WolfeNotes.com

[Update: 2/16/15 – A few things:

1) Star Ledger has an editorial today: “Liberty State Park’s Precarious Future” – – pretty good, but still fails to note that: a) the Christie DEP is just a big a problem as the new MRC; and b) NJ Future’s stealth privatization study was, at best, totally inappropriate and at worst a money laundering exercise in political cover and betrayal.

2) Prieto’s “cleanup” bill is now on line, see: A4196 – it does nothing to resolve the development threats to the park – see below for reasons why.  ~~~ end update]

Unbelievable.

Defenders of Liberty State Park – along with the press corps – repeatedly have been lied to, manipulated, and deceived by Legislators and DEP.

I have been exposing that and warning about the issues for weeks now and explaining it’s origin in Gov. Christie’s “Sustainable Parks” privatization policy.

So, are they going to let that happen again?

A story today in the Bergen Record sure suggests that may happen.

The story is about a bill introduced by Assembly Speaker Prieto, the sponsor of the bill that created the problem. (A4196 – the bill text is not yet available on line):

The new bill says that “nothing” in it “shall be construed to transfer ownership of any of the property” to the commission. Prieto maintained that the DEP is still in charge of the park.

“We call it a cleanup bill,” said Prieto, D-Secaucus. “The DEP still calls the shots.” He added, “What the DEP was able to do one month ago, two months ago, they will be able to do today and going forward.

I call bullshit on that –

The so called “cleanup” bill does nothing to cleanup the mess and address the underlying problems.

Transfer of ownership is NOT the issue. Whether DEP “calls the shots” is NOT the issue. They are manipulative diversions.

The real issue is that the Christie DEP has unilaterally announced plans to develop the Park and that the new Meadowlands Regional Commission has the power to finance that park development.

When the problem was first exposed, a Prieto staffer denied the problem.

Then, in followup news coverage, Prieto himself denied the problem.

When Senator Sarlo contradicted Prieto and admitted the problem, and editorials blasted the dirty deal, Prieto was forced to walk those denials back.

He then admitted the problem, and said he was going to fix it.

Now his proposed fix may make the problem worse and divert attention from the real problems.

So, after this ugly history, do they finally understand the issue? NO.

Just last week, the Bergen Record broke a story that revealed that for over 6 months prior to their efforts to stealth a provision in the new Meadowlands law, DEP secretly had paid $120,000 for a private consultant to study options to commercialize the park.

DEP has said – multiple times – that their goal is to make LSP a “tourist destination” and a “venue” for events, in order to “generate revenues”.

The DEP press office even went so far as to say that LSP was “just where people go to get on the ferry”.

HELLO!

DEP is just as big a threat to Liberty State Park as the new Meadowlands Regional Commission.

The key issue of concern is the role of the new Meadowlands Commission in financing improvements to Liberty State Park.

DEP would love to develop the park, but DEP doesn’t have bonding authority and they are broke.

The professionals in DEP’s Division of Parks are not controlling decisions about plans for the Park..Decisions are being dictated by Commissioner Martin and the Governor’s Office. They are driven by the Gov.’s own privatization and commercialization plan.

It does no good for park advocates and the press to deny this and pretend that this is not happening.

The open space constitutional amendment dedicated all parks lease and concession revenues to the new Open Space fund.

That legal change put the kibosh on any DEP public private partnership deal to finance stuff like  a restaurant of amphitheater, where concession revenues or ticket sales would finance the “improvements”.

That’s why DEP inserted the MRC role into Prieto/Sarlo Meadowlands bill. They need a funding source and financing entity. 

Whether the Park is controlled by DEP is irrelevant – DEP has announced plans and conducted a study to commercialize the Park as a “tourist destination” to “generate revenue”.

Prieto’s bill does nothing to address any of those issues.

And the concern about the new Meadowlands Environmental Research Institute is a total diversion.

 DEP’s Version of Arrogant “Sit Down and Shut Up” Approach To Governing

Direct Contradiction of NOAA Policy

Hugely controversial public debates about the future of the ocean and NJ’s coastal zone management – from Hurricane Sandy rebuilding, to threats from climate change, sea level rise and storms, to over-fishing, pollution, and off shore LNG, oil & gas drilling, and energy development – are proliferating.

Yet, remarkably, just when the public is demanding more transparent and participatory planning and government, the Christie DEP is closing down and limiting public opportunity to participate in that debate.

We have written here numerous times about various individual coastal and ocean issues, so I won’t go into them here.

The point is, DEP is responsible for planning, regulation, and management of a myriad of critical coastal zone resources and near ocean waters.

Under federal law, DEP is required to prepare submit a coastal zone management assessment every 2 years and a coastal strategy every 5 years.

Improvements to state and territory coastal management programs are encouraged through this program. The focus is on nine enhancement areas: wetlands, coastal hazards, public access, marine debris, cumulative and secondary impacts, special area management plans, ocean and Great Lakes resources, energy and government facility siting, and aquaculture. The program was established in 1990 under Section 309 of the Coastal Zone Management Act.

Every five years states and territories review their programs to identify priority needs and opportunities for improvement. The programs then work with NOAA to develop multi-year improvement strategies that focus on one or more of the priority enhancement goals.

On Thursday Feb. 12, DEP will hold a one time “by invitation only” “Stakeholders” meeting in Trenton to develop NJ’s coastal strategy and plan.

Did you get that? “BY invitation only!”

At a minimum, given the recent dispute on sea walls, I figured the folks in Mantoloking would want to ask a few questions or relay their concerns – but DEP didn’t invite them!

Here are the federal NOAA Guidelines on how DEP is supposed to allow the public to participate on coastal planning:

E. Public Review

Because the CZMA places a strong emphasis on public participation, CMPs must provide opportunities for public review and comment on the Assessment and Strategy. Since OCRM is encouraging a combined Assessment and Strategy, CMPs may hold the public review period concurrently with OCRM’s review of the draft submission. The public review process does not require formal public hearings and may occur through a variety of means, e.g., public comment websites, advisory committees, Commission meetings, or informal public workshops. At a minimum, CMPs should provide adequate public notice, document availability, and a minimum 30-day public comment period. CMPs are encouraged to use the Internet, as feasible, to make the document widely available for public comments. A summary of public comments and responses must be included with the final Assessment and Strategy.

With “Leadership” like this …..

I just read Tom Johnson’s NJ Spotlight story on Open Space – before I had a chance to read the bill or supporting documents distributed during yesterday’s Senate Environment Committee hearing – and was captured by this remarkable set of facts, which I was aware of but had not seen assembled quite like this before:

The proposed allocations reflect a deep cut in money set aside for the programs from a 2009 bond issue.

Green Acres funding is down from $218 million; Blue Acres is down from $246 million; farmland preservation is dropping from $146 million; and protection of historic structures is falling from the $12 million allocation from the 2009 bond issue, according to material prepared by the committee.

Does that seem like a celebration of accomplishment to you?

[* and Tom went very easy on Keep It Green by failing to note that their attempt to steal State Parks capital and lease/concession money was thwarted – but to do that, Tom would have had to give us credit.]

I was so taken aback by seeing that in one tight paragraph that it occurred to me to post this comment on that story, which I share here:

So, let’s see if I have this right:

The Keep It Green Coalition spent $1 million on an a PR campaign to convince voters of what they had approved previously many times by large majorities more than a dozen times on ballot measures over a 50 year period – the epitome of motherhood and apple pie – but with a remarkable new wrinkle:

1) deep cuts in open space, farmland preservation, historic preservation, and blue acres funding;

2) deep cuts in core DEP programs, including water resources, NJ Geological Survey, water monitoring, and toxic site cleanup;

3) diversion of $51 million, over the next 4 years, from State Parks maintenance (the difference between $15 million cut that was restored and the $32 million that would have been provided in 2016 – 2020);

4) no new badly need urban funding for things like urban parks, community gardens, and farmers markets in food deserts;

5) no inclusion of climate change or urban forestry or programs to reduce GHG emissions or to mitigate the impacts of climate change;

6) creation of an undefined “stewardship” program that could include publicly funded commercial logging on State lands;

7) opposition to and a missed opportunity to dedicate hundreds of millions of dollars in revenues from State pollution settlement agreements, like the Passaic River $190 million settlement; toxic site cost recovery; Natural resource Damage settlements, and other enforcement actions.

8) destruction of individual’s and organization’s credibility, creating bad blood and poisoning community relations by creating competition over existing funding instead of fighting for new funding.

Do I have that all right? Did I get it all?

HECKOFAJOB KIG!

[oops, I forgot at least 2:

9) failure to reform longstanding policy flaws (e.g. linking acquisitions to a land use plan or regulations) and known abuses (land appraisals, political influence in decision making, failure to capture speculative rents, public subsidies for land speculation,  and outright criminal corruption, (i.e. Assemblyman Ferriero went down on a Green Acres grant) et al)

10) Potentially well over 100 layoffs  at DEP

Stewardship Funds Must Be Eliminated  – If you Can’t Define It, You Can’t Fund It

Private Non-Profit Funding Should Be Zeroed, Given Scarce Resources

The Senate Environment Committee met this morning to discuss the initial draft of Open Space funding implementation legislation (see my prior set up post for info: Public Strongly Supports Restoration of Parks and DEP Cuts).

Sean Sullivan of the Star Ledger/NJ.com wrote about the hearing here.

A copy of the draft bill, which will be introduced on Thursday, was distributed and Chairman Smith explained the policy objectives of the package.

Those with major objections must contact the Senate aide, Kevil Duhon before the bill is introduced: kduhon@njleg.org

Unfortunately, I was iced in by the storm and unable to attend  and don’t have the documents to review – but I did listen in on the OLS live feed.

I’m very pleased to report that Smith and members of the Committee listened to all those who were outraged by the Keep It Green Coalition move to divert State Parks funding.

State Parks capital funds have apparently been restored ($15 million) to their current level and the proposed diversion of lease and concession revenues has been blocked effectively. Haven’t read exactly how this was done yet.

That is a significant victory – thanks to all the parks supporters who weighed in!

But, it appears that other key issues were not addressed, so I’d ask that all those who supported restoration of parks funding weigh in to support the following:

[* Note: Parks get the current level of $15 million for backlogged maintenance – that’s full restoration for this year.

BUT, this year’s $15 million would have increased to $32 million next year, so they lost that $17 million for at least 3 years. 

Smith said the allocations will be revisited in 4 years when the 4% increases to 6%.- new legislation then.]

1) Urban equity –

There needs to be something explicit in the bill that will allocate funds towards urban and older suburban areas of NJ. For far too long, those areas have been neglected by open space programs that are biased towards rural areas of the state.

2) Urban and climate programs need to be authorized

The bill needs to target and earmark funding for urban parks, community gardens, urban forestry, and farmers markets and other programs to address “food desert” issues.

3) Restore DEP Water Resource and Site Remediation cuts

It appears that the bill did not address diversion of millions of dollars from core DEP water resource and land use programs, including water quality monitoring and the critical support science conducted by the NJ Geological Survey.

Additionally, the DEP oversight of toxic site cleanups was completely eliminated and must be restored. The program already has been privatized, so some DEP oversight to keep private contractors honest is essential.

4) Stewardship – not ready for prime time

The “stewardship” issue raises a hornet’s nest of controversial issues, including commercial logging on state lands.

As I understood the discussion by Chairman Smith, it seems that Smith remains concerned about the vague programmatic definition of stewardship and that stewardship has been combined with State lands development.

I need to read the bill, but urge folks to weigh in and just say no to stewardship money.

5) Non -profit funding

It was tough listening to the hearing, but it seems like non-profits will get a small portion of the green acres funds.

When state, county, and local government funds are being slashed, this is not the time to be funding elite private non-profits.

Senator Smith made it clear that this was a 4 year “experimental” program that would be reconsidered when the funding increases from current $71 million to $117 million 4 years from now, so that too is a positive.

Folks need to continue to tell Chairman Smith and members of the Committee that voters never intended to cut core DEP water resource and toxic site cleanup programs to fund open space.

[PS – those that have worked on this, especially those who defended State parks and Liberty State Park in particular, should be proud that your efforts defeated an elite backed $1 million KIG PR campaign! You rock!]

Media Madness & Moran’s Lament

Losing the Forest in the Oyster

Bear with me – I’ll get to the seafood safety issue.

Yesterday, in a piece on Gov. Christie, Star Ledger columnist Tom Moran amazingly expressed this frustration:

As a Jersey guy watching this national race, it drives me nuts that so little attention has focused on Christie’s abysmal record as governor.

I say amazingly because the Star Ledger – in both news and editorial – was part of the media circus that inflated the Christie balloon, by ignoring the substance of his record in favor of cheerleading, particularly with respect to Christie’s Sandy Self Promotion.

The NJ media created the Christie monster, in large part by ignoring his record as Governor, so it takes some set of stones to imply that the “national race” is not focusing on Christie’s record.

In fact, just the opposite is true – with the exception of some great work by the Bergen Record, WNYC, NJ Spotlight (energy & environment, not Sandy!), and Bob Braun (education) – virtually all of the critical Christie news coverage has come from national media outlets, who wrote stories the NJ press corps either missed or didn’t have the spine to write.

And even when the coverage was critical of Christie – NJ or national media –  the focus almost invariably was limited to the scandal story, not the policy or government corruption story that required real investigative journalism.

As a Jersey Guy who’s been writing and feeding the NJ media these substantive stories and been ignored for 5 years, like Moran said  “it drives me nuts”.

For example, the recent Record story on corporate contributions to Choose NJ paying for the Governor’s London trip did not investigate the quid pro quo benefits those corporations received from Christie’s administration. That’s a huge investigative story that remains to be written.

Same thing in the NY Times piece on Christie’s appetite for luxury, which included this informative photo:

(Source: NY TImes)

So, with that context in mind, and perhaps my naive expectation that Moran’s lament might signal a shift at the Star Ledger to substantive issue coverage, a headline in the Ledger today caught my eye: “NJ’s Oyster Madness”.

Wow, could this issue finally be getting attention? Would the Star Ledger redeem prior coverage that missed the huge NJ seafood safety story in pursuit of the misdirection, i.e. the story about the DEP ban on the NY/NJ Baykeeper’s oyster restoration?

Let me explain with a little of the history.

Way back at the beginning of the Christie administration, with inexperienced rookie Bob Martin at the helm at DEP and under his boss’ order to get DEP off the back of business, the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) issued a scathingly critical Report about deficiencies in NJ’s seafood safety program (called the Shellfish Sanitation Program).

FDA found huge deficiencies that put the public health at risk and required more resources and staff invested in NJ’s programs.

That was the opposite direction Gov. Christie was headed at DEP, in seeking to scale back staff, cut budgets, impose a moratorium on regulations, and rollback DEP regulatory intervention in NJ’s business.

FDA  threatened to shut down NJ’s entire billion dollar seafood industry if those deficiencies were not corrected.

Now that is a huge story. The oyster restoration research is the flea on the elephant’s tail.

I tried to get it to reporters at the time in this series of posts and press releases:

But all they wanted to write was the DEP ban on the NY/NJ Baykeeper research.

Did the FDA issues and needed reforms get reported at the time? Not really. [* in a closer review of the history, I note that the Star Ledger did write a story and editorial, Kirk Moore at APP did as well. ]

Have the real underlying problems previously identified by FDA in NJ’s shellfish sanitation program be resolved since then?

Is NJ’s seafood safe to eat? Can we get a followup story on that?

Don’t you think that’s just a little more important that an oyster restoration research project?

Ask Brian Donohue and his editors at the Star Ledger – be sure to mention Moran’s lament.