Bergen Republicans want to save 'home rule'

ROCHELLE PARK -- In this one square mile town of 5,000, two Republican freeholder candidates, several local elected officials and one conservative activist held a press conference today to rail Bergen County's Democratic government and what they characterized as its assault on home rule.

It's the latest campaign theme of Republicans Chris Calabrese, Paul Duggan and Jeff Heller, who are running for freeholder in what has the potential to be a competitive race against Democratic incumbents David Ganz, Bernadette McPherson and Vernon Walton.

The Republicans call it a "campaign to save small towns" - or, to be exact, the 35 small Bergen County municipalities that County Executive Dennis McNerney hopes will at least consider consolidation.

Bergen County is made up of 70 municipalities, and is often cited as the prime example of the "boroughitis" that prevailed in the late 19th century, when small boroughs split off from larger townships.  The Republicans present raised the specter of a large, multi-town government being run similarly to what they said were less transparent governments in big cities like Newark and Paterson.

Duggan, who's running against Walton, managed to tie his opponent in with Governor Corzine and Democratic County Chairman Joe Ferriero - who's on leave pending his trial on eight corruption counts -- in one sentence.

"I believe the indicted chairman and his freeholders have been fronting for Governor Corzine and carrying his water. They have not been advocates for the Bergen County taxpayers," he said, adding that the county government ought to look at consolidating its own workforce before its leaders lecture small town officials.

Calabrese said that small towns have the most efficient form of government.

"They don't need Trenton bureaucrats and county politicians to tell them how to do it," said Calabrese.

Heller did not attend the press conference.

Ganz responded that he's never supported forced consolidation of towns, and that during his tenure as mayor of Fair Lawn, he "stood squarely behind home rule."

"Both freeholder McPherson and I understand very clearly the importance of home rule.  These guys can say what they want to say but our record speaks for itself," said Ganz.

But the Republicans said they were criticizing Ganz not for his actions, but for his inaction.  Where was he, they asked, when Gov. Corzine cut $4.1 million in state aid to Bergen County's small communities?

"His claim is bogus, because at the beginning of the year when McNerney rolled out the Corzine/Ferriero plan, Mr. Ganz was silent and nowhere to be seen.  And he's only piping up now after his little tete-a-tete with the FBI," said Duggan, referring to federal investigators' interview of Ganz over the summer related to the Ferriero probe (Ganz has not been charged, and said that he was explicitly informed that he was not a target of the investigation).

Rochelle Park Mayor Joe Scarpa called out the county government for hypocrisy in saying that local governments were wasting money.

"County Executive Dennis McNerney, the freeholders and indicted county chairman Joe Ferriero also say small towns are the problem.  At the same time they increased the county's budget by $27 million and raised county taxes," he said.

And conservative activist Steve Lonegan - the former mayor of the small borough of Bogota - was on hand to call the idea of consolidation "a power grab by Trenton that wants to take any obstacles out of the way to their big government agenda and their social engineering."

Scarpa and the Republican freeholder candidate also decried petitions that have circulated in several Bergen County towns - including Rochelle Park - that would put on the ballot the question of whether towns will authorize a study through  the state's Department of Community Affairs over whether consolidation and/or shared services would save money.  Some of those petitions' signers have asked to have their names removed, saying they did not know that they raised the possibility of consolidation.

McNerney, for his part, noted that he had no authority to merge towns - only the state did.  Attempts to cast him as trying to do so underhandedly, he said, were disingenuous.

In principle, however, McNerney believes that consolidation is an option that should at least be studied.

"If the Mayor of Rochelle Park is opposed to the American way of letting the voters decide, that's the mayor of Rochelle Park's decision," he said.

Responding to charges that he provided no statistical evidence that merging towns saves money, McNerney said that's exactly the reason he wants the state to study it.  And as far as Bergen County goes, McNerney said that they are reducing their workforce.

McNerney even suggested that Scarpa was against the idea of merging towns because he fears his job as Borough Administrator of Emerson could be at risk.

"I guess he should be at his job now instead of having a press conference.  He's a walking example of why we should have regionalization," said McNerney.