Corzine expects to work with state board to pick new Agriculture Secretary

As it examines who will succeed state Secretary of Agriculture Charles Kuperus, the New Jersey Board of Agriculture finds itself in the awkward position of trying to negotiate with a governor who last year considered scrapping the department in its current form.

In an effort to save cash, Gov. Jon Corzine wanted to subordinate Agriculture to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP), a move universally condemned by stewards of New Jersey's 9,600 working farms, some of whom rumbled down West State Street in tractors of defiance.

The Secretary of Agriculture is the only cabinet appointment not made by the Governor.  The State Constitution gives the appointment power to the Board of Agriculture.  The Governor can that approve or veto their choice.

Having weathered the Highlands Act political war earlier in his career, and lately in a cliffhanger with his off-again, on-again department, Kuperus announced his resignation from overseeing the department's $9.3 million budget, effective at the end of this year.

He says he's not bitter at all, and points out in defense of Corzine that from the beginning he made the budgetary suggestion at the Statehouse, the governor was clear that he was only initiating a public conversation.

"Like anything with respect to public service, you have to be looking ahead," said Kuperus, a farmer, a former Sussex County freeholder and a Republican who was named to the post by Gov. James E. McGreevey after the 2001 election.   "The state has very significant issues. We happen to be a small agency, but one that touches every New Jerseyan's life. Even the Hudson County Board of Freeholders declared that they wanted the Department of Agriculture preserved, in part because we helped them when they had a longhorn beetle outbreak."

In the lead-up to his departure, the eight-member Board of Agriculture - made up of farmers and other agricultural industry reps - is set in the middle of this month to review between 12 and 20 applications from those who wish to be the new secretary, a job that pays $141,000 a year.

Corzine says he doesn't anticipate road-blocking the board's recommendations. Neither does he expect to just sign off on the name they forward.

"We hope to work with the Board to identify a replacement," said Corzine Press Secretary Sean Darcy.

Those who preside over farming districts - everywhere from Cumberland and Salem nursery and greenhouse land to Burlington and Atlantic counties' blackberry and cranberry country to Monmouth horse country to North Jersey ma and pa ops - want to make sure the governor first of all takes account of someone with the fundamental knowledge base of farming.

"We need somebody who will be an advocate for the farmers and for keeping farmers in New Jersey and on their farms," said state Sen. Steven Oroho (R-Sussex).

Two Board members contacted by PolitickerNJ.com add that they want an appointee who has enough political savvy to advocate for agricultural concerns at the cabinet level without getting pushed around by the governor - or anyone else in Trenton.

"We need someone who is well-versed in New Jersey agriculture, and who also has the political experience to deal with what is a very real political and financial crisis," said Board Vice President Robert Matarazzo, a wine, pumpkin and apple producer. "We do generate a lot of federal funds to help with some of programs, but the current governor is trying to cut wherever he can and we seem to be one of his favorite targets. In failing to eliminate us, he has cut our budget so bad we won't be able to function.

Matarazzo wants someone to champion the interests of his industry.

"We need someone who can go in there and say, ‘I represent agricultural community and not play along with the Trenton mindset that says if ‘I support your bill if you support my bill,'" Matarazzo added.

Like Matarazzo, Board Member Andrew Borisuk says the new secretary needs to be able to get in there and stand firm within what the corn grower says is an anti-farming atmosphere in Trenton.

"We saw the governor try to dilute the agriculture department, while the DEP is gaining strength and getting more intrusive in everyone's life," Borisuk said. "But just as we replace secretaries of agriculture, we replace governors.

"He's taken a ridiculous stand on the bear issue," the farmer added of Corzine. "I've been in Vernon since 1962, and I never saw a bear until the mid to late nineties, let alone the destruction I've watched in the last few years. But Trenton ignores all this stuff as they seem to fall prey to their animal rights constituency."

The board members aren't the only ones who believe the next secretary of agriculture will need a sturdy political backbone as much as a strong knowledge of New Jersey farming issues as he or she tries to keep propped upright a department under siege.

"The governor has been less than a staunch and stalwart supporter of the Department of Agriculture, and very slow to confirm appointments in general," said Assemblywoman Marcia Karrow (R-Flemington). "I'm hopeful the Board of Agriculture will come up with a name they're comfortable with and that the governor's comfortable with: an advocate for the same department he tried to blow up."

Karrow, a Republican running for the state senate seat in District 23, says she would like Kuperus's successor to aggressively educate Trenton about the economic viability of New Jersey agriculture, which annually contributes $60 billion to the state's economy.

"One problem is they appoint people from North Jersey who don't know a lot about South Jersey agricultural issues," said Vineland Mayor Bob Romano.

Farmers and farming advocates privately worry that the board won't be able to get the name of an agricultural fireball across the desk of the governor. What will happen, board members say, is the board will present the governor with the names of people, and Corzine will select a nominee from those names to present to the state Senate.

One name that comes up in conversation as a possible successor to Kuperus is Assemblyman Doug Fisher (D-Bridgeton), deputy majority whip, who chairs the Assembly's Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee and is a longstanding champion of the state's Food Innovation Center.

Fisher won't comment on the job - either his own interest in it, his chances of landing the position, or anyone else's, for that matter.

"No comment, other than that I'm slugging for the department, and strong, good relationships with the governor and the board as well," said Fisher.

Greg Romano, assistant director of the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and brother of the mayor of Vineland, said the next person who serves as secretary of agriculture will have to not only possess good political and communications skills, but the ability to join other interest groups in the common cause of agriculture.

"The successful candidate needs to appeal to more than the agricultural community, and needs to be able to build constituencies in, for example, the Hispanic labor community, the environmental community, etc," Romano said. "He needs to be able to reduce this statewide history of us versus them."
Borisuk thinks he knows the best person for the job.

"I would like to see Charlie come back, or someone like Charlie," the board member said of retiring Secretary Kuperus.  "Charlie was wrongly criticized over the Highlands Act. What people don't understand is agricultural land is somewhat exempt from the harsh rules of the Highlands, and that was Charlie who achieved that in the bargaining process. In any event, because Democrats were in charge, the whole Highlands thing became inevitable."

Kuperus, who commutes four and a half hours each day from his home in Sussex to his job in Trenton, said he doesn't think of returning to work on his farm in the north as retiring, and takes special pride in the fact that during his tenure the state's farmland preservation program saved 84,000 acres.

"There is urgency to our work," he said. "We must make sure we preserve enough of that farmland as we can possibly can. We can't lose land. We need a base.

"I don't want to recommend anyone to succeed me," Kuperus added.  "I want them to go through that vetting process."