It has always bothered me how much of my tax dollar is being use to promote Chris Christie's image and his draconian agenda.
I decided to submit an OPRA request to learn how much of my money is going toward his self-aggrandizement. One of my friends has had limited success with OPRA and has told me that the office that handles these requests uses obfuscation as their default position. But after I attended an OPRA seminar, I was emboldened and decided to try out the system.
The response I received (which includes my original request) is here. It doesn't entirely answer my question, but it provides a window into the workings of the Christie communications machine. It shows that we are spending $55,000 of taxpayer money to promote the Christie agenda. Actually, the number is much higher because this figure does not include the costs of the benefits to the individual named, the cost of the IT infrastructure, and any travel expenses for the Governor's Twiterrer. And I inadvertently neglected to include the much larger YouTube expenses in my original request.
Certainly, the governor has the right - and the obligation - to use social media to communicate with his subjects. But a large amount of what his people post is political and should be funded by the State GOP, not the taxpayer.
I caught up with Senator Loretta Weinberg this afternoon after her hearings on hospital privatization, and asked her to comment on some of the legislation that she is sponsoring.
In Sept. 2010, Newark Mayor Cory Booker, NJ Governor Chris Christie, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Oprah Winfrey announced an exciting step for education reform in America: Mark Zuckerberg would be donating $100 million to improve Newark public schools, a potentially transformative opportunity. This week, nearly a year later, the ACLU-NJ filed a lawsuit on behalf of a local parents' group to find out how that donation, and the plan for what to do with it to benefit their children, came about, since the City of Newark refused to share.
The city of Newark hasn't responded with details, but the mayor of Twitter has: @CoryBooker: All grants of Zuckerberg $ have been made public. New grant announcements coming in Sept RT @bluejersey Update public on Zuckerberg's gift
The next morning, he told the Newark Star-Ledger that he had disclosed everything, and that the records don't exist. Wait, what? Below, you'll find a detailed q+a to clear up as much as possible on our end.
You're suing over the Facebook money. What does that mean? The Secondary Parent Council, a 30-year-old group of parents and grandparents of Newark schoolchildren, requested records about Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's gift to the Newark Public Schools using New Jersey's Open Public Records Act (that's OPRA - not to be confused with Oprah, who hosted Mayor Booker, Zuckerberg and Governor Christie on her TV show to announce the gift Sept. 24, 2010).
What information did the parents ask Newark for? In a nutshell, letters, emails, memos and any other documentation between June 1, 2010 and April 15, 2011 (the date the request was filed) related to Mark Zuckerberg's $100 million gift supporting the Newark Public Schools.
Shouldn't they just accept the money happily, no questions asked, since it's a gift? What Mark Zuckerberg has done for Newark is incredibly generous, and we don't want to take away from the potentially staggering implications of this donation. But part of what made this gift so extraordinary was the promise from all involved - Zuckerberg, Booker and Christie - to be completely transparent with the public, and many parents and grandparents now feel sidelined and disappointed.
But at the same time, this is a gift to a public institution.
There's more ...
Each year the annual conference of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities (NJSLOM) is held in AC---always held in November after elections and before Thanksgiving. This is the largest annual gathering of state elected officials in the country. And until yesterday, NJSLOM could operate in relative secrecy from public scrutiny.
UPDATE 6:10pm:@CoryBooker just answered @bluejersey's Tweet: "All grants of Zuckerberg $ have been made public. New grant announcements coming in Sept RT @bluejersey Update public on Zuckerberg's gift"
So, ACLU, want to dispute that? - - Rosi
Laura Baker, a grandmother of a Newark public school student and a member of the Secondary Parent Council (which sued Newark today), explained why she wanted to go to court for the details of Facebook's $100 million donation to Newark Public Schools.
"The city talks a lot about transparency, but we haven't seen a thing," said Baker.
Every governor that I have worked for - from Brendan Byrne to Chris Christie - has preached openness in government.
That statement was uttered by a state employee at the Fifth Annual OPRA Seminar for the Public today in Trenton. Yet, as we have seen recently, governors, state, county, and municipal employees, are not always willing to proactively share public information with their stakeholders.
New Jersey's Open Public Records Act (OPRA) has been on the books for a decade and is a tool to help citizens obtain information on everything from the governor's stealth helicopter trips to lists of dog owners for use by the SPCA in investigating animal abuse. Today's seminar provided the audience - attorneys, state and local employees, gadflies, and others - with the background they need to use this powerful tool effectively.
Loretta Weinberg has formally called on the Democratic operative-led One New Jersey to disclose its donors and comply with the spirit of openness and transparency. One New Jersey's 501(c)(3) structure does not by law require disclosure. However, Democrats raised up a mighty yell when two organizations dedicated to forwarding Christie's agenda - Reform Jersey Now and Center for a Better New Jersey - began operating with exactly the same failure to disclose the figures financing it, and exactly the same kind of efforts to use a loophole the law provides to skirt transparency.
Text of Weinberg's letter is after the jump.
Joshua Henne of White Horse Strategies, and a founder of One New Jersey with Brad Lawrence and Steve DeMicco of Message & Media, had this to say when I reached him:
We respect Senator Weinberg for her views on this issue. As we've said before, disclosure only works when everybody discloses.
In her letter, Weinberg acknowledges their efforts to counter the Governor's message of far-right, vindictive and divisive politics. But though the law allows a (c)(4) advocacy organization to hold back its contributors, she holds them to a higher ethical standard than the law itself. Weinberg has sponsored legislation to require contributor disclosure from such tax-exempt organizations in the past. And her objections to the non-disclosure of Christie's two groups, she says, apply to One New Jersey too.
Are you ready to give $25 from your pocket to Xanadu ($100 for a family of four)?
That is one of several important questions to be decided this week in Trenton, each of which we'd be seriously fixated on if not for the undoubtedly even more important anti-union armageddon currently unfolding. Still, these things are worth keeping an eye on because they all have a huge impact. Here are the top five, in no particular order:
1. Will thousands of working families be kicked off of Medicaid? Gov. Christie (R-Rove) has decreed that working families earning more than $6,000 a year should be dropped from Medicaid. Thus creating new incentives to go from work to welfare. Will the Democrats stand up and try to block this change (not clear from the reporting exactly how much power the Legislature has, but at the least they could pass a resolution telling the Obama Administration to reject the waivers needed)?
2. Will we have to pay $25 each to bail out Xanadu? Sens. Ray Lesniak (D-Progressive Social Causes and Crony Capitalism) and Kevin O'Toole (R-Tool) have introduced a bill to expand the ability of the Christie Administration to give away our money to large developers to include the Meadowlands. If you have driven the Turnpike recently, you may be aware that the Meadowlands includes a large eyesore called Xanadu which has been a total failure. Apparently the solution to this problem is for everyone in the state to pay $25 (that is $200 million divided by the 8 million people in NJ) to a large Canadian developer in order to get the mall ready for opening. I have two questions: could those of us below I-195 at least have the option of giving the money to a more local mall that is not 100 miles away, or perhaps have it go to the casinos and at least get $25 in chips back? And if this expert is right that even with $200 million of our tax money the project only has a 50-50 chance of success (after all four prior owners have failed), do we get double our money back if it fails again? Seriously, is this really something that the Democrats are going to support instead of using to bash Christie?
4. Women's health: what happens next? Planned Parenthood, our own Sen. Weinberg (D - Actually a D), and many others have been running probably the best progressive campaign of the year against Christie's deeply unpopular cuts in women's health. What happens next? Do the Dems take it up a notch? Like hold Xanadu, which costs over 20 times as much, hostage? Now, you may say: those are the kind of techniques that Republicans use, not Democrats. Which brings us to the next and final point...
5. Will the Democrats reverse all of their progress in making Chris Christie unpopular? For a while, Senate President Sweeney (D-Sorry About that Marriage Thing) and Speaker Oliver (D-What Happened to that Awesome State Convention Speech?) were on a roll - and Christie was having bad week after bad week - jobs numbers, helicopters, women's health - and looked more arrogant than strong. Now, Christie is going to have a new round of bragging rights from overcoming the unions' power. Christie this week looks more strong than arrogant. Are there any other tricks up leadership's sleeve to help boost Christie's sagging poll numbers?
It is going to be an interesting week with a lot at stake for our state's future. And please post additions to this list if I missed something.
Gov. Chris Christie Claims Fox News Chief as Confidential AdviserThe office of Republican Gov. Chris Christie of New Jersey is claiming that Fox News chairman Roger Ailes is a confidential adviser whose interactions with the governor should remain secret under New Jersey's executive privilege.
Last month, after New York magazine reported that Ailes met with Christie last summer and called him this year to urge him to run for president, Gawker filed a request under New Jersey's Open Records Act seeking any correspondence between the two men, as well as any records of meetings or phone calls with Ailes from Christie's schedule or call logs.
Last week we received a rather surprising response: While declining to confirm the existence of any such records, Christie's office said they "would be exempt from disclosure...based upon the executive privilege and well-settled case law." In other words, Christie's staff refused to search for any records-which, given the undisputed reports of a dinner and phone call, almost certainly exist-on the basis that Ailes is a confidential adviser whose comments should be shielded from public scrutiny.
New Jersey has a rather robust executive privilege-former Gov. Jon Corzine successfully employed it to keep his email exchanges with his ex-girlfriend and former union boss Carla Katz secret in the face of a public records act request-and there's nothing particularly unusual about Christie invoking it. What is unusual is his attempt to use it to cover conversations with someone who is, ostensibly at least, a news executive. It amounts to a rather bald admission that Ailes provides Christie with political advice.
Christie is clearly gunning for the White House...if now now, then in 2016. Ailes and Christie......turds of a feather, imperfect together.
If NJ Democrats and progressives allow Christie to continue to ride roughshod over the people of NJ, then it's likely he'll be wanting to do the same to the whole country.......this guy only "wins" where he can bully.
This event's way in the future - a free OPRA seminar Aug. 11 - but the release dropped today and it's likely to fall off my radar screen.
When I was a reporter, I spent most of a year covering a school district where negotiations broke down between the local teachers' union and the school board. As strike approached, dozens of tense parents sat through dry, detailed board meetings, punctuated by high drama. This was a small town. I was the only reporter in the room.
This board went into executive session frequently. And I got very familiar with the Open Public Meetings Act. My hand shot up every time they tried to take the meeting private. Sometimes they were entitled to; sometime they couldn't supply a qualifying reason, and had to continue in public. (They hated me).
Months into it, a parent mentioned she wished she had the power to bring the school board to a halt the way I sometimes did. She assumed it was some kind of power of the press. That never occurred to me. So I offered a clinic on the Sunshine Act. More than 70 people showed up.
In a little more than a year in office, Governor Chris Christie has demonstrated that he is less interested in governing the state than he is in establishing a power base for some future ambitions. Maybe these ambitions lead to the White House, maybe they are simply to enrich his friends. His motives are less important than the fact that our governor is derelict in the duties he signed up for when he was elected.
Not sure how many have been following the latest chapter in the Badger State, but it has to do with academic freedom, and a blatant overreach by the state GOP in using the ORPA laws in a way most of us would find shocking.
To help folks get caught up quickly, let me lay out the broad details of the story: --More after the fold--
A recent blog post I wrote, "The Wall of Separation?", which raised questions about the First Amendment implications of Chris Christie holding a "town hall" meeting at a Catholic church, on Ash Wednesday, a Catholic holiday, sparked an interesting comment thread about the appropriateness of holding such an event at such a place on such a date.
Requesting information as to how the $300.00 rental fee was paid to to Jude's Church for use of the parish hall for Governor Christie's town hall meeting on Wednesday, March 9, 2011. Please provide a copy of the rental agreement, which should identify who were the parties to the agreement, and proof of payment, identifying who paid the $300.00.
I did not expect a timely response, actually I did not expect a response at all. So imagine my surprise when, less than two weeks later, I saw an email from the Governor's office on my cell phone. I could hardly wait to get back to my laptop and read the pdf, which I could not open on the phone.
Here is the non-response, from Assistant Counsel Raymond Brandes:
Please be advised that the first portion of your request is a request for information and not for a specific identifiable government record, and therefor is an invalid OPRA request, OPRA is a records law, not an "information" law. OPRA does not countenance "(w)holesale requests for general information" {..then some legalese..}
This was not a "two-portion" request. It was a request for documents; the first portion was simply the what-and-where, so the OPRA responder would know what documents I was requesting. Now, the response to the second portion:
Please be further advised that this office has reviewed its records in response to the second portion or your request, for a copy of a rental agreement and proof of payment. That search has not identified any documents responsive to your request. Accordingly this request is hereby closed.
Uh, no, Mr. Brandes, the request is not closed. You have not answered the question. Is there no purchase order? No agreement? No receipt? No cancelled check?
This is either poor fiscal housekeeping or the hall was provided free of charge to the Governor.
If it's the former, and the Governor's office cannot account for a simple $300.00 hall rental payment, how can he be trusted with a $29.4 billion state budget?
If it's the latter, we have a Catholic church providing a free venue for a Catholic Governor to hold a political event on church property. What about that wall of separation?
.....from a happily chaotic Thanksgiving family week in Los Angeles. Hope you all had a great holiday, and are now enjoying Hanukkah. If you are not lighting the Menorah, make sure you at least eat a couple of potato latkes.
Press Conference at 11 a.m. today in Trenton on government transparency. We will announce our new and very stringent Pay-to-Play bill. This should be part of the "tool kit" because political contributions from state and local contractors definitely add to the cost of government in our state and contribute to our escalating property taxes. This new bill will establish one state-wide standard in New Jersey, and I've been working on it with the help of the Citizens Campaign. I will be joined by my colleague Assemblyman Gordon Johnson. We will also call attention to our newly updated Open Public Meetings Act and Open Public Records Act and will ask that they be posted for Committee hearings in December or January. These bills go hand-in-hand with the new issue-advocacy disclosure bill sponsored by Senator Barbara Buono and me. The passage of these bills together will decrease the cost of government and will increase government transparency. We've been waiting patiently to hear if the Republicans in the legislature and the Governor will join in a bipartisan effort to get these bill passed.
Medical Marijuana "agreement"? I was a little surprised at the news report and look forward to hearing personally from Senator Nick Scutari. Senator Scutari has been an outstanding advocate for this important issue, and if an "agreement" was reached without his input, at the very least I am disappointed. My husband, Irwin, died from cancer almost 12 years ago. We were both deprived of any meaningful communication during his last days with us because he was treated with morphine. Perhaps medical marijuana could have made him comfortable and would have enabled us to share more experiences during those days. Of course, I will never know that for sure. However, what I do know, is that patients and their doctors should have as much right to be treated with medical marijuana as they today have a right to be prescribed morphine or oxycontin or any other controlled dangerous substance to treat pain in terminally ill patients. Is anybody asking a Doc to warn a terminally ill person to substitute another less effective medication for morphine? Is a doctor forced to tell a seriously ill patient that he must wean that patient off oxycontin every three months? How demeaning to both patient and medical professional. Please don't tell me that my good colleague, Assemblyman Reed Gusciora, made a bad deal with the Governor! I guess we'll soon find out.
Will be chairing the Senate Health, Human Services & Senior Services Committee this afternoon. Probably one of my bills which will cause the most comment is the requirement that certified advance practice nurses must continue to be supervised by anesthesiologists in the administration of general anesthesia. Lots of pros and cons on both sides of this issue, and I'm sure we'll hear it all.
So we have a busy December ahead of us with more committee days and another voting session. We'll be dealing with more "tool kit" legislation and another try at women's access to family planning. Every Republican in the Assembly voted "No" or abstained on covering more folks under medicaid for family planning and basic medical care. A bill which will result in $9 for every $1 put up by the State. What is wrong with these folks? What has this Governor given them to make so many of them march in unison while they raise so few questions? It's hard to understand and I must admit, it makes me particularly discouraged about the women of the legislature working together on issues of importance to our families.
Blue Jerseyans & friends Hoernlein, Lento, Parano, Weinberg & Mazza
Hey, a few of us "North Jersey/Blue Jersey" followers, writers and bloggers were invited to join Carol Hoernlein (and Eric) to celebrate a wonderful housewarming in their "tiny house with the big kitchen". Nick Lento, Carol H, Rocco (of "let's draft Rocco" and "I still love the Governor" while "I still love Rocco") Mazza, Dave Parano, Chief Ron Holloway and many others had a lovely afternoon with lots of good company, good food, political talk and we're all connected through Blue Jersey discussions. Great fun for those of us Bergen County types! Great to see Carol looking so well, happy and coming back to our Blue Jersey blogs.
Note to Jay Lassiter & Rosi Efthim: Maybe you can find Keith Chaudruc of Madison who took on the Governor at the Parsippany Town Meeting and get his side of the story for our own Blue Jersey UTube. According to news reports, Mr. Chaudruc was escorted on and off the stage by a state trooper and never got Mr. Christie to answer any of his questions. Might be an interesting interview.
As suspected, ( see my earlier diary today) there is no surprise here. Yet even a cynical person might be amazed that the governor claimed on October 7 that there was a projected overrun of up to $5 billion on ARC when OPRA documents reveal his most recent report of October 5 indicated the project was on budget.
Assembly Transportation Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) released the following statement Thursday afternoon on documents provided by the Christie administration through an OPRA request.
The documents provided by the governor's own administration fail to provide any justification for the governor's claim of billions in cost overruns on the tunnel project. That claim seems as though it was simply pulled out of thin air by the governor. The governor is risking New Jersey's economic future with numbers that, at least according to these documents, have no basis in reality.
"Over-the-top sound bites by Gov. Christie aside, the fact is the OPRA documents include reports dated July 30, Aug. 24 and Oct. 5. All of the reports include the following statement: 'The overall project remains within budget.' The next sentence in each report indicates the total project budget is $8.7 billion. Note that the Oct. 5 report came two days before the governor announced the alleged cost overruns.
"This project is vital to New Jersey's economic and transportation future. Now that we know for certain that the governor cannot support his cost overrun claims, it's time for him to act like a leader and get this project moving forward."
One could hypothesize that in some casual conversation or document still in preparation there was broached the likelihood of overruns. However, without clear, supporting data and with the October 5 report to the contrary, for Christie to claim overruns up to $5 billion as a basis to stop ARC is at best misleading and irresponsible.
To read the documents go to this site. Strangely many documents appear upside down.
The two-week ARC reprieve ends tomorrow. Last evening we learned in a press release that Assembly Transportation Chairman John Wisniewski (D-Middlesex) received a late response to his OPRA request demanding all documents related to the governor's decision to halt building the new Hudson River commuter rail tunnel. We do not yet know the contents of the package and whether material was withheld based on privilege. Christie cancelled the ARC project in his press release of October 7 and then on October 8 announced his reprieve decision.
So far it seems that the governor's cost overrun justification for canceling ARC was madel without legitimate, documented, finalized data. As Wisniewski says, "The governor should have nothing to hide. If he has no detailed cost analysis information, he should admit it. If he has it, he should let the people decide whether they're valid numbers." Hopefully, we will learn the truth, but if so, it will not be through a transparent process, but only through the wrenching OPRA mechanism.
With labor, materials, and interest rates extremely low because of unemployment, now is the time to push ahead with ARC. We should receive some word on the matter from the governor very shortly. Hopefully something will convince him to move forward or at least extend the deadline. At this point his original basis for cancellation appears suspect, and one can only wonder whether he might decide to cancel ARC permanently with an equally flimsy and nontransparent rationale.
Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request to NJ Department of Education: "A complete copy of the award notice and full terms and conditions of the grant from Mark Zuckerberg's Start-Up Education Foundation $100 million grant for Newark school education."
Given the size and importance of Mark Zuckerberg's grant and the lack of information about it, I filed the request on September 27, 2010. The contents of this grant is public information. It should form a part of the needed school reform dialogue within Newark and the NJ Education Department. It should also help us understand what Mark Zuckerberg's foundation expects and requires.
On October 6 I received the below response:
Mr. Orr, Please see the attached Government Records Receipt indicating that your request is denied. The Department of Education does not have the requested records. - Mary L. Gentry, New Jersey Department Education
The mystery deepens. It appears the Education Department may be negligent in its responsibilities. It is routine for a department to require receipt of outside grants for activities that fall under its purview. Ultimately such activities need state approval. Is it possible only Mayor Booker has the grant and has refused to share it? But if so, why would the governor have spoken so frequently about this award without he or members of the Executive staff having a copy of it? Is it possible that the governor's office has a copy, but has not shared it with the Education Department? It seems unprofessional and unlikely that there would be such hullabaloo about a $100 million grant with nothing in writing - not even a short award notice.
In discussing the needed dialogue on reform, Mayor Booker said, "Let's trust Newarkers." To help achieve that trust, he or the governor should release the contents of the award to the public and to the Education Department - willingly, rather than having to do so under another OPRA request.
The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee yesterday was granted the power through a Senate vote (21-14) to subpoena two key individuals in the state's failed Race to the Top (RTT) federal education grant application. The committee met following the Senate session and formally issued subpoenas to former state Education Commissioner Bret Schundler and Larry Berger, CEO of Wireless Generation, the vendor chosen by the state to compile its application.
Senate Majority Leader and the committee chair Barbara Buono (D-Middlesex) called the action "extraordinary but necessary," because of the administrative roadblocks that have allowed officials to keep vital documents out of lawmakers' hands, despite an extensive request for information under the state's Open Public Records Act. Sen. Buono added, "As people hide behind OPRA, the more it raises the question of what they are hiding. Residents deserve answers, plain and simple."
There had been an earlier agreement brokered between Governor Christie and Sen. President Sweeney that permitted release of partial OPRA material. However, to her credit, Sen. Buono has been persistent. Now with two key participants in the grant process under subpoena, more useful information should become available.
The Senate Legislative Oversight Committee will convene its RTTT hearing on Thursday, October 7. The committee's subpoenas will seek testimony from the two individuals and demand they release all correspondence and documents related to the application. According to PolitickerNJ Sen. Buono told the Senate, "If the testimony taken and the documents produced at this hearing open an area of inquiry that suggests that we need broader subpoena power I'll be back."
Fight Club Rule #1 and 2: You do not talk about Fight Club
Fight Club Rule # 3: If someone says stop, goes limp, taps out, the fight is over
Fight Club Rule #7: Fights will go on as long as they have to
Following a slow start the Senate Democrats are now showing signs of fight. Thanks to Sen. Weinberg and others they displayed gumption in their failed veto override effort, but they promise to continue their struggle with two new women's health care bills. Their effort with regard to Sen. Buono's investigation into RTTT was a phyrric victory. In a negotiation between Sen. President Sweeney and Governor Christie, they gained the acquiescence of the Governor to provide requested OPRA documents from the Education Department but gave away the right to receive documents from the Executive Office and to question the Governor's immediate staff. As in the movie of the same name, they don't have to talk about Fight Club (Rule #1 and 2); they just have to follow Rule #7. Governor Christie, Senate Republicans, and The Treasurer covered themselves with shame in the process.
Stalking horse Sen. Diane Allen (R-7th), an erstwhile supporter of the women's health bill, brought news to the Senate chambers.
read about it below the fold....
September 14, 2010
Dear Mr/Mrs/Ms: [whomever]
Regarding your request for information, I regret to inform you that because members of my staff have been on vacation, I remain unable to provide it to you at this time. To date, we have not identified any records responsive to your request that would not be subject to the executive privilege, the attorney-client privilege or other recognized privileges. I request an extension of ten days. Sincerely, Miss OPRA
bcc: reminder file for September 24: Request another ten-day extension
[Form Letter C-387 rev.02/03/10]
After an original deadline of September 7, yesterday was the extension deadline for Sen. Weinberg's OPRA request for background documents to substantiate the governor's difference of opinion with the Office of Legislative Services over funding for Family Planning. In a comment in her Monday Blue Jersey diary she says she was told "that they couldn't meet the deadline (no kidding)... I did allow another 24 hour extension and made it clear that I would expect the documents in my Senate office by the end of business on Tuesday, September 14." These documents are an essential part of the effort on September 20 to override Gov. Christie's veto on women's health care.
The Asbury Park Press on Aug. 27 filed a request under OPRA to both the governor's office and the state Department of Education for copies of all correspondence regarding the firing of former Education Commissioner Bret Schundler. In a recent response no date was given for completion of that review.
A free and open government must be responsive to requests for information in a timely manner and as stipulated by law. At least the governor just signed a bill creating a standard fee for OPRA request documents. However, that apparently does not stop Miss OPRA from sending her regrets.
I decided to submit an OPRA request to learn how much of my money is going toward his self-aggrandizement. One of my friends has had limited success with OPRA and has told me that the office that handles these requests uses obfuscation as their default position. But after I attended an OPRA seminar, I was emboldened and decided to try out the system.
