WAYNE,  NJ  -- Passaic County Republican Party Chairman Scott Rumana’s excuses about the reason behind the secretive emergency meeting of municipal GOP chairman he called last week demonstrate his lack of integrity and honesty, say members of GOP Strong, a conservative Republican group. Rumana’s attempts to host a meeting last Monday, December 29 to to give Christopher Christie’s advanceman, Bill Palatucci; a special opportunity to address the municipal leaders and gain their support for Christie’s run for governor, was criticized by GOP Strong and at least one other candidate in the Republican gubernatorial primary election --  Richard Merkt, a Morris County Assemblyman. Merkt  issued a press release saying he was “surprised -- and frankly more than a little disappointed," at Rumana’s actions and for failing to open up the gubernatorial interview process to himself and other candidates in the race, such as former Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan. and Franklin Township Mayor Brian Levine.  Merkt said the attempted meeting with Palatucci was “improper” according to the Politickernj.com article written by Max Pizzaro.   Rumana tried to defend his actions in a report on Politickernj.com saying that the meeting was regularly scheduled and that Palatucci’s visit was just a last minute attempt to fill up the meeting agenda.   GOP Strong Co-Chair Michael Mecca says Rumana’s excuses “are pitifully lame.” Why, asked Mecca, if the meeting was regularly scheduled, did Rumana have his inner circle making calls to GOP municipal chairman on the Sunday night before the meeting?   “If you are having a regularly scheduled meeting of the municipal chair people or the county committee, people usually know about it in advance and you don’t need to have your staffers making frantic calls on Sunday night to come to a Monday meeting,” said Mecca “Where was the advance notice of this meeting posted on the Rumana’s refrigerator?” When only three municipal chairmen showed up, Rumana disbanded the meeting, which GOP Strong labeled “a flop”. Others have noted the attempt to favor Christie is reminiscent of the blunder in Bergen County last year, when former chairman Robert Ortiz tried to do an end run around Senate candidate Joseph Pennachio and get the party to support Andy Unanue.    Rumana insists the meeting was not a flop and that Palatucci’s presence was innocent.“I needed something on the agenda,” said Rumana to Politickernj.com  “If Chairman Rumana, who is also a state Assemblyman, can’t figure out what to put on an agenda at this time -- when New Jersey is in a financial free fall  -- then he should either resign from the assembly or the chairmanship or both,”  said GOP Co-Chair Michael Ramaglia of Wayne.   “We have a state in crisis; our towns are under siege by new state mandates on low income housing; property taxes are going through the roof, we have a pension crisis and the governor is going to cut state aid to municipalities and the people in District 40 are going to be hurting,” said Ramaglia.    “Does Scott Rumana mean to tell us that he is unprepared to discuss any of these issues or to formulate a plan with the county committee on how Republicans should respond to these issues and use them in the upcoming election?     “He is either not telling the truth about the meeting or he is advertising his incompetence to be chairman,” said Ramaglia, who noted that there have been no regular county committee meetings in months.    “Rumana runs a closed shop. He is using his chairmanship to benefit his political career. And right now, he is trying to engineer party support for Chris Christie because he wants to run for re-election to the assembly on the ticket with Mr. Christie” said Mecca, who has called for Rumana to step down as chairman.   The third GOP-Co Chair Robert Fass of Wayne said Rumana is failing to energize the party and failing to run a transparent organization.      “I would hope that the party leaders would make the gubernatorial nomination process as open as possible. I’d like to meet Mr. Christie or his representative, and I would also like to hear what Merkt and Lonegan have to say about why they want to be governor,” said Fass.   “As a rank and file Republican, I don’t see anyone from the Passaic County organization reaching out to me to ask for my help or to inform me about the issues this state is facing or the Republican strategy. The lack of energetic leadership in the Republican party is very discouraging,” added Fass.