Did business leader set a poor example?

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Did a Passaic landlord know he wasn't getting a water bill for 20 years?

The owner of a Passaic city apartment building that didn't pay its water bill for 20 years is a business leader in Hackensack, according to an anonymous source.

Eye on The Record received this message after I posted commentary on Thursday's Page 1 stories:

 "Interesting comments on the water-bill story. The owner of that [Passaic] building is Jerry Lombardo, the chairman of Upper Main Street Alliance [in Hackensack]. How can you not realize you haven't gotten a water bill in 20 years?"

The A-1 story Thursday by Staff Writer Richard Cowen identified the building owner as Gregory Realty LLC, but didn't mention Lombardo or ask if Gregory Realty was aware for two decades it wasn't paying a water bill for the 96-unit building. 

An Internet search found a Gregory Realty Company of Passaic LLC at 335 Main St. in Hackensack, but that name doesn't appear on the door. "C.J. Lombardo Co. Realtors, Est. 1936" is written on a brown awning over the door. 

If Lombardo was aware the building didn't pay a water bill for 20 years, it would set a poor example for members of the Upper Main Street Alliance, a group of business owners who are assessed to help make the street more attractive to shoppers and diners.

Today's paper

You have to plow through the lead story on greenhouse gases and turn to the continuation page before you learn Governor Christie diverted $65 million from energy efficiency projects to balance the state budget (A-1 and A-8).

The state earned a total of $102 million from the regional program. Who do you believe on whether the initiative cut greenhouse gases -- Christie or the Sierra Club? 

Why was a municipal judge for three towns allowed to hold so many other public and private jobs, and why didn't the Woodland Park daily report the story the day after the May 19 filing of a state complaint (A-1) ?

Road kill

Commuters are keeping their fingers crossed the Road Warrior column will be one of the inevitable fatalities this Memorial Day weekend (L-1). 

Oh, I forgot, the editors kill your column only if you're a woman, Hispanic or black -- and error-prone John Cichowski is none of those. 

Head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local news section is filled with still more police, fire and court stories today.

Clever but dense

Better Living's copy editors came up with a clever headline for the restaurant review today, "Chow bella."

But Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung is so blinded by her obsession with dessert nothing else seems to matter.

She spends more than half of the review boring readers with the chef/owner's resume and his plans to grow vegetables on the roof, but never tells them whether the pork and veal she sampled were pumped full of delectable antibiotics and growth hormones.