ALLEN: ASKS CHEN TO SUPPORT RELEASE OF SECRET TURNPIKE REPORT

ALLEN: ASKS CHEN TO SUPPORT RELEASE OF SECRET TURNPIKE REPORT
Letter Requests Public Advocate File Amicus Brief In Support Of Beck/ Kean Lawsuit
 

            Senator Diane Allen, (R-7), sent a letter today to New Jersey’s Public Advocate Ronald Chen asking that he reconsider his refusal to examine Governor Corzine’s secret plan to sell New Jersey’s toll roads.  In the letter Senator Allen asks the Public Advocate to file an Amicus brief in support of Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck’s and Assemblyman Sean Kean’s lawsuit in Mercer County superior court to release the Steer Davies and Gleave report. Copies of the letters are attached.

            “I am disappointed by the Public Advocate’s support of the governor’s policy of secrecy regarding his plan to sell out toll roads,” Allen stated. “When I voted to confirm Ronald Chen as New Jersey’s Public Advocate I was assured that he would support openness and transparency in state government with vigor.  I hope he reconsiders his decision and takes a stand against secrecy and concealment.”

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                                                                        October 4, 2007

Honorable Ronald K. Chen

Public Advocate

Department of the Public Advocate

240 West State Street

P.O. Box 851

Trenton, New Jersey  08625-0851

Dear Public Advocate Chen:

            Thank you for your July 24th letter outlining your reasons for declining to take an immediate and active role in providing for greater transparency and public disclosure with respect to Governor Corzine’s proposal to sell the State’s toll roads to a nebulously-defined “public benefit corporation” that would act as a successor to the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and possibly the South Jersey Transportation Authority.

As your departmental web site states, “one of the core functions of the Department of the Public Advocate is to protect the public interest.” The Governor’s plan to sell the State’s toll roads has proceeded under a veil of secrecy that is abhorrent to any person committed to an open and transparent government.  Worse still, the administration has expended at least $4.5 million in taxpayer funds to advance its scheme and has refused to provide members of the Legislature, the media and the public at-large with any meaningful information on their plans.  These actions should cause great disquiet to an official with a statutorily-charged duty to  protect the “broad public interest.”

The most recent, and egregious, example of this policy of official secrecy involves an $887,000 taxpayer-funded report that contains critical information about what will happen in the event that the Corzine Administration succeeds in raising tolls as part of their plan to sell, lease, or monetize State highways.  The Department of the Treasury received and paid for the “Traffic and Revenue Report,” prepared by Steer Davies and Gleave, Ltd., an international private consulting company, more than four months ago. This report contains information on the consequences of raising tolls, which is the key provision in the Governor’s plan.  Despite requests to make this document public, and a request to release it pursuant to the “Open Public Records Act,” the administration refuses to provide the public with access to a document that their tax dollars have paid for.

The Governor’s effort to conceal this key element of his toll road sale proposal is itself an action that contravenes the “broad public interest,” and therefore requires a response on the part of your department.   Fortunately, recent events have now afforded you the opportunity to take a role in protecting the broad public interest before it is injured, rather than waiting to act until after the public interest has been compromised.

As you are no doubt aware, Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck and Assemblyman Sean Kean have filed suit in Mercer County Superior Court to compel the Governor to comply with the provisions of the “Open Public Records Act” and release the Steer Davies and Gleave, Ltd. report.  Consistent with your department’s statutory mandate of making government more accountable and responsive to the needs of New Jersey residents, I respectfully request that you intervene in this matter by filing an amicus brief in support of the plaintiff’s efforts to justifiably bring about the release of this report.

Thank you for your prompt attention to this request.   If you wish to discuss this matter further, please do not hesitate to contact me.

                                                                        Very truly yours,

                                                                        Diane B. Allen

                                                                                    Senator, District 7