BY MICHAEL GARTLAND – The Record
The conviction of former Bergen County Democratic chief Joseph Ferriero reverberated across the county’s political landscape Thursday as elected officials and operatives from both parties contemplated its implications.
A 12-person jury convicted Ferriero in federal court of conspiracy to defraud Bergenfield of honest services and two counts of mail fraud. He was acquitted on five other counts of mail fraud, but still faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison.
Republicans and Ferriero’s Democratic opponents described the conviction as a victory, while political allies in the Bergen County Democratic Organization offered sparse reaction.
Bergenfield Mayor Tim Driscoll laughed when initially asked about it.
“I think it’s well-deserved,” Driscoll said. “We’ve helped the Democratic Party. Now it’s time to rebuild.”
Ferriero’s grants firm, Governmental Grants Consulting, was hired by Bergenfield the same day it hired Dennis Oury as the borough attorney. Oury, who also formerly served as counsel for the BCDO, had an ownership interest in the consulting firm, but did not reveal it to the borough or recuse himself.
The Republican candidates for county freeholder and the party’s county chairman all noted that Ferriero played a role in selecting the Democrats who now control the freeholder board.
Bergen County Republican Party Chairman Robert Yudin said the conviction “certainly can’t hurt us.”
“Everyone who is on that board of freeholders right now was handpicked by Ferriero,” he said. “This speaks volumes as to why we need more Republicans elected to office.”
John Driscoll, a Republican freeholder candidate from Paramus, said the verdict showed that people have grown tired of pay-to-play politics.
“Julie O’Brien and Vernon Walton both owe their seats to Ferriero,” he said of the incumbent Democratic freeholders. “They’re saying Ferriero is not a big issue.”
O’Brien and Walton both have said that the public is not as concerned about Ferriero as they are about taxes or education. Neither returned calls for comment.
They weren’t the only Democrats who were not eager to remark Thursday.
County freeholders David Ganz and James Carroll both declined to comment on the guilty verdict, and freeholders Bernadette McPherson, Elizabeth Calabrese and Tomas Padilla did not respond to requests for comment.
The Bergen County Democratic Organization’s current chairman, Michael Kasparian, also did not return a request for comment.
State Assemblyman Gordon Johnson, D-Englewood, expressed sympathy for Ferriero and his family, but lauded the jury’s decision.
“The conviction of Mr. Ferriero shows the system does work,” Johnson said. “There’s no doubt Joe Ferriero was great when it came to raising funds, but part of that fundraising was pay-to-play, and I’m against that.”
