WolfeNotes.com

Have Sweeney’s Democratic Colleagues Moved Worker Safety Legislation He Supported?

I read NJ Spotlight’s story today about Amazon warehouse labor issues with interest.

I don’t usually get involved in labor issues, but I did in this case.

I brought a California bill [AB701] on warehouse worker safety issues to the attention of former Senate President Sweeney last September, and urged him to greatly expand his proposed legislation, based upon California legislation.

He agreed and wrote to thank me for bringing the legislation to his attention. In an October 11, 2021 email, Sweeney wrote: (emphases mine)

Dear Mr. Wolfe:

Thank you again for contacting my office to express your concerns regarding warehouse worker safety and sharing your support of Assembly Bill 4630 with the Governor.

I have reviewed the California warehouse bill, AB701, that you sent over. I think the bill will provide important protections for warehouse workers and I have asked my staff to look into how we could do a similar bill in New Jersey.

Thank you for bringing it to my attention.

Sincerely,

Steve Sweeney

Senate President

Sweeney responded to my September 27, 2021 email:

Senator Sweeney – thank you for your reply and for advising me of your support of NJ A4630 – I will reach out to Gov. Murphy’s office and urge that he sign the bill into law.

However, the NJ A4630 bill applies narrowly to just the public sector.

In contrast, the California legislation, AB701, applies directly to the private sector and addresses specific workplace protections, among other things, see:

https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202120220AB701

I urge you to review the pending California legislation and consider broader and more effective protections for warehouse labor.

Sincerely,

Bill Wolfe

It would be interesting to know if Sweeney’s Democratic colleagues have pursued the California model legislation he expressed support for. And did Gov. Murphy sign the flawed bill (A4630) I initially wrote Sweeney to criticize?

[Update – just did the research. On Nov. 8, 2021,  Gov. Murphy Conditionally Vetoed the bill because he thought it would hurt “small” mom and pop businesses. He made a lame bill even lamer:

It looks like the Legislature has not concurred with the Gov.’s CV and the bill its dead. ~~~ end update]

But how is it possible that a retired environmental activist – with no funds, no staff and no resources – living in the national forests in a bus can have more impact on the NJ Senate President than well funded NJ labor unions and labor activists? (including environmental and labor coalitions).

[End Note: I’ve been a longtime critic of Senator Sweeney so he had no use for me. This only further baffles me as to how I could secure his support for the California bill (and at a time his own lame bill was on the Gov.’s desk):

NJ Spotlight Perverts A Corruption Story To Be One About Leadership

Senator Sweeney Hijacks Story to Cover Up Corruption And Murphy DEP Failure

Back on July 29, 2021, we wrote about an egregious abuse of the NJ Redevelopment law by Mansfield Township, who designated a farm on Rt. 130 as in need of redevelopment, see:

• Mansfield NJ – Corruption In Plain Sight

After I wrote that post, I contacted the NJ Attorney General’s Office and filed a detailed request (via email and telephone) for an investigation of possible corruption in that designation.

In that post, I also provided a link to 6 other major warehouse development approvals pending before DEP –

I then sent all that information to NJ Spotlight reporter Jon Hurdle (there are several other NJ based mainstream media reporters who follow my Twitter feed, so they all had the same information).

Today, over a month later, Hurdle wrote the Mansfield story, but it a way that intentionally obfuscates the issues and blatantly misleads readers, see:

• Ban more new warehouses on farmland, lawmakers say

It is obvious that Hurdle wrote the story based on spin from Senate President Sweeney (the story’s title in the URL revealing is  “Sweeney-Adiego will seek ban”).

What bullshit. Let me explain.

First of all, the bill the story focused on would NOT ban future warehouse developments. It applies narrowly to municipal designations under the NJ redevelopment law. Towns can still zone farmland for commercial development, including warehouses. Warehouses can still be built on farmland and could continue to do so in the unlikely even that the bill were to pass.

It is grossly misleading to suggest any kind of ban or even protection of farmland. There is no ban and there is no ban intended. Exactly the opposite!

Second, the bill is an Assembly bill and has no version in the Senate. So why is Senate President Sweeney the legislative source for the story?

Senator Sweeney is spinning this to:

1) divert and cover up the Mansfield (and other) corruption of NJ redevelopment law aspects of the story;

2) get out in front of what should be very bad press (if NJ had a functioning media);

3) create the false appearance of leadership in “opposing” very unpopular warehouse developments;

4) evade any media coverage of the DEP regulatory aspects of the story;

5) block emergence of grassroots organizing and prevent real legislation to preserve remaining forests an farmlands; and

6) control the Legislation, by pledging to sponsor the Senate version of the Assembly bill, to control the legislative review (and amendment) of the bill. A bill doesn’t move or get committee consideration or amendments without consultation and approval of the sponsor. The best way to kill a legislative initiative is to sponsor a fake bill on that issue (just as Sweeney has done here).

NJ Spotlight completely ignored the real story (which was about corruption of the redevelopment law and DEP rubber stamp regulatory approvals). They are working off Sweeney’s press release.

There also might be a story about investigation of Mansfield by the NJ Attorney General’s Office – all it would take would be some phone calls to the AG’s press office asking for a response to my request for investigation.

Instead of writing the real story  NJ Spotlight erased all that corruption and made NJ Redevelopment law appear to be good policy and made Sweeney and Mansfield officials look like leaders, not corrupt scumbags:

The new measure under consideration follows a meeting between Sweeney, Addiego and officials in Mansfield, Burlington County, where eight warehouses totaling between 4 million and 5 million square feet have been approved because of farmland being designated for redevelopment, according to the township’s deputy mayor, Bob Tallon.

Tallon urged lawmakers to support the legislation, which would prevent more warehouses from being built on farmland in the township, and any more farmland from being lost. He estimated that 500-600 acres of farmland will be occupied by warehouses and parking lots by the time the approved warehouses are built.

Tallon argued that the 1992 law was designed to help revitalize urban areas and has been misapplied to farmland.

‘We want to remain primarily farm’

“Redevelopment was meant as a tool to redo our cities, and it’s being used as a planning tool where you can designate active farmland that’s productive for the purpose of warehouses, and we didn’t think that was a good use,” he said. “We want to remain primarily farm, and if we fill our township with warehouses, we’ve lost our original plan.”

What total bullshit.

On top of this wild perversion, Mr Hurdle and NJ Spotlight again ignored the DEP regulatory role in the warehouse development controversy, once again giving Governor Murphy and the DEP a pass.

This is journalistic malpractice that misleads readers. I sent this note to NJ Spotlight editor John McAlpin:

John – I’ve been feeding Jon Hurdle stories for many months, all of which he either ignores or writes himself (without attribution or proper sourcing) and in ways that mislead your readers and let the Gov. and DEP off the hook. It’s happened so many times that it can not be an accident. I thought you should know.

Over and out.

[End note: Edited. Mr Tallon has been a leader in opposing warehouse and other development.]

[Ironic photo update: Here’s the photo NJ Spotlight is running tonight – no comment!:

Follow the money and the finance trails

Who were the players behind the scenes that pushed this project through DRBC and DEP reviews, without disclosing the LNG aspects?

[Update below]

This is a followup to my previous post, where I explained the attempt to stealth a controversial LNG export terminal through the DRBC and NJ DEP regulatory review process.

DRBC themselves confirmed similar flaws in the DRBC review process, rejecting claims of a coverup:

“DRBC disagrees with that statement,” it said. “The public hearing on June 6 was adequately noticed, and DRBC has shared with the public all information submitted by the applicant and/or its contractors.”:

Upon approval, the DRBC exposed its narrow scope of review and total lack of consideration of climate impacts or energy policy: (Inquirer)

The commission said its review was confined to the impact of building the wharf and of dredging the Delaware River to 43 feet deep to connect with the main channel.

But, perhaps there are other reasons that can explain this huge blunder – other than pure regulatory failure, e.g.: political pressure on regulators by high level officials.

The Delaware Riverkeeper Network, who exposed the story, is alleging a coverup.

In fact, it appears that this could be another example of:

• Political Pressure on DEP – How The Game is Played

Here is what a quick Google found – given all the smoke, we strongly suspect fire.

To document what would be an Encap-level blaze of corruption, some intrepid journalist out there should file OPRA requests at DRBC and NJ DEP for all the regulatory review documents, i.e. the full administrative file and all communications regarding it (where are you Jeff Pillets!).

I) Longtime Sweeney involvement

Back on July 24, 2016, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported:

Plan to revive old South Jersey industrial site draws fans and fears

[…]

State and local leaders are confident the new port will be a positive presence in the township and county.

“This will be a big job generator,” said Senate President Stephen Sweeney, whose Third Legislative District includes Gibbstown, also known as Greenwich Township. “We’ve been working on this since 2005.”

Sweeney has already had his way with Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe, so he knows her number (besides, he also had his own Senate staffer, Eric Wachter installed as McCabe DEP’s first Chief of Staff. But The latest DEP org chart indicates that Wachter has departed. He’s now in private sector.)

Given Sweeney’s many prior interventions at DEP, it is not a stretch to speculate that he twisted DEP arms on this proposed LNG terminal that he’s supported “since 2005″.

II.  Twisted Tales Of Wall Street Finance Could Link Gov. Murphy to the Project

Before the 2016 Philadelphia Inquirer story, back on 3/20/15, NJ.Com wrote a story with Sweeney praising Fortress Investment Group:

• Shuttered DuPont gunpowder plant to ‘rise from the ashes’, become newest port along Delaware River

State Sen. President Steve Sweeney led a press conference in Greenwich Township to announce the sale of the township’s former DuPont Repauno plant to Fortress Investment Group, which aims to turn the dormant 1,800-acre property into a port-related industrial park for imports and exports.

Sweeney goes out of his way to praise Fortress:

“That’s what they do, and they do it with private sector capital, not government money, which is the win-win-win for everybody,” said Sweeney, who declined to divulge the total value of the sale besides to say “It’s a lot of land.”

But Fortress did not provide a “win-win-win for everybody”. 

Fortress is a failed hedge fund – see:

• The Fall of Fortress  – The asset manager is selling itself at a premium, but it’s still trading at a fraction of its IPO price. The big losers? Us.

Fortress Investment Group, the struggling alternative-­investment firm that went public to great fanfare ten years ago but whose shares have since lost 74 percent of their market value. …

Kaplan says Fortress has been “terrible” for public investors.

They’ve ripped off public investors, including – as Sweeney might appreciate, given his political battles with NJ Teachers Unions – the Ohio Teacher’s Pension Fund:

Fortress was the first U.S. alternatives firm to go public, in 2007, starting a trend that burned red-hot, then quickly flamed out, proving over the past ten years that these deals have been a disaster for public shareholders, which include big mutual funds catering to both retail and institutional investors. Among Fortress’s shareholders: Allianz Asset Management, Fidelity Investments, Wellington Management Co., and even the State Teachers Retirement System of Ohio.

Now here’s where the links between Fortress and Gov. Murphy get murky and hypothetical, but good investigative journalism could connect these dots:

1. Veteran NJ environmental reporter Kirk Moore confirmed the story on the stealth LNG aspect of this project, where he also noted:

Delaware River Partners LLC, a subsidiary of New York City-based Fortress Investment Group.

2. Who is Fortress Investment Group? Wikipedia reports that they have strong links to Goldman Sachs:

When Fortress launched on the NYSE on February 9, 2007 with Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers underwriting the IPO.

3. More recently, Fortress was acquired by a politically wired firm called SoftBank Group Corp, as reported by Institutional Investor:

Last December business executives from around the globe made their way to Manhattan’s Trump Tower to meet with president-­elect Donald Trump. But few made as big of a splash as Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank Group Corp., who had Trump crowing on Twitter about the Japanese mogul’s pledge to invest $50 billion in the U.S. and create 50,000 American jobs.

… on February 14 [2017], SoftBank agreed to pay $3.3 billion to buy Fortress Investment Group, the struggling alternative-­investment firm that went public to great fanfare ten years ago but whose shares have since lost 74 percent of their market value.

4. SoftBank has some interesting relationships:

Fortress’s $3.3 billion deal with SoftBank was driven by Rajeev Misra, a former Deutsche Bank derivatives expert who is now in charge of investment strategy.

Gov. Murphy was former US Ambassador to Germany, where, particularly given his Goldman Sachs finance background, one assumes he had relationships with Deutsche Bank “experts” on investment strategy.

5. Now look who Mr. Misra, who drove the Fortress deal, formed a relationship with and where that individual previously worked:

A few years ago Misra worked briefly at Fortress, where he developed a relationship with Edens and Peter Briger Jr., who cochair the board of directors. (Briger also has ties to Japan, where he previously worked for Goldman Sachs Group.)

6. Briger and Phil Murphy are both Goldman Sachs diaspora, see NY Times.

So, a few questions emerge:

Did Phil Murphy have any involvement with the Fortress deal when he was at Goldman?

Did Phil Murphy have any relationship with SoftBank or Peter Briger?

Was Gov. Phil Murphy aware of the Fortress role?

As Gov. of NJ, Murphy sits on the DRBC Board and has executive control over DEP.

Did Murphy  in any way intervene in DRBC and/or DEP regulatory review processes?

Who were the players behind the scenes that pushed this project through DRBC and DEP reviews, without disclosing the LNG aspects?

[END NOTE:  There are many “coincidences” here.

The proposed LNG plant would be located on a former Dupont massive toxic waste site, known as “Repauno”.

Tomorrow, the Senate Environment Committee will hear a bill that directly and significant impacts the Dupont/Chemours Repauno site by prohibiting DEP assumption of direct oversight. That would put Dupont/Chemours in total control of the cleanup, with no DEP oversight, for details, see:

• NJ Senate Bill Would Prohibit DEP Oversight of Some of NJ’s Worst Toxic Industrial Sites

• NJ Senate To Consider Bill To Further Weaken NJ Toxic Site Cleanup Laws

Check out the Dupont Repauno site on EPA RCRA list. S3682 would prohibit NJ DEP oversight of the Repauno site as under the “federal involvement” loophole in Section 26

This is not the first time a former Dupont toxic site was involved in a corrupt billion $ energy facility development, see:

• A Green New Deal for the People of Linden

Unbelievable corruption in plain sight.

[Update: 6/16/19 – Just to nail this down and remove the plausible denial factor, I just sent this note to the members of the Senate Environment Committee and Democratic Senate staff and the media:

From: Bill WOLFE <bill_wolfe@comcast.net>
To: senbsmith <SenBSmith@njleg.org>, sengreenstein <sengreenstein@njleg.org>, senbateman <senbateman@njleg.org>, kduhon@njleg.org, Tittel, Jeff, Tittel, Jeff, jonhurdle@gmail.com, Pringle, Dave, Jeff Pillets <jeffpillets@icloud.com>, tmoran@starledger.com
Date: June 16, 2019 at 10:31 PM
Subject: S3682 – Dupont Repauno & LNG terminal

Dear Chairman Smith:

Recent news reports have revealed a highly controversial plan to develop an LNG export terminal at the former Dupont Repauno toxic waste site.

The Dupont Repauno site (now Chemours) is a RCRA Corrective Action cleanup site (as well as subject to DEP oversight pursuant to NJ remedial State law). See EPA NJ Corrective Action cleanup site list:

https://www.epa.gov/hwcorrectiveactionsites/new-jersey-rcra-cleanup-facilities-contacts

Section 26 of your bill, S3682, would directly impact the cleanup and redevelopment of that site by prohibiting NJ DEP oversight.

Clearly, it is not in the interests of NJ’s environment, public health, the Delaware River, and the public interest to put Dupont/Chemours in total control of the cleanup of that massive toxic site, subject only to the Trump EPA under federal RCRA.

On the basis alone I again urge you to delete Section 26 and hold your bill for further consideration.

Respectfully,

Bill Wolfe

McCabe Capitulates To Sweeney Arm Twisting 

A Down Payment On Confirmation?

Or Will McCabe Uphold Staff Enforcement Action?

Echoes of the “Torricelli Tour”

When the Senate President can hold a DEP Commissioner hostage and extort a political deal to make DEP stand down on enforcement of an egregious wetlands violation, we’re beyond the rule of law and all principled governing.

NJ Senate President Sweeney – who is still holding Gov. Murphy’s nominee for DEP Commissioner hostage by blocking her Senate confirmation hearings – is now demanding that McCabe abandon an enforcement action for an egregious violation of NJ’s Freshwater Wetlands Protection Act.

I won’t rehash it here, because the nasty story is told in great detail in the following recent news stories:

• N.J. ready to tear down rural cabins it ‘didn’t know’ existed, owner says
• With wrecking crew closing in, state pulls back on plans to demolish rural cabins

Those stories reveal a well orchestrated political campaign – the first news report coming just before Gov. Murphy’s inauguration and the second one just days later. Sadly, Acting DEP Commissioner McCabe immediately halted the enforcement of the State’s wetlands laws, purportedly under her “transition review”:

“Acting Commissioner Catherine McCabe is aware of the situation and will be reviewing it, among a number of other issues she will be reviewing during the transition,” said DEP Spokesman Larry Hajna.

Strike one – that move does not inspire confidence.

Incredibly, McCabe’s “transition” review sounds a lot like the kind of review Gov. Christie DEP nominee Bob Martin conducted under Christie’s regulatory moratorium and Red Tape review process, i.e. review how to block DEP initiatives to protect the environment and instead provide “regulatory relief”.

But McCabe went far beyond a temporary halt for a transition policy review.

Last week, McCabe, who is an attorney, caved to Sweeney’s demands and toured the site with Senate President Sweeney – thereby totally politicizing an environmental enforcement action.

“I wanted Acting Commissioner McCabe to get a first-hand view of the cabins so that she can understand the perspective of the owners and the community who believe strongly they should be preserved,” said state Senate President Stephen Sweeney before the tour. “They should be given a fair opportunity to make their case to the decision-makers.”

Temporarily halting enforcement purportedly as part of a “transition review” is a bad idea, but at least it is defensible.

Taking a tour with the Senate President, press in tow, is inappropriate, reveals bad judgement, and was a huge mistake.

You can watch the corrupt humiliation on YouTube.

This issue presents a major challenge to McCabe’s integrity and credibility and leadership at DEP.

If she capitulates to Sweeney’s demands and kills the enforcement action for an egregious wetlands violation for equally egregious political reasons, she loses all credibility and the respect of DEP professionals. 

That would be fatal to her leadership of DEP.

As I’ve written before, Gov. Murphy has to get the back of McCabe and stand up to Sweeney’s abuse of power.

When the Senate President can hold a DEP Commissioner hostage and extort a political deal to make DEP stand down on enforcement of on an egregious wetlands violation, we’re beyond the rule of law and all principled governing.

The McCabe Sweeney Tour reminds me of my own humiliating Torricelli Tour.

By far the most corrupt, shameful, and embarrassing thing I ever did in my professional career was when I went to Senator Bob Torricelli’s farm in Hunterdon County to conduct a “field tour” and assure him the DEP would soon nominate the stream that flowed through his property as a “Category One” (C1) water and thereby stop nearby proposed development and keep his backyard green.

I returned to DEP Trenton HQ after the “tour” and immediately met with Commissioner Brad Campbell to advise him that I really resented him making me do that and that I’d never do anything like that again. In response, Campbell claimed that he had not ordered me to conduct the tour, but his political staffer sure made it sound like that when she set it up and essentially directed me to go there.

After I left DEP, I leaked the story to the Star Ledger, who reported a big Sunday edition page one story: Protections for Streams Guard Other Interests – and in that story, Campbell is quoted flat out denying he knew anything about the Torricelli Tour, which is a big lie, because I told him about it.

I realize that the ends don’t justify the means, but in my Tour, at least the corrupt politics were working to BETTER PROTECT the environment, not like McCabe’ Tour, which is designed to thwart enforcement of wetlands laws for an egregious violation.

Word.

Acting DEP Commissioner McCabe Sandbagged by Christie Holdovers

Unable to appoint management team & begin policy reforms

Sweeney holds McCabe hostage – is he seeking policy concessions?

[Update: Here is DEP website for McCabe DEP’s “organizational chart”

[Update in text below]

Senate President Sweeney is blocking the confirmation of, among others, Gov. Murphy’s nominee for DEP Commissioner, Catherine McCabe.

It is almost March, and the Senate Judiciary Committee still has not set a date for McCabe’s confirmation hearing and Sweeney has not scheduled a full Senate confirmation vote.

The inability of McCabe to secure Senate confirmation has a series of negative consequences.

Historically in deference to the Constitutional power of Senate oversight via the confirmation process, the Acting DEP Commissioner will not exercise bold leadership or initiate major policy changes until confirmed.

First of all, as a result, McCabe has been unable to appoint her senior management team and initiate the arduous process of reversing 8 full years of Gov. Christie’s policy and regulatory rollbacks (i.e see: Forty Policy Questions For Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner’s Senate Confirmation Hearing.

McCabe also has been unable to appoint her own management team and purge Gov. Christie and Bob Martin’s installation of incompetent corporate hacks in senior management positions. And there was a lot of collaboration with the Martin regime’s “cultural change” program by DEP middle managers that will need to be purged as well, perhaps down to at least the Division Director level, lower in some individual cases.

The DEP is a huge and complex regulatory institution, so it will take considerable leadership and persistent efforts to turn the ship of state around.

In addition, McCabe can expect strong pushback from powerful economic forces, as well as the leadership of her own party, as she seeks to “claw back” the Christie giveaways (e.g. see: Sweeney and Christie-Crats Throw Pinelands Legacy Under the Bus)

Already there are signs that Christie holdovers have sandbagged Acting Commissioner McCabe.

For example, the very first press release McCabe issued upon taking office was an ill advised move to double down on a terrible trifecta: Gov. Christie’s climate denying shore engineering, dredged material disposal, and luxury boat subsidy policies (see: DEP LAUNCHES PROJECT TO REPAIR BEACHES ON LONG BEACH ISLAND USING MATERIALS DREDGED TO MAKE LITTLE EGG INLET CHANNEL SAFE (not to mention the personnel issues involved).

Even worse, McCabe apparently relied on Christie holdovers in the discredited DEP press office to spin the release of the DEP’s annual fish consumption advisories, transforming the historic public health focus of those advisories into a sham effort to claim reductions in toxic chemicals and improvements in “ecological conditions” (see: NJ Gov. Murphy’s DEP Commissioner – A Woman – Downplays Health Risks To Women and Children From Eating Toxic Fish.

[Note: Or, McCabe, in downplaying toxic fish risks, could have been trying to avoid pissing off Sweeney, whose (oil soaked) District sits on the banks of the Delaware River (where advisories were “eased”) and includes Sweeney’s polluter and fossil friends, particularly Dupont, the largest toxic polluter to the river, who owns billions of dollars in cleanup and NRD liability that DEP could pull the trigger on. ~~~ end note]

The lack of Senate confirmation also has political – as well as policy implications.

That political intimidation by Sweeney could explain the timid and ill-advised selection of Deputy Commissioner Debbie Mans (see: Murphy DEP Commissioner McCabe Makes Her First Move – A Mis-Step)

In that sense, Sweeney – who is no friend of the Gov’s Murphy’s energy or environmental  policies (especially on wind) and a supporter of many of Gov. Christie’s “regulatory relief” policies – is holding the sword of confirmation over McCabe’s head and likely seeking political commitments or policy moderation from McCabe behind the scenes. He has a dirty history.

Sweeney needs to be told by progressive and pro-environmental Democrats to back off and schedule McCabe’s confirmation hearing and Senate vote and get behind Gov. Murphy’s energy and environmental policies.

[Update: a reader and longtime Trenton activist just sent me a note that laid out the political games being played by Gov. Murphy’s Office on the nuke bailout bill. Basically, as I suspected, the Gov. Office has frozen out the progressives and is using corporate tools NRDC, EDF, NJ LCV and Rethink Energy NJ for cover for a sellout to PSEG. Murphy is listening to National groups and dissing the local NJ state groups.

The Gov.’s Office and Acting DEP Commissioner McCabe might want to consult former Commissioner Brad Campbell, who relied on NRDC for his disastrous “Big Map” initiative, which was his Waterloo. See NY Times story (6/26/05) for all that “These Days, A Commissioner Is Under Siege” ~~~ end update]

Maybe Democrats can get around to doing that after they end the Sweeney madness on the nuclear subsidies and poison pill for renewable energy he is trying to ram through the legislature, see: IN SIXTH ITERATION, NUCLEAR SUBSIDY BILL CLEARS COMMITTEE

Sweeney is sabotaging Gov. Murphy’s energy, environmental and even tax policies, remarkably in a partnership with NJ’s ALEC Chairman,  right wing Republican Senator Oroho.

Enough is enough. Get in his face!