DEMAREST – Some residents are raising objections about the appearance and location of a new municipal electronic sign in town.

Several residents at the Borough Council meeting Monday night complained that the message board, located at the corner of County Road and Hardenburgh Avenue, detracts from the view of the duck pond, contributes to a commercial look and will distract drivers trying to read it as they navigate the busy intersection.

“I think it’s too large and it’s not in keeping with the character of the town,” said Raymond Cywinski, a Republican mayoral candidate. “It looks like steel posts with a flat-screen TV on it.”

The $24,650 sign is part of the borough’s $550,000 downtown streetscape project that has involved the replacement of sidewalks and curbs along with the repaving of Park Street. Still to come are old-fashioned street lights, an antique clock, plantings and benches.

The new sign will announce everything from meetings to events to emergency alerts.

The borough has been using a smaller, temporary sign at the corner of Hardenburgh Avenue and Park Street, but it’s more difficult to see.

Resident Luisa Pittaluga asked the mayor several questions about the new sign, including whether he believed it was too large.

Mayor James Carroll responded no, stating earlier that he was “all for it.”

“I have a difficult time believing we will have a mass migration out of town because of a billboard,” Carroll said.

Pittaluga said in a later interview that the sign should be removed.

The 8-foot-tall sign, which was installed several weeks ago and will use amber lights, has not yet been activated.

Councilman Steven Conti said the sign isn’t complete yet; it will be improved with flowers and bushes planted around its base “to make it more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.” The sign will read “Welcome to Demarest” instead of “Borough of Demarest” at the top of the marker, and the borough seal may be added to it.

But some residents aren’t convinced.

“It really looks cheap and takes away from the look of the whole community,” said Steve Schliem.

E-mail: sudol@northjersey.com

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.

Bergen County Freeholder Jim Carroll has always been an unapologetic defender of dual-office holding

But Carroll confirmed a stunner on Friday — he may not run for another term as Demarest mayor this fall if he succeeds in winning the Bergen County Democratic Organization’s backing for his freeholder reelection at Thursday’s nominating convention in Hackensack.

“I have to weigh my options and see where I want to go,” Carroll said.

Carroll is legally permitted to run for both jobs despite then-Gov. Jon Corzine’s 2007 ban on dual-office holding. Corzine’s ban, which took effect in February 2008, exempted the crop of double dippers at the time, including Carroll.

Carroll has come under fire for his dual-office holding in recent years, but he said his consideration of dropping the mayor’s job had more to do with logistics and time and not because of any principled epiphany about the possible evils of dual-office holding.

“I’ve never taken a short cut in my life,” he said. “When I campaign, I campaign hard. … Anytime I ran for elected office locally, I banged on every door, some I banged on twice. That’s time-consuming. It’s a time-management issue.”

But several party sources speculated that Carroll’s possible ditching of the Demarest mayor job signals his leave-nothing-to-chance nervousness about Thursday’s convention.

Although considered a strong favorite to win BCDO backing, Carroll may fear a backlash among committee members for helping torpedo the prospects of Westwood Mayor John Birkner, one of eight candidates vying for BCDO blessing for the three freeholder seats. (Carroll and Elizabeth Calabrese of Wallington are two incumbents running for reelection. Incumbent Tomas Padilla of Upper Saddle River is retiring.)

Birkner is seen as a refreshing newcomer who also enjoys strong support from organized labor. He also lacked any association with former Bergen Democratic leader Joe Ferriero, whose conviction on federal corruption charges last October has cast a long, politically radioactive cloud over the Democratic Party’s chances. State Sens. Loretta Weinberg of Teaneck and Paul Sarlo of Wood-Ridge distributed a joint letter with Assemblymen Gordon Johnson of Englewood and Fred Scalera of Nutley in support of Birkner.

But the Birkner effort was dealt a setback Tuesday after former Freeholder Julie O’Brien withdrew from the contest and announced that she was throwing her support behind Northvale Mayor James Hogan. BCDO Chairman Mike Kasparian has also endorsed his candidacy, despite the belief among some that he was working to recruit Birkner. Carroll is believed to have mobilized support behind the Hogan candidacy.

As a result, Carroll’s announcement that he might give up one of his jobs is seen as a step toward shoring up his candidacy for Thursday’s event. It eliminates an easy excuse for angered committee members to support someone else.

Carroll denied that he was worried.

“The only person I was scared of was my father,” he said. “I’m a big boy. The chips will fall as they may. People know what I have done. I have had a great deal of success with my colleagues.”

He also downplayed any role in the Hogan effort — but he didn’t deny it, either. “Basically, the man wanted to run for freeholder and that’s what he did. I wish I had the power that everybody assumes I have.”

No advice to PVSC, yet

Governor Christie denied last week that he made it known to the embattled Passaic Valley Sewerage Commissioners that he wants them to hire an outsider to replace retiring Executive Director Bryan Christiansen.

“I have not made that known yet … that’s not correct,” Christie said Tuesday. “The counsel’s office will be communicating with the PVSC and let them know that we think it would be advisable, in the spirit of cooperation, for them to be consulting the governor’s office before they make any decisions on a replacement.”

Rich Ambrosino, a PVSC spokesman, said the agency’s chairman, Anthony Luna, is expected to discuss “moving forward” on replacing Christiansen with Christie’s authorities unit this week. He said the board wants to establish a search committee to advertise the job and “we have said from the beginning we welcome the governor’s office involvement in that process.”

The governor will soon get his first opportunity to fill a vacancy on the PVSC board. Frank Donato of Totowa submitted his resignation letter last week, Ambrosino said. It takes effect April 2. Donato, a former Superior Court judge who was nominated to the board by Corzine in 2007, recently went on medical leave. Commissioners are paid $10,000 and receive pension and health benefits.

E-mail: stile@northjersey.com

A Bergen County loan program touted as a quick and easy way for local governments to pay for big-ticket items has instead plunged some of them into long-term debt.

The five-year-old Municipal Banc was supposed to let cash-strapped towns bypass conventional borrowing methods and get county-backed loans for emergency services and public works projects. The program promised 24-hour loan approval with no red tape, backed by the county’s AAA credit rating.

Behind the news

Fees and contributions

Consultant fees paid by the Bergen County Improvement Authority since 2004, along with those consultants’ campaign contributions during the same period.

Sources: Bergen County Improvement Authority, N.J. Election Law Enforcement Commission

How it works

• Bergen County, which has a AAA credit rating, guarantees as much as $8 million yearly for municipalities and school boards, and since 2009, sewerage authorities and municipal and county utilities authorities.
• The Bergen County Improvement Authority provides application forms to borrowers, who do not have to pay their own attorneys and financial advisers for the service. Borrowers that complete the one-page application are approved in as little as 24 hours. The 1.75 percent application fee is folded into the loan.
• Once the application is approved, TD Bank deposits the entire loan in an account. The borrower starts paying interest on the loan and the fee immediately, regardless of whether the money has been spent.
• The borrower submits vouchers to the bank for reimbursement as it spends the money, and the bank deducts the money from the account.

How we did it

This article was complied from months of research, during which reporters analyzed hundreds of documents associated with the 78 loans issued through the Bergen County Improvement Authority Municipal Banc from 2004 through 2008. The reporters examined loan payment schedules and hundreds of vouchers provided in response to Open Public Records Act requests to the BCIA and towns that used the program.

Reporters also conducted dozens of interviews with town and county government officials, financial professionals and critics of
the program.

Most towns and school districts that used the program borrowed only what they needed and spent the money quickly. Many praised the program for its convenience and low fees.

But some towns took out loans for items as inexpensive as rope and firefighter boots, borrowed money long before they intended to make purchases and paid interest on money they never spent. In some cases, their applications were approved even though they provided little information about how the money would be used.

From 2004 to 2008, Rutherford, Fair Lawn and Hackensack let a total of more than $1.6 million in loans sit idly in Commerce Bank accounts while taxpayers paid more than $200,000 in interest and fees. Fair Lawn, for example, waited four years to buy a $130,000 generator.

“That’s like saying, ‘I’m going to buy a house, I’m going to pay a mortgage and interest on the house, but I’m not going to move in for three or four years,’” said Joseph Tedeschi, a Fair Lawn councilman.

TD Bank took over the program after it bought Commerce in March 2008.

Five consultants that donated more than $450,000 to Bergen County Democrats from 2004 to the end of 2008 were paid at least $1.8 million for professional services by the Bergen County Improvement Authority — the agency that oversees the Municipal Banc — including more than $180,000 for services tied to the loans.

Those consultants included Dennis Oury, the former counsel for the BCIA and the Bergen County Democratic Organization. Oury, who pleaded guilty to federal corruption charges in September, collected more than $1.1 million from the BCIA during that period. Oury resigned from the BCIA in early September 2008 after federal officials accused him of fraud.

The program auditor, Ferraioli, Wielkotz, Cerullo & Cuva, also was the auditor in three of the towns that were the heaviest users of the program: Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Rutherford.

“This is basically a funding scheme for the accountants, for Commerce and for the lawyers that are backing the [Bergen County Democratic Organization],” said Rutherford Mayor John Hipp, a critic of the $4.6 million that Rutherford borrowed under his Democratic predecessor, Bernadette McPherson. “It’s not against the law to do this. The question is whether it’s fiscally responsible.”

BCIA Chairman Ronald O’Malley said the fees collected through the program are put into the BCIA budget, and much of the money is then spent on projects that benefit county residents, such as improvements at Bergen County Regional Medical Center and Overpeck Park.

“I didn’t know that these goofballs were signing notes and then not submitting vouchers for eight or nine months at a time without doing a different note,” he said. “I don’t know what would possess anybody to do that.”

Many problems

O’Malley said that, when used properly, the Municipal Banc allows towns to borrow money cheaply. But a Record analysis of dozens of loans and hundreds of purchases found a litany of problems. Among the findings:

• Commerce overcharged Ruth er ford more than $715,000 when the borough closed six loans in 2007. The borough paid the full sum without question, only discovering the overpayment when questioned about it by The Record two years later.

After the borough’s auditor and attorney began a formal review of the accounts, the bank responded by informing the borough that the money was available, but did not acknowledge the overcharge. The bank issued a series of checks for the full sum on Monday. Borough officials are still investigating why the money was sitting there for so long with no communication from the bank.

“I wanted to thank The Record for bringing it to my attention,” Hipp said. “It’s very important that we uncovered these funds. These are public funds, and they shouldn’t be put away somewhere — I don’t want to say secreted or hidden — but left out there unexpended.”

• Some towns borrowed more than they needed and left the extra money in the accounts for years. Fair Lawn, Hackensack and Rutherford, for example, paid more than $200,000 in unnecessary interest and fees. In one case, Hackensack City Manager Stephen Lo Iacono said he did not know about $500,000 the city borrowed in 2004 but didn’t spend.

The money was still sitting in a non-interest-bearing account when Record reporters questioned Lo Iacono about it in September 2008. The city waited four additional months to try to close the account, asking the bank for reimbursement for purchases it had made as far back as 1999, according to documents Lo Iacono provided to The Record. By then, the city had paid nearly $60,000 in interest and fees. Lo Iacono recently said he could not immediately provide documentation that would show the accounts actually had been closed.

• Loan applications are supposed to list what borrowers plan to buy. In some cases, however, towns bought items that weren’t on their applications. In Fair Lawn, former Borough Manager Tom Metzler used money left over from a 2005 loan to buy a $25,000 car for his use, bypassing Borough Council approval and prompting an internal investigation that resulted in official reprimands for Metzler and Chief Financial Officer Barry Eccleston, who approved the purchase. Metzler’s use of BCIA accounts resurfaced in council proceedings to fire him before he resigned in November 2008.
• Some towns left blank pages in their applications where they were supposed to describe what they planned to buy. Commerce Bank approved the loans anyway. Fair Lawn submitted blank pages signed by former Mayor David Ganz — who, as a county freeholder, helped to develop the Municipal Banc program — and Joanne Kwasniewski, the borough manager at the time and now the acting manager. Borough officials who have been critical of the program say the blank applications have made it almost impossible to determine where the money was supposed to be spent.

“It’s like putting a puzzle together,” Councilwoman Jeanne Baratta said. “But you can’t find the pieces.”

• After it approved a loan, Commerce Bank held on to the money — and charged interest on it — until the borrower submitted a voucher. In some cases, this included money the bank held as long as four years.

By the end of 2008, the bank had collected more than $1.1 million in interest.

• Most towns that used the program had strong ties to the BCDO. The mayors of Fair Lawn, Rutherford and Demarest also were Bergen County freeholders when their towns borrowed money, and the mayor of New Milford was the head of the county Parks Department.

TD Bank, which agreed to respond only to written questions submitted through a spokeswoman, said the borrowers benefit from the program’s simple application process, fixed-rate pricing and minimal closing costs.

The spokeswoman, Rebecca Acevedo, brushed aside questions about towns paying interest for years on unspent balances, saying the towns dictate how the program works and when they want to pay for their projects.

She also declined to explain why specific documents were left blank in lease applications, saying that the bank “requires certain documents” when it approves a lease, and that those documents are reviewed by the BCIA and the state Local Finance Board, an agency that oversees municipal spending. Other documents, she said, are intentionally left blank at closing.

Marketing campaign

The BCIA — a county agency with the authority to issue debt — aggressively marketed the Municipal Banc program through glossy brochures and press releases, encouraging towns and school districts to take out loans for everything from police cars to fax machines.

Officials stressed that municipalities could avoid down payments typical with other types of borrowing — meaning they would have more money for other spending.

The agency also made a promise that sounded as tantalizing as a come-on for a credit-card: loan approvals within 24 hours, immediate access to a credit line and low-interest loans without the paperwork and long waits associated with taking out a bond, the most common way for municipalities to borrow money.

In his 2005 state-of-the-county address, County Executive Dennis McNerney called the BCIA program “one-stop shopping for capital purchases” — the type of big-ticket items, such as fire trucks and snowplows, that municipalities usually buy on credit.

The agency is no stranger to heavy marketing. It has sent its representatives to town meetings — including at least one in Fair Lawn that wasn’t open to the public — to encourage borrowing through its programs.

After McNerney and BCIA representatives appeared at a Glen Rock Borough Council meeting in August 2008, the Bergen County Republican Organization called for a federal investigation of the agency for what it called strong-arm tactics and fees paid to companies that support the Democratic Party.

Critics say the BCIA operates beyond voter oversight and allows municipalities to get deeper into debt while it puts money into the pockets of big campaign donors.

“The last thing I want is government officials that have instant access to money,” said former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan, who lost a bid for the Republican spot on the gubernatorial ticket in the June primary. “I want it to be as hard as it can be for them to get that money.”

Representatives of three of the five consulting companies that worked for the loan program — Ferraioli, the Gibbons law firm and Acacia Financial Group — said their contracts had nothing to do with patronage. Municipal Advisory Partners no longer exists, and Oury did not return a request for comment.

In an interview, McNerney said critics accuse the county of funneling contracts to politically connected consultants, a practice called pay-to-play, every time it comes up with an innovative program.

“If the tired old cynics want to continue to use pay-to-play, go ahead and let them,” he said.

The Municipal Banc program is just one tool the county provides to municipalities and school districts to help them pool their resources and save money, he said. Similar programs exist nationwide, including programs in Morris, Somerset and Mercer counties in New Jersey.

Nearly one of every five municipalities and school boards in Bergen County had taken out BCIA loans by the end of 2008. Scores of those loans were used almost immediately after they were approved, giving the borrowers the advertised benefits of the program.

But critics said the program doesn’t save municipalities the money it claims to.

The BCIA charges a 1.75 percent fee on every loan. Bond fees generally would be higher — but all towns issue bonds for projects that can’t be financed through the BCIA program, such as road work and sewer improvements. Because towns have to pay those bond fees anyway, critics said, they can lump in extra loans at almost no additional cost and get a competitive interest rate.

Towns also can minimize the interest they pay on bonds through short-term loans they use on incremental expenses until they have accumulated the entire debt approved for a bond, spending the money only as they need it.

In Dumont, for example, the council approved a $500,000 Municipal Banc loan for a fire engine in 2007, but then opted to issue bonds because its auditor found bonds would be cheaper, Borough Administrator John Perkins said.

“If bonding is a cheaper way to go, then that’s the way to do it,” he said.

‘A shopping spree’

Critics also said the program encourages reckless spending, because it does not require the same voter oversight as bonds, which generally have to be approved in detail at public meetings. Officials then have to produce documents showing how much they are borrowing and why.

“It’s a shopping spree,” Hipp said.

Such spending can make elected officials look good while they’re in office, critics said, but it can create mountains of debt to be paid off by taxpayers.

“The temptation is I get to please everybody,” Hipp said. “And by the time the problem arises, I’m up and out [of office]. I’m a senator. I’m a president.”

Under McPherson, who was also a county freeholder and a strong supporter of the program, Rutherford borrowed $4.6 million through the Municipal Banc, acquiring so much debt that in 2007 it appealed to the Local Finance Board for special permission to refinance its BCIA loans.

McPherson did not return numerous requests to comment for this article.

In testimony before the board, Rutherford officials said they had been relying on a windfall from the scandal-ridden EnCap redevelopment project in the Meadowlands to pay off the debt.

When the EnCap project went bankrupt, the borough was left with rising property taxes and no way to pay off its loans.

The BCIA is not responsible for Rutherford’s poor financial planning, O’Malley said.

“They’re not in trouble because we lent them that money,” he said. “They’re in trouble because they lost all that money that was budgeted for EnCap. These transactions are not what got them in trouble.”

Fair Lawn also was led at the time by a mayor who was a county freeholder — David Ganz. Along with Rutherford, it borrowed one-third of all the money loaned through the program.

Meeting minutes show that Ganz and Allan Caan, a councilman and Ganz’s freeholder aide, suggested taking out Municipal Banc loans for everything from library books to lawn mowers. In 2004, when the borough paid for much of its capital budget with $1.1 million in BCIA loans, Ganz spoke extensively about how much money the borough was saving by using the program because it could borrow money without paying anything down.

Ganz said in an interview that the program allowed Fair Lawn to provide better services to its taxpayers, and that several officials — from the borough’s chief financial officer to the Local Finance Board — reviewed the loans.

He dismissed suggestions of political pressure to use the program.

“It was something that was made available to every municipality in the county of Bergen, all on the same terms,” he said. “I had no personal interest in it at all.”

Both Ganz and McPherson were voted out of their mayoral offices in landslide defeats amid allegations of fiscal irresponsibility. Officials in both towns have since vowed to stop doing business with the BCIA, citing concerns about high costs and political patronage. Ganz and McPherson are still freeholders.

Ed Cortright, Rutherford’s chief financial officer, said the program got the borough in trouble because of a feature that politicians had considered one of its biggest strengths. As promised, he said, the money is available quickly — so quickly that interest started snowballing long before the purchases could be approved.

“In hindsight, maybe it wasn’t the best choice,” he said.

E-mail: akin@northjersey.com

Loans

Nearly one of every five municipalities and school boards in Bergen County had taken out BCIA Municipal Banc loans by the end of 2008. Here’s a look at how much each of them borrowed and paid in fees and interest in that period.

Note: Interest was not calculated for loans issued after July 1, 2008.
Source: Bergen County Improvement Authority

Demarest municipal employees have gotten raises for 2009.

Council members approved a salary ordinance at the Dec. 7 meeting giving department heads a 3.75 salary increase and a 3 percent raise to other employees. The head of the Department of Public Works and the assistant will receive a 3.5 percent increase.

Councilman Tom Connolly disagreed with a certain portion of the salary ordinance. “I abstain from this vote because I thought one department head deserved more,” he said.

Connolly did not return calls for further comment as of press time.

Other changes were made to the position of chief financial officer. The ordinance granted CFO Maureen Neville five additional work hours per week and eliminated her comp time. She will now work a total of 35 hours per week, seven hours per weekday. Before, she worked four days per week and got additional time off for after-hours activities like attending council meetings.

Connolly was glad the changes were being made to Neville’s position. “I don’t believe in comp time,” he said.

He said as Neville attended evening meetings, the Borough lost her during normal business hours on the four weekdays she worked.

The ordinance passed in a 5-0 vote with Connolly abstaining.

E-mail: sartor@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6703

DEMAREST — The Borough Council has approved an amended plan to build a 12-unit condominium-style building on town-owned property to meet affordable housing requirements.

The unanimous vote earlier this week means the plan goes to the state Council on Affordable Housing for review and certification.

The initial project called for construction of an eight-unit building on Hardenburgh Avenue and development of a four-unit group home in town. But the changes eliminate the group facility and add four more rental units to the condominium-style building.

The group home option was dropped because the borough had trouble finding a location where a building could be renovated and completed by a 2012 deadline, borough officials said.

“Going this route has the least amount of impact on the community and gives us the ability to meet our requirements,” Mayor James Carroll said at the meeting. “The land is there. Where we would have found land for a group home, I don’t know.”

The 12 affordable housing units, some of which will be designated for seniors, must be built and occupied by 2018. The structure will have one, two and three-bedroom units with parking.

The borough will partner with the Housing Authority of Bergen County, which is expected to construct and manage the units.

The project costs will be offset by collected developer’s fees — of which $402,000 has been raised so far. Grants are also being sought.

Only one resident, Raymond Cywinski, posed questions about the plan, including whether the building would have a commercial component. The mayor replied that it would be all housing.

Without the approval, the borough could have been subject to builder’s remedy lawsuits, Councilman Thomas Connolly has said.

Earlier this month, the Planning Board approved the amended plan.

E-mail: sudol@northjersey.com

The Cresskill and Demarest governing bodies have passed resolutions to share services.

“We’re starting out by providing ways to store their salt,” said Cresskill Councilman Keith Brassel in reference to Cresskill’s salt shed.

Cresskill Mayor Benedict Romeo said the Borough is looking into ways of gaining county and state grants for shared services. This comes at a time as increasing pressure mounts for many local municipalities to join together for services to increase efficiency, based on an emphasis from the state.

Romeo said that the two boroughs are similar in population, which makes sharing more sensible. Demarest’s population is more than 5,000 people and Cresskill has about 7,800, Romeo said.

“I have a very good working relationship with the mayor and council of Cresskill,” Demarest Mayor James Carroll said. “We have been ahead of the curve in terms of shared services with the DPW, with the purchase of gas and what have you. We will continue to explore avenues to continue what we have doing. We are committed to doing the most we can for residents at the least cost.”

In response to sharing police dispatch and other suggestions, Carroll said that everything “is on the table.”

“We’re in tough economic times. Consolidation and regionalization will save us time and continue the high quality of services,” Carroll said. “If it doesn’t make financial sense we won’t do it. Saving money is the key.”

Cresskill is undertaking a study being done right now by expert consultant Joseph Martin, who is also Verona Township’s manager, into ways in which both Demarest and Cresskill can utilize shared services, Romeo said.

“He is a freelance consultant who happens to be an expert in different fields,” Romeo said. “We have used him on the Board of Education budgets. He knows budget and municipal law. We have used him in the past.”

Kevin Terhune, superintendent of the Department of Public Works, said his department is helping by allowing Demarest to use Cresskill’s salt shed so that Demarest does not have to build its own. Shared services could become more commonplace between the two towns. Equipment such as a sewer flushing machine could be purchased so that both municipalities could share its usage. It’s a piece of equipment that ejects water in order to clean out sewers.

This appears to be the wave of the future, Terhune said. “I think the government is being forced to look at this,” Terhune said. “Time will tell if it works. We are exploring different options to see if there could be sharing. There is gray area because nobody knows how it will work.”

Terhune said that there is state pressure with mounting property taxes in municipalities being “the way they are” and a “tight economy” to do more shared services.

Romeo said there are certain ways that the two adjoining boroughs may share in the future — salt, buying equipment, leaf machines and dumping machines. Cresskill Police Chief Ed Wrixon said that sharing police dispatch is a possibility.

Demarest vehicles currently use the gas pumps in Cresskill, Romeo said. Demarest shares the cost of maintaining them, Terhune said. Other potential ways of sharing services in the future include sharing recreation facilities and ball fields, Romeo said.

A former trustee with the Bergen County Technical School District said Friday she did not learn about her removal from the board this week until reading about it in The Record on Thursday.
Angela Taylor, a Teaneck social studies teacher and mother of three, said that after five years of serving the district she felt she deserved prior notice of her removal. She said County Executive Dennis McNerney and James Carroll, the county’s freeholder chairman, should have called her before making the move.

“It’s the backroom politics again,” Taylor said. “I don’t play that game.”

Taylor’s removal at Wednesday night’s freeholder meeting comes amid a dispute between the technical school board and Superintendent Robert Aloia, who has weathered considerable criticism since April for excessive spending in the district.

As a board member, Taylor approved much of the district’s spending, including Aloia’s compensation package, travel to China and the purchase of two electron microscopes.

Taylor justified the spending by pointing out that the technical district is considered by many to be one of the best in the state.

“If you’re the superintendent with the No. 1 school, then why wouldn’t you get the best package?” she said. “You take care of the person.”

Aloia, who also served as superintendent for the county’s Special Services District, was removed from that post a month ago. McNerney, both school boards and the union leaders representing teachers in both districts have called for Aloia’s resignation. A state Department of Education investigation into both districts’ finances is under way.

The problems in the districts have spilled into the local political arena. Two Democratic incumbents, Julie O’Brien and Vernon Walton, lost in their November re-election bids for freeholder seats. Their Republican challengers, Robert Hermansen and John Driscoll, repeatedly cited the Bergen Tech revelations during the campaign.

The county executive and freeholders are responsible for filling posts on the Technical and Special Services districts’ school boards, as well as allocating millions of dollars to both districts.

McNerney recommended Demarest Borough Council President William Connelly to replace Taylor as a board member. The freeholders approved that recommendation Wednesday.

Carroll, the mayor of Demarest and freeholder chairman, did not attend the meeting and did not respond to a request for comment Friday.

“The Administration sends a ‘thank you’ letter out to all appointed board members whose term of service has expired,” said Brian Hague, a spokesman for McNerney. “Phone calls are rarely, if ever, placed to the individuals.”

Freeholder David Ganz said Taylor should have been notified before he and the rest of the freeholder board voted on her replacement.

“It was wrong,” he said. “As a matter of common courtesy and decency, it’s not supposed to happen that way. I apologize for it, even though the freeholders weren’t involved in it or responsible for it.”

Bergen County Schools Superintendent Aaron Graham, an ex-officio member of the technical school board, said he also didn’t have any knowledge of Taylor’s replacement until he read about it in the newspaper.

“I would like to know why she didn’t get notice,” he said. “As far as I’m concerned, she was a good serving board member.”

He will appear in court in Hackensack Nov. 30 where he will learn when the actual recount will take place.

Cywinski said he filed for a recount “mostly because of the people asking me to. … It’s close — not one vote or two votes — but relatively close enough to take a look.”

According to official results from the Bergen County Clerk’s office, Tom Connolly received 922 votes, Brian Bernstein got 850 and Cywinski gained 837. The totals include ballots cast Election Day, absentee ballots and provisional ballots.

Democrats Connolly and Bernstein each were elected for their fourth terms. Cywinski was previously on the council but failed to retain his seat in 2008.

E-mail: sartor@northjersey.com or call 201-894-6703