Editors keep on selling home-rule savings

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Readers want John Cichowski and Elisa Ung to follow this sign to Newark airport, get on a plane, relocate and never write another column for The Record of Woodland Park.

Editor Francis Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes are such big fans of the wasteful form of government known as home rule, any merger of services earns big headlines, large photos and upbeat copy -- with the tantalizing possibility that property taxes finally will go down for once.

Readers of The Record were treated to more of that B.S. this past Thursday, when most of Sykes' Local front was devoted to Montvale and two other towns beginning a joint municipal court, with a potential savings of $260,000 year, Staff Writer Matthew McGrath reported.

But Sykes, McGrath, and his assignment editor were pulling a fast one on readers -- taking pains to mention nothing about the millions of dollars in debt hanging over Montvale taxpayers since purchase of a commercial building for a new municipal complex, where the joint court is held. 

Here is the real story from Montvale resident Kurt F. Kron:

"The observation in Eye on The Record that the “newspaper” is filled with triviality is painfully accurate, and the inclusion of the Pascack Valley shared court in the triviality would be accurate, too, if it weren't for the fact that the story behind the placement of the shared court is a colossal insult to Montvale property taxpayers.

"The municipal building that houses the court was headquarters for the Wella cosmetics firm in its most recent prior life, after Wella moved from Englewood. Then, Wella was acquired by a German firm, and in fairly short order the building became the “Wella White Elephant.” Nobody wanted to buy it. But elected Montvale empire builders snapped it up, taking it off the tax roles and converting it to a use for which it was never intended, at great expense.

"The value of all Montvale debt at original issue was $13,560,000, “$7,885,000 attributable to the municipal complex,” according to an April 12, 2011 budget presentation, at which the council president thanked a former mayor for his foresight in buying the elephant so others could come to his court. A lot of the expense of converting the Wella building is attributable to construction of an escape-proof, bomb-proof, earthquake-proof holding pen for accused perps.

"At Dec. 31, 2010, $12,098,000 in Montvale debt was still outstanding. In the fiscal year beginning on July 1, Montvale debt service will be $1,855,175. Montvale taxpayers may not know the value of the Wella building, but they do know it's had an expensive face-lift."

Today's paper

The two main stories on the front page of the Woodland Park daily today are so far from being news as to be a laughable waste of space.  Is this the best Scandale can do for a Sunday paper?

The straightforward headlines sound idiotic, because they state what readers already know:

N.J. a hub for drug trade

Mothers who kill kids not so rare

In the story about mothers who kill, The Associated Press (not Staff Writer Jean Rimbach, as I said originally) takes a casual approach, making no attempt to tell readers why on Page 1.

In the drug story, Staff Writer Peter Sampson pored over records to document Newark airport as a major smuggling hub, but the headlines let him and readers down. 

The moral of the third A-1 story -- about how little corruption or waste was found at the North Jersey District Water Supply Commission -- is: If you mess with The Bull (Governor Christie), you get the horns.

Hook, line and stinker

The major news on the front of Local today is Road Warrior John Cichowski's 400th column on long lines at Motor Vehicle Commission offices.

Why is this such a big deal, if the average driver only has to go to the MVC every two to three years? 

From hunger

Six weeks after a food blog called Off The Broiler published a long post with photos of El Caney -- a tiny Cuban takeout place in Bergenfield -- Staff Writer Elisa Ung gushes about her "find" in her Sunday column (F-4).

Then, she quotes blog author Jason Perlow on how good El Caney's food is, without giving him any credit for finding the place. 

The bottom line is El Caney is more appropriate for the Marketplace feature, but Ung has long run out of ideas for her restaurant column and desperately cribs from others.

Should the judge have been so chummy?

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After reading The Record today, a subscriber tries to keep from vomiting.

Where did that good-for-nothing Dwight Gooden come from to dominate today's front page?

And why didn't the timid reporter interview the judge after Gooden's sentencing hearing to give readers some insight into why he gave the former pitcher a slap on the wrist for cocaine abuse and endangering the life of his 5-year-old son (A-1)?

Politicians who take credit for change are nothing new, but now The Record of Woodland Park's journalists are getting into the act.

Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin is positively giddy over the announcement of official talks on merging the jails in Bergen and Passaic counties (A-1 and A-13) -- an idea he floated in a March 25 column.

But Publisher Stephen A. Borg's scheme to save money by moving Doblin's office into the main lockup isn't going anywhere, because of fears no one can guarantee the editor's personal safety.

The story on a deal to develop more than 15 acres near the George Washington Bridge in Fort Lee doesn't say whether this is the sixth or seventh "historic" agreement the paper has reported in the last 30 years (L-1).

Staff Writer Kara Yorio allows her sources to define a story on shopping at warehouse stores such as Costco Wholesale (F-1).

By apparently not setting foot in any of the stores, she ignores all the high-quality, organic and naturally raised food -- including fresh and frozen wild-caught seafood -- available at prices no other place can match.

Thanks to Editor Francis Scandale, head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes, Features Director Barbara Jaeger and their minions for another half-baked edition that raises more questions than it answers.

Errors, omissions and arrogance

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Governor Christie told reporters to "take the bat" to Sen. Lorette Weinberg, above.

Staff Writer Elisa Ung's review of a Turkish restaurant in the South Paterson section of Paterson today is a painful reminder of the serious error she made when she reviewed another Turkish place nearly two years ago and called the ethnic enclave "Little Istanbul." 

For many Syrian merchants -- who settled the neighborhood decades before and whose ancestors lived under the heel of Turkish rule -- Ung's July 2009 whopper was a big slap in the face.

In her ignorance and arrogance, she never ran an A-2 correction in The Record, but two months later, wrote a corrective article featuring Syrian and Palestinian food places in the same neighborhood -- one dating to 1968 -- long before the Turks arrived. 

Even the September 2009 article didn't acknowledge her original error.

Defending women 

In today's review in Better Living, she seems shocked that Sahara Restaurant is across the street from "a gentlemen's club," and takes pain to tell readers the Turkish place is "less appropriate" for those who would "feel uncomfortable" in such a neighborhood.

How prudish. But she doesn't know or say the surrounding Paterson Farmers' Market has just about the lowest produce prices in North Jersey.

Dissing readers

You'll find more arrogance today from Road Warrior John Cichowski, who seems to think his readers are home-bound and clueless about New Jersey and recreation.
 

Desperate to avoid writing about commuters who use mass transit, he sails off in a new direction with a column on boats and seems to think it necessary to treat readers like morons:

"Boating? In April? Yes, the Garden State, after all, is a peninsula state." Duh.

On A-1 today, Editor Francis Scandale had so little legitimate news to work with, he ran a big photo of people lining up in Newark to audition for a TV show. No one is lining up to work for the editor of the Woodland Park daily.

Dissing women 

Scandale was careful to push below the fold on Page 1 criticism of Governor Christie by state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, who said the Republican bully continues "to show the level of insensitivity and poor judgment ... on women's issues since getting elected."

Frankly, I was surprised at Staff Writer Elise Young's clunky introduction to the story.

But the low page position was no surprise, given how poorly women have fared under Scandale and Features Director Barbara Jaeger, who seems to hold real disdain for other women, with the exception of lunch pal Liz Houlton, who has been promoted repeatedly despite her poor job performance. 

Jaeger forced long-time Food Editor Patricia Mack into retirement in 2006, replacing her with an unqualified man half her age; made life miserable for onetime Go! Editor Trudy Walz; and stripped Virginia Rohan and Colleen Diskin of their column-writing duties -- presumably all with Scandale's backing.

An embarrassing correction and clarification appear on A-2 today.   

War on residents

In the last paragraph of an A-3 story, Christie is warning middle- and working-class residents he will cut health care and other services, if the state Supreme Court rules his education cuts were unconstitutional. Why isn't this on Page 1?

The governor is essentially saying he will obey the high court, but screw the majority of state residents to do it -- not find such new sources of revenue as taxing the Borgs and other millionaires.

Another error

The lead story in head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes' Local section is Bergen County Executive Kathleen Donovan's first State of the County address, which took place on Thursday, according to the A-1 refer and L-1 story, or on Wednesday, according to the L-1 photo caption.

Sykes couldn't fill the space in her section without a large, gee-whiz photo of a non-fatal accident on L-1.

There's no truth to the rumor the photo shows her car, which was involved in a collision on her way back from the mall, where she was shopping for something more flattering than her usual tent dresses.

Reporters are off chasing penny ante savings

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The Record's news staff has adopted Governor Christie's conservative agenda.

If you need further evidence The Record's editors are marching to Governor Christie's orders, just look at three news stories -- two on Page 1 -- and an L-1 column today trumpeting the Republican's penny ante savings campaign.

Day after day, reporters are sent chasing leads on wasted state clothing allowances, so-called pension abuses, and waste and corruption at independent boards, agencies and commissions.

But that's exactly what Christie wants them to do.

More than a year into his first term, he has successfully distracted the media from exposing his real program: 

Giving tax breaks to millionaires and wealthy small-business owners; pitting middle-class union members against middle-class homeowners desperate for property tax relief; and cutting programs for seniors and low-income women and children.

Anonymous supporters

I am still waiting for a story naming the millionaires and wealthy businesspeople who are being rewarded with lower taxes for supporting Christie financially, or even a story clearly laying out how much revenue is being lost.

On A-17, a photo caption on the Pizza World Championships in Italy doesn't tell you who won.

On A-19, the Religion page carries a wire-service story on Passover after the editors failed to find any North Jersey Jews who celebrate the holiday.

Governor gets a pass

On A-20, an editorial wholeheartedly supports President Obama's deficit-cutting plan, going as far as suggesting a temporary rollback of Bush-era tax breaks for those who earn more than $250,000.

To be fair to Editorial Page Editor Alfred P. Doblin, several weeks ago in another editorial, he timidly suggested Christie should tap new sources of revenue to help the state out of its fiscal hole -- such as raising taxes on the wealthy and adding a few cents to the low gasoline tax to fix roads and improve mass transit.

But that was buried deep in the editorial and was the last readers heard on the topic. He probably got a good spanking from Editor Francis Scandale for straying from the Christie line.

A letter to the editor from Stephen Nix of River Edge corrects the apparently deliberate distortions in a letter a few days ago that cited a study on why the rich leave New Jersey (A-20). 

Pants on fire

Scandale and head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes do everything they can to avoid rocking the home-rule boat, so often celebrate small savings, such as a joint municipal court in the Pascack Valley (Local front).

But when Teaneck tried to replace its police and fire chiefs with a civilian public safety director last year -- projecting a $250,000 annual savings -- Sykes neglected to do any follow-up stories on how neighboring Hackensack and Englewood could do the same for even greater efficiencies.