RUMANA GRANDSTANDS WHILE DEMOCRAT FREEHOLDERS SPEND MORE TAXPAYER MONEY

Mike Mecca -201-852-1067        

WAYNE NJ -- While Passaic County Republican Party Chairman Scott Rumana was playing insider politics last night, the county’s all Democratic freeholder board was approving another $614,517 in spending on the over budget addition to Preakness Healthcare Center.     

The Preakness project is months behind schedule and millions of dollars over cost, according to recent news reports.

At the beginning of the year, when the194,000-square-foot expansion of the long-term health care facility in Wayne, was do to open, the  Passaic County freeholders approved another $1.6 million in change orders and okayed $698,000 to extend the contract with Gilbane Construction Co., the company managing the project. 

Last night, the freeholders approved another $614,517 in change orders, according to Bruno Varano, a Republican freeholder for GOP Strong – a conservative political action group in Passaic County. 

“This Preakness project is simply out of control, there is no accountability to  taxpayers,” says Varano, who is running with Debra Andriani and Robert Cruz, for freeholder and Kristin Corrado running for county clerk. 

Cruz noted that Rumana’s organization candidates “have not commented once on the Preakness cost overruns and “appear totally ignorant of the issue and, alarmingly unconcerned about how taxpayer money is being spent.”

“It’s no wonder that Rumana has been unable to run competitive freeholder campaigns, His organization does not even bother to track county issues or to hold the Democrats’ feet to the fire when they are spending taxpayer money so recklessly,” said Cruz of Pompton Lakes.

Rumana chose last night, a freeholder meeting night, to convene a meeting of county Republican leaders to bash his GOP political opponents. 

Mr. Rumana does not seem to understand that his job as chairman is take the fight to the Democrats – to be the watchdog of county government --  not to engage in petty political games for his personal benefit,” said GOP Strong Co-Chair Michael Ramaglia.

 "The best thing the Democrats in Passaic County have going for them is Scott Rumana as Republican Party Chairman,” he added. “As long as Rumana is chairman, they can do anything they want and he and his candidates don’t say anything.”

The all-Democrat freeholder board borrowed $87.5 million for the Preakness  project, which was supposed to be completed last year. More than $65 million has been spent on the expansion and another $22.5 million has been earmarked for so called soft costs, such as furniture.  

“The state is mired in a horrible recession and the freeholder board goes on spending taxpayer money like they were printing it in the basement of the county administration building,” said Andriani, a mother of three. 

“The freeholder board has no respect for taxpayers and how hard they work,” she said.