Defending Pay-to-Play in Englewood

Michael Wildes Is A Corrupt Self Aggrandizing Whore (0.00 / 0)

He is a disgrace to the Democratic party.

Stacking local planning boards with brown nosed cronys should, by itself, be enough to prevent this creep from being re-elected.

http://www.northjersey.com/pol...

Mayor packs city board with donors
Saturday, May 31, 2008
BY MAYA KREMEN
Staff Writer
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Mayor Michael Wildes has stocked Englewood's Planning Board with campaign contributors and personal friends who have, in turn, voted for projects presented by other friends and donors.

Wildes, a Planning Board member himself, also has voted to approve some of those projects.

At the same time, board members, applicants, their employees and family members have donated a combined $50,775 to Wildes since he took office four years ago.

"There's no connection between contributions and appointments," the mayor said in an interview. "News flash: The mayor appoints people he respects who bring professionalism to the board, and an angle that was not there before. Every mayor across the state does it."

State law doesn't regulate such relationships and mayors typically have the power to appoint whom they wish to planning boards, the local panels that regulate building and development. But a growing number of towns are opting for more transparency. Six North Jersey towns now require developers who want planning board approval to list their local campaign contributions. And Hasbrouck Heights requires potential board members to file applications documenting their qualifications.

In Englewood, where there are no such requirements:

   * Six people who donated $21,225 to the mayor were appointed to the Planning Board following their initial contributions. Two are lawyers who have received business referrals from Wildes, who is also an attorney. A third is a close family friend who vacations with and was endorsed by the mayor for a council run.
   * Those appointees have voted as a bloc to approve projects by other Wildes donors and friends almost without exception. The mayor has recused himself on donors' plans at least nine times.
   * Three times, Wildes voted to approve a project presented by a donor who contributed before or after the approval. Two of those times, he voted for plans represented by attorney Nicholas Sekas, a donor who rents Manhattan office space from the mayor and is a "very close personal friend," Wildes said.
   * Sekas and another lawyer, Nicholas Doria, their family members and staff have donated a combined $17,900 to the mayor's campaigns. Doria is Wildes' campaign treasurer and has also received a business referral from Wildes, the mayor said.
   * Each of the nine applications over the past four years where Doria or Sekas was identified as the attorney were approved

These kinds of conflict of interest should be subject to prosecution under ethics laws.

Sadly this kind of dishonesty is legal in NJ.

The prospects of a stiff prison sentence (in the general population, not country club white collar spa) would deter virtually all of this corruption.

Imagine what a better place to live NJ would be if all of these bastards were put out of business!

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by: Nick Lento @ Mon Oct 13, 2008 at 17:18:54 PM UTC