That was when I learned that they had stopped video taping meetings (my town never broadcast them and the county only lists on their tax-payer funded web site the airtime schedule for their Freeholder Forum campaign show).

When I wasn’t given a video recording I asked for an audio recording of the meeting and I was given a CD with Mirabella’s farewell thank you to his tax-payer funded operative. Sometime between then and now their “audio” equipment was unplugged.
_____________
"If you do not electronically record these meetings the Union County Watchdog Association will find a way to legally challenge you and to do it for you." Tina Renna, President UCWA, 6/22/06

"This investment in our sound system, PA and taping system will ensure that the public, our constituents and all entities that do business with the county will continue to receive information about our meetings in a timely and accurate manner," Senator Ray Lesniak's nephew appointed County Manager George Devanney Star-Ledger 7/7/06

Holding the Line

Most everyone passing through Westfield using a cell phone has had the experience of losing a bar or two.

The husband of a friend of mine does a lot of outdoor work in town and she finds herself usually amused but admittedly sometimes annoyed as her spouse attempts to remedy the situation by raising his voice considerably. She tells him to stop yelling and wait till he gets home however more often than not he persists but we know that that is futile.

We have found ourselves living our lives “wired”. Cellular phones, PCs, lap tops, Blackberrys, answering machines, cordless phones and the like, we are in an age of “immediate communication gratification”. We can’t seem to wait to get our message out or learn who has been trying to get their message to us regardless of where we are, who we are, and in some cases who is picking up the tab.

Union County government has armed it’s employees to the hilt with land lines, cell phones, Blackberry’s, Nextels, pagers, PCs, home internet service, via cable, dial-up and DSL with the bill being fully footed by the taxpayers.

One Verizon bill, in May of 2005 for Freeholder phone service and charged thru the county Communications Dept. showed $459.69 for long distance charges alone. It is no wonder that the Board of Chosen Freeholders voted affirmatively to have the county telephone service audited to uncover areas that the county can save money.

Certainly a step in the right direction but there is however one little thing missing from the plan. The firm conducting the audit, XTEL Communications, of Marlton, will only be looking at the “land lines” service and equipment and not the cellular phones or Blackberrys.

On Election Day 2004, I spent the morning outside the polls in my hometown.

I shared my station with a representative of the opposing party, a county employee who works in the Division of Information Technology. She indicated that her party candidates on the ballot for the local election had to work and since the county employees had the day off, she was available to greet the incoming voters working the polls on their behalf.

At that time Blackberry’s were the newest gadget in the form of wireless communications and I watched as she took one in and out of her pocket all morning. Not having actually seen one before I felt compelled to inquire about it.

She related that the county had given it to her “for work” as she happily checked Emails, sent communications, and answered calls all while stationed outside our borough hall.

Later that day, I pondered the Blackberry. Since it was for work, and she worked for the county and the county was closed for business, who was she communicating with?

I can only speculate, but I later learned that a national campaign was using just this type of technology to heavily monitor and direct election day GOTV activities.

One of the fastest growing companies in NJ, XTEL according to their website, has been providing business customers, municipalities and townships nationwide with telecommunications services such as long distance, toll free numbers, local service and DSL. Contracted by the county they will only get paid if they find ways to save money, their fee is 35% of the savings realized. This is very nice but still does not address what can be a very large expense and one very easily and widely abused, as evidenced last year when someone racked up the over $400 bill.

Seems it is time to bring in an outside company to audit this area of communications as well. A company that can review the entire shebang and be capable of crafting an all-comprehensive package deal too good to pass up.

Smells like county goose is cooking

It was recently reported in an editorial published in Worrall Community Newspapers “What budget crisis?” that the Union County Public Information Officer, Sebastian D'Elia, with an annual salary of $99,533, complained that reporters were sending him on a “wild goose chase” by asking him for a list of who attended a conference and how many rooms were rented while trying to ascertain how much tax-dollars was spent on this trip.

When D’Elia reluctantly caught the goose it honked “Union County spent less than $5,000 for their officials to attend the National Association of Counties conference in Milwaukee in 2003; more than $10,000 for the Arizona conference in 2004; and $16,868 for the conference in Hawaii last year.” It was reported that in the middle of a budget crisis Union County officials will be heading to the Windy City this year – which was once a thriving center for cronyism and corrupt politics.

The Union County Watchdog Association has to rely solely on the Open Public Records Act for information. The county doesn't simply answer questions. If an answerer can’t be found in a document than we have no recourse to get any information out of the all-Democrat controlled Union County Government.

It’s not just the extensive office of Public Information that is unresponsive, and I might add from personal experience – extremely rude, to the public, it’s the freeholders themselves. Attending freeholder meetings is a waste of time. Not only do they not discuss county resolutions before all 9 freeholders unanimously vote “yes” on their passage, they don’t answer the public’s questions.

I attended two freeholder meetings in the month of June and during public comments I asked for the board to provide me with an explanation as to how the county liability insurance works in regards to lawsuits in general and also particularly in the case of the lawsuit that was recently settled stemming from the harassment of the former decorated Sheriff’s Officer Virginia Fanelli which cost taxpayers millions of dollars in attorney’s fees alone (perhaps the most expensive employee lawsuit in Union County’s history). It has been reported that the county had to sue its insurance carriers because this harassment complaint wasn’t reported to their insurers properly.

Although the attorney’s have been getting paid all along and Fanelli was compensated for her suffering on June 14, 2006, as is shown in the county check registry, there has been no public information regarding what the outcome of this misreporting and subsequent insurance company suit has cost the taxpayers.

Freeholder Chairman Al Mirabella said he would get back to me on June 8th. I am writing this on July 8th and haven’t received a piece of information regarding the expenditure of millions of tax-dollars, the harassment of a county employee, and the misreporting of the incident to county insurance carriers.

An OPRA request for the original settlement suit which the Fanelli suit stemmed from titled Malcolm vs. MacDonald was returned “Document can not be located”.

The county has no qualms about sending the public on wild goose chases to obtain information regarding the expenditure of our tax dollars and their managerial inefficiencies. We desperately need to cook the incumbent freeholder’s gooses on election day and elect freeholders that will be accountable to residents.

Rubbing out a Freeholder

The publication “Union County Directions” is published by the County of Union through the Union County Alliance (UCA) using tax dollars and county employees. There is a mound of evidence that the publication is being used as campaign literature for the all-Democrat freeholder board to promote candidates supported by the Union County Democratic Committee.

The Union County Watchdog Association (UCWA) argues that the Committee should reimburse the taxpayers for the cost of the newsletters, which are mailed to every postal patron twice a year just days before the primary and general elections, which we believe is a violation of Election Law Enforcement Commission (ELEC) laws.

The Union County Watchdog Association has documentation to support their claims. This is the first in a series of findings.

When sitting Freeholder Don Goncalves was up for re-election in 1999, he had fallen out of favor with the Union County Democratic Committee and did not get their support for the party line. His image was digitally removed from a photograph that appeared in the Directions Newsletter. This was done so it would not give Goncalves any publicity that may have helped his campaign. The before-and-after photos appear below.

Original photo of incumbent Democrat candidates for Freeholder Chester Holmes, Assembly Candidate Linda Stender, Freeholder Don Goncalves and Union County Alliance Director and Kean University president Henry Ross.



The photo as it appeared in the Directions Newsletter which was mailed to every postal patron before the election with Freeholder Don Goncalves rubbed out. Goncalves’ arm was made to look like it belonged to Ross.

An “Homage” to the Freeholders

Union County Directions - A Taxpayer Funded Campaign Piece


Two scant days before last week’s Primary Election, the “Union County Directions” arrived in my mailbox. Though they will deny it, this publication is an homage to the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders as well as other UC public officials who just so happen to be of the same political persuasion and are seeking reelection.

Lets not tiptoe around and get real here. Featured on the cover is Mayor John T. Gregorio of Linden, with a story about all of the wonderful things he is doing for the city.

The bottom half of page one is comprised of an article about the Union County Arts Center, located in Rahway and recently purchased by the Board of Chosen Freeholders. The article is accompanied by a picture of Rahway Mayor James Kennedy, Freeholders Deborah Scanlon, Chester Holmes and Al Mirabella.

The oddest thing about the picture is not that the president of the UCAC Board of Trustees, Richard Stender (ex-hubby of candidate Linda) is in the center of the pic, but that the Stender name is first rather than a “L to R” listing.

So, on the front page the sea of six smiling faces are those of five elected officials all with the same party affiliation and all on the ballot in November as well as the former spouse of another currently campaigning for a seat in Congress.

Freeholder Mirabella appears in six of the group shots accompanied frequently by Freeholders Scanlon and Holmes. It would appear that to cover their posteriors and not risk violating campaign laws that they threw in one picture each of Freeholders Sullivan, Ward, Estrada and Kowalski but for the second year in a row Freeholder Adrian Mapp of Plainfield was MIA. Mapp I understand is Chairman of the rival “New Democrats” party in his community and I imagine on the “outs” with “official County Democrats”. If I recall correctly the only time Mapp was in the publication was in the fall edition as a Council member in Plainfield when he landed on the Freeholder ticket in 2004. His term up next year it will be interesting to see if he is given prominence in the publication at that time. In view of present circumstances, however, that is doubtful.

The late Ann Baran, who held the position of county manager with both Republican and Democratic-controlled boards, was a co-founder of the Union County Alliance and an Executive Board member until her death this year. She worked tirelessly to foster the intent of the Alliance. This latest edition cannot be what she had in mind as a vehicle to promote an organization billed as a “bi-partisan coalition focused on economic revitalization and improving the quality of life for people who live and work in the region.” Rather it has turned into a thinly veiled campaign piece funded with tax payer’s money featuring incumbent freeholders patting themselves on the back just days prior to an election. In 2006 alone checks totaling $130,850 have been paid out to the Alliance which includes advertising.

It is puzzling that the corporations in the county affiliated with the Alliance aren’t miffed about being dissed. Perhaps they realize the futility of objecting and have settled on taking a backseat to the Gang of Nine. Only three companies purchased ad space of less than a quarter page each. What happened to PSE&G, Elizabethtown Water and Maher Terminals and what about the Bank of America, Wakefern or Wachovia surely they all have something to crow about? And wouldn’t the residents in towns such as Westfield, Scotch Plains, New Providence or Clark just love to see their Republican Mayors on the cover just once.

Chances of that happening are slim to none.

Rocks in our HeadsThe 'Open Space' fund 6 years later

Above: Worker installing a fiberglass rock in the Trailside Museum. The real rock can be found in the open space outside of the Trailside Museum.

Union County voters approved the Open Space Trust Fund by a 60-to-40 percent margin in a November 2000 referendum that established a tax of $0.15 per $100 of assessed value dedicated to open space, recreation and historic preservation purposes.

Voters, myself included, must have had rocks in our heads when we voted to be assessed an extra tax by the Union County Freeholders. I doubt any one of us could have imagined some of the questionable uses of this fund.

One use would be the renovation of the Trailside Museum building which is located in the Watchung Reservation, a 2,000-acre preserve containing forests, three ponds, swamps, streams, springs, fields and more than 13 miles of color-coded hiking trails.

The museum is being renovated to be three times its original size so it can be more open and filled with natural light. Along with the natural light it will be filled with $1 million worth of exhibits including fiberglass replicas of rocks and trees that can be found in the open space right outside the building’s doors. The county boasts that visitors to the museum will be able to look out of large windows which will provide a view of the reservation's surrounding 2,000-acre forest.

The trust fund will also be used for the planned Children’s Museum of Central Jersey, the progress of which has had a long delay and is slated to be located on the Kean University campus.

Earlier this year residents of Scotch Plains were able to rally and block the county from building a petting farm, which would have included a paved black top parking lot for visitors on open space that was acquired by the fund.

The fund is also used to award one-time grants to municipalities of about $50,000 in Field of Dreams funding which is used to update playing fields. These grants are given out with much fanfare during the campaign season.

The taxpayers can easily spot these fields because the county places a billboard-sized sign on the entrance to all of them featuring their slogan that was designed for their image building campaign which reads “This is a service of the Union County Board of Freeholders. We’re connected to you!” If the municipalities charged the county for the campaign advertising space they’d easily recoupe $50,000 a year.

In 2002 the fund was used to get Union County taxpayers into the entertainment business by purchasing the Union County Arts Center in Rahway. At the time of the purchase, the Arts Center was running deficits of over $100,000 a year. Freeholder Mingo was quoted as saying, “Rahway needs this renovation for the revitalization of their downtown." The arts center Interim Executive Director Donna Sandorse was reported to have said, “by the county taking over the center it can pour in money to refurbish the facility."

The first of three phases of renovations to the Arts Center is projected to cost $6-million. It will include the installation of air-conditioning, the expansion of the stage and contruction of a new load area among other things such as the upgrading of plumbing, electrical and fire protection equipment, the modernization of the dressing room areas, the expansion of the lobby, the creation of an organ lift and the relocation of administrative offices in the 75 year old facility.

It’s no doubt that the 4,000 patrons who attend performances at the arts center yearly are seen as 4,000 voters in the eyes of the all-Democrat freeholder board. This was evidenced in a taxpayer funded 2004 pamphlet mailed to residents featuring a campaigning freeholder. The mailing asked residents to fill out a form with their name and address, as well as mark off a corresponding box relaying how they felt about the county’s no- yet-proposed plan - but obviously done deal - to acquire the arts center with trust fund money. The two choices were:

( ) YES! I enthusiastically support the plan to revitalize the Union County Arts Center as a premier performing arts destination!

( ) I would also like some more information.

There was no box that said:

( ) “No! Stop spending my money. We’re not stupid. We’ve caught on to this Trust Fund Scam and it’s not what I voted for".

Below: Union County Staff and The Holbek Group, the designer of the exhibits for the new Visitors Center at Trailside Nature and Science Center in Mountainside, discuss progress on the 34-foot tall American Beech Tree that will be the focal point at the renovated Center. The Holbek Group is fabricating the elements of the exhibits at their studio in Orange, Mass. A fall 2006 opening is anticipated.