Joe Ferriero

The day after FBI agents seized eight boxes of documents from the law office of Jospeh Ferriero, State Party Chairman Joseph Cryan said he does not plan to ask the Bergen County Democratic chairman to sit out the national convention, which starts next week.

Cryan’s answer to the question about Ferriero was straightforward.

"No," he said. "I’m not going to ask him to stay home."

The Bergen Record reported yesterday that agents stormed the offices of both Ferriero and Bergen County Democratic Organization attorney Dennis Oury.

Tricia Mueller, state director of the Obama campaign, would not comment on Ferriero’s troubles, saying only, "We’re completely deferring to the Democratic Committee."

In recent months, Democrats in general have questioned the timing and political motivations of U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie, a likely Republican gubernatorial candidate.

The search warrant executed on Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero’s law office comes just days before Ferriero, a Clinton delegate, was set to travel to Denver for the Democratic National Convention.

Ferriero could not be reached for comment to say whether his plans have changed regarding today’s events. 

Ferriero’s long-time political foe, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck), said that she won’t take a position on whether or not Ferriero should go.

“I think that’s his decision.  I think this whole thing does cast a dark cloud over Bergen County political activities, but he is not an elected official, he hasn’t been elected to govern, and I hope whatever’s coming out of this happens quickly so that it’s over,” she said.  “The timing is not great given the upcoming election.  So I would hope that it moves quickly and he has a chance to clear his name.”

Bergen County Republican Chairman Bob Yudin today sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Chris Christie asking him to expand his probe of Bergen County officials to the operations and fee structure of the Bergen County Improvement Authority (BCIA).

Yudin pointed to County Executive Dennis McNerney’s appearance at a Glen Rock school board meeting, during which he urged members to use the BCIA to issue bonds for school expansion projects. Members of the school board, however, decided to seek the bonds on their own.

Yudin said that McNerney wanted to strong-arm the school board into accepting the bonds from the BCIA so that Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) allies would stand to earn thousands of dollars in fees.

Over the last decade, Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferrerio has consolidated power with help from a group of unlikely allies: The Bergen County Republican Organization.

Ferriero developed a fundraising machine and got most of his party in lock step behind him.  But bickering and internal disputes in the GOP hurt that party’s ability to provide a counterweight, as did anemic fundraising. 

Bob Yudin, who was elected as county chairman last month, hopes to change that. 

“Since the day I was elected, I have been reaching out,” said Yudin.  “In my acceptance speech and every day I reach out and try to counsel people.  We have to stop the fighting, we have to work together, and it has been effective to some degree already.” 

Among the nearly 1 million residents of Bergen County, approximately 0.4 percent are on the county payroll. But that figure jumps precipitously -- to more than 40 percent -- for one group of Bergen residents in particular: Democratic municipal chairs loyal to Bergen County Democratic Organization chairman Joseph Ferriero. That means that the 70 Democratic municipal chairs and five legislative district leaders in the county are more than 100 times more likely to hold government jobs than the average Bergen County resident.

Joe Ferriero has always maintained that he doesn't control the awarding of government jobs and contracts. But last October, when Republicans accused him of enticing Lyndhurst Mayor Rich DiLascio to switch parties with a $20,000 a year county contract (which was awarded and later withdrawn), Ferriero admitted the obvious -- perhaps accidentally -- to Scott Fallon at The Record: "We chose not to award a contract to him because we didn't want the feeling of impropriety."

Though Ferriero holds no elected position in Bergen County government, he controls how taxpayer resources are allocated. The best-case scenario in such an arrangement is an unaccountable, truly benevolent boss who legitimately looks out for the best interests of county residents. But when Ferriero decides how and when to allocate government resources, the top determining factors are not competency or efficiency, but rather which choice will help him further amass money, consolidate power and ultimately steer contracts to the law firm where he is a partner. No attempt was made to hide this from his bio on the firm's website: "Mr. Ferriero has been appointed by various municipalities throughout New Jersey as Borough Attorney, Special Labor Counsel, Special Litigation Counsel, and Environmental Counsel, and has served as Tax Appeal Counsel to various municipalities and corporate clients as well."

Perhaps the most egregious example of Ferriero's abuse of taxpayer money dates back to November, 2004. Again, it was The Record that reported: "A county police officer racked up more than $1,000 in overtime while chauffeuring Bergen County Democratic boss Joseph Ferriero to Yankees games and to an Atlantic City casino, Police Department records show."

If The Record keeps this up, in a few years it'll be Ferriero penning the update to former U.S. Sen. Bob Torricelli's premature death notice for the Bergen County paper, which in 2006 was awarded the prestigious IRE Medal for investigative journalism.

The Star-Ledger reports that the feds’ investigation of Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero has expanded, with subpoenas issued to the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, where he’s chief counsel.

Two separate subpoenas were sent to the commission: one demanding all its records dealing with Ferriero’s law firm, Scarinci Hollenbeck, and one demanding records for a company Ferriero founded in 2001 called SVC consulting along with records related to the PR firm Vision Media.

In October, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, a Ferriero rival, denounced the amount of money spent by several county agencies, including the Passaic Valley Sewerage Commission, on consultants. Among the complaints about Vision Media was that a coloring book was the only evidence of its work for the commission.

The 1988 political landscape in Bergen County bears little resemblance to today's.

Former President George H.W. Bush carried the county against Michael Dukakis. Bill McDowell, a Republican, was the county executive, having been elected to the newly created office of two years earlier. Republicans controlled the freeholder board 7-0, and Republican Assemblywoman Kathleen Donovan had just been elected to her first five-year term as county clerk.

Times have changed, to say the least. Democrats have a popular incumbent county executive and hold all the freeholder seats. Only Donovan has managed to stay on top of the rising Democratic tide, and stands today as the only Republican county-wide officeholder in a place where the GOP has become the perennial minority party.

After 20 years in office, Donovan is the sole obstacle to County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero's quest for complete county-wide domination - even if she holds an unglamorous office, where the primary responsibilities are overseeing election ballots, issuing passports and recording deeds and mortgages.

The county committee races in legislative district 37 led to a war of words today between Englewood Mayor Michael Wildes and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, which even led to an argument about what kind of car each of them drives.

In response to Wildes’s claim that the Real Bergen Democrats have dispatched more than a dozen out-of-state canvassers who appear “grungy,” state Sen. Loretta Weinberg said that grunginess is in the eye of the beholder.

“I happen to think (Wildes) grungy, and it has nothing to do with his appearance,” said Weinberg. “It has to do with his political affiliations.”

Wildes is a consistent foe of Weinberg, and last year aborted a primary challenge against her after she brokered a peace with Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero. That agreement broke down six months after it was made, however, and the county committee fights in Englewood, Bergenfield and Teaneck are the feud’s latest manifestations.

Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero and State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, in 2007State Sen. Loretta Weinberg insists that the county committee battle between the Real Bergen Democrats and the Bergen County Democratic Organization isn’t a contest of personalities between her and Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joe Ferriero.

“It’s not because they’re affiliated with me. And I know that the press keeps saying this, and I know I’m the face of this movement, but there are hundreds of people who are involved in this, and what they are affiliated with is they don’t like the way our party is operating and how it’s been operating,” she said.

But Weinberg would love to see Ferriero’s dominance of the party diminished, and the Real Bergen Democrats have latched onto his subpoena by U.S. Attorney Chris Christie to help their cause. Weinberg allies even recently put out a mailer on the subject.

Published reports that Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero has been subpoenaed as part of a federal criminal probe related to his ownership of a company that helps secure government grants could – and likely will -- turn New Jersey’s political landscape upside-down. Bergen is still politically competitive, but Ferriero’s fundraising and organization has kept Democrats in the victory column. Some insiders suggest that Ferriero’s current legal woes will hamper his ability to raise money, and allow his rival, State Sen. Loretta Weinberg, to enhance her clout among Bergen Democrats.