Joseph Sanzari

Newark Mayor Cory Booker, the front runner for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013, will headline a fundraiser next month for Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).  The chairman of Sarlo's fundraising event is his boss, literally: North Jersey developer Joseph Sanzari.

Embattled contractor Joseph Sanzari was told he could not join other dignitaries on the stage when Vice President Joseph Biden visited a construction site in Bergen County last week - a move that left Sanzari off the charts angry, according to sources familiar with the event.  Sanzari's partner in the construction project on Route 46 and Main Street in Lodi, Fletcher Creamer, was also denied a spot on the dais. 

It is not clear who told Sanzari that he was not welcome on the dais.

Biden joined Gov. Jon Corzine and U.S. Senators Frank Lautenberg (D-Cliffside Park ) and Robert Menendez (D-Hoboken) in Lodi to tout the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which will help fund upgrades to Route 46 bridges.  Sanzari and Creamer were awarded a construction contract on that project.  Other contractors were permitted to join Biden at the event.

Update: "The leadership of the Hackensack University Medical Center Board of Governors consulted with the hospital administration and everyone agreed to reverse the decision regarding The Record. We apologize to our patients and our staff for any inconvenience, and we apologize to The Record.  We are putting this incident behind us and moving forward." -- Statement issued by Rubenstein Associates on behalf of the HUMC Board.

Ignoring Mark Twain's advice about not picking fights with people who buy ink by the barrel, the increasingly tone deaf Hackensack University Medical Center (HUMC) will no longer advertise in The Record, and has banned the newspaper from being sold or distributed on hospital property.  The move appears to be retaliatory: The Record ran a story on Sunday that "detailed how various board members help to underwrite Bergen County's Democratic leadership and how several trustees do business with the hospital - a practice prohibited at some North Jersey hospitals." The Record also ran a hard-hitting story this week on contractor Joseph Sanzari, a major donor and HUMC player. 

HUMC may have a stronger case on pulling advertising than it does by banning the newspaper from their property.

The relationship between the hospital and politics was underscored recently by the conviction of former State Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus) on federal corruption charges.  HUMC, which was not prosecuted and where one individual received immunity in order to testify, had hired Coniglio as a $5,000-per-month plumbing consultant, a move a jury found was to facilitate a the receipt in millions of dollars in state funds.

The feud between The Record, which actually defied the newspaper industry with an increase in circulation this year, and HUMC can't be good news for Bergen County Democrats.  Michael Kasparian, who succeeded Joseph Ferriero as County Chairman, is also a major player at HUMC, and Bill Maer, a political consultant for the BCDO, is also a HUMC lobbyist.  Kasparian ran on a platform that included a pledge for mandatory ethics training for party leaders; he has since decided that ethics training will be optional.  (And to The Record's credit, they noted that their Vice President and General Counsel, Jennifer Borg, is also on the HUMC board.)

The Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO), which in the past year has seen indictments of its party chairman, counsel and the conviction of a state senator, set up an ethics training program for all county committee members and party officials last week.

The program, however, is not mandatory, which BCDO chairman Michael Kasparian called for when he was first seeking to replace indicted Chairman Joseph Ferriero. 

Kasparian made ethics training a major part of his campaign to succeed Ferriero, listing it as the first item of his six plank platform.  Although not mandatory, he's encouraging county committee members to go one of two routes: either attend a May 20 ethics training seminar at Bergen Community College, where Gov. Jon Corzine will be a guest, or watch a Power Point presentation online before submitting a test. 

"The county committee people are elected officials, so as a private organization, it's not the chairman's intent to make this mandatory," said BCDO counsel Joe Ariyan, who added that he did not believe that Kasparian had the legal authority to force ethics training on committee members, even if he wanted to.  "It is encouraged, because the chairman ran on a platform in part on ethics reform, awareness and transparency."

The 26-page Power Point presentation was put together by retired Superior Court Judge Daniel Mecca.  It does not delve into exhaustive detail, instead covering the basics of potential conflicts created by business relationships with local entities, fundraising, event attendance, gift acceptance and other prohibited outside activities.  It outlines when should recuse themselves, and penalties they can face if they do not. 

The Record is going for a grand slam in Bergen County politics: after strong stories that have affected the careers of former Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, former Stat e Sen. Joseph Coniglio (D-Paramus), and Encap, the newspaper is printing some very tough stories on Joseph Sanzari, a politically powerful contractor.  Today’s story by Jeff Pillets, about Sanzari dumping “fill and construction debris at the Overpeck Park site for two years without being charged, while other haulers paid by the truckload” is a must read.   Click here to read.

Union leader Buzz Dressel is expected to run for Bergen County Democratic Chairman if Joe Ferriero is ousted.

The International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local Union 164 endorsed Republican Henry McNamara for Bergen County Executive in 2002 at the request of Democratic powerhouse John Lynch, according to Richard "Buzz" Dressel, the business manager for the local.  Lynch, a former Senate President, is now serving a 39 month sentence after pleading guilty to federal corruption charges.

If there is contest to replace indicted Bergen County Democratic Chairman Joseph Ferriero, Dressel is expected to face off against Michael Kasparian, a real estate developer and Democratic fundraiser with ties to Ferriero.  Dressel says the IBEW's endorsements of McNamara and GOP County Clerk Kathleen Donovan won't hamper his ability to replace Ferriero.  He says the union was backing McNamara because he was stronger in his opposition to the Xanadu project than the eventual winner, Democrat Dennis McNerney.  And he says even Ferriero tried to get Donovan to seek re-election last year as a Democrat.

State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge), who met with Kasparian today, says Dressel shouldn't be penalized for a couple of union endorsements.

"That was his union, it wasn't specifically Buzzy," said Sarlo.   "Look, if the county committee picks him he would have to guarantee that all endorsements out of that union hall are Democratic."

At 3,500 members, Dressel's local is the largest electrical construction workers union in the state.

"That's the largest union in Bergen County, and the fact that he's the president could turn into a big positive for him," said Sarlo.

Dressel's union, whose campaign contributions included one to GOP gubernatorial candidate Bret Schundler in 2001, will endorse only Democrats from now on.  "Without a doubt," he told PolitickerNJ.com.

"We need to bring credibility back to the Bergen County Democratic Party," added Dressel, a Commissioner of the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority. "This is not the Democratic Party my grandfather was a part of. We're supposed to be connecting people to the process, and that's what I want to do. I want to bring the party back together. I'd actually be calling for meetings and a transparent process. Meanwhile, there's somebody running against me who is unequivocally Joe Ferriero's clone."

On his way in to meet with Paramus developer and Democratic Party fundraiser Kasparian today, State Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Bergen) dismissed the rumor of a conflict and said Dressell shouldn't be penalized for backing a Republican or two.

CORODEMUS: TURNPIKE AUTHORITY CHAIRMAN SHOULD BE REMOVED FROM POST FOR ETHICS VIOLATION

REPORTS INDICATE CHAIRMAN ACCEPTED FREE FLIGHTS ON CONTRACTOR'S PRIVATE AIRPLANE

Paul Sarlo, a 37-year-old Democratic State Senator and the Mayor of Wood-Ridge, is viewed as a man of considerable political ambition. When it looked as though Richard Codey might be moving on to the United States Senate, Sarlo was actively seeking votes for Senate President. He is keeping an eye on the ninth disrict House seat, in case Congressman Steven Rothman decides to run for something else down the road. And Democrats know know Sarlo well say the assume he has his other eye on Drumthwacket. But first Sarlo must win re-election to the Senate in a district where the GOP says Sarlo's business and family ties could put the 36th into play. Republican insiders believe that Sarlo's day job, as a civil engineer for a construction company owned by Joseph Sanzari, is a potential liability. Sanazri, whose public contracts in New Jersey have reportedly exceeded $50 million over the last two years, has gotten some attention in recent weeks from a federal grand jury investigation of his friend, New Jersey Turnpike Authority Chairman Joseph Simunovich. Sanzari allegedly gave Simunovich free rides on his jet. Sanzari, his family and his companies have contributed over $500,000 to political campaigns and party organizations over the last four years. Sarlo also has a potential problem with his two brothers: Thomas Sarlo, is a Little Ferry Councilman, and another brother, Charles Sarlo, is the in-house counsel to a politically active architectural firm, DMR Architects of Hasbrouck Heights that has contracts with Little Ferry and Wood-Ridge to help plan local redevelopment contracts. According to the Star-Ledger, DMR has donated more than $60,000 to Democrats in Bergen and Hudson counties in recent years, including contributions to the Sarlo campaigns. Sarlo won his Senate seat by an impressive margin over former Assemblyman John Kelly in 2003, but Republicans would need to recruit one of three candidates to challenge Sarlo: former Assemblyman (and gubernatorial candidate) Paul DiGaetano, Bergen County Clerk (and former Assemblywoman) Kathleen Donovan or Nutley Mayor Joanne Cocchiola. One Democratic leader wondered why Sarlo doesn't just obviate any appearance of a conflict and find an engineering job with a firm that doesn't do business with the state.