'Vintage Christie' is liar, thief and N.J.'s worst nightmare

The Bergen County Courthouse complex in Hackensack is a huge construction zone as work continues on a new Justice Center, above. Meanwhile, garage parking is free for attorneys, jurors and visitors until ticket machines become operational, below.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record is describing Governor Christie's string of insults and verbal attacks on Tuesday as "a vintage version" of the politician.

A Page 1 story today claimed his speech to business leaders and other appearances recalled the Christie "who rose to national fame hurling invective at his adversaries and dressing down supporters, if they strayed from the path."

A pubic relations firm couldn't have said it better.

But Editor Martin Gottlieb and Staff Writer Dustin Racioppi are supposed to be journalists who level with readers on the front page.

If they did that, they would remind us "vintage" Christie is the candidate who told a big lie to get elected -- that he would lower local property taxes and force towns to regionalize to save public funds.

"Vintage" Christie is the mean-spirited governor who killed the Hudson River rail tunnels -- the biggest expansion of mass transit in decades -- then stole leftover funds to fix roads and bridges.

"Vintage" Christie is the GOP bully who cut funding for state worker benefits, vetoed a tax surcharge on millionaires and used money earmarked for environmental cleanup to balance the state budget.

In short, "vintage" Christie is the worst governor in state history.

2016 election

So-called Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson already has started to cover the 2016 contest between Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, and Democrat Josh Gottheimer, a Microsoft executive from Wyckoff (A-3).

As he has done in the past, Jackson is expected to call the election on the basis of who has raised the most money.

Litigious lawyers

For a rare story on lawyers screwing lawyers, as opposed to clients, see the first Business page (L-9).

Roper & Twardosky LLC of Totowa filed for bankruptcy protection from creditors, including lawyers who assisted the firm and say they are owed from $497,000 to $2.8 million each.

Our slow justice system: Zisa is free years after conviction

In Hackensack on Tuesday, fewer than 1,000 of the city's 20,000 registered voters approved the $74.8 million tax levy to support the school budget, and returned three incumbents to their seats on the Board of Education. The board keeps the election in April to exploit voter apathy and ensure the status quo year after year. At the Fairmount School, above, poll workers far outnumbered voters on Tuesday evening.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An appeals court will decide whether "prejudicial comments by a prosecutor" are enough to overturn the official misconduct and insurance fraud convictions against former Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa, The Record reports today.

But thanks to our glacially slow justice system and a well-paid lawyer, the man who destroyed his family's reputation in a city they ruled for decades remains out of prison -- nearly three years later (L-1).

On May 16, 2012, a jury convicted the chief of Bergen County's largest police force of three counts of official misconduct, one count of a pattern of official misconduct and one count of insurance fraud.

Staff Writer Todd South, who covered an appeals-court hearing in New Brunswick, appears unfamiliar with trial reporting, and no editor seemed to notice.

On L-3, South reports in the same sentence "Zisa was convicted on charges of insurance fraud and official misconduct in May 2012 on allegations he tried to cover up a 2008 car crash involving his girlfriend, Kathleen Tiernan" [italics added].

Besides the redundancy, they stopped being "charges" and "allegations" when a jury found Zisa guilty.

School election

How does the Hackensack Board of Education ensure the status quo and exploit voter apathy?

Members have kept their election in April, rather than shifting it to the general balloting in November, and the polls don't open until 2 in the afternoon, meaning residents can't even cast ballots on the way to work or when dropping off their children at school.

Two challengers faced three incumbents in Hackensack, and the incumbents kept their seats. No surprise there.

The incumbents are so sure of success they don't even mail campaign material to residents or offer to debate the challengers.

Such issues as the low-quality of food service and lofty administrators' salaries in the high school aren't even addressed.

Mass transit

An editorial today is so unequivocal about Governor Christie's poor mass-transit policies and voodoo budget balancing readers are wondering why the editors and reporters who fill the news columns are so far behind (A-10).

"No way," the editorial states in reaction to an NJ Transit proposal to raise fares 9 percent and cut service.

The editorial notes Christie slashed dedicated state funding to NJ Transit to $34 million in 2013 from $309.4 million in 2012.

The editorial also notes Christie is "averse" to raising the low gas tax to fund road and bridge repairs, but The Record says a 9 percent fare hike "is just a tax by another name."

A letter to the editor on the same page notes mass transit isn't one of Christie's "favorite things."

"I guess he's more partial to helicopter rides," writes Jack Bell of New Milford.

But Michael DellaFave of Emerson, who bought a home "along the Pascack Valley line of the NJ Transit system," tries to garner sympathy for what he calls the "nightmare" of frequent weekend and holiday rail service in the past six years (A-10).

Of course, DellaFave's letter doesn't explain what exactly he was thinking when he made the naive decision to buy a house next to NJ Transit railroad tracks. 

More Christie lies

The New Jersey Education Association is joining other unions to challenge the GOP bully's decision to significantly cut the state's pension contributions (A-1).

NJEA President Wendell Steinhauer said a "memo describing concepts" the union signed "was misrepresented by the governor" as an "unprecedented" accord.

Photo captions

Two photo captions on L-3 today describe "fire crews working to control a two-alarm fire" and "an emergency crew working on one of seven people" led to safety from another fire.

But in the foreground of the first photo, a half-dozen backup firefighters are standing at the ready, and in the second photo, no one is working on the woman on the stretcher.

Nutrition advice

Clueless freelancer Kate Morgan Jackson advises readers to eat their veggies, but to make sure they top them with ham and poached eggs (BL-2).

Maybe Jackson is just trying to drum up business for cardiac surgeons.