>Fifty-six percent (56%) of U.S. voters now oppose the health care plan proposed by President Obama and congressional Democrats. That’s the highest level of opposition found – reached three times before – in six months of polling.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that just 40% of voters favor the health care plan.
Perhaps more significantly, 46% now Strongly Oppose the plan, compared to 19% who Strongly Favor it.
>
Christie planning to cut government expenses, enact tax reforms
By ANDREA CLURFELD
GANNETT NEW JERSEY
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091215/NEWS/912150337/1098/POLITICS
Gov.-elect Chris Christie said he plans to cut expenses at every level of government and enact measures to make sure “we won’t be pushing problems downstream to local taxpayers.”
In an exclusive interview with the Asbury Park Press, Christie said he will use many of the ideas that came out of the 2006 special legislative session on property taxes as well as those laid out by the Press in its “Fighting New Jersey’s Tax Crush” series published in September and October.
“We need to reform the (tax) system from top to bottom,” Christie said.
High on the governor-elect’s list is eliminating loopholes in the 4 percent cap on annual increases in municipal government spending. The cap has been in place for years, but allows a number of exemptions for budget items ranging from health care costs to bond payments. The result has been annual property tax increases that exceed the rate of inflation.
Christie said he wants to enact reforms that will “make it a hard cap. Right now, we have a Swiss cheese cap.”
Christie said he also would:
Change the rules of binding interest arbitration in public employee contract negotiations to make sure arbitrators adhere to new cap standards.
Put the brakes on “teacher contracts that increase salaries by 4 to 5 percent and then, on top of it, layer on to it health benefit increases and pension expenses increases.”
Review mid-level management jobs at school boards statewide because “we no longer can have that plethora of mid-management … that are not necessarily bringing quality to the classroom.”
Should Christie find his reforms stalled, he said he would call for a constitutional convention. The Legislature and voters would have to approve such a convention, which would give elected delegates the power to reform the state’s tax system by presenting voters with amendments to the state constitution. The last convention was held in 1966 to increase the number of lawmakers.
“I want the voters to give me two years to fix it without a convention,” he said. “If we get to the mid-term (elections) in 2011 and I report to voters that, despite my best efforts, we haven’t been able to get this done because systemic forces are blocking us, then we have to change the system. And I will call for a constitutional convention.”
William G. Dressel Jr., executive director of the New Jersey State League of Municipalities, said that if the state is “going to be fair, then the most egregious driver of property taxes must be addressed — binding arbitration. That is a budget buster. And that is one area in which Governor-elect Christie won’t budge.”
https://www.mycentraljersey.com/article/20091215/NEWS/912150337/1098/POLITICS
>Senate Health Care Bill Would Force Some Middle Class Families to Pay $15,200 Yearly Insurance Fee, According to CBO Analysis
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
By Terence P. Jeffrey, Editor-in-Chief
https://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=58533
(CNSNews.com) – Forget the public option. Even without it, the health care bill presented in the Senate by Majority Leader Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) would make some middle-class American families pay what amounts to a $15,200 annual federally-mandated insurance fee, according to facts revealed in analyses published by the Congressional Budget Office.
The fee would result from the facts that the bill requires individuals—but not employers—to purchase health insurance plans and that families that earn up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level would be given government subsidies to purchase insurance in government-regulated insurance exchanges while families earning more than 400 percent of the federal poverty level would be denied government subsidies.
A family of four—two parents and two children—earning $88,200 would be at 400 percent of the poverty level this year, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. A family of four earning $88,201, therefore, would not be eligible for a federal subsidy to buy insurance under the Senate health-care bill. If the mother and father in such a family could not get employer-based health insurance—because their employers decided not to buy their workers insurance—the family would be required by law to purchase a policy with its own money that would cost an estimated $15,200 per year, according to the CBO.
The basic facts demonstrating that this would be the case if the Senate health care bill were to become law were presented in letters that the CBO sent to Sen. Harry Reid (D.-Nev.) on November 18 and to Sen. Evan Bayh (D.-Ind.) on November 30. The letters are available on the CBO Web site
https://www.cnsnews.com/public/content/article.aspx?RsrcID=58533
>
The government takeover of health care will dramatically change the way we receive care and ultimately, the quality and access we expect today. More importantly, what is at stake is the relationship Americans have with their government – from one where we decide which insurance to buy and how to spend our own money to one where Washington bureaucrats mandate how and where you spend your own money.
But it’s not just about money. On a more fundamental level, our basic freedoms and beliefs are being attacked under what will be the largest expansion of government in the history of the United States. Bigger government will leave all Americans more dependent and less free to follow our own dreams. In short, the outcome of this battle will determine the trajectory of many more battles to come and we need your help to stop it.
Today, members of the NJ Tea Party Coalition will be joining Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., Sen. Jim DeMint, Laura Ingraham, Americans For Prosperity, Tea Party Patriots, Freedom Works and other like-minded organizations as we tell the Senate: “Hands off our health care!” The Democratic leadership is trying to get to a final vote this week, so the timing couldn’t be better for us to take this stand.
If you were unable make it to Washington or to your local Senate office, please call your Senators’ offices at 1:30 p.m. You can find your Senator’s contact information on our website: Join Sen. Tom Coburn, M.D., Sen. Jim DeMint, Laura Ingraham, AFP President Tim Phillips and our 15 coalition partners as we tell the Senate: “Hands off our health care!” The Democratic leadership is trying to get to a final vote this week, so the timing couldn’t be better for us to take this stand.
If you cannot make it to Washington or to your local Senate office, please call your Senators’ offices at 1:30 p.m. You can find contact information for Senators Lautenberg and Menendez on our website: https://www.njteapartycoalition.org/Contact-Your-Senator.html
There are still several Senators who may be swayed NOT to vote for the Healthcare Bill now moving through the Senate. Their Washington phone and fax numbers are listed below.
Senator Ben Nelson (NE) – 202-224-6551 (Ph) / 202-228-0012 (F)
Senator Blanche Lincoln (AR) – 202-224-4843 (Ph) / 202-228-1371(F)
Senator Mary Landrieu (LA) – 202-224-5824 (Ph) / 202-224-9735 (F)
Senator Joe Lieberman (CT) – 202-224-4041 (Ph) / 202-224-9750 (F)
Senator Jim Webb (VA) – 202-224-4024 (Ph) / 202-228-6363 (F)
Senator Bill Nelson (FL) – 202-224-5274 (Ph) / 202-228-2183 (F)
Senator Evan Bayh (IN) – 202-224-5623 (Ph) / 202-228-1377(F)
Please keep our members in your thoughts and prayers as they make the trek to Washington in defense of Liberty.
We also wish a Happy Hanukkah to all who are in the midst of celebrating the Festival of Lights.
On behalf of our Committee,
Tim, Michele, Rae and myself,
Brian
>J.D. Power and Associates Reports:
The Valley Hospital Recognized for Providing an Outstanding Inpatient Experience
For a Seventh Consecutive Year
WESTLAKE VILLAGE, Calif.: 10 December 2009 – The Valley Hospital, a 451-bed hospital in Ridgewood, N.J., has been recognized for service excellence for a seventh consecutive year under the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program.SM This distinction acknowledges a strong commitment by The Valley Hospital to provide “An Outstanding Inpatient Experience.”
“In earning this distinction for seven consecutive years, The Valley Hospital has truly demonstrated its commitment to service excellence,” said Kevin Lieb, senior director of provider programs at J.D. Power and Associates. “Providing patients with a consistently positive experience is crucial, particularly with the high value placed on the service aspects of their hospital stay.”
The service excellence distinction was determined by surveying recently discharged patients from The Valley Hospital about their perceptions of their hospital stay and comparing the results to the national benchmarks established in the annual J.D. Power and Associates National Hospital Service Performance Study.SM
The telephone-based research conducted among The Valley Hospital patients focuses on the five key drivers of patient satisfaction with their overall inpatient experience. These drivers, which were identified in the national study, are speed and efficiency; dignity and respect; comfort; information and communication; and emotional support.
The Valley Hospital exceeds the national benchmark study score for inpatient satisfaction and performs particularly well, compared with the national study, in speed and efficiency. The hospital receives notably high ratings for the nurses’ promptness in responding to the call button, and for the speed and efficiency of tests and treatments personnel.
The hospital also performs well relative to the national study for the nurses’ concern about controlling pain and the courtesy of the nurses.
Nearly three-fourths of The Valley Hospital patients surveyed say they would return to the facility if needed, while more than 70 percent say they “definitely will” recommend the hospital to others.
“It is an honor to be recognized by J.D. Power and Associates for providing exceptional care and service to our patients, and we are particularly proud that Valley has been recognized seven times in a row,” said Audrey Meyers, president and CEO of The Valley Hospital. “At Valley, we recognize how important it is to provide our patients with an outstanding hospital experience. It is this commitment that has allowed us to again be recognized in the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital Program.”
Nongovernmental, acute-care hospitals throughout the nation are eligible for the J.D. Power and Associates Distinguished Hospital recognition for inpatient, maternity, cardiovascular, emergency and outpatient services. Distinction is valid for one year, after which time the hospital may reapply for this recognition.
About J.D. Power and Associates
Headquartered in Westlake Village, Calif., J.D. Power and Associates is a global marketing information services company operating in key business sectors including market research, forecasting, performance improvement, Web intelligence and customer satisfaction. The company’s quality and satisfaction measurements are based on responses from millions of consumers annually. For more information on car reviews and ratings, car insurance, health insurance, cell phone ratings, and more, please visit JDPower.com. J.D. Power and Associates is a business unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies.
About The McGraw-Hill Companies
Founded in 1888, The McGraw-Hill Companies (NYSE: MHP) is a leading global information services provider meeting worldwide needs in the financial services, education and business information markets through leading brands such as Standard & Poor’s, McGraw-Hill Education, Platts, Capital IQ, J.D. Power and Associates, McGraw-Hill Construction and Aviation Week. The Corporation has more than 280 offices in 40 countries. Sales in 2008 were $6.4 billion. Additional information is available at https://www.mcgraw-hill.com/.
Media Relations Contacts:
John Tews
J.D. Power and Associates
Director, Media Relations
5435 Corporate Drive, Suite 300
Troy , MI 48098
USA
(248) 312-4119
[email protected]
Maureen Curran Kleinman
The Valley Hospital
Media Relations
Ridgewood , NJ
USA
(201) 291-6310
[email protected]
>The Graydon Store is open for business.
Downtown for the Holidays. We were proud to participate in the Chamber of Commerce’s Downtown for the Holidays event on December 4. People gravitated to our table looking for ways to answer questions from others about why Graydon must be saved. We enjoyed sharing this important issue with the community.
Holiday Bazaar. Our fundraiser on Sunday, November 29, was a success. Read about it in Marcia and Suzanne’s letter from last Friday’s Ridgewood News. Their letter also appeared in last week’s Villadom Times.
Online store. Our virtual doors are open. Car magnets, note cards, and yard signs are available at the Graydon Store (or through a link from the PreserveGraydon.org website). Our many faraway supporters, as well as those closer to home, can receive the magnets and cards by mail. Yard signs are delivered in person within a reasonable radius. It’s not too late to order Happy New Year cards with your personal message printed inside. (Want custom cards in time for Christmas? Ask us and we’ll ask the printer.)
The Preserve Graydon Coalition was founded IN Graydon only five months and one week ago. How much has been accomplished in that time thanks to the Coalition’s dedicated workers and supporters! There’s lots more to come in 2010, and 2009 isn’t quite over yet.
Swimmingly,
Marcia Ringel and Suzanne Kelly, Co-Chairs
The Preserve Graydon Coalition, Inc., a nonprofit corporation
“It’s clear—we love Graydon!”
[email protected]
www.PreserveGraydon.org
>
Barack Obama’s Poll Numbers Continue to Slide …
The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Monday shows that 24% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-two percent (42%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -18.
As the health care plan struggles in the Senate, public opposition remains stable. Fifty-six percent (56% ) oppose the plan working its way through Congress while just 40% favor it. In Nevada, the health care bill is causing problems for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s bid for re-election.
>By MICHAEL SYMONS • GANNETT STATE BUREAU • February 17, 2009
https://app.com/article/20090217/NEWS0301/90217078&referrer=FRONTPAGECARO– USEL
TRENTON — New Jersey’s budget deficit has grown by an additional $1.5 billion in the last month to $3.6 billion this fiscal year, Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced today.
Advertisement
In response, state officials are planning two unpaid furlough days for state employees, one each in May and June, saving $35 million. State Treasurer David Rousseau said the furloughs can be done without the consent of public worker unions, which have already objected to a proposed salary freeze.
In all, Corzine announced there will be an additional $472 million in budget cuts, $550 million in additional funds from the federal stimulus bill and $335 million in extra funds from state surpluses and trust funds.
The state also plans a tax amnesty program, which will need legislative approval, that would bring the state an additional $100 million.
This year’s deficit now exceeds 10 percent of the original budget adopted last summer. It includes a $2.8 billion shortfall in revenue, a $600 million increase in spending — including a $270 million deposit into the depleted unemployment fund, to avoid an automatic tax hike on businesses — and $135 million extra to repay debt.
“That comes with difficult choices and real pain in a lot of places,” Corzine said.
Revenue in the current budget is forecast at $29.5 billion. Collections for the upcoming fiscal year, beginning in July, are now $28.5 billion, meaning another group of budget cuts can be expected in Corzine’s March 10 budget speech.
https://app.com/article/20090217/NEWS0301/90217078&referrer=FRONTPAGECARO– USEL
>
The Ridgewood Symphony Orchestra is a regional, all volunteer, intergenerational orchestra located in Ridgewood, New Jersey. Supported by the surrounding communities and friends in neighboring areas, the orchestra serves the Northern New Jersey region with many musical and educational activities. These include the outstanding Festival Strings Youth Orchestra, which provides a unique opportunity for young string players to benefit from the experience of playing in an orchestral setting.
https://www.ridgewoodsymphony.org/
Next Concert…
Friday, February 27, 2009
at 8:00 PM
Paramus High School Auditorium
99 Century Road
Paramus, NJ 07652
●
“The French Connection”
Music of Claude Debussy, Maurice Ravel and César Franck
●
Featuring: Gary Graffman, piano
&
Diane Wittry,
Conductor and Artistic Director
https://www.ridgewoodsymphony.org/
>Rumors continue to swirl that Candidate Steve Lonegan and or his staff continue to duck their interview with the Ridgewood blog ,the fly thinks its a natural fit ,but questions what could be the motive for avoiding the only free market local news blog with a conservative bent in the state of New Jersey .Is there pressure from some other politico’s to stay clear or is it the non favorable treatment some New Jersey “Republicans” have received on the Ridgewood blog? Why ignore a readership of 12000 plus per month .Yes I know Ridgewood has become more synonymous with the limousine liberal set than a bastion of conservatism but what gives Steve ?
Lonegan Supporter and fly for now ……..
>
GEORGE WASHINGTON (February 22, 1732 – December 14, 1799). Early in his life George Washington became an experienced surveyor. Following these years, he fought in the French and Indian War. After the war he returned to Mount Vernon in 1758, married Martha Dandridge in 1759, and became a planter. That same year he became involved in politics when he was elected representative to the Virginia House of Burgesses. He was a representative until 1774 when he became a delegate to the Continental Congress. In May of 1775 George Washington was appointed Commander of the American army during the Revolution. He was the first President, (1789 1797) governing the 13 states.
ABRAHAM LINCOLN (February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865). Abe Lincoln was born into a poor family and had little formal schooling. He basically taught himself to read and write and walked long distances to borrow books. He failed in early business and political ventures, yet became President in 1861 and guided the Union through the Civil War. He shaped his own character and education as was evident in the simple language he used in his speeches. His famous Gettysburg Address was delivered in 1863. LincGln was assassinated on April 15, 1865 during a performance at Ford’s Theatre in Washington just a few days after General Robert E. Lee and his army surrendered.
https://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~maggieoh/Pd/prindex.html
>By Terrence Dopp and Jeremy R. Cooke
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aYXbUWrzknFg&refer=home#
Feb. 12 (Bloomberg) — New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine wants to require state and local politicians to gather competitive bids for buying everything from office supplies to pickup trucks — just not necessarily for the financing.
Corzine, a first-term Democrat and the former head of Goldman, Sachs & Co., says bond sales wouldn’t be included in his push to end no-bid public contracts in his state. In the past year and a half, 95 percent of New Jersey’s offerings were sold via negotiations. More than a dozen academic studies show that opening sales to competitive bidding saves taxpayers money.
“I’m in favor of competitive bidding when somebody shows up,” the governor said in a Feb. 6 interview aboard the inaugural trip of an express train to whisk gamblers from Manhattan to Atlantic City. “But if nobody shows up, then you’re in a negotiated situation anyway. The realities of the marketplace today are different.”
Citing consolidation among underwriters over the past year and soft institutional demand that sent yields for tax-exempt bonds higher than rates on comparable Treasuries, Corzine and others say competition in the $2.67 trillion municipal bond market doesn’t always bring lower costs. Last year, state and local politicians chose negotiations over bids for 86 percent of the $391.5 billion in long-term municipal bonds sold. This month, officials in Georgia, one of the top-rated U.S. states, joined them for the first time in a decade.
Accelerating Trend
The trend toward negotiated sales may be accelerating, even as Christopher “Kit” Taylor, a former chief regulator, calls for banning the practice to stem corruption. No-bid deals in New Mexico are at the heart of a federal investigation into how a political contributor to Governor Bill Richardson won state financial work. The probe led Richardson to withdraw from consideration for U.S. commerce secretary in January.
Last year, Corzine, 62, prohibited state agencies from awarding contracts to campaign contributors — a ban he’s asking the legislature to extend to New Jersey’s municipalities.
Competitive bond offerings force banks to line up on an advertised day and submit the lowest interest-cost bid to win underwriting business. In a negotiated sale, states and cities decide in advance which banks will market the bonds. Underwriters have promoted the no-bid method, saying it allows them to get the best prices for issuers by tailoring the debt to specific types of investors.
Bid sales saved issuers 17 to 48 basis points, “on average and all else equal,” according to a study published in the Winter 2008 issue of the Municipal Finance Journal. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point. On $100 million of debt, the savings mean $1.7 million to $4.8 million less interest over the life of a 10-year bond.
Yield Ratio Flipped
The research by Mark Robbins and Bill Simonsen of the University of Connecticut in West Hartford cited “almost all studies on this issue.”
“That’s in normalized times,” Corzine said of the findings. “We’re not in normalized times. With the current circumstances, you’ve reduced the number of purchasers to a narrower and narrower group.”
Municipalities that don’t expect multiple bidders should use negotiation for bond offerings, Robbins, one of the researchers, said in an interview. High-quality issues will still draw bids, which results in lower costs, he said.
“Nothing has changed in the market that would mean the market wouldn’t work the same way it always has,” he said. “It’s just going to be harder to attract bidders.”
Georgia’s Switch
In December, as investors sought the safety of Treasury debt, even the highest-rated states and cities paid as much as 2.2 times what the federal government was paying. That was a record, according to data compiled by Municipal Market Advisors and Bloomberg. Since then, the so-called yield ratio of AAA tax- exempt bonds to comparable Treasuries reached 1.38. Before the credit crisis, it averaged 0.96.
Four of the 12 largest municipal-bond underwriters in 2007, including New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co., merged with other banks last year. A fifth, Zurich-based UBS AG, exited the institutional public finance business.
The auction-rate securities market also collapsed last year, and all except three tax-exempt bond insurers were stripped of top ratings. Bigger institutional investors shook the market with waves of selling that sent municipal bonds to a 4 percent loss, their worst performance in nine years, based on Bank of America Merrill Lynch indexes.
Georgia, the most populous of seven states with top grades from the three major credit-rating firms, opted for its negotiated fixed-rate bond sale in response to such conditions.
‘Negative Signal’
The resulting annual debt service was $5.9 million below budget and the rates “more favorable” than those received in the state’s last bond sale in June, Governor Sonny Perdue said in a Feb. 4 news release.
State leaders chose negotiation to market the bonds to retail investors and to allow for increasing the offering’s size as demand allowed, said Susan Hart Ridley, director of Georgia’s Financing and Investment Division. Officials initially planned to offer as little as $200 million and ultimately raised the amount to $614 million.
It would have been the largest competitive municipal deal since the market freeze that followed Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc.’s bankruptcy, Bloomberg data show.
“If we didn’t get any bids, I would think that would send a negative signal about the quality of our debt,” Ridley said.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey got no bids on Dec. 3 for a $300 million sale of taxable three-year notes.
‘No Risk Whatsoever’
“It’s not necessarily comparable to us, but it’s an indicator of where the market was, the tenuous nature of the market” at the time, Ridley said.
There’s no proof that a canceled round of bids “would put a taint on your issue,” said Joy Howard, principal at St. Louis- based WM Financial, adviser to local governments on bond sales.
Florida this week returned to its usual practice of auctioning fixed-rate debt, after negotiating a bond deal at the beginning of January when benchmark yields were higher.
The state attracted seven bidders for $200 million of bonds to finance capital spending for schools. Barclays Plc’s winning interest cost of 4.7 percent beat out bids that were all within 0.05 percentage point, said Ben Watkins, director of the state’s Division of Bond Finance.
‘Pretty Efficiently’
“That’s indicative of a market that’s functioning pretty efficiently,” Watkins said. “High-grade frequent issuers with name recognition and very straightforward credit are in demand.”
Negotiated deals make sense for offerings “that are less solid,” said John Mousseau, a municipal portfolio manager at Vineland, New Jersey-based Cumberland Advisors Inc., in an e- mail. “However, it is very evident that dealers are taking no risk whatsoever these days.”
The New York Yankees hired Goldman Sachs Group Inc., successor to Corzine’s former firm, to manage the team’s second round of city-approved tax-exempt ballpark financing last month. Yankee Stadium LLC agreed to pay 7 percent on $259 million of 40- year bonds. The next day, the same securities jumped in price and fell in yield by about half a percentage point, according to Municipal Securities Rulemaking Board trade data.
“They left an incredible amount of money on the table for the Yankees,” because the drop in yield indicates investors may have been willing to settle for less interest, Mousseau said. Alice McGillion, a Yankees spokeswoman, didn’t reply to a request for comment on the financing.
Ban Proponent
Taylor, who calls for banning negotiated debt sales, was executive director of the tax-exempt bond industry’s self- regulatory organization, the MSRB, for almost three decades until 2007.
He proposes a national market that would force dealers to bid for maturities of new tax-exempt issues they want to sell. The format would help address concern that fewer dealers and less capital have hurt the market, Taylor said.
Since 1994, MSRB rules have limited campaign contributions by underwriters trying to win business in so-called pay-to-play practices. That requirement doesn’t apply to financial advisers who contract with public agencies.
Corzine took steps to limit corruption in the state government’s executive branch with four executive orders he signed in September 2008. Among other things, they prohibited agencies from awarding contracts to campaign donors and expanded employees’ financial disclosure requirements.
Pushing Lawmakers
Now he’s asking state lawmakers to extend the ban on contractor contributions to the county and local levels, replace a patchwork of local finance regulations with one state law and prohibit those holding contracts with school districts from giving to municipal candidates or political action committees.
The New Mexico investigation that kept Richardson out of President Barack Obama’s cabinet echoes a pay-to-play scandal from more than a decade ago in New Jersey. In 1995, former Governor Jim Florio’s chief of staff, Joseph C. Salema, pleaded guilty to sharing in more than $200,000 in payments from a New Jersey bank that sought a bond offering in Camden County.
As the case broke in 1993, Florio signed two executive orders specifying that competitive bidding should be used for bond sales, with certain exceptions approved by the state treasurer. While the orders were in effect, from May 1993 to October 1994, negotiated financing dropped to less than 50 percent of bond sales from 79 percent.
Complexity in Abundance
In 1994, then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman issued a new order, establishing conditions in which negotiations would be allowed. They included sales of poor or complex credits, issues involving an untested financing structure and deals made in volatile markets.
Since September 2007, the state has sold $8.25 billion of bonds via negotiation and $456 million through bids, according to data provided by New Jersey’s Treasury Department.
“We’re in some of the most volatile market conditions in the history of Wall Street,” Tom Vincz, a treasury spokesman, said in an e-mail. “Given the many calisthenics to exit the auction-rate securities market last year, complexity was in abundance.”
To contact the reporters on this story: Terrence Dopp in Trenton, New Jersey at [email protected]; Jeremy R. Cooke in New York at [email protected].
Last Updated: February 12, 2009 11:10 EST
https://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601109&sid=aYXbUWrzknFg&refer=home#
>
>New York Law Journal
Vesselin Mitev
February 11, 2009
https://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202428177805
Obtaining regular reports from Steven T. Rondos, the Brooklyn attorney accused of fleecing guardianship accounts of $4 million, was like “pulling teeth,” said one of the court-appointed examiners charged with monitoring Rondos’ performance.
Albert E. Spencer, a Manhattan attorney, inherited two cases from prior court examiners in early 2006. He said that Rondos had not provided the required reports for 2004, 2005 and 2006.
After Rondos’ indictment last month, the Office of Court Administration acknowledged that court examiners who monitored Rondos’ accounts should have detected sooner at least some of the alleged thefts that occurred between 2001 and 2008.
At least 16 examiners had signed off on the accounts that gave rise to the investigation of Rondos.
David Bookstaver, an OCA spokesman, said that five examiners, who monitored accounts from which $2.4 million allegedly was stolen, have resigned in the wake of the investigation of Rondos’ conduct, which began last year. Another has been suspended pending further inquiry.
Court officials are continuing to go through “thick files” to determine to what extent examiners failed to conduct due diligence, Bookstaver said.
Spencer has not been asked to resign. And he said in an interview that he had performed his duties as an examiner conscientiously “without a doubt.”
Rondos is charged with stealing $45,000 during April 10 to June 12, 2008 from one of the accounts Spencer served as examiner.
Spencer said that Rondos engaged in “stringing us along” by requesting repeated delays and offering excuses for tardy filings. On one occasion, Spencer recalled that the guardian claimed that he could not work for a month because he had suffered several broken limbs in an accident.
Spencer said he gave Rondos the benefit of the doubt and at first tried to be patient.
“Usually when we go at this we don’t try to act in a hostile manner because ultimately that results in more delay and we had no indication that Steven Rondos [would] be accused of bad acts,” Spencer said, pointing to Rondos’ position as vice-chair of the guardianship committee of the state bar’s Elder Law section as evidence of his prominence in the field.
“My letters to him began to get more hostile as time continued,” Spencer said, and in July 2008, after two compliance conferences, he said he moved to permanently remove Rondos.
Such a move usually is viewed as a last resort, Spencer said.
“One of the difficult factors in making that call is that there aren’t that many people around who want to take [the guardianship] job,” he said, adding that often times the guardian is a relative of the ward and may not be an attorney.
By the time Spencer moved against Rondos, the guardian already was under investigation.
According to the indictment, Rondos, 44, of Ridgewood, N.J., allegedly stole from 23 living victims including mentally and physically impaired elderly people as well as children, and one estate. Rondos and his firm, Raia & Rondos in Brooklyn, were both named in the indictment.
His wife, Camille Raia, the firm’s other named partner, has not been charged, but she was the named guardian of Andrea Spagnoletti, whose account was fleeced of more than $1 million, according to the prosecutor.
Rondos was extradited from New Jersey and arraigned before Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Michael H. Melkonian last week. He pleaded not guilty and was remanded on $2 million bail. His attorney, David Frankel, has not responded to requests for comment.
EXAMINER REACTION
Court examiners contacted bristled at the suggestion that their lack of supervision contributed to the alleged thefts.
Brooklyn attorney Paul I. Krohn, who has been suspended from the list of court examiners, said that his suspension “had nothing to do with Rondos as far as I’m concerned,” but declined to comment further.
According to Bookstaver, Manhattan attorney Seymour Ostrow was one of the five people who resigned from the examiner list. Ostrow disputes that.
“I sure as hell never resigned,” although he said that he had agreed not to take new cases after he broke his hip about a year ago.
Ostrow insisted that he had “kept after [Mr. Rondos] … even with a broken hip.”
Ostrow said his reviews of Rondos’ accounting turned up “nothing untoward.” And he said that he had gone above and beyond the call of duty as an examiner.
“My reports are 50 to 100 pages where others turn in five and 10 pages, I analyze the law, I visit homes,” he said, adding that he had even trained himself in accounting in order to do a better job.
Lewis E. Alperin, a Mount Vernon attorney who was the court examiner in one of Rondos’ cases said he felt “lucky” that there had been no theft under his watch, although the district attorney has asked Rondos to forfeit $36,090 in earnings from the account.
Alperin said that reflected commissions taken by Rondos before they were due, an issue the two had argued about.
“One of my issues with him was how he should take commissions — we disagreed strongly on how to compute commissions. What he wanted was double the amount,” Alperin said.
Alperin, who has not been suspended or asked to resign, said that as an examiner, he said, one can only do so much.
“If your intent as a lawyer is to steal then you are going to get away with it for a while,” Alperin said.
He noted that a guardian who is appointed in January 2008 has until May 2009 to file a report and then “you can say ‘Oh, I’m a little behind, I’m just waiting for some bank statements,’ so the examiner gets the report in June or July.”
Court examiners are not court employees and are appointed from a list compiled by each Appellate Division department of lawyers and others who have met specific educational and training requirements. They are compensated annually based on the size of the estate they are monitoring.
In a 2005 report, a state commission on court fiduciaries concluded that court examiners are “key to guardian oversight in New York” but found significant problems with the process, including cursory examinations of financial records, rare face-to-face interviews with guardians and poor lines of communication.
According to the report, the average court examiner in New York handles “well over 100 examinations annually” for relatively low fees. They rely on volume to turn a profit.
The commission issued a number of recommendations, including increasing the annual compensation limit of court examiners to $75,000 and creating the position of a court examiner specialist to help oversee examiners and deal with problematic cases.
Chief Administrative Judge Ann Pfau said that oversight would be further tightened in the wake of the alleged thefts, including immediately implementing an electronic tracking system to warn officials of potential problems with the filing of guardians’ reports and mandatory compliance conferences.
The commission’s chair, Sheila L. Birnbaum, said that the reforms had resulted in “many fewer complaints” about the system but cautioned that a theft-proof system could be unrealistic.
“You can’t stop people from fraud and being crooks,” said Birnbaum, a partner in Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom.
https://www.law.com/jsp/nlj/PubArticleNLJ.jsp?id=1202428177805
>The proposed Valley expansion will happen over the course of at least 10 years, regardless of neighborhood opposition. Any expansion of this great magnitude takes years — in the planning stages alone, before ground is even broken (do you really think they “could be almost finished with the job” now? Ridiculous! Have you even read about Phase I, and Phase II? Have you read about the proposal at all?)
If you were up on the facts, 7:33, you would also know that the proposal does not include the addition of beds — in fact, there is talk now of reducing the amount of beds, while INCREASING the number of parking spaces by 400. What kind of sense does that make? Not every patient in the hospital is there as a result of an emergency. So, here’s one of many possible alternatives: build a great Emergency department, and build off-site facilities to house non-emergency cases. I certainly wouldn’t mind driving for two more minutes to get to an off-site Breast Center.
Valley has run out of space — it’s a simple matter of physics. The hospital needs to develop off-site facilities nearby, similar to the one near the Fashion Center. (Can anyone honestly say that a drive to the Fashion Center is inconvenient? And who says that a hospital has to be within walking distance to be state-of-the-art? If you are truly sick, you won’t be doing a lot of walking anyway!)
Valley needs to compromise significantly. Our excellent and convenient healthcare will not disappear as a result. But our suburban way of life here in Ridgewood WILL disappear if Valley is allowed to proceed without limit.
