Football brutality, boring Bergen politics, perverted priests

The Modern, the first of two 47-story residential towers approved by Fort Lee officials despite strong community opposition. The first tenants are expected to move in next month. A 2-bedroom apartment with indoor parking for two cars goes for about $5,000 a month.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

What a front page!

The ritualized brutality of two masturbatory Catholic high school football teams dominates Page 1 of The Record today -- for the third day in a row.

Bringing up the rear, below the fold, are perverted priests who make many readers glad they are Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist -- anything but the Catholic parents of an abused boy (A-1).

The third major element is a boring Charles Stile column delving into Bergen County's politics and looking ahead to the next race for governor in 2016 (A-1).

Road kill

In Local, Road Warrior John Cichowski issues a rare report on Bergen County's antiquated road system that has absolutely nothing to do with commuting, traffic congestion and crowded mass transit.

His fist paragraph suggests the authorities should respond to complaints about drivers taking short cuts through quiet neighborhoods just like they do when a murder is reported (L-1).

Garrett must go

In Opinion, Columnist Brigid Harrison, who lost a house to Sandy, attacks Rep. Scott Garrett, R-Wantage, for sending out a campaign flier claiming he "worked to bring immediate relief to [Superstorm] Sandy victims" (O-2).

Of course, six days after the storm hit New Jersey on Oct. 28, 2012, Garret did no such thing, being the only member of the state's delegation who refused to sign a letter asking for federal disaster relief.

"You can't trust and respect someone who does one thing, and then claims to have done another because it is politically expedient," Harrison says.

Traveling music

Travel Editor Jill Schensul recently said she doesn't take free trips, but does negotiate a preferential "press rate."

"It's the way we have come up with to keep providing Record-generated stories, photos and insights rather than wire copy for our readers," Schensul told JimRomenesko.com, a prominent media blog.

But today and last Sunday, Schensul ran long wire-service travel stories in her 4-page section.

Today, the Los Angeles Times supplied nearly two full pages of text and photos about vacationing in Taos, New Mexico.

And on T-4, The Associated Press supplied a story on the Space Needle in Seattle.

Her sole contribution today is a long column on Paddington bears in London, whatever they are. (O-1).

Second look

On Saturday, a story on Thom Ammirato reported the former Hackensack city spokesman resigned as a communications consultant with the Bergen County Executive's Office (Saturday's Local front).

Hackensack reporter Todd South says Ammirato struck a deal with the Prosecutor's Office, which was investigating him.

Hackensack Scoop, a local blog, revealed the agreement on Friday.

Ammirato's $78,000-a-year contract with Hackensack was terminated on June 24. 

He had been a consultant and spokesman for Citizens for Change, which swept the May 2013 municipal election.

The cash-strapped city will not be hiring another spokesman anytime soon, a City Council member said recently. 

There is more Hackensack news than made today's paper

Lake Street in Ramsey has been closed since last Nov. 4. On Tuesday, motorists had to follow a detour of about 4 miles to reach the business district.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

The Record today missed some really big news in Hackensack.

Quarterly property tax payments, originally due Aug. 10, don't have to be in until Sept. 4. Many residents still haven't received their bills.

And the city's Web site, hackensack.org, has a new look, declaring Hackensack is "unique and diverse," and on the "verge of a Renaissance."

The second sentence of the welcome notice says Hackensack is home to the Bergen County judiciary, county government, a "world-renowned medical center" and "nationally recognized educational institutions."

But what it doesn't mention is that the many hundreds of millions of dollars in property they own are tax exempt, shifting the burden to homeowners and businesses.

Meanwhile, Tuesday night's City Council meeting, reported in The Record's Local section today, wasn't listed on the city's Web site.

Reforming reform

According to an L-3 article today, the Hackensack City Council on Tuesday retained Thomas Scrivo as city attorney, "despite previous complaints about legal bills that topped $200,000 in six months."

In February, the council capped pay for the city attorney at $15,000 a month.

Municipal Prosecutor Frank Catania, a part timer, remains on the payroll, but he and two of his children no longer have the health benefits provided by his close friend, former acting City Manager Anthony Rottino.

A story on the Local front today reports former city spokesman Thom Ammirato, who was paid $78,000 under a 1-year contract, has resigned from his full-time job with Bergen County (L-1).

Teen swimmer

Does the 20.2-mile swim by Ridgewood teen Charlotte Samuels really deserve two straight days of front-page coverage in the Woodland Park daily (A-1)?

Staff Writer Abbott Koloff chronicles every jelly fish sting suffered by the 16-year-old, but doesn't answer a question made obvious by Page 1 photos of Samuels:

Did her tremendous weight help or hinder her?

Elisa Ung and other food writers at The Record might want to take a long, hard look at Samuels, and re-evaluate whether their obsessions with dessert, fast food, sugar, soda, butter and cream are sending the wrong message to teens and adults during the obesity epidemic.

As an example, see today's Better Living cover on artery clogging desserts made from Jersey peaches that ignores all the readers who are diabetic or are just trying to watch their weight (BL-1).

The Jersey fruit is glorious on its own or eaten with non-fat Greek yogurt and Jersey blueberries.

Or you can dust ripe peach halves with cinnamon and grill them with wild salmon.

Atlantic City blues

Atlantic City might as well be on the moon for all of the impact it has on the lives of North Jersey readers (A-1). 

When Revel opened in 2012, its casino was the smallest and its $400-a-night rooms were likely the most expensive in the shore resort.

And how many of the expensive rooms have a view of the slums shown in a photo on A-8 today? 

No wonder it is a flop. What a disgrace.

If Revel and two other casinos close, New Jersey tax collections will take a hit, and expose Governor Christie's incredible mismanagement of state finances, including his refusal to impose higher taxes on wealthy residents and corporations.

A single, nasty lawsuit won't derail reform in Hackensack

Hackensack residents lining up to question city officials during the public-comment portion of Tuesday night's City Council meeting.

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

On Tuesday night, more North Jersey Media Group staffers gathered in one place in Hackensack than at any time since 2009, when the Borg family's flagship newspaper abruptly abandoned the city.

Four reporters and a photographer covered the City Council, which met on the third floor of City Hall, several blocks from The Record's old headquarters at 150 River Street.

Bombshells

The day before, acting City Manager Anthony Rottino hit city officials with "a bombshell lawsuit alleging that he was the target of a smear campaign designed to run him out of his $176,000 position," according to The Record's lead Page 1 story today.

Rottino, of Franklin Lakes, actually holds two positions, acting city manager and economic development director.

That "bombshell" is getting blanket coverage in The Record, unlike the "bombshell" decision to pull out of Hackensack, where the Borg family prospered for more than 110 years, about a year after the biggest downsizing in the company's history.

The negative impact on Hackensack's downtown was ignored as the Borgs shifted coverage to big mall retailers, whose advertising revenue keeps the Woodland Park daily afloat.

Reforms advance

Despite major missteps by the Citizens for Change slate that was swept into office in 2013, the Rottino suit is not expected to stop the drive to reform a city that withered and nearly died under decades of rule by the Zisa family.

In fact, as shown by the $94.46 million budget approved on Tuesday night, CFO Jim Mangin has earned praise for cleaning up the financial mess left by the previous administration.

Of course, the four reporters from The Record and Hackensack Chronicle weren't there on Tuesday night to report positive news.

Today's paper leads with the firing of former campaign official Thom Ammirato, a Rottino ally, from his $78,000-a-year position as city spokesman, but says nothing about the new spending plan (A-1).

Staff Writer Hannan Adely also reported the council summoned Rottino to "a hearing about his job" on Thursday morning. 

Word pushers

Columnist Mike Kelly, the burned-out reporter who helped cover the official corruption and insurance fraud trial of former Police Chief Ken Zisa in 2012, smelled blood, prompting him to make a rare trip to the city.

Don't look for any insights. Kelly is probably writing his column today and filling it with the same tired phrases he has used hundreds of times before.

The first paragraph of a second story on A-1 today, under the rare byline of veteran reporter Jean Rimbach, refers incorrectly to Rottino as "Hackensack's city manager."

Legal lesson

Rimbach reports "whistle-blower actions" like the suit filed by Rottino "are tough to win" (A-1).

The complaint claims Rottino opposed raising police salaries more than 2%, tried to protect Ammirato's job and raised questions about the allegedly "widespread use of steroids by members of the Police Department" (A-6).

Rottino also claims city officials violated the New Jersey Law Against Discrimination by "choosing a white candidate for a municipal judgeship over a qualified black candidate."

Acting City Manager Anthony Rottino didn't attend Tuesday night's City Council meeting. Sitting in was Art Koster, executive assistant to the city manager and city personnel director, left front. CFO Jim Mangin is seated at right. Mayor John Labrosse is seated on the dais flanked on each side by the four other members of the City Council.

'Costly legal disputes'

The Record's lead front-page story on Tuesday reported the Rottino suit and seemed to blame the City Council for failing in its goal of putting an "end to costly legal disputes."

Of course, this is the kind of simplistic nonsense reporters try to peddle all the time.

To put an end to "costly" legal disputes, you'd have to upend the entire system of lawyers charging whatever the traffic will bear, backed up by judges, who were, after all, onetime lawyers who tested the limits on hourly rates.

A lawyer who charges $400 to $500 an hour effectively denies many people access to the courts.

Still, this is a system supported by many, including The Record and Jennifer A. Borg, NJMG's vice president and general counsel, because it limits the ability of employees to file suits over working conditions, age discrimination, severance and other issues.

Second look

On Monday, the lead story in Local on the proposed county budget contained several reporting and editing problems, as listed by a reader of Eye on The Record:

"Today's L-1 article on [Bergen County Executive Kathleen] Donovan and the budget contains very confusing and mistaken information.

In the 2nd paragraph, it states:

The budget "will deliver real relief in the form of a slightly less than zero tax increase."

If the net difference is slightly "less" than zero, it is a tax decrease. It would have to be slightly "more" than zero, for it to be tax increase.

In the 4th paragraph, it states:

"Donovan, a Republican running for a second term, contends that in order to slice $6.8 million from the budget she proposed in March, the freeholders are tapping into funds that can't be replenished next year."

Based on further details in the article, they would not slice [cut] the budget by $6.8 million. They would increase the funding for the proposed budget based on using $6.8 million from motor vehicle fines instead of Donovan's proposed $4.8 million.

In subsequent paragraphs, it states:

"They're raiding all the funds and taking the money out, which is very imprudent because next year, even if you've got the money in, you can't spend it," Donovan said during a Record Talk Radio interview on Friday."

"She said she proposed spending $4.8 million from a fund for motor vehicle fines, about the same amount the county has spent in previous years. But Donovan said the freeholders have called for spending $6.8 million of that revenue, leaving about $450,000 in the fund."

"Donovan said state spending rules require local governments to anticipate receiving no more than they already have in the fund. Even if the fund took in $2 million in fines in 2015, the county would be able to spend only $450,000 of that amount, she said."

"So you've got a built-in, we think, over $3 million deficit on Day One in January 2015. That's totally irresponsible of them to do that, she added."

"The last paragraph is in the wrong order since it makes no sense on how there can be a $3 million deficit based on not being able to spend the freeholder's proposed $6.8 million vs. Donovan's proposed $4.8 million, which is only a net difference of $2 million.  

"It should have followed the first paragraph." 

Eye on The Record will return

 after the Fourth of July

Christie's latest broken promise breaks media backs

Hackensack Mayor John Labrosse, right, reads a proclamation at Tuesday night's City Council meeting, accepting an oil painting from Parisian-born artist Marius Sznajderman. The artist painted the winter scene of the old Masonic Temple from his apartment window at Atlantic and State streets in 1956. The building is slated to become the city's new Cultural Center. The artist was accompanied by his wife, Suzanne Messing, a onetime reporter for The Record.

 

 

By VICTOR E. SASSON
EDITOR

An editorial in The Record today condemns Governor Christie's plan to cut $900 million from this year's pension payments in a desperate bid to plug an enormous hole in the state budget (Page 1).

The anonymous editorial writer notes Christie is blaming federal tax policy, previous administrations and public employees, but calls that "a snow job" (A-10).

That should be "latest snow job," given all the lies the GOP bully has told about lowering property taxes, job creation, surging state revenue under his obstinate no-tax policies, Sandy aid and the George Washington Bridge scandal.

Christie's first term was all smoke and mirrors, but that didn't stop The Record's editors, reporters and columnists from falling all over themselves to be the first to promote the mean-spirited conservative for a White House run.

Knows nothing

The politically motivated lane closures at the Fort Lee end of the bridge last September exposed Christie's infamous Office of Governmental Affairs, which ruthlessly pursued endorsements from Democrats before his reelection last November.

Matt Mowers, who worked in that office, became the latest former or current Christie aide to tell investigators he knows nothing about the lane closures, which critics have blasted as an abuse of power (A-3).

But Mowers testified Bridget Anne Kelly, then deputy chief of staff for Christie, called him on Aug. 12 to ask if Fort Lee Mayor Mark Sokolich was endorsing the governor, and he told her no.

Bully out of loop?

That was one day before Kelly sent the explosive e-mail, "Time for some traffic problems in Fort Lee," to Christie's Port Authority crony, David Wildstein, who has been blamed for carrying out the lane closures.

Wildstein, who has since resigned, claims he told Christie about the lane closures last Sept. 11, during the 9/11 memorial ceremony in Manhattan.


 

Lynne Hurwitz, the political muscle behind Zisa family allies defeated in last May's municipal election, returning to her seat after speaking at Tuesday night's City Council meeting in Hackensack. Hurwitz asked City Councilman David Sims if he had used the N-word to refer to himself, as alleged by a police officer. Sims would not comment.

Hackensack news

News of Hackensack shared the front page of The Record on Tuesday with a story about nasal strips for a racehorse.

Editor Marty Gottlieb ran an inspirational photo of Hackensack High School senior softball team manager Erin Kelly, who was paralyzed for two years by illness, but has recovered.

The story on L-1 doesn't say whether her "rare ailment," a virus, was connected in any way to the mediocre food at the high school, where the cafeteria and presumably the kitchen is infested with roaches.

This is 'news'?

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting, residents saw The Hackensack City News, an 8-page tabloid filled with upbeat stories on the accomplishments of the new administration.

The "newspaper" was written by Thom Ammirato, the former campaign official who was given the $78,000-a-year job as the city's chief spokesman.

Council officials said the tabloid will be distributed by The Record, but didn't give the cost of printing or distribution.

Ammirato's one-year contract expires in July.


 

Clashing accounts of Christie's town hall meeting

This poor soul on River Street in Hackensack, and a counterpart on Cedar Lane in Teaneck, have been trying to steer business to a tax-preparation business during the bitter winter, including days with sub-freezing temperatures. How desperate do you have to be to take that thankless job?

By VICTOR E. SASSON
Editor

The Record's front page today carries conflicting accounts of Governor Christie's community meeting in Mount Laurel, the South Jersey town at the center of court mandates on affordable housing the GOP bully continues to defy.

Editor Marty Gottlieb dispatched Staff Writer Melissa Hayes and political Columnist Charles Stile to Thursday's meeting -- in a familiar double teaming that accomplishes little more than to confuse readers (A-1).

Stile, with his endlessly boring analysis of Christie's every word, and other political columnists are probably most responsible for the voter apathy that led to the lowest turnout in a gubernatorial election in history last November.

Inconsistencies

More troubling are the clashing accounts of the meeting:

Christie is "losing the fight to control the message," according to the headline over Stile's Page 1 column today.

But Hayes reported:

Police removed student activists shouting questions about Bridgegate and bungled Sandy aid; Christie refused to address affordable-housing and environmental advocates, and the governor received "raucous" and "thunderous" applause.

Doesn't that sound like Christie still is firmly in control?

And the photo on the continuation page shows perhaps three dozen of his biggest supporters, presumably well-heeled residents, smiling broadly, with hardly an African-American, Hispanic or Asian Indian in sight (A-8).

Poor editing

The story is poorly edited: Bridgegate, the scandal over the George Washington Bridge lane closures in Fort Lee, is rendered as bridgegate, with and without single quote marks; and a word appears to be missing in a quote from Christie claiming the demonstrators only want "attention" (A-8)

Also on Page 1, I'm looking forward to the day when a photo of rifle-totting Shyanne Roberts, 9, lands back on front pages after she wipes out a middle-school class in Gloucester County (A-1).

Three more corrections appear on A-2 today.

P.R. octopus

An editorial on A-18 notes that Thom Ammirato, the $78,000-a-year spokesman for the city of Hackensack, also holds two other jobs, paying him more than $56,000, and does public relations for the Passaic County Republican Party and two Republican state legislators.

Now that's multi-tasking in the great New Jersey tradition of holding many public jobs at the same time.

Utility pole news

Deputy Assignment Editor Dan Sforza again managed to squeeze in a gee-whiz photo of a utility pole shearing, by the same photographer who took the first (L-6).

As usual, the cause of the accident in Paramus is missing from the photo caption, as is the driver's name or whether he received a summons.

Stomach turning

With the rise in organic and naturally raised or grown food, readers want to know more about the origin of the meat, fish, vegetables and fruit they eat.

But since he took over as publisher, Stephen A. Borg has given them less, first killing the paper's award-winning Food section.

Then, he hired three lazy food editors in succession and a dessert-obsessed restaurant reviewer who spend most of their time promoting celebrity chefs and cookbooks.

Inviting Heimlich

In today's lukewarm, 2-star review of Vale Bar & Grill in River Vale, "thick, ropy calamari got caught going down my throat," wrote Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, who apparently was so ravenous she didn't stop to cut the squid into bite-size pieces.

Last week, Ung didn't bother to report that the short ribs and other meat served at Terre a Terre in Carlstadt are naturally raised or organic and free of harmful animal antibiotics.

And the sea bass and shrimp she said "smelled and tasted past their prime" might have been smoked by the chef, Todd Villani, who worked in the kitchen of Aquavit in Manhattan, where smoking and pickling of seafood is common.

More -- much more -- sloppy and irrelevant reporting

Ten lanes of Manhattan-bound traffic merging into a single tube of the Lincoln Tunnel during Friday afternoon's agonizing rush hour.

By Victor E. Sasson
Editor

Only political junkies like The Record's Washington correspondent and Editor Marty Gottlieb are already thinking of the 2016 Republican presidential primaries.

Unfortunately for readers of the Woodland Park daily, Gottlieb leads today's paper with Staff Writer Herb Jackson's silly "primary preview" -- a face-off between Governor Christie and Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky. (A-1).

Politics are so irrelevant to the lives of North Jersey readers, who are caught in massive traffic jams and who pay exorbitant tolls and property taxes thanks to Christie's mismanagement.

And readers are bored to death by the media's obsession with which politician may or may not be a candidate for president in 2016.

All in the family

The D'Ercole family -- which "once wielded enormous political power in tiny Norwood" -- may remind Hackensack readers of the Zisa family, which ruled the city for decades and still has hooks into the school board (A-1).

But today's sympathetic Page 1 story on the family's decision to sell their garden center to developers doesn't discuss whether their Norwood reign was free of the corruption that is costing Hackensack property tax payers so dearly.

Another correction

A-2 carries another correction and another error:

The names of Nicole Polizzi and Jenni Farley appear in the wrong order under the PEOPLE IN THE NEWS photo.

Today's A-11 editorial on the U.S. Postal Service -- and all of the news stories I've seen recently -- never explains why the agency has to be self-sustaining.

Isn't that like asking mass transit to make a profit, ignoring the benefits of taking cars off the road, and cutting pollution and our dependency on oil imports?

Mail deliverers deter crime and keep an eye on seniors living alone, among other good things.

Local news 'glut'

There is so little local news that head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' had to fill nearly half a page of Local with wire-service obituaries of people readers have never heard of (L-5).

Most pages carry police and fire news, including the main element on L-1, which describes a bank robbery and pursuit of the suspects:

Crime and chaos 

Indeed. The "chaos" is in the newsroom, and the "crime" is against the reader.

Friday's paper

Page 1 on Friday put legions of readers to sleep.

Gottlieb, who does a good imitation of being The Record's global editor, demoted to L-1 continuing Hackensack River pollution from 26 towns' raw sewage pipes.

That wasn't the only shit in the paper.

Boosting Christie

Stories on Democratic challenger Barbara Buono picking another woman as her running mate, and a non-partisan office finding a $150 million shortfall in the state budget don't bode well for Christie (A-3).

That didn't stop The Record from promoting the GOP bully's bid for a second term.

The editors again ignore all of the vetoes he uses to get his way in New Jersey in a story reporting Christie blamed President Obama for the partisan gridlock in Washington (A-6).

And why are the editors hiding the identity of toll cheats, including an Englewood woman "who owes $43,000 in fees and tolls" to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority (A-6)?

Local censorship

Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports Hackensack Mayor John P. Labrosse Jr. and fellow City Council members have named their campaign manager as the city's new public relations consultant (Friday's L-2).

Adely didn't report public comment at this week's City Council meeting that giving the job to Thom Ammirato "sends the wrong message" -- especially in view of decades of insider deals by the Zisa family.

The City Council also is sending another wrong message with a trial run to collect garbage twice a week in the 1st Ward (Friday's L-3).

The city can save money and reduce household garbage by encouraging more recycling and collecting food waste for composting, as much larger cities already do.

Freezer fresh

In Friday's Better Living, restaurant reviewer Bob Probert praises the "absolutely fresh sushi and sashimi" at Wasabi in Ridgewood (BL-16).

But he apparently didn't ask Chef/Owner Kazuhiko Takahashi whether the fish he serves raw at his 3-star restaurant has been frozen -- to kill parasites -- as required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

See a 2004 article in The New York Times:

'Sushi Fresh from the Deep ... the Deep Freeze' 

Second look

The Road Warrior column on Wednesday contained a good deal of misinformation, including Staff Writer John Cichowski reporting that Hackensack's Court Street Bridge was replaced when, in fact, it was renovated.

For a complete rundown, see the Facebook page for Road Warrior Bloopers:

Broken journalist, broken column