Emergency Centers In New Jersey Get More then $2 Million Despite Obama’s Request

More than $2 million for emergency centers in North Jersey and billions for grant programs that have helped the region in the past were in a nearly $43 billion homeland security spending bill the Senate sent to President Obama on Tuesday.

Obama’s expected to sign it, even though Congress ignored his recommendation to eliminate some programs too steeped in politics. Here’s a look at the bill:

WHO’S GETTING MONEY: $60 million is provided for grants around the country to local emergency centers where public safety and civilian leaders coordinate responses to emergencies such as storms or man-made disasters. More than $5.3 million is earmarked for specific areas in New Jersey, including:

* $300,000 toward a $1.3 million emergency center Hackensack wants to build on its former pistol range in Johnson Park. City Manager Steve Lo Iacono said the city is raising money from other sources as well, but needs approvals from the state because some of the land has been preserved through the Green Acres program.

* $250,000 for Passaic County to renovate its emergency center, increase security and upgrade technology.

* $1 million for the Morris County emergency center.

* $500,000 for the North Hudson Fire and Rescue emergency center.

REJECTING OBAMA: Obama recommended in May that emergency center grants be eliminated because 60 percent of the $35 million appropriated this year was earmarked by Congress to specific places, rather than awarded where the risk was greatest. Rather that cut, Congress increased the program to $60 million, and earmarked 80 percent.

BUSES AND TRUCKS: Obama proposed eliminating security programs providing $12 million to bus companies and $8 million to trucking companies, saying federal grants were funding capital investments that private companies could make themselves. Congress did kill the truck program, but continued the bus program. New Jersey bus lines got $3.3 million in the last grant award.

SAFETY RESEARCH: The Transportation Security Administration gets $5 million to expand its explosives-detection research lab in Atlantic County. A California non-profit gets $1 million for training programs in five states, including New Jersey, on how to get different public safety communication systems to talk with each other.

REGIONAL GRANTS: Urban Area Security Grants were increased by $50 million, or 6 percent for next year. North Jersey got more than $35 million this year, which may increase. But port security grants were reduced by $100 million, or 25 percent. Obama had recommended a 37 percent cut.
(News Source: NorthJersey.com/Herb Jackson/PCJN)

Learn today at P.T.I in passaic

Passaic County Sheriff Plays Politics

I’m sure glad I don’t live in Passaic County. The sheriff might throw me in the slammer for impersonating J.J. Moon.

“J.J. Moon” is the screen name I use when I post on surfing websites. It’s also the name of a fictional surf star created by Surfer Magazine during the 1960s. J.J. would often be pictured riding a huge wave in Hawaii or riding the nose at Malibu.

But the photos were created with a cut-and-paste technique that was the low-tech equivalent of Photoshop. It was all a big joke, and you’d have to have been really dull-witted to take it seriously.

Sort of like Passaic County Sheriff Jerry Speziale. At least I hope he’s dull-witted. Otherwise he’s guilty of the most blatant case of political persecution I’ve ever seen.

The victim was Harry Clark, a 49-year-old resident of West Milford who fixes copy machines for a living and who is active with the Republican Party. In 2007, for a joke, he created an account at this newspaper’s website, nj.com, under the screen name “JimGeist.” That name is very close to that of a local Democrat by the name of James Geist.

The joke was obvious to anyone paying attention. The profile of “JimGeist,” for example, included the statement “I am an admirer of the greatest guy in the world Harry Clark.”

Geist was not amused. He fired off a letter to his fellow Democrat, Sheriff Jerry Speziale, in which he noted that “some Republicans have been using the internet site http://www.nj.com/forums/westmilford/ to harass several of our members,” by which Geist meant members of the West Milford Democratic Club. He went on to call for the sheriff to bring criminal charges against whoever was doing the posting.

At this point, Speziale should have called up Geist and recited the old saying, “Sticks and stones will break my bones, but names will never hurt me.” Instead, he put his crack internet crime team on the case. Before long Clark was being hauled off by three officers. The sheriff’s office had signed off on two complaints charging him with forgery and identity theft based on “posting messages ridiculing and defaming others without consent.”

As I sat in Clark’s kitchen the other day reading that complaint I nearly fell out of my chair. I have a blog on nj.com. If posting messages ridiculing and defaming others under a false name is a crime, then half my readers belong in jail.

But there’s something about the internet that makes people go crazy, even people who should know better, such as journalists. The local paper led its Passaic County section with news of the arrest for “alleged misuse of the internet” that involved “anonymous, insulting remarks” without giving the slightest hint that insulting remarks, whether anonymous or not, are not against the law. The story ended with the reporter’s observation that “Clark most likely will face thousands of dollars in fines, and could be given jail time.”

Well maybe in the old Soviet Union. Here in the good, old U.S. of A. the prosecution was troubled from the beginning. Though a prosecutor initially told Clark, “these are very serious charges and you could go to jail for a long time for this,” he says, by September of that year the charges had been downgraded to a disorderly persons offense to be heard in municipal court.

That should have been the end of it, but the prosecutor persisted, changing the putative offense to “harassment” when it was obvious the fraud and identity-theft charges were bogus.

Finally, the case came before someone with some common sense, Pompton Lakes Municipal Court Judge Frank Santoro. Last month he threw the whole thing out.

When I got Sheriff’s spokesman Bill Maer on the phone, he said Speziale stands by the prosecution.

“We maintain that our investigators found that the manner in which this individual did this, by saying they were somebody else setting up a fictitious screen name and saying they were somebody else, was illegal,” said Maer.

Interesting. But then why isn’t the sheriff going after Geist himself? In the course of the proceedings it developed that he has been posting online using the name of a certain “Barack Obama.”

When I got Geist on the phone, he said his use of Obama’s name and the name of other political figures online was clearly satirical. And I’m sure it was. But Clark’s use of Geist’s name was also a joke, a common one on the internet. Of the thousands who play such jokes every day, only Clark had his name dragged through the mud and spent tens of thousands of dollars on legal fees.

Maer denied politics entered into the prosecution. And maybe he’s right. Maybe the sheriff and the prosecutor are so busy that neither has had the time to read the Constitution.

It’s about time they did, starting with the First Amendment.  Nj.com

Passaic Fire Parade

The Passaic Fire Department 100th Anniversary Parade
“Help us celebrate 100 years of proud service to the City of Passaic.”
Sunday – October 11, 2009
Starting at 11a.m. – Rain or Shine
Parade starts at Eighth St., continues the length of Passaic St./Ave. and ends in Third Ward Park
Refreshments in the park after the parade
For more information or to purchase an advertisement in the Commemorative Ad Journal send an e-mail to: passaicfire100th@gmail.com

*SAVE THE DATE* Editors note unfortunately it is during Yom Tov

Experts speculate gas may drop below $1 a gallon

A worker lowers the price of regular unleaded gasoline in Independence, Mo. in November
How low can the price of gas fall? With drivers paying the cheapest price to fill their tanks in nearly four years, it is a question many consumers are pondering, with some experts speculating it is possible prices could even drop below $1 per gallon.
Prices already have decreased to below $1.25 per gallon in some parts of the Midwest. With the economy in a freefall, analysts do not rule out crude oil, which traded Friday in the mid-$40 range, sinking to $20 per barrel, a price that could translate to gas at $1 per gallon.

“Right now, you look at the way demand is retreating, it tends to predict lower prices,” said John Kingston, global director of oil for Platt’s, a provider of energy information. “A drop to $20 per barrel is not out of the question.”

In New Jersey, the price of unleaded regular fell to $1.60 Friday, the lowest it has been since March 2004, said Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for Oil Price Information Services in Wall Township. In July, the state recorded its highest ever average price for unleaded at $3.99.

“I’m not in the camp where we’ll see prices fall to $1 per gallon or less,” said Kloza, who thinks crude could dip below $40 per barrel, but if so, only briefly. “Here, (in New Jersey), we will see some numbers below $1.50 per gallon.”

Capuana ops stay up and running in advance of next year’s contest

PASSAIC – It stands right across from City Hall, and although he came up 400 votes short in last week’s mayoral election, sources close to Vinny Capuana say his headquarters isn’t going anywhere.

It will remain open and active.

There is a mayor’s race next year, after all.

As mayor, Capuana’s conqueror, Alex Blanco, will enjoy the advantage of incumbency in next year’s mayoral contest for a full, four-year term.

But both Blanco and Capuana are trying to secure the backing of those other contestants in last week’s race to fill the unexpired term of Sammy Rivera: real estate developer Jose Sandoval, City Councilman Joe Garcia, and bail bondsman Carl Ellen.  PolitickerNJ.com

 

N.J. police stockpile assault weapons

BERGEN COUNTY, N.J. — North Jersey police are stockpiling some of the most sophisticated tactical and assault weapons on the market, but some residents question the need for such firepower in sleepy suburban towns.

Nearly half the agencies in a Record survey of 44 police departments said they own tactical weapons or plan to purchase them in the near future. Most departments are buying semiautomatic guns capable of one to three shots per trigger pull, while a handful of departments have fully automatic weapons capable of firing 10 bullets a second. A few have military-grade M16s or urban rifles that can blast through body armor.

“You’re not looking at major crime in these towns,” said Eric Krasnov, a 26-year-old from Harrington Park who works in Tenafly.

St Mary’s is trying to close the very well needed psych unit.

Editors notePCJN has learnt that the St Marys psych unit is very well needed. And also would like the resident’s of passaic county to know that, the psych unit last week was completely full. So where would these 38 beds go? Also many of the Patients at st Mary’s psych facility are voluntarily going to the psych facility however if they have to travel they probably would not go. And many of the low income families would not be able to visit there loved ones. Which is very important for such patients

 The overburdened mental health system in North Jersey is closely monitoring the proposed closure of the 38-bed psychiatric unit at St. Mary’s Hospital in Passaic County, assessing the potential domino effect on other providers if the state approves the closure, officials said yesterday.

Chilton Memorial Hospital in Pequannock and Clara Maass Medical Center in Belleville are two likely destinations for many patients, said officials, who noted such a move would make it less-than-convenient for some Passaic County families to visit loved ones who are hospitalized.

St. Mary’s has a pending application with the state Department of Health and Senior Services to close its 40-year-old psychiatric unit. Hospital officials said they don’t have adequate funds to continue the operation.

Ex-Mayor of Passaic Gets Nearly 2 Years in Prison

TRENTON (AP) — Samuel Rivera, the former mayor of Passaic, N.J., was sentenced on Friday to nearly two years in prison and fined $4,000 for accepting cash bribes in exchange for influencing city contracts.

Mr. Rivera, who was caught in a corruption scheme that netted 11 public officials, resigned last year after pleading guilty to attempted extortion.

Mr. Rivera, 61, admitted taking $5,000 in exchange for using his official influence to help a company become the city’s insurance broker. The company turned out to be an F.B.I. front.

The only explanation Mr. Rivera offered on Friday for his role in the scheme was “poor judgment.”

A former police officer, Mr. Rivera is among nearly two dozen New Jersey mayors charged with corruption since 2000.

Among the most well known is Sharpe James, the former mayor of Newark, who is set to surrender to prison officials next month. Mr. James was ordered to serve a 27-month sentence and pay a $100,000 fine for his role in the sale of city-owned properties at a discount.

We at PCJN wish our former Mayor the best of luck. And we acknowledge all the great things he has done for our city.

$200K-plus

By HEATHER APPEL, STAFF WRITER | 08/14/08 04:02 AM http://Myheraldnews.com

About 40 in Paterson made at least $90,000 Three Passaic County public schools chiefs earned more than $200,000 a year as of January 2008, according to a list released Wednesday by the state Department of Education that details the salaries and benefit packages for every administrator statewide.

The report also shows that a Bergen County superintendent is one of two in New Jersey whose compensation topped the $300,000 mark.

The data was released just three months after Keansburg Schools Superintendent Barbara Trzeszkowski, 60, retired with a $740,000 severance package, which included compensation for years of unused vacation and sick days.

The state Attorney General’s Office has since filed suit in Superior Court to declare the severance payout “null and void.”

Passaic Resident Taxed for Basements and Attics they are Not Allowed to Live in, Gary Schaer Thinks it’s Fair.

By MEREDITH MANDELL, STAFF WRITER | 08/08/08 04:02 AM

Dorothy Blostein sits in her attic on Ascension Street in Passaic. She has lived here for 44 years and says a recent reassessment that includes her attic is unfair. (KEVIN R. WEXLER/Staff Photographer)

City reassesses space in 1,000 homes

PASSAIC — Roughly 1,000 city homeowners will be paying hundreds more in their quarterly tax bills this year because the city has adjusted its assessment for basements and attics that have been untaxed for more than a decade.

Tax bills sent out in July reflect the changes, and some residents are complaining that the city failed to give them advance notice.

City Tax Assessor Thomas Poalillo said that, because of a computer error, for 16 years about 1,000 homeowners had been paying a lower amount in taxes than they should have as a result of their property being incorrectly assessed.

Poalillo said Appraisal Consultants, the company that did the city’s last revaluation in 1992, put the wrong amount of livable space these residents have into the city’s tax assessments computer database.

Poalillo said that last year he decided to correct the error by 2008 and add these people’s attics and basements as part of their assessments.

“From 1992 to 2008, these people weren’t paying taxes on the correct assessment,” he said.

“It’s my job to treat everyone equally. Now everyone is being assessed correctly. Now everyone is on the same playing field.”

Dorothy Blostein has been living in her two-story house at 168 Ascension St. for 44 years and said she never has been assessed for her attic.

The assessment on her home went up $15,000 this year, which translates into a tax increase of $909 a year under the current tax rate.

Standing on the stairs of her dusty wooden attic on Thursday, the 79-year-old Blostein said she was shocked in July when she received her third- and fourth-quarter bills for 2008.

“You can see it’s not finished,” Blostein said, looking at the various objects she keeps in her attic: suitcases, a box of photo albums, an old computer and speakers. “It’s just junk,” she said, her voice beginning to rise.

Passaic Numero Uno for Mexican firms

By KAREN KELLER, STAFF WRITER | 08/10/08 04:00 Am

Bianca Gonzalez talks about her business, Nicomex, in Passaic. First Street in Passaic, with its increasing number of Mexican food distributors, has become the largest hub for Mexican goods in the tri-state area. (Photos by David Bergeland/Staff Photographer)

Food distribution sales now in ‘tens of millions’

PASSAIC — The city’s First Street business district has a decidedly Mexican flavor these days.

With recent openings, Passaic is now the largest hub of Mexican food distributors on the East Coast. Roughly 20 such businesses have opened in the city in recent years, likely lured here because Passaic has the largest Mexican-born population in New Jersey, entrepreneurs said.

Puebla Foods was the first company to settle here, in the late 1970s. Juarez Wholesale opened just two weeks ago. The warehouses sell products that Mexican hearts and bellies yearn for, such as a chocolate-based mole sauce, cactus leaves and even Mexican-made marshmallows.

Everyone has a personal favorite.

“Chiles!” said Eric Suarez, 21, a customer in the parking lot of GroMex, the largest distributor in Passaic, as he loaded boxes into a truck destined for a local corner store. “Mexicans want them really spicy, burning!” he explained.

Ray Carrera, president of the city’s 25-member United Mexican Chamber of Commerce, founded in 2006, savors the blossoming industry — literally and intellectually. Carrera grew up in Lodi and remembers being one of just a few Mexicans in North Jersey, feeling out of place among ethnic groups such as the Italians and Irish.

Now, nearly one out of every five Passaic city residents is Mexican.

“I feel right at home,” said Carrera, who now lives in Passaic.

Carrera isn’t worried that the sluggish national economy and tighter immigration laws will threaten the industry. Business is guaranteed to increase based on the current population, he said.

“It’s growing merely because the Mexicans are having kids,” Carrera said.

He estimated the annual sales of the local Mexican foods distributors at “tens of millions of dollars.”

According to the Pew Hispanic Center, the national Hispanic population, already the largest minority group, will triple in size and account for most of the nation’s population growth from 2005 through 2050.

Mexicans comprise the largest Hispanic group in the U.S., with 11.6 million in 2006, or a third of all Hispanics.

Imam finds passionate ally in Rabbi

Friendship on display during deportation hearings

One witness’s testimony riveted the courtroom at the deportation trial of a Muslim spiritual leader accused by U.S. officials of having had ties to Hamas.

It was the account of David Senter, an Orthodox-trained rabbi from Pompton Lakes, in defense of Imam Mohammad Qatanani as a man of peace and love and an asset to America.

Senter’s words, tearful at times, and the mere sight of him — a man in a yarmulke speaking out for a Palestinian imam accused of ties to Israel’s avowed enemy — brought a hush to the courtroom.

“For many in my community, it was unexpected support they saw,” Qatanani, 44, said recently in his office at the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson.

Immigration Court Judge Alberto Riefkohl is expected to decide next month whether to grant Qatanani, who came to this country in 1996 on a religious visa, permanent U.S. residency. If Riefkohl rejects Qatanani’s petition, immigration officials could deport him.

Senter’s testimony cemented a friendship between the two men that began four years ago at an interfaith meeting filled with doubt and reluctance.

Their roots, after all, are in territories that are at war with each other, tainted with the blood of so many — soldiers, civilians, paramilitaries, freedom fighters, terrorists, fathers, mothers, children.

Senter, who grew up in Jersey City, lived on the West Bank as a young man, constructing homes in what Palestinians condemn as occupied lands, and ready to use the Uzi on his shoulder.

“I had some positive experiences, and some negative experiences, with Arabs” said Senter, rabbi of the conservative Congregation Beth Shalom and a staunch supporter of Israel.

Qatanani grew up on the West Bank and, like many Palestinians, harbored resentment toward Israel. When he was 10 years old, Qatanani recalled, his father took him to a house in Jafa, a port city on the Mediterranean.

“He said ‘This was our house,’ and he was crying,” Qatanani said, with visible anguish. “A Jewish family was living there. Israel just took our homes.”

The vestiges of their ancestral enmities followed them to North Jersey decades later.

At their first meeting, they approached each other tepidly.

“I’d had interfaith dialogue with Jews before,” Qatanani said. But those meetings tended to stay cordial, diplomatic. “When I met [Senter] for the first time, it was new. There is the history — always — of the Muslims and Jews. In the history of Palestine, there’s the conflict, the misunderstandings.”

Senter is blunt about that first meeting.

“I was frightened when I first saw him,” said Senter, 47. “He had the cap and the robe; he was the image I had seen on TV of Hamas leaders talking about the rockets they’d fired at Israel. I shook his hand, but reluctantly.”

At the time, Qatanani was gaining a statewide reputation as a pillar of moderation in the Muslim community. He was one of the first imams in the nation to publicly condemn terrorism after the 2001 attacks. He urged his congregation to be less insular and to become part of the larger American community.

The image that initially haunted Senter hovered over the imam’s four-day trial in Immigration Court in Newark in May and June. Prosecutors for the Department of Homeland Security contrasted the popular reputation of Qatanani as a peace-loving interfaith leader with a portrait of a man with a dark, lesser-known past.

The imam, his wife and three of his six children (the others were born in the U.S.) face deportation because immigration officials say Qatanani lied on his 1999 green card application when he said he’d never been arrested or convicted of a crime.

Immigration officials say Israeli authorities told them that Qatanani had been detained for three months and convicted of having had ties to the militant group Hamas, which Israel and the United States have designated as a terrorist organization.

During his trial, and in numerous press interviews, Qatanani denied ever having ties to Hamas. He said he didn’t disclose the detention in his green card application because the Israelis had never told him he was convicted of a crime. He said Israelis routinely detained Palestinian men at the time and added that he’d been tortured for much of his three-month detention.

“When I first heard about the torture, I couldn’t believe it,” Senter said. “That kind of treatment is clearly not a Jewish value. My first thought was ‘It can’t be true.’ ”

But then an expert on the Israeli judicial system testified that the harsh treatment described by Qatanani had been commonly applied at the time. The expert noted that the Israeli authorities’ interrogation tactics were outlawed by the Israeli Supreme Court in 1999.

“I thought, ‘My God, this really happened,’ ” Senter said.

But he reconciled the painful realization.

“Israel is a self-correcting society,” he said. “The Supreme Court outlawed the torture.”

In the imam’s fight against deportation, Senter has emerged as one of his most passionate allies.

In the courtroom, before the trial, Senter, a towering figure at 6-foot-4, grasped the hands of the imam, a diminutive man who is slightly over 5 feet, and said a prayer for him in Hebrew, then in English.

On the witness stand, and in press releases, he condemned a government prosecutor’s reference to a Quran passage that the imam had uttered in a sermon.

“Quoting the Quran out of context in an effort to discredit the imam is frightening,” Senter wrote in an e-mail to the press. “The same thing can be done with the Torah or Christian Scripture in an effort to cast a shadow on any religious leader. I was shocked that a representative of the U.S. government would use the tactics of hatemongers in an effort to tip the scales of justice. Islam and the Quran are not on trial.”

They clung to and nurtured their friendship, despite great odds. Each faced criticism from their congregants as their interfaith efforts with each other’s house of worship grew.

“Our community was not ready for a dialogue with Jews,” Qatanani said. “People said: ‘How can you trust people who took our homes, who took Palestine?’

“They said Jews would never accept Muslims or Islam.”

Senter, whose synagogue begins services with a prayer for the Israeli Defense Forces, encountered similar skepticism. And though both men say their congregations have come a long way in supporting their friendship, and bonds have formed among some congregants, not everyone goes along with it.

Senter, in particular, was a target of angry words after his vehement support for the imam during the trial.

A Pittsburgh man wrote that Senter’s support of Qatanani was “… hurting your reputation and is damaging to the entire Jewish Nation. Please refrain from these continued public statements which bring shame on our community and our people.”

In a recent synagogue newsletter, Senter responded to his critics by saying: “Are there those who will look at him and automatically believe that the things being said about him are true? Absolutely. These people may constitute a significant grouping within the Jewish community.

“I, however, have a personal and professional relationship with this man.

He has put himself on the line personally and professionally to say that Jews and Muslims can and should peacefully co-exist. … Could I turn my back on him? Sure I could. I would be no better than the Christian clergy in Nazi Germany.”

The two men have gotten used to the stares they get when they — Senter, in his yarmulke, and Qatanani in his kufi and flowing Islamic robe — enter restaurants together to catch up with each other’s lives.

Senter has spoken at the mosque about the importance of forging bonds, but also about his support of the state of Israel and its right to defend itself. The imam has spoken at the synagogue.

“We used to not speak about politics,” Senter said. “I thought, we’re never going to agree, so why discuss it? But our friendship got to the point where we could disagree and still be fine.”

“I really care about him. He is a true friend,” said Qatanani.

They hope their ability to connect despite their differences will serve as a lesson.

“In the Middle East, there are some real boundaries that keep people apart,” Senter said. “Here, in this country, the only boundaries that exist are in our minds.” myheraldsnews.com

Is it a miracle that Route 21 in Passaic is clean!

PASSAIC – The usual piles of litter — old tires, beer bottles and flyaway papers — along the sides of heavily traveled Route 21 have suddenly disappeared.

It’s not an environmental miracle, but the hard work of 10 young people — nine teenagers and a 24-year-old — hired to prune, cut grass and clean up eight grassy strips adjacent to the highway.

The Downtown Merchants Corp., a non-profit dedicated to beautifying the city, hired them to work for five weeks during the summer. They are being paid $9 an hour through a $35,000grant that Downtown Merchants received from the state Department of Transportation this year. Wearing long pants and long-sleeved T-shirts and armed with machetes and weed-whackers, the crew worked seven hours a day, five days a week, cleaning up the debris in the blazing summer sun. They said that although it’s hard work, they are learning valuable life lessons.

“It gives you respect for people who do it year-round,” said Branden Valenzuela, 18, who recently graduated from Passaic High School and plans to attend Bergen Community College this fall. Valenzuela wants to study business.

And with college tuition rising, Valenzuela said the summer job will help defray the cost. “I’m trying to take the weight off my parents’ shoulders for college,” he said.

The Downtown Merchants Corp. applied for the $35,000 competitive grant through the DOT’s Urban Gateway Enhancement Program. The program provides jobs and employment opportunities for urban youth in the fields of forestry, landscaping and streetscaping. This year, the Passaic group was among 10 awarded grant money for the summer program. It is the first time in two years that a city group has received such a grant.

City officials have lauded the program for helping young people find jobs in the summer, when traditionally the part-time job market is crowded with college students. At a time when the economy has taken a downturn and families may need the extra money, the summer program is a good opportunity, they added.

“They are making money, they are keeping busy and, third, they are learning skills,” said Victor Santiago, Downtown Merchants director, as he drove around the city on a recent sunny afternoon, pointing out some of the newly manicured spots.

One local businessman, Jaime Delgado, owner of JFJ Delgados Landscaping & General Contractor, of Passaic, is working with the crew, teaching them pruning techniques and how to use the equipment.

At the end of the summer, those who successfully complete the program will receive a diploma listing the job skills they have acquired, Santiago said.

Some of the workers said the money they earn this summer will give them extra cash for things like a new laptop computer or pay for public transportation.

“If my mother is in a good mood, she’ll give me money,” said 15-year-old Yusef Reaves, “but usually I have to buy my own ride or [movie] ticket.”

Reaves said he is saving money so he can attend college out-of-state and not make his parents pay the extra tuition costs.

“It’s going to cost a lot of money to get a dorm room,” he said.

Darnell Burrells, 24, said the summer program was teaching him something more important than just landscaping. Burrells said he understands how important it is to get a college education so he won’t have to do menial jobs. He wants to work in a field he really likes: music.

Burrells said he sings in the church choir at Mount Pilgrim Baptist Church on Autumn Street and operates a recording studio out of his home.

Although he was happy to have a job, Burrells said, he was less than enthusiastic about the cleanup work.

“The only thing is the bugs and allergies and stuff,” Burrells said. “It has got me thinking, do I really want to do this for the rest of my life? Definately no.” Northjersey.com

Passaic woman charged after leaving tot in SUV

A 33-year-old Passaic woman was charged with endangering the welfare of a child yesterday after she accidentally left a toddler inside her SUV for about three hours in Clifton, police said.

The 2-year-old boy, also of Passaic, was not breathing and had al most no pulse when she finally no ticed him and got help, but the toddler was expected to fully recover, Clifton Detective Sgt. Robert Bracken said last night.

Meira Lebovitz spent part of the day carpooling six children, including several of her own. Later, after dropping off five of the children, she stopped at the Home Depot in Clifton at about 2 p.m., not realizing the 2-year-old was still asleep in the back, the detective said.

While in the store parking lot on Bloomfield Avenue, Lebovitz suddenly noticed she had forgotten to drop off one child, who had fallen asleep in the rear of her Chevrolet Suburban sport utility vehicle, Bracken said. Lebovitz, a friend of the boy’s family, rushed the child into the store, the detective said.

The child was dehydrated, had a temperature of 102.6 degrees Fahrenheit, was not breathing and did not have a noticeable pulse, Bracken said. The boy ap peared to have advanced heat stroke, he said.

Two customers in the store began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on the child as they waited for emergency rescue crews, according to the detective. Nj.com

Squad leader claims ‘harassment’

Letter says Jewish group not up to code

PASSAIC — The city has told one of two Passaic-based Orthodox Jewish volunteer ambulance squads that it must shut down because the squad isn’t up to city code.

But the squad’s founder called the city’s action “harassment” and questioned why the other Jewish squad wasn’t scrutinized.

On Monday, the city sent a letter signed by its law firm, Scarinci & Hollenbeck, to David Kaplan, 26, founder of Hatzolah EMS of North Jersey, saying the squad wasn’t in compliance with city law.

The letter said Hatzolah must shut down operations by the end of the day on May 19 if it did not fulfill the requirements of proving that all volunteers are qualified and that the squad has insurance that covers any legal action against the city up to $2 million. The requirements are outlined in a 2004 ordinance.

Kaplan said his squad does meet city requirements and showed necessary proof to the city last September. A letter to Kaplan from former Mayor Samuel Rivera, dated Sept. 12, states that Hatzolah is qualified to provide emergency medical services in Passaic and that a certificate remains in effect for two years from that date.

But Acting Mayor Gary Schaer said to the best of his knowledge Hatzolah had not met all the city’s requirements.

Hatzolah is licensed to operate by the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services, although a license is not necessary to operate, said spokeswoman Marilyn Riley.

As of Wednesday, Hatzolah had not provided documentation to the city, Kaplan said. But Hatzolah is continuing operations anyway, he said, because Kaplan believes the city’s letter is unfair and unfounded.

To complicate matters, a second Hatzolah ambulance service with a similar name — Hatzolah of Passaic/Clifton — has never been used informally by the city and is not on the list of squads the city uses. Hatzolah means “rescue” in Hebrew. The squads are local chapters of a worldwide organization that has volunteer ambulance squads in Jewish neighborhoods.

Greg Hill, the business administrator, said the city has not checked whether the second Jewish squad is violating city law. Schaer, an Orthodox Jew, said he asked Hill on Tuesday to verify that all private ambulance squads comply with city law. Passaic has only the two Hatzolahs as private squads.

The city’s paid squad, which has two ambulances, is overseen by the Police Department. When both vehicles are in use, the city calls other municipalities and private squads to ask if they can dispatch an ambulance immediately. Andy White, police spokesman, said Kaplan’s Hatzolah has been called in recent months after the Clifton squad and a private company based at Hackensack University Medical Center.

Last week, the City Council entertained a resolution that would formally add Kaplan’s Hatzolah to the city’s list of mutual aid services. But the resolution was defeated by a 3-3 tie vote. A tie means the measure is rejected.

The three Orthodox Jewish council members voted against the resolution, while the three Hispanic members voted in favor.

Schaer, who proposed the resolution, said he voted against it because he believes Hatzolah was stoking ethnic divide in the city.

“Picking up an ambulance group that’s working primarily in one part of town — I don’t think it’s a good idea, if we’re continuing our fight to unite Passaic,” Schaer said.

Kaplan said Hatzolah serves the entire city, not just Jews.

“It’s ludicrous, because the whole point of doing 911 is we service anybody. We don’t ask them, ‘Are you Jewish? Are you Orthodox?’ when someone calls,” Kaplan said. “Gary Schaer has furthered the stereotype that we only want to help ourselves.”

Hatzolah gets an average of 600 calls a year to its direct line, Kaplan said. He did not know what percentage was Jewish.

Councilman Gerardo Fernandez said he supports the squad.

“We never had a problem before. We voted for it. I voted ‘yes’ because they’re providing a service with the community. They’ve been doing it all along,” Fernandez said.

On Tuesday, Schaer said that the letter sent to Kaplan was purely out of concern for public safety.

“It’s not my personal feelings at play here. This affects the health and welfare of city residents,” he said. “What’s relevant is what’s in compliance.”

Reach Karen Keller at 973-569-7158 or kellerk@northjersey.com myheraldnews.com

Convictions still haunt ex-mayors

The real punishment may be the remaining life of regret, longing and debt.

Sammy Rivera, 61, may face as little as 18 months in prison when a federal judge sentences him in August for accepting a $5,000 bribe from an FBI informant. But when Rivera finishes whatever term he may receive, his troubles will be far from over if the experiences of other Passaic County mayors toppled by federal corruption charges are any indication.

Although their prison sentences stretched no longer than three years, their punishments seem to have lasted much longer.

Since emerging from their prison cells, three former Passaic County mayors — Louis V. Messercola of Wayne, Joseph Lipari of Passaic and Martin G. Barnes of Paterson — have been saddled with mountainous legal debts and fees.

But the bigger price is the loss of power and influence. While the three disgraced men all still live in or around the cities they once ruled, their presence has eroded from larger than life to practically invisible.

That’s a crushing blow for politicians such as Lipari, who used charisma and backroom dealings to rule Passaic for nearly a decade until his 1993 conviction forced him to step down. Asked to sum up the price of his conviction, he replied: “Very costly. Too costly.”

The former mayor has since regained a semblance of normality, if not opulence. Two black Mercedes-Benzes were parked near the backyard swimming pool of his ranch-style house in Garfield. But the words he spoke in an interview last week echoed a longing for the station he once held.

Of the three mayors, only Lipari invited a reporter into his house, and for an hour he ruminated about his political past while reclining on a couch. Withered by chronic illness and a heart condition, he managed to muster the energy to speak about his life as a street kid with a sixth-grade education who grew up to become mayor.

Lipari spoke defiantly about the charges he once faced, proudly about his accomplishments in office and vaguely about the vicious entanglement of money and politics he found himself in.

“Unfortunately,” the 71-year-old said, his voice a sleepy gravel, “you get wrapped around an axle, and the next thing I know, I’m indicted.”

He asserted he never was convicted of accepting bribes, only conspiracy to extort money and evading taxes, albeit on cash bribes he allegedly took. Lipari was acquitted of seven other charges, including demanding and receiving $175,000 in bribes for steering city contracts to crooked roofing and towing companies.

First regret filled his voice as he wondered how he could have avoided his conviction. “I wanted to testify,” but his lawyers advised against it, he said.

“Maybe that was a big mistake,” he said.

Then mist filled his eyes when his thoughts turned to his beloved Passaic.

“I don’t think there’s a day that goes by that I don’t think about Passaic,” Lipari said slowly and surely. “I loved Passaic. I still love Passaic. The city will always be in my heart.”

And Passaic still loves him, too, he said.

“If I ran for mayor of Passaic, I’d win,” he said. Then, when talk turned to who should come after Rivera, Lipari muttered: “They should appoint me mayor.”

That’s not a possibility. Those who are convicted of federal corruption charges are barred from holding elected office again.

Lipari emerged from prison in 1996. Burdened with debts, he was forced to sell his lucrative meat business, Top Grade Sausage Inc. in Hawthorne, which he said once earned him more than $500,000 a year. His children now own the firm.

Louis V. Messercola’s leadership unraveled on a day in 1988, when federal agents nabbed him in a grocery store parking lot. He later was convicted of extorting enormous cash bribes from contractors wanting to do business in Wayne. When he left prison in 1991, he declared in a newspaper article that incarceration had freed him from personal demons. NorthJersey.com

Rabbi, priests, sheriffs support Passaic imam in court

A Jewish rabbi, Roman Catholic and Episcopalian priests, a federal prosecutor and two sherriffs took the witness stand today to heap praise upon a popular Muslim cleric as his attorneys began presenting their case for why he should not be deported.

Mohammad Qatanani, imam of the Islamic Center of Passaic County in Paterson faces deportation for allegedly failing to disclose on his 1996 green card application that he had been arrested and pleaded guilty to aiding the terrorist group Hamas in an Israeli military court three years earlier.

His attorneys argue that Qatanani was detained administratively, convicted in absentia and subject to interrogation tactics Israel’s top court later outlawed as torture.

Among the witnesses subpeonad by Qatatani’s lawyers was Assistant United States Attorney Charles McKenna, who described numerous trips to the Paterson mosque as part of an effort to create better understanding between law enforcement and the Muslim community.

As an example, he said investigators often interpreted the tendency of Muslim women to not look them in the eye as a sign of deceit. Through the dialogue at the mosque, they realized it is routine in Arab culture for women not to look men outside their family in the eye.

“It’s important for us to have leaders in the Islamic community who will be accepting of us and give us inroads in the community,” he said.

The sheriffs of two north Jersey counties echoed McKenna’s statements that the mosque’s open door policies had helped investigators become more familiar with cultural aspects of the Muslim community.

But they also described a more personal connection they had made through their cooperation with Qatanani.

“When I’m in his presence, and he does have a presence, this small, unassuming person, he doesn’t say “boo” but he gives me a better feeling of peace,” said Bergen County Sheriff Leo McGuire. “I feel better as a person to be with him.”

Jerry Speziale, the sheriff of Passaic County echoed McGuire’s testimony saying Qatatani “radiates peace.”

Christopher Brundage, one of two Department of Homeland Security attorneys serving as prosecutors in the case, pressed Speziale and McGuire, asking if they would have different opinions if they had known about Qatatani’s alleged ties to Hamas.

Speziale said he would need to see proof of the conviction himself. McGuire said, “It would surprise me,” but added, “it cannot change my mind about what I have observed.” NJ.com

Gary Schaer becomes acting Mayor and keep’s 3 other job’s

Passaic City Council President/Acting Mayor Gary S. Schaer released a statement today in the aftermath of Mayor Samuel Rivera’s departure from office. Rivera re signed at 5 p.m. after earlier in the day pleading guilty to extortion in federal court.

“This is a difficult time for Passaic,” said Schaer. “I am committed, along with my city council colleagues, to restoring confidence to the residents of Passaic and assuring them that the services provided by our municipal government will continue as normal.

“The hard-working residents of Passaic deserve a municipal government that is honest and trustworthy,” he added. “…While I did not seek this position, my role as Council President statutorily requires this service.” Schaer, who said he would receive no additional compensation or benefits as acting mayor, announced that he will be sworn-in during a “private ceremony” performed by the city clerk. He has scheduled a meeting of the city’s department directors for Monday morning. “Together, we will move forward and continue to improve the quality of life for everyone who lives in our great city,” Schaer said.

Mayor to plead guilty of corruption

(You first heard it yesterday, here on PCJN!)

PASSAIC — Mayor Samuel Rivera was expected to be in Trenton today, pleading guilty to federal corruption charges. But on Thursday, he was in City Hall as streams of well-wishers said their goodbyes.

Men and women stood in a line outside his office, crying. Even the mayor’s hefty bodyguard, Passaic police Detective Lucho Candelaria, was a little misty.

“He’s leaving, and we’re never going to see him again,” said the mayor’s secretary, Angely Ramirez, who wiped her eyes with tissues.

“It’s just sad for the people who knew him well,” Ramirez said between sniffles. “He helped a lot of people.”

Rivera, a former police detective who built his reputation on being tough on crime and cleaning up the streets, is expected to plead to a two-count indictment alleging he accepted a $5,000 bribe and the promise of another $50,000, in exchange for lucrative insurance contracts with the city. Rivera’s plea hearing is scheduled for 10 a.m. in Trenton.

In an interview Thursday evening with Univision 41, a Spanish-language news channel, Rivera sat down with a reporter and said in Spanish, “I have to resign.”

Julio Luciano, the mayor’s assistant, carried cardboard boxes out of the office. Later, he stood on the steps of City Hall, smoking a cigarette and shaking his head.

“He gave a lot of people jobs and helped a lot of police,” Luciano said. “The people that don’t like him are going to see: Passaic is going to be bad. Without him, there will be a lot of gangs and dirty streets.”

Ramirez said Rivera would not see reporters in his office: “He’s not in a good mood right now,” she said.

Then, about noontime, Rivera emerged from his office. A group of employees surrounded him as he made his way out of City Hall. He shook their hands and embraced them.

When asked whether he had resigned, he simply shook his head and said, “No.”

“I’ll see you tomorrow,” he said, offering a handshake. If convicted, Rivera faces up to 30 years in prison on both offenses as well as up to $250,000 in fines on each.

Under state law, once Rivera pleads guilty, he must resign.

Rivera, along with former Councilmen Jonathan Soto and Marcellus Jackson, was accused of taking bribes from undercover FBI agents in exchange for working to get public contracts for a fake insurance company, called Coastal Solutions LLC. The officials were arrested in September as part of a statewide FBI sting dubbed “Operation Broken Boards.”

Jackson pleaded guilty in December and resigned from the council in January. Soto awaits trial.

Neither prosecutors nor Rivera’s attorney, Henry Klingeman, would comment on whether a plea agreement had been struck.

Thus far, all but five public officials have pleaded guilty to being part of the scheme. Among them are former state Assemblyman Alfred Steele, D-Paterson; Jackson, of the Passaic City Council, Pleasantville school board members Rafael Velez, Jayson Adams and James Pressley, and Pleasantville Councilman Peter Callaway. All await sentencing. NorthJersey.com

Breaking News Mayor (sammy) Samuel Rivera to plead guilty tomorrow

Passaic New Jersey   Mayor Samuel Rivera will plead guilty on Friday tomorrow ( 05/09/2008 ) to taking bribes last year.

 The mayor will be resigning from his office tomorrow. He will plead guilty for a plea deal. As more will come we will update you.

You heard this story first from P.C.J.N 

Tree stump saves man from fall off cliff

PATERSON — A man who fell 30 feet off Garret Mountain on Wednesday afternoon while talking to his friend would have plummeted much farther had a tree stump jutting from the mountainside not broken his fall, authorities said.

Josue Barbosa, 32, of Clifton was speaking with his girlfriend on a cellphone and walking along a ridgeline in the Garret Mountain Reservation when he fell from a medium-grade cliff. His friend heard a commotion over the phone and, sensing something was amiss, rushed from her Passaic home to the location where Barbosa always hung out, said Bill Maer, a spokesman for the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department.

When the friend arrived, she discovered Barbosa about 30 feet below the ridge, propped on a tree stump growing out of the mountainside. Had he not landed there, he would have fallen about 100 feet, Maer said.

First responders came to the rescue. Paterson firefighters tied up ropes and rappelled down the cliff to reach Barbosa, who was placed in a rescue basket. He was taken to St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center. Barbosa’s condition was not known Wednesday night, but his injuries were not considered life-threatening, authorities said.

Panic turns blaze into inferno

PASSAIC — A candle started a house fire on Howe Avenue over the weekend, but it was the panicky actions of the home’s owner that turned the bedroom blaze into a raging three-alarm inferno, fire officials said Monday.

No one was severely injured in the Saturday night fire that broke out at 182 Howe Ave., but the fire left 20 people homeless and the entire 2 1/2-story house gutted and beyond repair, Fire Chief Patrick Trentacost said.

“It was a total loss,” he said. But no one was severely injured in the fire, officials said.

Fire inspectors also were examining the possibility that the house contained illegal apartments in the basement and attic, Trentacost said, although the fire did not start in those areas. Instead, it is believed that the fire ignited in a first-floor bedroom, Trentacost said.

A woman who lived in the room later told fire inspectors that she left a candle burning that somehow ignited a bedspread. The owner of the house, whose name was not immediately available Monday, but who is related to the woman, tried to extinguish the flames by pulling off the bedspread. In trying to put out the flames, he burned his hand and then fled, leaving doors open along the way. That was the crucial mistake, Trentacost said: “He created a natural chimney for the fire to extend to the second floor.”

Firefighters arrived about 11:20 p.m. to find flames shooting from the front and side windows of the house. Five minutes later, a second alarm was called, followed by a third. Firefighters were able to bring the blaze under control just after midnight, Trentacost said.

Mayor Rivera Pleads Not Guilty

 

Passaic Mayor Samuel Rivera, one of 10 public officials caught up in a statewide FBI sting last year, pleaded not guilty to bribery and attempted extortion today.

Rivera, 61, was indicted by a federal grand jury last week for allegedly accepting $5,000 in cash from an insurance brokerage firm in exchange for his help getting contracts. The firm turned out to be a front for the FBI.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ll help you out. I’ll help you out,” Rivera told an undercover FBI informant last year during one secretly recorded conversation, according to the two-count indictment.

During a hearing in federal court in Trenton today, U.S. District Judge Freda Wolfson set Rivera’s trial date for March 24. The mayor’s attorney, however, said he would seek a delay until summer.

“We expect to receive the government’s evidence shortly. Without it, we really can’t evaluate the case,” Klingeman said after Rivera’s arraignment. “Mayor Rivera looks forward to his day in court as he continues to run the city of Passaic.”

Rivera faces up to 20 years in prison. Some of his fellow defendants, including former Assemblyman Alfred Steele, have pleaded guilty while others, such as Orange Mayor Mims Hackett, have also vowed to fight the charges. Nj.com

Lost police submachine mysteriously turns up

 

Wayne police have found a rapid-fire submachine gun that had been missing for at least two weeks.

But they won’t say exactly where the nine-millimeter weapon turned up on Monday.

It’s still not known who took the MP5 gun, which can shoot 700 to 900 rounds per minute, or how long it was missing from the department’s arsenal.

But the Passaic County Sheriff’s Department is running tests on the weapon to make sure it wasn’t used in any criminal activity.

Meanwhile, Wayne police and county officials are conducting a criminal investigation to determine how the gun went missing.

Protesters say police roughed up Arab family while family was resisting arrest

PATERSON — More than 200 Arab-Americans and Muslim-Americans marched and chanted slogans Friday against police tactics that left members of a Syrian-American family injured and facing felony assault charges.

“Justice to the Muslim community,” they shouted as they held placards above their heads. “Justice to the Haq family. Bring the abusers to justice.”

The crowd gathered outside City Hall to protest the bruises, a broken nose and deep gashes that three members of the Haq family — mother, father and eldest son — suffered after they allegedly grappled with three police officers Wednesday inside their Dakota Street home.

The officers came to investigate a 911 call of adult-on-child domestic violence at the house. Police say the eldest son, Saer Haq, 26, threatened to kill the officers.

The melee ended when the officers arrested the three Haq family members who allegedly assaulted them: Saer Haq; his father, Sammy Haq, 52; and his mother, Montha Haq, 49.

Also arrested was Ammar Haq, Saer Haq’s 21-year-old brother, and a neighbor, Gunnur Kulaksiz, 42.

Police officials maintained that the officers’ response was appropriate under the circumstances. They say Saer, Sammy and Montha Haq jumped on the officers as they were trying to arrest Saer Haq, who has an arrest record that includes several resisting-arrest offenses and one assault charge stemming from a Feb. 14, 2005, domestic violence complaint, according to police records released Friday.

“The police department and the police are justified to use whatever force to affect an arrest,” Police Chief James Wittig said after the protesters left City Hall to rally before the Public Safety Complex on Broadway.

Some protesters said they were not so much bothered by the fact that the five were arrested but that three of them were bloodied in the process.

“How much force do they need to arrest people?” said Mohammed Latif, 29, who traveled from Linwood in Atlantic County after seeing images of the injured family in an Arabic-language newspaper. “That just reminds me of Abu Ghraib.”

Wittig said: “How about the police officers who were injured?”

Two of the officers involved were treated at St. Joseph’s Regional Medical Center for minor injuries and released.

Friday’s protest was mostly peaceful, minus a short tussle between protest organizer Hani Awadallah and Mayor Joey Torres, in which the mayor tried to keep Awadallah from grabbing a microphone used during the mayor’s short press conference. So Awadallah used his voice instead. He shouted into the cold afternoon air:

“We came here in peace and we will be leaving in peace.”

You Can Save A Life ; Just take a fiew minutes and wipe the Ice/Snow off your car

 

Above is a picture of a car that was smashed from falling ice. Please be considerate for your fellow freinds. Please take the extra fiew minutes to clear snow or ice off your car. Please use caution when driving leave extra time.

It was unseasonably warm last week, but it didn’t keep me from encountering people who sympathized — just barely — with this column’s call to ban the kind of road hazard that we call the Snow and Ice That Fall Twice.

That’s the kind of white junk that leaves the other guy’s car or truck, hits your windshield and makes your whole life flash in front of you. You know the kind:

* The Route 17 kind that killed Ridgewood’s Michael Eastman nearly 12 years ago.

* The Route 287 kind that caused Hawthorne’s Bob and Mary Mahon to chase after the car whose icy load smashed their windshield last year.

* The Route 80 kind that ran Kinnelon’s Tara Varner and her 2-year-old off the road last month.

Shouldn’t New Jersey fine drivers whose vehicles carry snow? Currently, statute 39:4-77.1 makes it illegal only when it causes damage or injury.

Cathy Eastman understands this because the vehicle whose icy load crushed her husband’s skull was long gone by the time police arrived. Tara, Bob, Mary and most of the 2,000 readers who sent me petitions early this year also get it.

But not some folks I’ve encountered. “There are thousands of SUVs, many driven by women,” said Pequannock’s E.L. Quigley. “They can’t clean ice off the tops of their vehicles.”

Ray R. also sympathizes, but:

“Do you have suggestions for clearing … snow from an SUV that’s been out overnight WITHOUT damaging the hood, roof rack or moon roof?” asked the Fair Lawn man. “Pushing snow off is easy, but after past storms, thick solid ice and packed snow didn’t budge after the car’s heater was on for 20 minutes.”

* Run a garden hose over the car with the heater running, but do this for short periods to avoid cracking the windshield.

* Put old cardboard, canvas or a rug over the vehicle before it snows, and yank it off after the storm.

* Run the engine for an hour, long enough to free frozen snow, or at least to help clear it.

Some consider all this unnecessary. One woman, 72, said: “If I can clean my SUV, so can anybody.” Cathy Eastman, who’s 5 feet 1, says she does it. NorthJersey.com And Passaic News.

HEAVY SNOW WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 9 PM THIS EVENING TO 12 PM EST MONDAY

Snow is on the way

A snowstorm expected to cross New Jersey tonight might make tomorrow’s morning commute a little messy for some travelers but carries the potential for significant snow in other areas.

Anticipated to hit the state around 9 p.m., it could last until noon tomorrow, said Valerie Meola, meteorologist at the National Weather Service.

“The storm is over the Southeastern states, and it’s moving up the coast,” Meola said. “How far the storm lands off the coast will determine how much snow falls on our area.”

Depending on the track of the storm, weather officials said Essex, Union, Hudson, Bergen and Passaic counties could see between 6 and 12 inches. Sussex and Morris counties could see between four to seven inches.

Middlesex, western Monmouth and Mercer counties could experience 2 to 4 inches, beginning first as rain.

Warren, Hunterdon and Somerset counties could see nearly 2 inches as well, Meola said.

Temperatures tonight will plummet below freezing for most of the state, Meola said.

Tomorrow, temperatures will hover around the high 30s in the northern part of the state and in the 40s farther south.

Nawal Qarooni may be reached at nqarooni@starledger.com or (732) 404-8082.

Mayor Rivera doesn’t have to reveal legal donors

PASSAIC — As Mayor Sammy Rivera faces corruption charges, supporters are raising money for him. But he doesn’t have to report how much money is in his legal defense fund or who’s contributing to it.

That contrasts with the rules he had to abide by when he ran for reelection in 2005: Every campaign contribution received had to be reported to the state Election Law Enforcement Commission.

The head of the election commission said it has never been asked to rule on public scrutiny of legal defense funds. But one state legislator said she will propose a bill mandating disclosure of any money raised for criminal defense.

“The newly emerging criminal defense funds should be subject to the same disclosure rules as any other campaign contributions,” said state Sen. Loretta Weinberg, D-Teaneck, who has been a vocal supporter of reforming pay-to-play — the practice of granting jobs and contracts to campaign contributors. “I will put in a bill to change it.”

Rivera, 61, was charged in September in a bribery sting. He said last week he has no idea who is contributing to the fund or how much money it has received.

“I have nothing to do with that,” Rivera said of the trust. “None of it goes to me. It goes directly to the lawyer. Whatever is left, maybe we can give it to charity.”

It’s not the first time an elected official’s legal defense fund has drawn public scrutiny. When Paterson Mayor Marty Barnes set up a legal defense fund-raiser in 2001 as he faced bribery charges, two residents filed a complaint against him in state Superior Court. The complaint asked the court for full disclosure of every contributor, but a judge denied the motion, implying it was politically motivated.

Rivera’s legal defense fund was set up as a private trust, according to his attorney, Henry Klingeman. A private trust is a special tax designation set up by an individual entity through which money and other assets can be transferred. Herman Acosta, a Passaic resident, is the trustee, Klingeman said. Neither Rivera nor Klingeman would provide Acosta’s phone number, and he is not listed in the city’s telephone directory.

A private trust fund is not subject to the same financial disclosure regulations that elected officials must obey when fund raising for political campaigns. In that case, candidates must report every contribution they receive to the election commission. Contributions are limited to $2,600 to one candidate per election.

Nor is a private trust required to register with the state as a charity, because the donations are not tax deductible, according to the state’s Division of Consumer Affairs.

New Jersey has no law to specifically address legal defense funds of elected officials, said David Wald, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office. But local elected officials are required to disclose gifts, reimbursements or prepaid expenses exceeding $400 received during the prior calendar year from anybody, excluding relatives or members of their immediate families.

Chris Donnelly, a spokesman for the state Department of Community Affairs, said that in general, contributions to a private trust would not fall under Local Government Ethics statutes, but that it was unclear whether the mayor must report the money raised on his financial disclosure forms.

The forms are due April 30 of each year and contain information from the prior calendar year.

“Therefore, at this time, we cannot determine what information the mayor may or may not disclose,” Donnelly said. Rivera said he believes that because the money is not being given to him directly, but is going to his lawyer, it does not count as a gift.

Klingeman said he has advised Rivera not to disclose names of contributors and the amount they have given, out of respect for their privacy.

“Look, the mayor is innocent until proven guilty. If his friends want to help him then what’s wrong with that?” he said. “The last thing they want is scrutiny by the press and government.”

Klingeman also challenged the notion that Rivera’s contributions were given to him to gain favor.

“It’s a dubious proposition to believe that someone is going to give to a political figure under federal indictment in the hope of receiving some political reward,” he said.

E-mail: mandell@northjersey.com