BY MICHAEL GARTLAND – THE RECORD
About a dozen activists came out Wednesday night to protest the Bergen County freeholders’ vote last week against implementing stricter pay-to-play regulations.
The decision to reject the resolution was made last Wednesday along party lines, with Republicans Robert Hermansen and John Driscoll voting in favor of the new regulations and four Democrats — James Carroll, Bernadette McPherson, Elizabeth Calabrese and David Ganz — voting against.
Democratic Freeholder Tomas Padilla did not attend last week’s meeting and did not cast a vote.
Ganz, a lawyer, described the proposed law as “unconstitutional” and said he would support a stricter state law.
Protesters at Wednesday’s meeting of the Freeholder Board dismissed Ganz’s legal argument, noting that many politicians who oppose stricter pay-to-play rules have benefited immensely from lax regulations in the past.
Paul Eisenman, head of the non-partisan Teaneck-based activist group Bergen Grassroots, said he was upset by the board’s failure to act and described Ganz’s legal argument as “baseless.”
“Among the people who think it’s unconstitutional are a lot of people who make a living out of it in Bergen County,” Eisenman said. “If you ask lawyers who are not part of this crooked scene in Bergen County, you’d get the right answer.”
Robert Gulack of Fair Lawn said the issue should be put up for a county referendum.
“The people have been shut out of the process by self-interested politicians and self-interested political parties,” Gulack said to the freeholders. “You know the voters have been cut out of the process.”
Heather Taylor, a spokeswoman for the Center for Civic Responsibility, an advocacy group for pay-to-play reform that helped draft the resolution, expressed disappointment and said she wants the board to hold a public hearing on the issue.
“I would hope they would give it more consideration and will put it on the agenda so the public can discuss it,” Taylor said.
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