Paul Sarlo

SCHAER/SCALERA BILL TO PREVENT ENCAP REPEAT HEADS TO GOVERNOR'S DESK
Measure Would Protect Taxpayers In Public/Private Deals Gone Bad;
Lawmakers Credit Sen. Sarlo for Helping to Push Measure To Finish Line

(TRENTON) - Legislation Assemblymen Gary S. Schaer and Fred Scalera sponsored to enhance the protections and oversight surrounding public investments in private redevelopment projects today received final legislative approvals and was sent to the Governor's desk.

Joe Spicuzzo

TRENTON - The Senate Judiciary Committee just reconvened, but Middlesex County Democratic Chairman Joe Spicuzzo will not be avaliable to testify regarding his nomination to the Sports and Exposition Authority.

"Then why are we here?" comes a voice from the crowd of senators who left the Senate chamber to come over here to the Senate Annex.

"Mr. Spicuzzo came down here, but fell ill, and left," explains Senate Judiciary Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).

The Senate Judiciary Committee held the nomination of Middlesex County Sheriff and Democratic County Chairman Joseph Spicuzzo to the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority after Spicuzzo, recovering from the flu, was unable to travel to Trenton.  State Sen. Robert Smith (D-Piscataway) sought to have Spicuzzo testify by telephone.  The panel tried it, but after Spicuzzo had trouble hearing the Senators, and after Republicans objected to the precedent of interviewing nominees by phone, Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) held the nomination.  That means Spicuzzo won't get on the Sports Authority until the Senate returns for a lame duck session after the November election.

Barry Albin appears headed toward another fourteen years as a New Jersey Supreme Court Justice, after a four-hour hearing led to a 9-4 recommendation by the Senate Judiciary Committee.  Albin has no apparent obstacles when the full Senate votes on his renomination on Thursday.  He was praised by GOP Senators for meeting privately meeting with Senators and for patiently answering their public questions.

Albin's nomination was never really in danger.  The real news is that the Judiciary Committee has changed the way judicial nominees are confirmed. The recent tradition of simply accepting the Governor's nominee -Albin was not asked a single question during his confirmation hearing seven years ago - appears to have been replaced by a group of Senators who take their constitutional responsibility of advise and consent seriously.

The Albin confirmation set off a small conflict between Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) and Gov. Jon Corzine.  A Sarlo staffer, responding to an Inside Edge item wondering if the Bergen County Democrat was up to running the panel, blamed Corzine for taking too much time making appointments and then seeking to push them all through at yesterday's hearing.  The Judiciary Committee met for nearly nine hours and considered over fifty appointments in addition to Albin.

TRENTON -- Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-ridge) attempted to set the tone for Justice Barry Albin's hearing with in his opening statement. 

Anticipating some harsh questioning from Republicans, Sarlo said that Albin had shown professional judgment and temperament on the bench, and that ideological differences should play no role in senators’ votes.

“It is not our role to agree or disagree with those opinions… .our role is to determined whether conclusions reached by Justice Albin were arrived through a reasonable interpretation of facts in the case,” said Sarlo.

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Paul Sarlo (D-Sanzari) promised to devote a full day to the renomination of New Jersey Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin, but it isn't working out that way.  Instead, Sarlo has added 53 additional gubernatorial nominations to the committee's agenda.  The panel is now 4 ½ hours into their hearing and still have not gotten to Albin - leading some observers who went to Trenton specifically for the Supreme Court hearing - to wonder if Sarlo will try to rush Albin through if they eventually get to him.

Far from the three days they originally requested to interview state Supreme Court Justice Barry Albin, it looks like Republicans will get part of an afternoon.

The Senate Judiciary Committee, which has been meeting since 10:00 a.m., has a long agenda today, and they’re expected to address Albin’s renomination at the very end of it.  As of 1:35 p.m., Albin had still not testified, and staffers said the expected to have him on between 2:00 p.m. and 2:30 at the earliest.  

But state Sen. Bill Baroni (R-Hamilton) said that the late start won’t keep him from questioning Albin thoroughly, even if the meeting runs past dinner.  

"I'm looking forward to a thorough and complete review of justice Albin's nomination. I'm prepared for a thoughtful discussion that our state constitution demands. And ill stay all night if we have to,” he said.

Burlington County Republicans are saying that they expect Gov. Jon Corzine to nominate State Sen. Philip Haines (R-Springfield) to the Superior Court this month, and that Haines has told party leaders he could be out of the Senate as early as June 25.  Republican sources say that Christopher Myers, a former Medford Mayor who won 48% in a bid for Congress last year, has emerged as the leading candidate to win a July special election convention to fill Haines' seat.

Haines would become the third Senator in recent years to resign from the upper house to become a Superior Court Judge: Garry Furnari (D-Nutley) did it in 2003, clearing the way for Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) top move up to the Senate; and later that year, Joseph Charles (D-Jersey City) left the Senate after less than two years to become a Judge.  It was the Charles seat that led to a rancorous primary between then-Jersey City Mayor Glenn Cunningham and the candidate backed by the Hudson County Democratic Organization, then-Jersey City Council President L. Harvey Smith.

State Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck)

Asked to assess the merits of state Sen. Barbara Buono (D-Metuchen) and state Sen. Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) as candidates for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge) said both would make excellent candidates.

"Both will help the (Gov. Jon) Corzine ticket, but from a parochial standpoint, my job is to make sure Bergen is united," said the chair of the judiciary committee, who believes Weinberg would help solidify Corzine's base owing to her activist record on Democratic Party issues, and fulfill a critical regional function as senator from the big, swing county of Bergen.

As leader of a Democratic Party faction that warred with former Bergen County Democratic Organization (BCDO) Chairman Joe Ferriero, Weinberg carries the potential to enflame old intraparty wounds, but Sarlo says no way, party members will fall in line.

"I think at the end of the day we're talking about getting the governor re-elected, and Bergen County Democrats will be united behind Loretta if she's selected," Sarlo said.

All five Republican members of the Judiciary Committee have resubmitted a request to interview three members of the State Investment Council who have ties to Lehman Brothers and are up for reappointment.

The request, first made by state Sen. Gerald Cardinale (R-Demarest), was turned down earlier this month by the committee's chairman, state Sen. Paul Sarlo (D-Wood-Ridge).  In a letter, Sarlo told Cardinale that, due to an "overwhelming agenda," adding another nominee to be interviewed by the committee beyond the set number of 67 "would require extraordinary circumstances - circumstances that frankly are not present in this instance."

The state is currently suing Lehman over the loss of $118 million in public pension funds when the company imploded last year.  Three members of the investment council - W. Montgomery Cerf, Erika Irish Brown and Jose Claxton - have a history with the firm.

In declining Cardinale's request to interview the three, Sarlo said that Cardinale misunderstood the Investment Council's role in how the pension fund chose stocks.  The members themselves, who work pro-bono, decide policy, but do not pick individual stocks.