>Kathleen Donovan Won’t Play in Desperate Democrats’ Show Trial
September 8, 2010
James Carroll, Chairman
Bergen County Board of Chosen Freeholders
One Bergen County Plaza
Hackensack, NJ 07601
Dear Chairman Carroll,
I have been made aware of your “invitation” to appear at today’s Freeholder work session. Please be advised that I do not accept your invitation nor will I be appearing at what amounts to a “show” for the remainder of this campaign.
Your invitation is unique and without merit. I have been County Clerk for 21+ years and, until I filed to run for Bergen County Executive this year, I was never “invited” to Freeholder meetings. Your purpose is clearly political and reflects the lowest form of political abuse. It’s a pattern that has been followed since I announced my candidacy for County Executive. It is a prime example of why voters are turned off by corrupt government officials. Yes, this is an example of corruption in the truest sense.
Did you “invite” County Executive McNerney to “visit” after numerous instances of corruption and questionable practices at a number of County agencies under his control including the Bergen Academies and Bergen County Improvement Authority?
Have you made any effort whatsoever to address hundreds if not tens of millions of cost overruns identified by the Record in the construction of Overpeck Park?
The answer to these and other egregious politically inspired activities is a resounding “no”.
I understand that you have also invited Acting County Police Chief Malakas to presumably conduct or should I say once again attempt to re-ignite the witch hunt which was in fact the County’s failure to conclude audits of the County Clerk’s office for a number of years. You and the McNerney administration have attempted to paint your failures as mine. Your clumsy effort was a feeble attempt to denigrate the hardworking employees of the Clerk’s office which has earned its reputation for efficiency and customer friendliness.
Here are the facts that would never be presented during your political set-up. First, the County Clerk’s office is so well managed that we have been able to save each Bergen County family roughly $300.00 — the amount of revenue over expense that your office has taken in under my leadership. Much of those savings is turned over to you for County uses. Has that money been identified through audit?
During the past two years I have reduced my workforce and lowered by budget. Can the same be said for the County and its questionable patronage hiring practices?
To set the record straight, a police escort comes every day to our office to accompany our staff person making the daily deposits. Without an escort the deposit does not go. I do not allow my staff to go to the bank unless they go with the police. This has been the policy in place for at least twenty years, which I implemented. The Sheriff’s Officers escorted my staff when we were in the Court House, as they were in charge of security there, and the BCPD has provided escorts for my office ever since we moved into the new administration building some ten years ago.
Acting Chief Malakas received a letter from my office last Friday, requesting a meeting with him to work out a schedule. I was not in the office when he called on Tuesday. I expect we will be meeting shortly.
So there it is. There will not be a “Show Trial” in the tradition of Mao’s China or Stalin’s Soviet Union. Instead of trying to sully my record and the record of the Clerk’s office, you will have to run on your own – as will County Executive McNerney.
You will have to explain your stewardship of our of control agencies like the BCIA where the debt alone has escalated from $10 million to $450 million under your control. That’s more that $500 for every man, woman and child in Bergen County! You will have to explain why county debt and spending have grown out of control under your watch with last year’s spending increased by $85 million or $100 for every county resident.
You will have to explain why, while attempting to smear me, you blatantly appropriated some $70,000 so that the County Executive could attempt to paint over the scandal of Overpeck Park using taxpayer money to pay for what amounts to pure, inaccurate political campaign TV commercials.
You will have to explain a lot to the voters between now and November 2nd. And I can promise you that the questions that you fail to answer now will be asked again in a more formal manner next January.
Very truly yours
Kathleen A. Donovan
