IN CASE YOU MISSED IT ...

Turn up the heat on ethics reform

Asbury Park Press, Editorial, September 29, 2006

The executive order signed by Gov. Corzine this week to reform the state's independent authorities was welcome news. Authorities have long been fertile ground for political patronage, pay-to-play abuses and fiscal waste. Corzine aptly described them as an "invisible government" - one that spends billions of dollars each year with minimal oversight.

Corzine's executive order, which applies to more than 50 authorities, including the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and Casino Reinvestment Development Authority, requires authorities to establish open procedures for awarding public contracts, provide more frequent public reports to disclose their activities and coordinate with the state Office of Economic Growth.

Corzine should follow up this important initiative by pressuring the state Democratic leadership to heed Republicans' call this week for a special voting session on ethics reform. While progress has been made in this state, much more work needs to be done. The short list includes: comprehensive pay-to-play reform, a ban on dual office-holding, mandatory jail time and loss of pensions for corrupt public officials, elimination of pension padding and tacking, tightening of anti-nepotism laws, extending the Open Public Records Act to include the legislative branch, a ban on acceptance of gifts by lawmakers and the creation of an independent ethics commission to oversee officials at all levels of government.
Assembly Majority Leader Bonnie Watson Coleman, D-Mercer, a former state Democratic Party chairman, dismissed the Republicans' plan as "a warmed-over stew of existing legislative measures that were cobbled together for politically exploitative purposes six weeks before Election Day."

The ideas are warmed over, all right. They have been simmering in the pot for years under Democratic leadership. If Coleman and her party had put them on the table for a vote years ago, it might have spared many colleagues public humiliation and jail time.

"Politically exploitative?" Nonsense. There are no legislative elections this year, and the Republicans have been clamoring for reform for at least three years. They've had many good reasons for doing so. To cite a few: Robert Torricelli, James E. McGreevey, John A. Lynch, Zulima Farber, Peter C. Harvey, Sharpe James, Wayne Bryant, James Treffinger, Robert C. Janiszewski, Charles Kushner and Robert Menendez.

During his inauguration speech, Corzine identified ethics reform as a top priority. He has taken some positive steps during his first months in office. But given the pervasiveness of corruption in this state at all levels of government, he needs to respond in a manner befitting the problem. A special voting session on ethics would force lawmakers to show their true colors. Corzine must use every weapon in his arsenal to get Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, and Assembly Speaker Joseph J. Roberts Jr., D-Camden, to start posting ethics reform bills for votes.

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