CONCERN ABOUT GOVERNOR'S OFFICE INVOLVEMENT IN HOMELAND SECURITY GRANT PROCESS

Politics NJ ^ | Aug 8 2005 | Sean Kean

[BATNF]

KEAN AND CORODEMUS EXPRESS CONCERN ABOUT GOVERNOR'S OFFICE INVOLVEMENT IN HOMELAND SECURITY GRANT PROCESS

WILL SEND LETTER TO U.S. ATTORNEY CHRIS CHRISTIE ASKING HIM

TO LOOK INTO POSSIBLE MISAPPROPRIATION OF STATE GRANT FUNDS

Assemblymen Sean Kean and Steve Corodemus today said they are disgusted by reports that the Governor's Office worked in conjunction with the Attorney General's Office in steering homeland security grants to Democrat legislative districts and that officials described the program as "Christmas Tree funding."

Kean and Corodemus also said they will send a letter to U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie asking him to looking into a variety of state grant programs, including the homeland security program, to see if state taxpayer dollars were being misappropriated.

"Playing politics with the safety or our citizens is unacceptable, but it appears that's exactly what this administration has done," said Kean, R-Monmouth. "It is now clear that the administration was instrumental in steering these grants as if they were nothing more than political pork for favored legislative districts."

Today's edition of The Star-Ledger reports that based on e-mails, letters and other correspondence obtained under the Open Public Records Act (OPRA), the Codey administration played a key role in distributing these grant funds to legislative districts controlled by his own party.

In some correspondence officials in the Attorney General's Office denied having responsibility for where the money would go and indicated the Governor's Office would make those decisions. In another memo from an official in the AG's office the program is described as "Christmas Tree funding."

At the time the political disparity in grant awards was first reported, Codey spokeswoman Kelley Heck said the governor's office "didn't play a role in the awarding of those grants." At the Assembly Budget Committee hearings this spring, Attorney General Harvey testified that to his knowledge all grants were distributed based on merit not politics.

"Today's reports are a serious blow to the credibility of the administration on this issue," said Corodemus, R-Monmouth. "For months the Attorney General and the administration have denied any political motivation for the distribution of this money. That clearly is not the case."

Kean and Corodemus noted that questions have been raised about the distribution of funding from a number of state grant programs including those administered by the Department of Community Affairs (DCA) and the Department of Law and Public Safety.

"In some cases it appears money was steered to programs that wouldn't even qualify for the funds under that grant program," Kean said. "We will be asking the U.S. Attorney to look into whether this represents a misappropriation of taxpayer dollars."

Corodemus said that because of the extensive involvement of the AG's Office in these grant distributions, an investigation into this issue must be conducted by someone outside of state government.

"We know we cannot rely on the Attorney General to look into this matter," Corodemus said. "Hopefully the U.S. Attorney will be able to shed some light on these concerns."

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August 8, 2005

Honorable Christopher J. Christie

United States Attorney

District of New Jersey

970 Broad Street, 7th Floor

Newark, NJ 07102

Dear United States Attorney Christie,

This letter is to request that your office look into the possible misappropriation of taxpayer dollars through the manipulation of several state grant programs.

Based on numerous newspaper reports it appears that grant programs administered by the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Community Affairs, and the Department of Environmental Protection have been manipulated for political purposes and specific grants have been awarded to certain recipients even though there was no statutory authority to award the grants.

Overwhelming amounts of grant money went to legislative districts represented by Democrat legislators. The bigger question appears to be how the money was distributed. Based on documents uncovered by an Open Public Records Act (OPRA) request, it appears that legislators played a key role in determining where this money would go and where it wouldn't go regardless of any criteria for distributing the funds.

Many police departments and other agencies of hundreds of towns spent significant time and taxpayer money crafting grant applications for these funds, only to be ignored because of the political affiliation of their state legislators.

Furthermore, it appears that some of this grant money may have went to recipients without any statutory authority-- outside the scope of the program from which the money was distributed.

For example, with respect to a homeland security grant program in Fiscal Year 2005, $50,000 above and beyond the amount applied for was awarded to one town. Additionally, even though statutory authority and department application guidelines only permitted funding to be awarded to local governments, one nonprofit corporation was awarded tens of thousands of dollars. With respect to a Department of Environmental Protection grant program, funds statutorily set aside for local government park capital projects were allocated by the department to at least one nonprofit corporation for non-capital purposes.

We can provide you with further details and other examples.

We urge you to look into this issue on behalf of our state's taxpayers because our own attorney general, who would ordinarily review misappropriations of state funds, is unmistakably part of the misappropriations themselves. The attorney general himself has made public statements about these expenditure that contradict statements appearing in today's star ledger.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this matter. If we can be of any assistance, please contact us directly.

Sincerely,

Sean Kean Steve Corodemus

Assemblyman Assemblyman

11th Legislative District 11th Legislative District

[BATNF]

The dems in NJ gave Homeland Sec. funding to Democrat districts.

[eureka!]

NJ corruption ping...

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

NJ politics as usual!!

[Rummyfan]

Every time I think things couldn't possibly be any more corrupt in New Jersey, I'm surprised again!

[Lancey Howard]

Nothing new in New Jersey.
The last governor, the disgraced homosexual adulterer Jim McGreevey, actually put his boy toy IN CHARGE of New Jersey's "Homeland Security" program. The corruption in New Jersey is exactly what the voters there deserve.

[defconw]

More fun in Jersey!

[Doogle]

Playing politics with the safety or our citizens is unacceptable, but it appears that's exactly what this administration has done," said Kean, R-MonmouthMonmouth. "It is now clear that the administration was instrumental in steering these grants as if they were nothing more than political pork for favored legislative districts."


...when asked why the City Of Newark purchased a sanitation truck with Homeland Security Funds the ever bright,ever quick thinking,often indicted Mayor James said "..it would make a good protective barrier,if needed"

...now being a fellow Jerseyite *smiles*, it didn't take me long to figure out that a normal concrete barrier cost about $1,600...that the truck cost $90,000 and if I had concerns about protective barriers I could have purchased about 56 concrete barriers and if I worked it right probably got 100 with the right connections.
But,I'm not a protected (the "R" word ya know)democratic
Mayor. So life goes on in Jersey.

[Fudd Fan]

DemonicRATs in NJ just pick their $$ off the trees. Even NJ Republicans are liberals but they don't have the power machine that the RATs have here.

Just got your ping, thanks... we were over to one of the boardwalks on the shore of Jersey today.

[defconw]

I knew you would not be shocked!

[freepatriot32]

Libertarian ping.To be added or removed from my ping list freepmail me or post a message here

[BATNF]

The Dems really messed up big time.

[BATNF]

I think the number of funds was about 93% of all Homeland Sec. funnding went to Democrat districts.