COUNTY GOP ASKS U.S. ATTORNEY TO INVESTIGATE OPERATION OF BCIA AFTER McNERNEY’S ARM TWISTING IN GLEN ROCK

Agency that Loaned $103 Million To EnCap Is Generating Fees to Satisfy Payoffs To Political Donors 

 HACKENSACK -- The Bergen County Republican Organization has written to the U.S. Attorney for New Jersey, Chris Christie, to ask that the federal investigation into Bergen County Democrats be broadened to include the fee structure and general operations of the Bergen County Improvement Authority and the conduct of the county executive in pressuring towns to make loan arrangements through the BCIA.   

Two weeks ago County Executive Dennis McNerney attended a Glen Rock School Board meeting to pressure the board into taking a $45 million loan through the BCIA. McNerney attended the meeting after learning that the school board had rejected the BCIA offer. The board said it rejected the offer because the arrangement were unrealistically optimistic and the fees too high.

In his letter to Christie, BCRO chairman Robert Yudin noted that this was not the first time that the McNerney has been seeking work for the BCIA, which also loaned $103 million to the now bankrupt EnCap Company, whose meadowlands golf and housing project was shut down by the state early this year. 

In published reports in the Record newspaper it has been noted that McNerney has habitually tried to strong arm communities and school boards to borrow money through the BCIA. A May 15, 2005 Record article noted that: “Since taking office in 2003, McNerney has pressed towns around Bergen County to use the BCIA to finance big projects. But only three, Fair Lawn, Wyckoff and Englewood have taken the offer.” 
 

Cresskill officials rejected the county’s offer in May 2005 and were summarily criticized by McNerney as the freeholder board brazenly passed a resolution condemning Cresskill for refusing the BCIA offer. Similarly McNerney tried to brow beat the Ramsey School Board into taking a BCIA loan offer in 2003.

“I think what Dennis McNerney and the freeholder board are trying to do, is to strong arm communities that refuse the BCIA and to do it in such a public way that other communities will be reluctant to refuse the BCIA offer, even if it not the best financing plan for them,” said GOP Freeholder candidate Chris Calabrese, an Upper Saddle River resident and Rutherford businessman.

“I think this kind of conduct borders on criminal arm twisting. McNerney is saying, ‘borrow money from us, even if it’s not in your best interest, or I will go to press and try to make you look bad.’ That’s not what the county should be doing,” said Calabrese. 

FEE GENERATING ORGANIZATION  

At issue, says the GOP is the BCIA fees that go to reward Democrat consultants and donors, while increasing the county debt.

“It’s all about the fees generated by the BCIA loans and paid to those who donate big money to the Bergen Democrat freeholder and Dennis McNerney,” said GOP freeholder candidate Jeffrey Heller, a former Ramsey Councilman.   “Why else would McNerney be so desperate to get towns to borrow money from a county agency?

BCIA fees and the loan arrangement with Fair Lawn were a big issue in the borough’s 2005 mayoral election in which incumbent mayor and current freeholder David Ganz was ousted from his mayoral post.

In that case, Republicans Ed Trawinski and Jeanne Baratta uncovered a loan scheme that included $207,000 in consultant fees paid for by taxpayers. Those fees ended up in the hands of firms and individuals who donated to Ganz and the Bergen County Democratic Organization, including $5,000 to BCDO attorney Dennis Oury, who is currently under federal investigation.

FAILED TO ASK ENCAP QUESTIONS

The BCIA was used as a conduit to funnel state money to the failed EnCap company – which is now under federal and state investigation.  EnCap has since filed bankruptcy. In a report on the BCIA loan published in the Star Ledger on July 7, it was noted that:

“The Bergen County Improvement Authority never asked for records explaining how EnCap would use its $103 million loan. Authority spokesman Keith Furlong said that's because the loan was financed by private investors who bought bonds issued by the authority, and not by taxpayers.”

“How can the BCIA loan $103 million to an agency and not ask any questions about what the money is going to be used for?” asked Calabrese.

Calabrese said the only conceivable reason the BCIA was selected to make loans to EnCap was to generate fees for donors to Bergen Democrats.

‘The U.S. Attorney should investigate how and why money for a state project like EnCap was funneled through the BCIA. It has to be about the fees,” said Calabrese.

Indeed, the Record newspaper reported that one of the biggest beneficiaries of the BCIA loan to EnCap was again Oury, who made $50,000 from the loan.

A ROGUE AGENCY  

The GOP says the BCIA is operating as a rouge fee generating organization with little or no oversight by the freeholder board.

 “The BCIA is a shadowy organization that apparently reports to no one and benefits from having Dennis McNerney act as its front man,” said GOP candidate Paul Duggan. “Only the U.S. Attorney has the power to pierce the shield of secrecy that surrounds the BCIA.” 

Yudin noted in his letter that: “There are a great many things the public does not know about the operations of the BCIA that I am sure would be of extreme interest to taxpayers. The BCIA seems to operate with little oversight by the county’s elected officials and with practically no transparency whatsoever.”