Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero wants Gordon Johnson to "heed is own advice" and decide if he wants to serve in the State Assembly or on the Englewood Council.  Johnson, a Democrat, called for the elimination of dual officeholding at a government reform press conference this week.

“I am calling on the Assemblyman and the Councilman to lead by example and follow his own suggestion,” Ferriero said in a letter to Johnson. “Without the action to back it up, Gordon’s plan amounts to little more than a lecture to the people of the 37th District to ‘Do as I say…not as I serve."

Johnson and his running mates, State Sen. Loretta Weinbeg and Assemblywoman Valerie Vainieri Huttle, recently offered a five-point plan aimed at ‘cleaning up New Jersey.’ The plan calls for eliminating potential conflicts in the legislature by eliminating dual office holding and requiring that those who serve in the Senate or Assembly hold ‘legislator’ as their sole means of employment.

It not really about the “generous gift beneath the tree” as the Ledger headline suggested in its story about State Senator Ellen Karcher’s property being assessed as farmland (Oct. 5, 2007). It’s really about so much more.

Let’s start with the issue of Farmer Ellen’s incomplete financial disclosure: $515 in annual farm income may not be much to make hay about. That’s all the gross agricultural sales it takes for a seven acre property to qualify for the property tax reduction under State tax law. Still, the legislature’s financial disclosure statement does require all income be reported.