I'm horrified at how much more damage Governor Christie can do now that he says he'll be serving until January 2018

A political cartoon from The Charlotte Observer illustrates how the Bridgegate scandal derailed Governor Christie's White House campaign.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Just when you thought Governor Christie would end up cleaning the gold toilets and laundering the towels used as toilet paper in a Trump White House, the GOP thug says he's staying in New Jersey.

"I have no reason to believe as we stand here today that I will do anything other than serve out my full term as governor," Christie told the state League of Municipalities conference on Thursday.

Today's overlong story on Page 1 of The Record gets bogged down in yet another rehash of Christie's relationship with President-elect Donald J. Trump, and speculation about whether he will be tapped for a post in the incoming administration (1A and 8A).

Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi, who is assigned to cover Christie, also mentions this week's 10th downgrade of the state's credit rating.

But he doesn't remind readers of Christie's war against the middle class since early 2010 -- from mass transit to the state pension system -- and the potential for more damage, if he stays around until January 2018.

Governor Veto

With a record of more than 500 vetoes under his belt, nothing can stop Christie from hitting 750 vetoes or more.

He's already put the kibosh on a hike in the minimum wage, a tax surcharge on millionaires that would raise more than $1 billion, and hundreds of other bills passed by the state Legislature.

In the last couple of years, the Democrats have had limited success in putting a few questions on the ballot to get some of the vetoed measures enacted by modifying the state constitution. 

Local news?

On Page 6L of Local today, Hackensack residents will find a rare story about the city's Board of Education, which is searching for a new superintendent.

I can't recall the last time The Record of Woodland Park covered a meeting of the board.

The paper did no reporting on why the old superintendent, Karen Lewis, left so suddenly.

In fact, the reporter assigned to Hackensack didn't even cover the campaign of nine candidates for three board seats last April.

The Zisa family political dynasty, which ruled the city for decades, succeeded in getting all three of their candidates on the board.

Former four-term Mayor Jack Zisa and his brother, disgraced former Police Chief Ken Zisa, have indicated that was the first step in an attempted political comeback under the banner of Team Hackensack that will try to retake control of the City Council in May's municipal election. 

Trump called 'the most dangerous nominee in our lifetime'

GOP presidential nominee Donald J. Trump doing a good imitation of a demagogue.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Bridgegate trial jurors presumably are deliberating in secret again, and the distraction of the World Series is past, so in five days voters will decide the fate of our nation.

The Record and other news media should be ashamed of themselves for devoting so much time to the hysteria of GOP racist Donald J. Trump, and for printing AP trash like the story on Page 1 today:

"Some Republican lawmakers ... are threatening to block [Hillary Clinton's] Supreme Court nominees, investigate her endlessly or even impeach her."

Over at The New York Times, OP-ED Columnist David Leonhardt calls Trump "the most dangerous nominee in our lifetime."

Recalling 1964 GOP White House hopeful Barry Goldwater, who "mused about using nuclear weapons in the Cold War," Leonhardt said:

"For Republicans today, Trump is scarier than Goldwater.... He is racist and sexist -- having refused to rent apartments to African-Americans, retweeted neo-Nazis, besmirched Muslims and Latinos and boastfully molested women.

"For years, Republicans have been frustrated by liberal sensitivity on race and gender. Comes now Trump, spewing bigotry."

And anti-women rhetoric against Democrat nominee Hillary Clinton, who is leading in the all-important state polls. 

Local news?

For another comprehensive Law & Order report, turn to The Record's Local section today.

Murder and mayhem are mixed liberally with election news from the 5th Congressional District, where The Record has endorsed Democrat Josh Gottheimer over Tea Party radical Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage (A-10).

Staff Writer John Seasly continues his one-dimensional coverage of Hackenack (L-2).

Today, he reports City Attorney Alexander H. Carver III will "reluctantly" resign when the City Council picks his replacement, set for Dec. 1 (L-2).

Seasly hasn't covered a single Hackensack Board of Education meeting, even though school taxes represent 44% of residents' bills (another quarterly property tax bill is due on Nov. 10).

He hasn't reported the board is asking residents "to take an active role" in the selection of a new superintendent of schools or that a forum is scheduled for Nov. 9 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school.

And he hasn't bothered to report that more than 3 months ago, city officials halted work on a 14-story residential-retail project, the biggest so far in the renewal of downtown Hackensack.

More turmoil in Hackensack schools: Board member quits

Hackensack Board of Education member Joseph Barreto was seen in the audience at Tuesday night's school board meeting, not on the dais.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Monday morning, Hackensack Schools Superintendent Karen Lewis was suspended after a brief meeting with board officials.

At a board meeting Tuesday night, her assistant, Joseph Cicchelli, was named acting superintendent to loud applause and cheers from an audience packed with teachers. 

Now, board member Joseph Barreto has resigned for "personal reasons," board Attorney Richard Salkin said today.

At the meeting Tuesday night, Salkin announced that Barreto was leaving after serving two years on the 9-member board, and for "you conspiracy theorists" that his departure was unrelated to the brouhaha over Lewis.

Barreto was not on the dais Tuesday night, and did not vote on the Cicchelli appointment.

He arrived at the meeting after a statement from board President Jason Nunnermacker, who said he was prevented by law from discussing the reasons Lewis was suspended. 

Barreto's name and photo no longer appear on the board Web site.

At Tuesday night's meeting, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin, left; with board members Modesto Romero, center, and Daniel Carola.

Members of the public must sign in ahead of time, if they want to comment at school board meetings.

School election

The changes come only three weeks after the April 19 election of two Team Hackensack board candidates backed by the Zisas, who are trying to make a political comeback in a city they ruled for decades. 

Two incumbents and a former trustee were elected to three-year terms, and a small minority of voters approved a $79 million tax levy to support a total budget of $104 million. 

That tax levy has risen steadily. In the 2014-15 budget, it was $73.3 million. School taxes make up 44% of the total bill in Hackensack.

After missing the Monday morning suspension of the Hackensack schools superintendent, Editor Deirdre Sykes of The Record plays catch-up today with a Page 1 photo of Cicchelli at Tuesday night's school board meeting (A-1).

The full story appears on the Local front, where the lead paragraph awkwardly reports the audience was "heavily peopled with district employees [italics added]" (L-1).

Christie absolved

The lead story today reports a federal judge has ordered federal prosecutors to release a list of "unindicted co-conspirators" in the George Washington Bridge scandal, also known as "Bridgegate" (A-1).

But even before the list is made public, The Record apparently has absolved Governor Christie of any role in the conspiracy to close bridge lanes as political retaliation against the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee (A-1 and A-6).

The first paragraph says the list "could include members of Governor Christie's inner circle," and later, that it could include "Christie's political allies and top members of his administration, many of whom have since moved on to prominent roles at NJ Transit, the Port Authority, lobbying firms and corporations" (A-6).

Nowhere does The Record say the list could include Christie, who spent more than $10 million in taxpayer funds to defend himself during the investigation.

Rhymes with maniac

One of those references to "inner circle" might include foul-mouthed former Star-Ledger reporter Michael Drewniak, a onetime Christie spokesman who was named "interim chief of staff" at NJ Transit, The Record reported on Tuesday.

Drewniak had no mass-transit experience when he left the Governor's Office in February 2015, and accepted the $147,000-a-year job of "chief of policy and strategic planning" at NJ Transit.

He will perform the new and old duties for the same inflated salary (Tuesday's A-4).

Zisa-backed school trustees sworn, editors could care less

On the public Hackensack River walkway behind Pep Boys, city of Hackensack garbage cans were brimming on Sunday. An old Costco Wholesale shopping cart and other metal parts were left near a second can, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Hackensack residents won't find a word in The Record today about the swearing in of two school board members backed by the Zisa family -- a curse the city can't seem to shake.

Instead, Editor Deirdre Sykes resorts to another gee-whiz photo and story on Page 1 -- this one about lightning hitting a tree and igniting a Glen Rock house next door to the assistant fire chief (A-1).

All's well that ends well, I guess.

Mordaga leaving

Sykes and Staff Writer John Seasly do have Hackensack news today, but it has nothing to do with the city's failing elementary schools, a ballooning school budget or the attempted political comeback of former four-term Mayor Jack Zisa and brother Ken, the disgraced police chief.

Instead, they lead Local with the expected news that Mike Mordaga, a decorated police officer and detective, is leaving as the city's $150,000-a-year civilian police director after three years in the job (L-1).

Mordaga took over in February 2013, several months after a jury convicted Ken Zisa of insurance fraud and official misconduct charges.

The insurance fraud charge was thrown out by an appeals court, but the former police chief still faces a retrial on the official misconduct charge. 

The city, which has abolished the position of police chief, also has spent more than $8 million defending and settling police officers' lawsuits against Ken Zisa, who also was a Democratic state Assemblyman.

Team Hackensack

The reporter forgets to mention that Jack and Ken Zisa were prominent backers of Team Hackensack, which saw two of its three board candidates sworn in on Tuesday night in the high school media center.

The Zisas even went so far as improperly obtaining the addresses of teachers union members, and sending them letters inviting them to a Team Hackensack barbecue at the home of Anthony C. Zisa, Ken's son, who is a high school teacher.

Francis W. Albolino
 (Credit: Hackensack Board of Education)

24-year veteran

In a broadcast of the Board of Education meeting, board President Jason Nunnermacker praised Francis W. Albolino for 24 years of service as a board member or president and presented him with a plaque.

However, Nunnermacker didn't list a single accomplishment by Albolino, who retired from the volunteer position on Tuesday night.

Truck hits tree

Of course, it's possible that Seasly covered Tuesday night's Hackensack school board reorganization, but that local editors ordered the story held for breaking news -- a garbage truck hitting a tree in Ridgewood (L-3).

Page 1

Sykes continues to run state and national politics on the front page in place of real news, long after readers have gotten sick and tired of reading about the presidential campaign (A-1).

Still, The Record's story doesn't mention Governor Christie again stood behind GOP front-runner Donald Trump's left shoulder as the billionaire racist declared victory in five more primaries on Tuesday (see NJ.com: Chris, Donald and Mary Pat).

The Woodland Park daily is the only major newspaper in the state that failed to call for Christie's resignation after he dropped out of the race in February, and threw his support behind Trump.

Editors use crime to distract readers from thin local report

As seen from Boulevard East in New Jersey, the asymmetrical design of 30 Hudson Yards, at 33rd Street and 10th Avenue in Manhattan, makes the 90-story residential building look like it is about to fall over.

In Manhattan, the building still seems a little off-kilter.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Crime and terror are featured regularly on The Record's front page as Editor Deirdre Sykes continues to neglect the local news that means most to readers.

Today's lead on the murder in North Carolina of a family with roots in Bergen County certainly is tragic, but it doesn't belong on Page 1.

In Monday's Local section, Sykes listed nine candidates running for three seats in the April 19 school election in Hackensack -- a rare acknowledgement the city has a Board of Education (Monday's L-2).

Also listed were school board candidates in other towns in Bergen, Hudson, Morris and Passaic counties that also have April elections.

Readers in Hackensack can only hope for actual coverage of school issues before the election. 

'Swatting'

In fact, Monday's front-page story on "a spate of large-scale bomb threats targeting North Jersey schools this year" is the most copy on Hackensack High School readers have seen in a long time.

The Record and Hackensack Chronicle both ignored the board's approval of a $104 million spending plan on March 1, and neither has told residents school taxes make up nearly half of their property tax bill.

The April 19 ballot also will afford residents a chance to vote "yes" or "no" on the budget.

Sea change

On Monday, readers of Better Living were shocked to see a cover story on an Icelandic fish market in Closter.

After all, Food Editor Esther Davidowitz usually offers a steady diet of recipes filled with bacon, heavy cream and butter, or promotes hamburger restaurants.

And Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung swoons over aged beef and artery clogging desserts, and rarely orders salads.

From Iceland

The Fish Dock in Closter is operated by Olafur and Maria Badrusson, who grew up in a small fishing village in Iceland, assisted by Bo Olafsson, his son from a previous marriage, and Bo's wife, Catherine.

(On North Jersey.com, "Badrusson" is spelled "Baldursson" more than once. Monday's article also uses two spellings for the son, "Olafsson" and "Olaffson").

Among the fresh Icelandic fish you don't see in North Jersey are blue ling, European plaice, tusk and pearly white wolfish, described as similar to monkfish.

The market also sells meals prepared from fresh fish imported from Iceland.

Editors slowly return focus to voting, other state issues

On Saturday, the Bergen County Utilities Authority stationed a truck in the parking lot of Sears in Hackensack to shred residents' unwanted documents. The so-called Shred Event is held in each municipality.

It was as easy as driving up and dumping the papers into one of these two containers before they were transferred to the truck for shredding.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

A small part of The Record's front page today is devoted to Governor Christie's veto of expanded voting, and a bill he signed to regulate group homes for people with dementia.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb continues to give most of Page 1 and two inside pages to the Friday night terrorist attacks in Paris (A-1, A-10 and A-11).

On voter reform, two Record reporters do their best to cast the issue as a strictly Democratic one, in keeping with the paper's editorial endorsement of Christie's mean-spirited veto (A-1).

The story on group homes for people with dementia conforms to the Woodland Park daily's policy of reporting only on institutionalized seniors (A-1).

Local news

In Local, there are three stories on schools, but nothing about Hackensack (L-1 and L-6).

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes ad Dan Sfroza appear to have ordered an embargo on any news about the Hackensack Board of Education.

When court news, Dean's List stand in for local reporting

Many Hackensack residents wrote large checks -- more than $4,500 for some homeowners -- to meet Monday's deadline for payment of quarterly property taxes. But the lack of coverage in The Record means they would have to attend Board of Education meetings and question officials themselves on why the school budget is so high and exceeds the city's own budget.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Page 1 of The Record today, the obituary of Ralph Corrado, owner of Rosie's Farmland Diner, is mildly interesting.

But the editors forgot to report that like the diner, the Little Ferry Circle is history. And readers might still be wondering if Ralph was related to the Corrados who own supermarkets in Passaic County.

As for the rest of the front page, Editor Martin Gottlieb's story selection could lull you to sleep like the steady beat of raindrops on my skylight, especially the column on Governor Christie's birth control practices (A-1).

Buried on A-3 today is a story on Christie vetoing 13 bills, including quarterly payments to the troubled state pension system.

And NJ.com reports that as of Monday, Christie had spent nearly 55 percent of the year outside of New Jersey in pursuit of his White House dreams (that's all or part of 121 days).

Local news?

Well, don't turn to the Local section for relief.

Assignment Editors Deirdre Sykes and Dan Sforza are back to their old sleight-of-hand tricks of heavy coverage of criminal court hearings (L-1), and a Dean's List that fills half of a page (L-6).

Other pages carry a total of eight more Law & Order stories, and a photo of a non-fatal two-car collision in Glen Rock.

Although The Record does a fair to middling job of covering the Hackensack City Council, the Woodland Park daily completely ignores the city's school board and increasing education budget, leaving taxpayers twisting in the wind.

In a story on the Port Authority's shuffling of bus gates in midtown Manhattan, the editors forget to tell commuters about several freestanding touch terminals they can use to locate platforms for their New Jersey bound buses (L-1 and L-3).

Healthy recipes

In Monday's Better Living section, three recipes for Jersey Tomatoes were a rare nod to the many readers who are trying to follow a healthy lifestyle (BL-1).

The story carried the byline of Nina Rizzo, a food writer at the Asbury Park Press.

The Record's own writers -- restaurant critic Elisa Ung and Food Editor Esther Davidowitz -- usually sample or promote unhealthy food, including three major articles on the resurrection of Callahan's preservative-laden, deep-fried beef-and-pork hot dogs.

LG deal in Englewood Cliffs exposes big flaw of home rule

On a busy street near Palisade Avenue in wealthy Englewood Cliffs, domestic workers have to walk on the pavement, close to speeding cars, because the borough never installed sidewalks.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

Is Englewood Cliffs anything like Hackensack, once known derisively as "Zisaville" for the decades-long political dominance of a single family?

On the front page of The Record today, a photo shows Englewood Cliffs Mayor Joseph Parisi applauding a deal between LG Electronics and environmentalists (A-1).

But the upbeat coverage sounds more like public relations than objective reporting (A-1 and A-8).

And it doesn't explore the decades-long rule of the Parisi family in the Cliffs, just as The Record hasn't done any probing in Cliffside Park, dominated for more than 50 years by the Calabreses.

Home-rule communities like Englewood Cliffs resist consolidating services with neighboring towns, and are desperate for ratables to cover the resulting inefficiences.

Englewood Cliffs fought a "racially tinged legal battle" to remove its students from Englewood's Dwight Morrow High School that began in 1985 and dragged on for years, The Record has reported.

Then, in October 2014, the state decided to cut nearly $600,000 in aid for 33 students from the Cliffs who were attending Dwight Morrow's Academies, a magnet program.

Hungry for ratables

More tax revenue was likely the motive for the borough to throw out its 35-foot height restriction, and approve the Korean company's plan for a 143-foot-high building on 27 acres between Sylvan Avenue and the Hudson River.

Now, the height will be reduced to 69 feet or five stories, but that still will be the biggest building ever approved for the Palisades north of the George Washington Bridge.

And in return for despoiling the majestic cliffs, Parisi and other borough officials will be celebrating an additional $2.5 million in property tax revenue every year.

Cliffs resident Donald Rizzo, who favored the higher LG headquarters, put it succinctly in a sidebar with a sub-headline reading, "Residents will benefit from revenue."

"A bigger building means more tax revenue. I'm all for it. I was never worried about the height of the building. I was worried about letting LG go" (A-8).

Maybe, the town can now afford to put in sidewalks on Summit Street to protect pedestrians and dog walkers.

In the county seat

In Hackensack, dozens of lawsuits filed against Ken Zisa, the former police chief and state assemblyman, cost the city so many millions to settle that one block of Euclid Avenue hasn't been paved for 30 years.

Prospect Avenue, lined with high-rises, and many other streets are in such poor condition one resident at Tuesday night's City Council meeting compared them to T.S. Eliot's "The Waste Land."

Hackensack's school board spends more money per pupil than Ridgewood's, yet feeds high school students food of such low quality that many race out to Starbucks, Chipotle Mexican Grill and other lunch spots.

Hackensack's property tax payers are so shell shocked they even objected to the city spending public funds on a downtown park and arts space as part of the redevelopment of Main Street.

Hackensack news?

On the front of Local today, Teaneck residents find two stories on Monday night's Township Council meeting (L-1).

But there is nothing about Tuesday night's council meeting in Hackensack.

As Police Director Mike Mordaga and Capt. Timothy Lloyd listened, clergy from Mount Olive Baptist Church and other churches commented on the killing of two suspects by city police officers in recent weeks.

They urged Hackensack to find money to buy Tasers or non-fatal stun guns.

As a result of the shootings, five police officers are "on leave," city officials acknowledged, but they insisted the department is not "understaffed."

HUMC pact

A lawyer hired by the city reported a federal anti-kickback law prohibits Hackensack from continuing to ask Hackensack University Medical Center to provide ambulance services to residents for free up to $140,000 a year. 

Still, Board of Education attorney Richard Salkin rose and rambled on about the lawsuit he has filed to enforce the original 2008 pact with HUMC that he negotiated for the city.

Hackensack school board wages bitter war against council

Before Tuesday night's City Council meeting, Board of Education Attorney Richard Salkin conferred with Lynne Hurwitz, back to camera, the grandmother who heads Hackensack's Democratic Party. Hurwitz has been identified in The Record as "the key strategist behind the Zisa family political machine, which ruled the city for three decades until its slate of candidates was defeated last year [2013]."

Jason Nunnermacker, an attorney, was a member of the losing Zisa-backed City Council slate in May 2013. Now, as president of the Board of Education, he appears at nearly every council meeting, along with Salkin and other board members, to berate officials. Salkin was stripped of his second job, municipal prosecutor, after his allies lost the election.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

After their work session was canceled, four members of the nine-member Board of Education, led by their attorney, went on the attack at Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

Board President Jason Nunnermacker, members Francis W. Albolino, Joseph Barreto and Daniel Carola; and school board lawyer Richard Salkin took turns at the lectern.

Another member, Mark Stein, was in the audience. 

What residents who attend the meetings witness is the losing side in the May 2013 municipal election, most, if not all, of whom are Democrats, attacking the winners, most of whom are Republicans.

This is the same type of partisan rancor that has paralyzed Congress.

From all the time school board officials spend at City Council meetings, you'd think their own house is in order, but that is far from the case.

The total 2015-16 school budget topped $107 million, exceeding the city's own budget of under $95 million, and council officials are not sure where all of that money is going.

Board members count on voter apathy to keep them in office and to approve their profligate budgets, as they did this year, when fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters cast ballots in April's school election.

Legal fees

As a former City Council candidate in 2013, I read a statement on Tuesday night concerning Salkin's 2014 legal fees far exceeding the contracted amount; stolen iPads and Chromebooks, two of which were traced to a teacher's house; and rumors of sexual harassment complaints against a board member and others.

In 2013, as board attorney, Salkin turned down a request from Mayor John Labrosse for payment of $1 million the city was owed for supplying a police officer at Hackensack High School.

In 2014, according to documents, Salkin billed more than $153,000 for legal services, even though his contract limits those payments to $95,000.

This year, he billed the board more than $36,000 in the first three months alone.

Stolen tablets

Of 29 iPads and Chromebooks stolen from Hackensack Pubic Schools from April 1, 2014, to Sept. 30, 2014, only two were recovered.

Those two were traced to a teacher's house, but the teacher was not charged or disciplined.

They were among a larger number of devices, valued at more than $35,000, that went missing, but The Record has chosen not to publish a story reporting the thefts, a councilman said.

Complaints

There also are disturbing rumors of sexual harassment complaints against a board member and school employees, and a rumor that one supervisor has falsified time cards for a secretary who went home early.

Complaints about low-quality food in the high school have fallen on deaf ears, even as many students race out to Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, pizzerias and fast-food restaurants for lunch.

And the board has shown no interest in making schools more efficient and saving money by installing solar panels.

Todd South, the reporter assigned to Hackensack, covered Tuesday night's meeting.

Salkin speaking during the public portion of the meeting. Documents show he billed the school board for more than $153,000 in legal services in 2014 (at $150 an hour), and was paid, even though his contract limits him to $95,000 annually. In the first three months of this year, his billings exceeded $36,000.

Another persistent City Council critic is school board member Daniel Carola, 30, who initially covered his face with papers when I tried to take his picture before he approached the lectern to speak.

Francis W. Albolino, a school board veteran, front; and fellow member Joseph Barreto waiting to speak to the council. Barreto was on the losing Zisa-backed council slate in 2013. Albolino wants the city to give the schools half of the taxes collected on new apartment buildings, claiming hundreds of children will be moving into Hackensack.

Also addressing the council on Tuesday night was Howard Hurwitz, executive director of the Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, which operates a wastewater treatment plant. He is the husband of Lynne Hurwitz.

More of the same old blah, blah, blah

A window at Barneys on Madison Avenue. Fashion Week in Manhattan is coming to a close today.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Compared to his previous efforts, there's little discernible difference in Mike Kelly's front-page column today on the 12th anniversary of 9/11.

In more than two decades of trying at The Record, Kelly has never developed a distinctive voice or the strongly opinionated point of view readers look for in a columnist.

If it wasn't for the outdated thumbnail photo, complete with shit-eating grin, the Kelly column reads like another, long news story (A-1).

His awkward writing is evident in the first paragraph of today's piece, when he has Tom Acquaviva of Wayne standing "in silence for a few humid moments."

A bad smell

A "few humid moments"? Kelly's phrases are indistinguishable from farts.

The paragraph ends with "the 9/11 Memorial Plaza, which most of us know as Ground Zero."

"Most of us" is a reference to reporters and the media, who adopted the phrase in 2001 and argued over whether it should be written with capital letters (The Record) or lower case (The New York Times). 

It's no wonder that more than a decade ago, news copy editors on River Street in Hackensack -- weary of Kelly's bad writing -- had to be ordered by their supervisors to edit his long, boring columns and slap on a headline.

Inside transit

Another Page 1 story today amounts to the same old blah, blah, blah about the incompetent administrators at NJ Transit (A-1).

But The Record's office-bound editors and reporters  continue to ignore the mass-transit agency's basic failing where the rubber meets the road: 

It's inability to provide enough rush-hour bus and train seats for commuters, aggravated by Governor Christie's anti-public transit policies.

Bergen corruption

The off-lead today -- new federal charges against Joseph A. Ferriero, onetime chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Party -- explains why even many Democrats helped put a Republican county executive in office (A-1).

Unfortunately, Ferriero allies were the power behind the Zisa family regime in Hackensack for many years, and still have their hooks into the city's Board of Education.

More errors

As the corrections on A-2 demonstrate once again, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, her minions and Production Editor Liz Houlton create problems as well as missing them.

Houlton's copy editors have completely given up trying to ensure accuracy in the Road Warrior column, according to a concerned reader:

"In his Wednesday column, the Road Warrior continued his epic inability to correctly report and provide any valid assessments on the problems and delays in completing the Route 17 Summit Avenue exit, which finally opened on Sept. 9.

"Road Warrior only explained there were 'additional work issues' involved in the delays and repeated that the only obstacle over the last 5 months was due to activating a traffic light.

"Yet, I was able to find out from NJDOT and contractors about other specific utility and ramp work that also caused the delays.

"Road Warrior is repeatedly befuddled by math, counting and calendars since he repeatedly got the number of days it took to finally activate the traffic lights wrong.

"Why was the Road Warrior unable to get more explanations, better information, and any completion date if the DOT and contractors provided me with all of that?"

To read the entire e-mail to Houlton, Editor Marty Gottlieb and management, go to the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

When will Road Warrior's light go on?

Hackensack school board is a lesson in politics

Hackensack Board of Education member Jason Nunnermacker, center, is running for City Council in the May 14 election on a slate that has sent out false attack mailings about its opponents. He is flanked by interim Schools Superintendent Joseph Abate, left, and Timothy J. Hoffman, 19, who was elected to the board on April 16 by a ridiculously small minority of registered voters.

The superintendent of Hackensack schools and his staff moved to a building at 191 Second St. about 3 years ago, but the sign out front, above, still does not reflect their occupancy, as if they are deliberately trying to hide from parents, and there are no visitor spots in the parking lot.

The word "SUPERINTENDENT" on the door isn't visible from the street. Parents have to play "find the superintendent," because older phone books still list 355 State St. (the Middle School) as his address and contain obsolete phone numbers. A current phone book doesn't even list the superintendent's office under Hackensack schools.

The Hackensack Board of Education's policy on political activity doesn't bar an active board member from running for City Council, the board's attorney said Monday night.

School trustee Jason Nunnermacker is a member of the Hackensack Coaltion for Open Government, a slate of candidates seeking election on May 14.

There is plenty of evidence the slate is backed and financed in part by Lynne Hurwitz, the city's Democratic boss and the power behind the Zisa family dynasty that is so desperately trying to hold onto power in "Zisaville."

At the board's meeting in Hackensack High School, attorney Richard Salkin objected when independent City Council candidate Victor E. Sasson accused Nunnermacker and his slate of lying about their opponents in attack mailings.

Sasson asked if that was appropriate behavior for a board member, who is supposed to set an example for students.

The Open Government slate already set a poor example for children when its lead candidate -- former high school resource officer and retired police detective Kenneth Martin -- was caught by a store surveillance camera stealing signs put up by the Citizens for Change slate.

Sasson and other members of the public get only 3 minutes to speak before the board, compared with 5 minutes before the council.

Public jobs 

Salkin has a second public job -- municipal prosecutor. And he's a former city attorney, a position he was appointed to by the powers that be.

The attorney also has escorted Nunnermacker and his running-mates to at least one council meeting, where the candidates were overheard discussing where to get the best empanada in Hackensack.

When they encounter Salkin, many taxpayers see red -- the color of his modest Toyota SUV. 

Do they have a minyan?

Sasson also asked if Nunnermacker's colleague on the board, former Councilman Mark Stein, is an official at Temple Beth El on Summit Avenue, but Salkin again objected, saying that was "personal."

The synagogue apparently has been rented by Nunnermacker and other members of his slate to meet congregants on Thursday night, and the other six council candidates are excluded. 

"The board prohibits the use of school premises and school time ... for political purposes," according to board policy.

Nunnermacker appears to have violated the spirit of the regulation when he and other members of his slate mailed campaign material to an unknown number of teachers and support staff on a "confidential" list.

Is there any good reason to vote for Nunnermacker? Hackensack's board spends more per student than Ridgewood, and has little to show for it.
 
'Instant' heroin series

Beginning with Friday's "major heroin bust" on Page 1 and ending with today's report on parents facing "the agony ... of a child's heroin addiction," The Record appears to have come up with an "instant" series.

Were all of the stories coordinated with Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, who erroneously released a photo of a Fair Lawn woman who was not charged with any wrongdoing (see the embarrassing "Retraction" on A-2 today)?

Two corrections also appear on A-2 today, but the paper can only blame them on the incompetence of Production Editor Liz Houlton and her sleepy copy editors.

Dog news

A photo on L-2 today seems to say Teaneck spent $20,000 on a dog park, but nobody -- and no canine -- is using it.

Were the editors so desperate to fill space in the Local news section that they couldn't send the photographer back for a shot filled with people and dogs?