YUDIN DEMANDS FEDERAL INVESTIGATION INTO OVERPECK PARK RENOVATION BOONDOGGLE

201-880-1646                                                                   201-891-3111 

‘The biggest patronage pit

since the EnCap project

HACKENSACK NJ –The taxpayers of Bergen county are entitled to a complete public airing of the county government’s extravagant $70 million renovation for Overpeck Park, said Bergen County Republican Organization Chairman Robert Yudin.  

Yudin is also calling for the U.S. Attorney’s office to investigate the payments to key politically-connected firms working on the Overpeck Park project – some of which received no bid contracts and have been paid millions of dollars by county officials.   

Sanzari allegedly benefitted from cut rate dumping fees at Overpeck Park, which netted him millions in additional profit -- at the expense of taxpayers.  

Sanzari was dumping debris from the Xanadu mall project in the Meadowlands as well as debris from a  construction project at Hackensack University Medical Center, according to the Record. 

Sanzari employs State Sen. Paul Sarlo as his firm’s chief operating officer and manager of the Xanadu project. According to the Record article, Sarlo intervened on behalf of Sanzari regarding and overdue $600,000  bill Sanzari owed to the BCIA for dumping at Overpeck.  

“I was sickened when I read the report; sickened by the absolute waste of public money and the complete lack of accountability for how the taxpayer money is being spent at Overpeck,” said Yudin, a former freeholder candidate. 

The BCRO chairman it appears that the patronage system of rewarding  contributors to the Democratic Party with lucrative contracts is still in place in Bergen County despite the conviction state Sen. Joseph Coniglio and the indictment of former County Democratic Party Chairman Joseph Ferriero 

“Nothing has apparently changed in Bergen County government,” said Yudin. “The Democrats are as bold and arrogant as ever and are ripping off taxpayers while rewarding their friends and donors. It has to stop.” 

The Overpeck Park renovation was initially proposed under the previous Republican Administration of Bergen County Executive William “Pat” Schuber.  Schuber’s plan would have cost the county no more than $1 million.  

Since the Democrats took control of county government in 2003 under County Executive Dennis McNerney, the Schuber plan was changed dramatically; ballooning in cost under the jurisdiction of the Bergen County Improvement Authority – an autonomous county agency that operates with practically no oversight by either McNerney or the all-Democratic county freeholder board.
 

To help the BCIA pay for the massively extravagant park renovation, the freeholders authorized spending $18 million from the county open space trust fund, which Yudin argued several weeks ago should be cut in half to prevent the kind of abuses of public money detailed in the Record’s reports. 

“I don’t think taxpayers want their open space money used to pay overpriced consultants or subsidize cut rate dumping fees at the park,” said Yudin.  

PUBLIC HEARING  

Yudin is challenging the freeholders to hold an immediate public hearing on Overpeck Park and bring in the BCIA and all others associated with this project to answer questions raised by the Record report.  He is also asking that the county’s development ombudsman be asked to render a report on the project.   

“Taxpayers are entitled to answers on his this project  -- not excuses, not finger pointing. A public hearing must be held so we can get answers about this boondoggle,” said Yudin. 

Yudin said the Democrats have turned the Overpeck renovations into “the “biggest patronage pit since the EnCap project.”  

“It’s remarkable that the county just kept pouring more and more money into this project and not once did a single freeholder object. Not once did anyone in the county call a halt to this project so the government could get a handle on its costs,” said Yudin.        

“Where is the county executive on this obvious boondoggle? Why didn’t he call a halt to the project and examine the costs?  Has he been influenced by the donations of Mr. Sanzari and PMK executives?” asked Yudin.