Sleazy "Pay-To-Play" Ordinance: Citizens Pay And Political Bosses Play According To Kenny And Haelig, As GOP Council Continues To Smother Full Disclosure, Accountability, Transparency Issues

River City - The headline in the Asbury Park Press was "Dover Officials OK Pay-To-Play Reform" but, as DMUA Commissioner Robert K. Haelig Jr., a GOP reform leader, told the council last Tuesday, "the devil is in the details, and this is another disaster for the taxpayers."

Kenny: "It's Like A Drug Addict Addicted To Cocaine"

"This is like a drug addict who is addicted to cocaine," said Common Cause advocate Frank Kenny of the system of campaign financing which puts huge power in the hands of political bosses of both political parties.

Kenny noted that the ordinance passed by the council kills the initiative and referendum provisions of the petitions circulated by himself and other clean government advocates last year, so there "will be no referendum on a real pay-to-play ordinance."

Council President Is Pay-To-Play Lawyer

Part of the problem, some say, is that Dover Council President Gregory McGuckin is a genuine pay-to-play attorney himself, and a partner in the law firm of Dasti, Murphy & McGuckin, the second biggest recipient of no-bid legal services contracts in Ocean County.

Dasti Is GOP Finance Chairman
Who Controls $1 Million
In Annual Campaign Funding

The lead partner in McGuckin's law firm is Jerry Dasti, the chairman of the Ocean County Republican Finance Committee, which takes in about $1 Million in political contributions every year, most of them from the lawyers, engineers, architects and other "professionals" who make huge profits from the taxpayer-funded no-bid contracts they receive.

Ordinance Exempts Professionals
Who Have Already Been Paid Off

The Dover pay-to-play ordinance also exempts contributions from more than 40 attorneys who were already compensated by the taxpayers in a wave of no-bid political payoffs last year at between $30,000 and $114,00 a clip by the new Democrat mayor and Republican council.

Democrat Harry Levin Esq., a contributor to the campaign of Mayor Paul Brush, was just one of numerous recipients of $30,000 legal services contracts handed out by the dozen last year by Republicans and Democrats in the new Dover government.

Another Loophole For Coronato:
What Else Is New?

The ordinance also preserves loopholes for such abuses as the suppression of Republican County Committee financial records currently being withheld from his own members by Dover GOP Committee Chairman Joseph Coronato Esq.

Fourth Largest No-Bid Law Firm

Coronato is the township's $50,000 "Public Defender," and a partner in the fourth greediest pay-for-play no-bid law firm in Ocean County.

Chairman Gilmore Is Also Virtually Exempt From
Phony Pay-To-Pay And Disclosure Ordinances

Also virtually exempt from any real controls by the pay-to-play ordinance is Republican County Chairman George Gilmore, lead partner in the law firm which receives more no-bid legal service contracts than any other law firm in Ocean County.

According to the Asbury Park Press, Gilmore receives more than $1.2 million annually in direct payments from public agencies, municipalities, planning boards and school systems, including controversial payments from constituencies which include him in the state pension plan just like real employees.

Phony Disclosure Ordinance
Exempted Same Attorneys

Haelig pointed out that the same attorneys were exempted from the provisions of "full disclosure" ordinance passed last year by the council.

"The ordinance featured huge loopholes for the usual suspects, and was really a 2% disclosure ordinance - with 98% of the activity, including Dasti, Gilmore, McGuckin and Coronato, exempt from its disclosure provisions," Haelig said.

Brush Didn't Want Any Disclosure At All

But the "biggest joke of all," Haelig said, was that Mayor Brush vetoed the phony "full disclosure" ordinance, because he didn't want any disclosure at all."

Kenny summed it up: "You still have the money in politics beholden to special interests: I'm really upset; I can't put into words how I feel about what you've done," he noted.

Click Here For A Complete Video On Kenny
And Haelig Statements To The Council

This article prepared for publication 01/16/05