Too Funny!

I love his album titles so much I am going to do him the honor of stealing some of his stuff off Limewire!

http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=g5X8rQtKpeC&aid=BBJUoYAAO9G Quote:

Michelle Rodriguez won't be back visiting family in Jersey City anytime soon.

http://www.perezhilton.com/index.php?page=3

Michelle lived in Texas until the age of 8 when her family moved to the Dominican Republic where she lived for two years before moving to Puerto Rico. At 11, Michelle's family relocated for the last time to Jersey City, New Jersey. Although she has been working since 1999 as an extra in such films as Summer of Sam (1999) and Cradle Will Rock (1999), it only took a magazine ad announcing an open casting call in New York for Michelle to decide to finally step into the spotlight. The role was the female lead, the movie was Girlfight (2000). Despite the lack of experience in film and boxing, Michelle auditioned, along with another 350 girls. After various trials inside an actual boxing ring and five arduous months of training in Brooklyn's Gleason's Gym, she was finally chosen to portray the role of Diana Guzman. As soon as the independent film began making the rounds at various film festivals, Michelle began gaining critical acclaim for her performance earning her awards like the Deaxville Festival of American Cinema award for Best Actress and the Las Vegas Film Critics Society for Female Breakthrough Performance. As Girlfight (2000) continued to gain notoriety with its September 2000 release, Michelle was already hard at work with films like 3 A.M. (2001), the blockbuster hit The Fast and the Furious (2001), and Resident Evil (2002). With Hollywood calling her name, the future for this feisty Jersey girl is as strong as the punches she throws.

Trivia:
Was raised in Texas, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and in Jersey City.

Is of Puerto Rican and Dominican descent.

She beat out 350 other girls for the role of Diana Guzman in Girlfight (2000).

Girlfight (2000) was her first acting audition, and she got the role. The Fast and the Furious (2001) was her second audition, and she also got that role.

Didn't have a driver's license before filming The Fast and the Furious (2001) and had to obtain one during her training for the car chase sequences.

Has two half-sisters on her father's side.
Has two older twin brothers named Raul and Omar

Dropped out of high school at 17, but she went back and graduated via an equivalency diploma.

Ranked #77 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women"
Ranked #34 in Maxim's "100 Sexiest Women"

It was announced in 2005 that she would be joining the second season cast of the hit ABC drama "Lost" (2004).

She was the original choice for the title role in ?on Flux (2005)

Keeps getting arrested for DUI's is now in jail.


http://www.perezhilton.com/index.php?page=3

Skadave

You mean the corner of Barrow and Columbus, not Newark -- It is a very big lot - it will be called columbus corner and have 58 units.

The map does show that there are two more approved developments coming onto Newark Ave, besides the two huge towers going up on Newark at Grove Street right now.

209 - 217 Newark will be mixed use commercial with 76 units and
361-377 Newark (next to the cute old diner towards the Turnpike past Brunswick) this will be 25 units and I think some commercial.


Quote:

You can download the PDF file map at this link
http://www.nj.com/jjournal/

Residential projects dominate landscape
Monday, April 17, 2006
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City's office market boom has hit a wall, making way for a surging housing market that will change the face of the city's Downtown for decades to come, city officials and experts say.

While the 1980s and 1990s saw financial companies such as Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch and JP Morgan Chase transform Jersey City's shores into the Gold Coast, today's market is dominated by housing giants like Toll Brothers, K. Hovnanian and Donald Trump.

More than 15,000 residential units are expected to flood the Downtown area over the next several years, putting pressure on municipal services, according to the city's Division of Planning. Though more than seven million square feet of office space was developed from 2000 to 2005, planning officials say the current office market is very sluggish and will remain so for the foreseeable future.

"There are currently no office projects under construction, and none planned," says a planning report authored by Planning Director Robert Cotter earlier this year. Those two opposite trends have prompted at least one expert to declare that "the job growth era is over in Jersey City."

From 1992 to 2000, the state created 243,000 high-paying office jobs, driven by Jersey City's growth on the waterfront, says James Hughes, dean of Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy.

But since 2000, there has been a net loss across the state, thanks to increases in the state income tax and other business taxes, said Hughes.

"New Jersey has become an unfriendly place to do business," Hughes said.

The most recent sign of this trend is 77 Hudson St., where Hartz Mountain Industries just scrapped plans to build a 32-story office tower because the

company believed that Jersey City cannot absorb the new space.

The company sold the land for $65 million to K. Hovnanian, which now plans to build two 48-story towers, with more than 1,300 condo and rental units combined.
City officials and experts say Manhattan is driving the housing trend, as it previously did with the growth of the office space market in Jersey City.

The high costs of buying a home and living in Manhattan, combined with the market demand for luxury condos in the region, has created such high demand for housing in less costly Jersey City.

"If everything that is being constructed were built tomorrow, we still would still not satisfy the housing demand," said Downtown city Councilman Steven Fulop, who also works in the financial industry.

Mega mogul Donald Trump summed up the city's housing surge when he visited the waterfront last year to announce his $415 million project that will feature the Garden State's two largest residential towers, at 55 and 50 stories - Trump Plaza Jersey City

"I am the largest developer in Manhattan, and I am coming to Jersey City. So a lot of people come the other way, and I am coming this way, and I am pretty good at predicting trends, so let's hope that's a trend," Trump said.

And when the Athena Group and Golden Tree InSite Partners announced a $110 million condo project on the Hudson waterfront in October of last year, the president and CEO of the Athena Group said "Jersey City is in the midst of a phenomenal housing boom."

With the boom in residents come issues that need to be addressed, says Fulop.

"We need to continue to hire more police officers, but we need to make sure we're hiring more than we are retiring," said Fulop.

The Allure of Sardinia Comes to New York Area

Celebrations for the ?Sardinian Week Around World? in the Big Apple

New York, NY (PRWEB) April 18, 2006 -- The flavors of the Sardinia Region will be in New York from April 28th to the 30th , for the celebration of the ?Sardinian Week Around the World.? This suggestive island with an intriguing history will be celebrated in the US with gatherings, tastings and even a comedy in the Sardinian language in the heart of Broadway.

Promoter of the initiative is Circolo Shardana-USA, a non-profit organization founded in 2000 in New York. Although numerically smaller than other Italian immigrant groups, and dispersed in a vast territory, members of the Circolo are quite motivated and well organized. Circolo Shardana has so far distinguished itself with intense activity dedicated to fostering and promoting the appreciation and the knowledge of this island, its values and traditions, and has established itself among the many Italian regional organizations in the area.

Among its accomplishments, Circolo Shardana organized an educational tour for 13 Sardinian mayors, who got the opportunity to meet with their counterparts of several small cities in New York and New Jersey. In May 2005 the Circolo organized a conference on ?Sardinia, its Language, its Culture? at Fordham University, with special focus on the literary works of Sardinian writer Grazia Deledda, Nobel price winner for Literature. In some cases, the Circolo provided crucial help, like with the promotion of ancient Sardinian instrument players at the New York International Festival of Mediterranean Music. The collaboration was renewed the following year, with a concert by the musical group ?Tenores? of Oniferi.

Throughout the years, the association has offered its support to several visiting Sardinians, especially graduates coming to universities and hospitals in New York to study and/or undertake research. Among the members of Circolo Shardana, there are, in fact, medical doctors, researchers, managers in the finance and technology industry, and some renowned chefs. Each year, the Circolo also organizes a ?Day in the Park? (?Giornata al Parco?) and the traditional convivial gathering ?Sardinian Night? (?Serata Sarda?), which are simple and nourishing occasions to share values and emotions among family and friends; they also provide good opportunities to speak Sardo, a romance language (its revival was underscored by the recognition as a minority language within the European Union).

The program consists of three events, each one being a good opportunity to learn more about the ?Made in Sardinia.? The rich agenda starts on Friday, April 28, with the celebration of ?Sa Die de sa Sardigna? (which commemorates the short but significant expulsion of the Piedmontese from the island in 1794). There will be a ?Sardinia Open House,? at the elegant premises of the New York Academy of Science in Manhattan (63rd Street and Fifth Avenue), from 6 to 9 PM. The same event will be taking place on the following day at the Museo dell?Emigrazione Italiana in Jersey City (New Jersey). The highlight of the celebrations will be on Sunday, April 30, 2006 at 1:00 PM, with the performance, in the Sardinian language, of the comedy ?Cicciu Fruschedda? by Antonio Garau, at the Sage Theatre, in Times Square! The protagonist of the event will be the ?Tragodia? group, arriving directly from the island for this occasion.

?We are happy to present the splendor and some typical products of our island on such a joyous occasion,? says Bruno Orr?, President of Circolo Shardana, ?a special acknowledgment goes to Regione Sardegna, which always supports and encourages any initiative by Sardinian organizations worldwide to promote the island in every aspect.?

For further information and reservations, please call (908) 212 7846 or visit www.settimanasardany.org

'NEIGHBORHOODS TERRORIZED'
Task force to examine
Saturday, April 15, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

havoc by students

They fight, kick over garbage cans and drive customers from local stores.

Now, the few hundred students wreaking havoc as they come and go from Dickinson High School in Jersey City will be the subject of a special City Council committee.

"It's a real public safety issue that has to be roped in," said Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski, announcing on Wednesday the formation of a committee.

"The neighborhoods up there are being terrorized," said Lipski, the committee chair. "That's a school that was built for 1,900 (students). Now it has 3,100 (students)."

Make that 3,500 students, according to Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr., who reacted favorably yesterday to the council's action.

"That's a good thing," Epps said about the committee's creation. "We know there is a concern and a problem because of the number of students. When they come out it almost paralyzes the community."

Extra police and security have been assigned to the school.

My point exactly -- what do you think I am stupid. haha

Quote:

The source was http://www.njbiz.com !

Chem plant security pits Jersey vs. Bush
Thursday, April 13, 2006
By MICHAELANGELO CONTE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Both of New Jersey's senators vowed yesterday to fight what they say is the Bush administration's plan for federal legislation that would undermine New Jersey's tough chemical security laws.

"President Bush wants to wipe out New Jersey's tough chemical security laws," said Sen. Frank Lautenberg, speaking with Sen. Robert Menendez, of Hoboken, on the shore of the Hackensack River.

The news conference was held at the end of a 2-mile stretch that has been billed as the nation's greatest zone of vulnerability to attacks on chemical plants.

"The president wants a weak, industry-favored approach that pre-empts our state's chemical safety and security laws. We say no way."

State Homeland Security Director Richard Canas and .Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy also spoke at the event across the river from a Kearny chemical plant

"Just last September, a minuscule release from that plant closed the Pulaski Skyway in the middle of rush-hour traffic," Menendez said. "We can only imagine the loss of life that would occur if a terrorist attack caused a major release of chlorine gas."

Yesterday's event was spurred by Michael Chertoff's March 21 speech to chemical industry leaders in which the Homeland Security secretary called for federal legislation that would supersede stronger state laws on chemical plant security, Menendez said.

The senators said the Bush administration would allow the chemical industry to inspect itself and set its own guidelines.

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said he rejects the senators' premise entirely.

"We have been waiting for Congress to pass chemical regulations for three years," Knocke said. "Where we may disagree with some of the issues around the edges, we are eager to work with the House and Senate to pass regulations this year."

But Canas said that last year New Jersey adopted regulations that put the state at the forefront of chemical plant security and the federal government should not be able to force the state to lower those standards.

The Lautenberg-Menendez-Obama Chemical Security and Safety Act has been introduced in the Senate and, if passed, would protect the right of states to adopt stronger safety and security measures than federal law and require safer chemicals be substituted for more dangerous ones when possible.

The act also would guarantee workers a role in ensuring the security and safety of facilities, require improvement to physical security of the site to the maximum extent possible and provide strong protections for whistleblowers.

The Coming Garden State Office Boom - Companies in overcrowded Manhattan begin to look west again

NJBIZ Staff, Shankar P.
4/17/2006

Space shortages and high rents are leading occupants of the famed skyline to consider relocating operations to New Jersey.

Jersey City - New Jersey landlords look for the next boom in the state?s office market to come from the spillover from fast filling-up Manhattan. The demand for new Manhattan office space could total 28 million sq. ft. over the next 10 years, according to a study by Moody?s Economy.com, but new construction will fall short by nearly 10 million sq. ft.

Manhattan will ?soon begin to feel a shortage of modern office buildings, and the supply of viable development sites will be inadequate,? adds a report from CB Richard Ellis, a real estate services firm. The resulting scarcity ?will cause a dramatic increase in the cost of doing business in New York, and a significant loss of business to competing markets.?

This could bring a third wave of demand from New York City to New Jersey, which added the back offices of financial services giants like Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch in the late 1990s and experienced a brief second wave of relocations after 9/11.

A new round of moves would be a boon to landlords in the Garden State, where the office vacancy rate averages 18%, according to figures compiled by Cushman & Wakefield. This compares with 8.4% in Manhattan and 6% to 7% in the Midtown area, which represents virtually full occupancy.

But New York City?s limited Class A office space and rents that average $43.20 a sq. ft.?vs. an average of $24.25 in New Jersey and $30 in Jersey City?are starting to turn away prospects and tenants with leases up for renewal.

?Today we are seeing [financial] companies migrating work forces out of not only Midtown but also Lower Manhattan so they can obtain a lower cost of occupancy and a reliable work force that can live in an affordable way,? says Mitchell Hersh, CEO of Cranford-based Mack-Cali Realty, the largest office landlord in Jersey City.

Among those moving to New Jersey has been Citco Funding Service, a hedge-fund administrator that in February signed a 15-year, 70,000-sq.-ft. lease valued at $23 million for offices in Mack-Cali?s Harborside Plaza 10 in Jersey City. Citco plans to relocate 300 workers from midtown Manhattan to the site this summer and add another 200 staffers.

The firm is following in the footsteps of Manhattan-based Moody?s Investors Service, which last June expanded its presence from 44,000 sq. ft. to 80,000 sq. ft. at Harborside Financial Center Plaza 5 in Jersey City, another Mack-Cali property.

Helping to spur such moves are the hordes of New Jersey residents who commute to New York City offices each day. Some 250,000 New Jerseyans cross the Hudson to their jobs, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. That represents some 18% of the Manhattan work force.

?A lot of companies are doing [zip code] analyses of their employees? [residences] and finding that many come from New Jersey,? says David Stifelman, senior director at real estate services firm Cushman & Wakefield in East Rutherford.

Stifelman is handling inquiries from a half-dozen Manhattan companies looking for office space in Jersey City. He says three prospects have each made ?serious proposals? for leases on 30,000 sq. ft. They include a financial services firm that is looking for a headquarters office for more than 100 employees.

Further causing companies to look beyond Manhattan are projected increases in rent. Over the next 10 years, some 500 Midtown office tenants will face lease renewals, according to Cushman & Wakefield. In many cases, the firm says, landlords will seek to extract rent increases of 60%.

Jersey City?s status as an Urban Enterprise Zone (UEZ) gives it cost advantages over Manhattan in addition to cheaper rents. The UEZ designation enables tenants to save on sales taxes and electric power, among other benefits. Such incentives ?make Jersey City 30%-40% cheaper to operate from,? Stifelman says.

?Some of the larger transactions in the past six to 18 months could have gone to downtown Manhattan but came to Jersey City,? he adds. For example, ?Soci?t? G?n?rale and Mellon Financial Services came from Midtown and took up space in Newport Office Center 7.?

Hersh says Lower Manhattan suffers from ?a lot of instability and uncertainty? over what will be developed there. Delays in the construction of the Freedom Tower on the World Trade Center site have not helped.

?If you?re leading a company, the last thing you want to deal with is uncertainty, whether it be uncertainty in the markets or uncertainty in terms of being able to satisfy your space needs as you grow your company,? says Hersh. ?Coupled with that, whatever they choose to build there, it?s going to experience many years of difficult logistics due to the heavy construction work.?

Meanwhile, ?We are seeing companies factoring into their occupancy analysis the concept of decentralization off the island of Manhattan,? says Patrick Murphy, executive managing director for the New York Tri-State Region of CB Richard Ellis. As a result, ?some are moving operations to Hoboken and Jersey City.?

Wary council backs abatement for American Can condo plan
Friday, April 14, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

In a 7-1 vote that appeared more negotiating stance than firm commitment, Jersey City council members introduced an ordinance Wednesday night granting a 30-year tax abatement for a condo development proposed for the old American Can building on Dey Street.

Downtown Councilman Steve Fulop was the lone "nay" vote against the unusually long tax break.

"In time we could get to 40 years, 50 years," he quipped.

Councilwoman Viola Richardson was absent.

But even the council members who voted for the abatement said they have several problems with the project, including its lack of affordable housing and open space. But they also pointed out that nothing's final until the ordinance is adopted in a second reading, which would take place in two weeks.

"I have serious reservations," City Council President Mariano Vega said before voting in the affirmative. "But in two weeks, we can discuss with the developer affordable housing, contribution to the city, and open space."

A New York City-based company named Coalco has proposed transforming the massive factory building, located in a no man's land near the Pulaski Skyway, into a condo complex with a minimum of 511 market-rate units.

James McCann, attorney for Coalco president Mikail Kernev, said yesterday he doesn't see much room to negotiate.

The $100 million-odd project has already been planned and financed as market-rate housing, he said

"There is 7,000 square feet of open space in Phase I, and there will be additional open space in Phase III and Phase IV, as required in the city's zoning ordinance," he said.

In other business, the council also introduced a 20-year tax abatement for the Shore Club North, the second phase of a 429-condo complex the LeFrak Organization is building on the Newport waterfront.

The council also introduced the "St. Francis Hospital Adaptive Re-Use Redevelopment," a designation that paves the way for a $75 million market-rate project proposed by brothers Eric and Paul Silverman for the defunct Downtown hospital.

Four city school districts to undergo tough state audits

April 13, 2006, 1:44 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. -- Four city school districts already under state oversight will undergo extensive audits and could be forced to accept special monitoring, according to a published report.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine's administration will hire auditors to scour finances in the Camden, Jersey City, Newark and Paterson school districts, The Record of Bergen County reported in Thursday's newspapers. The state directly controls the Jersey City, Newark and Paterson districts; officials appointed by the state sit on the Camden school board.

The districts are among the state's poorest and receive extra state money under a court order. The auditors hired by Corzine's administration intend to review spending in recent years and require local officials to justify the costs.

Corzine told the newspaper he would install special monitors in the districts if they fail the audits. The monitors would be similar to the federal monitor recently installed at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in Newark.

"I think that you will see in many instances, we may put our own monitors in _ without having to be stimulated by indictments," Corzine said.

Corzine's plan for new audits was hinted at in a legal brief filed Friday that asked the state Supreme Court to maintain funding at current levels for the state's poorest school districts. The administration contends the extra money hasn't improved student performance and the state cannot continue making payments to the districts without guaranteeing the money is properly spent.

The high court required the poor districts receive extra funding to ensure their students receive an education equal to that received by students in the state's wealthiest schools.

JV Proposes Two 48-Story Residential Towers
By Eric Peterson
Last updated: April 12, 2006 08:48am

JERSEY CITY-K. Hovnanian and Equity Residential are teaming up to build a residential community encompassing more than 900 units in two 48-story towers on this city?s waterfront. According to a published report, the Red Bank-based K. Hovnanian, a unit of Hovnanian Enterprises, and the Chicago-based Equity Residential have agreed to buy the site at 77 Hudson St. from Hartz Mountain Industries for $65 million. Hovnanian officials would not confirm that sale price and a Hartz spokesman declined to comment on a pending sale.

For Hovnanian, at least, it would be an outside-the-box project for a company that has specialized in low-rise and single-family suburban residential development. ?We?ve been expanding with more diversity in the types of homes we build,? the company?s Doug Fenichel tells GlobeSt.com. ?We?re doing lots of different kinds of projects, and 77 Hudson is one example of how we?re taking on new markets. This one will be our largest.?

What Hovnanian and Equity have in mind for the site, Fenichel confirms for GlobeSt.com, is just over 900 residential units in a total of 925,000 sf of building space. One tower, Hovnanian?s part of the project, would encompass 420 condominiums; the second tower, Equity?s responsibility, would encompass 481 rental apartments. The two towers would be tied together by some 20,000 sf of ground-floor retail space and a 10-story parking garage with a capacity or nearly 900 cars. A spokesman for Equity Residential could not be reached for comment.

As far as a timeline for the project, ?we?re hoping to break ground in the fall of this year,? Fenichel tells GlobeSt.com. ?But we still have a lot of work to do to get to that point.?

The Hovnanian/Equity project also marks another example of the ongoing shift in this region?s real estate market. In early 2000, Hartz proposed to build a 32-story, 1.1-million-sf office tower on the site, which is part of Colgate Center, the redevelopment of the former Colgate-Palmolive manufacturing site. The building was targeted for a 2002 completion, but in the wake of the last recession and the effects of 9-11, the project never got done.

Hovnanian and Equity?s two-tower residential community will join several other new high-profile residential projects rising on this city?s Hudson River waterfront, and within the larger metro area?s hot residential market. Donald Trump (teamed with locally based Metro Homes), Roseland Property Co. and Toll Brothers all have projects currently under way.

NJ officials want tougher chemical safety rules
By WAYNE PARRY
Associated Press Writer

April 12, 2006, 6:17 PM EDT

JERSEY CITY, N.J. -- Speaking near a cluster of chemical plants, New Jersey's two United States senators and its new homeland security director said the state should be able to enact tougher safety standards for chemical facilities than those proposed by the Bush administration.

A leak last September at one of the plants forced closure of the Pulaski Skyway at rush hour, Sen. Robert Menendez told reporters gathered along the Hackensack River on Wednesday.

"We can only imagine the loss of life that would occur if a terrorist attack caused a major release of chlorine gas," Menendez said. "This is just one plant among many in our state and nation."

Menendez joined fellow Democratic Sen. Frank Lautenberg and Richard Canas, New Jersey's new homeland security director, to promote legislation already proposed by Lautenberg that would let states set their own, more stringent chemical safety standards.

Last month, the Bush administration called for federal regulation of security at chemical plants, but would largely let the industry decide how stiff the protections should be and leave inspections to private auditors. The federal regulations would supersede tougher regulations such as New Jersey's.

"The president wants a weak, industry-favored approach that pre-empts our state's chemical safety and security laws," Lautenberg said. "We say: No way. The Bush administration may favor the interests of the chemical industry over the welfare of our constituents, but we do not."

Russ Knocke, a spokesman for the federal Homeland Security Department, said the administration wants Congress to pass a chemical safety bill by the end of the year. He said Homeland Security is willing to work with lawmakers on the details.

"The security of chemical plants is an absolutely critical issue, one the administration has been working on for the last three years," he said. "We have laid out our principles. This is an issue that cannot wait."

Canas said New Jersey's tougher standards "should not be pre-empted by federal law."

"Given the significance of the potential threat, late last year New Jersey moved from voluntary to mandatory standards," he said. "This was an important step."

John Pajak, president of the New Jersey Work Environment Council, said he knows firsthand about the danger of toxic, explosive and flammable substances. He has worked the past 15 years at the Conoco-Phillips Bayway Refinery in Linden.

"An accident or a terrorist attack on a chemical plant could endanger thousands of lives," he said. "Corporate executives and their lobbyists must not be allowed to put even higher profits ahead of worker and public safety and security."

Healy: Supermarket, not school, on Heights lot
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey Mayor Jerramiah Healy has reversed course and now says he supports building a Stop & Shop supermarket on a vacant lot in the Heights that has been the subject of intense debate over the past few years.

On Tuesday, Healy pressed state officials - including Jersey City Superintendent of Schools and Assemblyman Charles T. Epps, Jr. - not to build a school on the nearly 3-acre parcel.

Until now, Healy has publicly advocated building housing on the site, bordered by Laidlaw, Jefferson and Summit avenues.

But during Tuesday's meeting, the mayor came down squarely on the side of building the superstore proposed by Stop & Shop.

"We here in Jersey City could use a state-of-the-art market," Healy said yesterday. "The SCC (state Schools Construction Corp.) has planned a preschool for that site and we'd have to find another site for a grammar school. That would be disastrous - no ratables, no jobs."

Healy attributed his change of heart to an agreement by Stop & Shop not to include a pharmacy and florist in the proposed new store, which would have directly competed with some Central Avenue businesses.

Recognizing the need for new schools, Healy said he urged the SCC - the agency charged with building schools in poor districts - to explore taking over shuttered Catholic schools.

Healy was joined at the meeting - held at the SCC's Washington Street offices in Downtown Jersey City - by Epps, D-Jersey City; state Assemblyman Lou Manzo, D-Jersey City, and SCC honchos.

Epps put the burden on Healy to come up with alternative sites within 30 days.

"If they can't, then we can go back to the table," said Epps, who along with Manzo represents the 31st District.

Tax abatement aim: Keep more $$ in Hoboken
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
By JARRETT RENSHAW
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

HOBOKEN - City officials, claiming they're being ripped off by other municipalities not paying their fair share in county taxes, have embarked on a campaign to keep more cash in the city's coffers by increasing the number of tax abatements they give to developers.

Mayor David Roberts contends Hoboken residents pay a disproportionately high amount in county taxes compared to Jersey City - in effect giving a break to taxpayers in Jersey City and other Hudson County communities.

"Hoboken taxpayers are subsidizing the county and other communities, like Jersey City, and why should we sit around and do nothing about that?" Roberts asked.

In response, the Hoboken City Council is granting more and more abatements to property owners and developers. Instead of paying conventional taxes, these properties pay a fixed rate amount per year in payments in lieu of taxes, or PILOTs.

Under a conventional tax allocation, the city has to share revenue with the county and the school district - which, in Hoboken, amounts roughly to 75 cents on every dollar.

Under a tax abatement, the city gets to keep nearly all the PILOT cash for itself - thanks to a court decision several years ago, where Secaucus officials successfully made similar arguments, Hoboken, Jersey City and other Hudson County municipalities must give 5 percent of PILOT payments to the county.

In 1990, the city netted roughly $2 million in PILOTs. Now this year's budget includes more than $10 million in PILOTs, from more than 20 projects throughout the city - and more are to come.

By way of comparison, Jersey City collected $6.6 million in PILOTs in 1990, but today it collects more that $83 million on more than $2 billion worth of property, according to an analysis of the city's budgets.

Hoboken taxpayers contribute a little more than $30 million to the county's budget, while the substantially larger Jersey City provides roughly $60 million.

"We are a cash cow for the county, and we represent the people of Hoboken, so what options do we have?" City Council President Chris Campos said.

Hudson County Executive Tom DeGise, a major proponent of tax abatements when he served as president of the Jersey City City Council, supports the right of Hoboken officials to control their own destiny - but he disagrees with some of their arguments.

"While it's true that Hoboken pays a disproportionate amount of taxes, that's because the city has been so prosperous," DeGise said. "If you polled other mayors in the county, they would not be complaining that their ratable base has surged."

Under state law, tax abatement agreements are intended to jump-start redevelopment in blighted areas, which raises questions about their use in Hoboken's red-hot real estate market.

While conceding there's no shortage of developers willing to do business in Hoboken, Roberts said the additional revenues gained from the PILOTs have helped close the city's multimillion-dollar budget gap and stabilize taxes, and also gives the city leverage in negotiating with developers.

"Parks, open space and affordable housing, all these things come with PILOTs, and we could never get these things if we just changed the zoning," Roberts said.

Budget cuts must spare the Abbott districts
Home News Tribune Online 04/11/06
The steep cost of supporting New Jersey's poorest schools, its so-called Abbott Districts, has been a thorn in the side of state budget-makers for a decade.

Christie Whitman once declared that the state's generosity toward its Abbott schools had reached its limit and that money was not the sole criteria for determining quality education. Her successor, James E. McGreevey, advanced that position one step further by managing to get those 31 districts to agree to a one-year freeze in state aid. Today, Jon S. Corzine is the latest chief executive to take on the fight. Corzine also wants to hold steady on financial support from Trenton due the Abbotts as one means of helping balance an upcoming state budget that is desperately short of cash.

The question, of course, is whether the governors are motivated by anything other than money. Corzine claims, as both Whitman and McGreevey did, that reforms ordered by the state Supreme Court are working better in some schools than in others, and he's no doubt right.

"While gains in achievement in Abbott districts are evident, and the achievement gap is decreasing, collectively Abbott districts are still lagging behind the state average passing rates on these assessments," his administration's application notes. But of course they are.

It ought to be obvious to anyone that gains in achievement not only take time, but by nature they take place unevenly; the same can just as easily be said of wealthy suburban school districts. More to the point, the urban districts in question started the race from way behind.

"The data is clear. These are very high-poverty districts that have been neglected for 50 years," says David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center. "And the last three or four years that we have been really working hard, there is substantial evidence that the state's investment is paying off for these kids."

Yes, the state Department of Education ought to have some flexibility in deciding how to spend money in school districts. What works for one is not guaranteed to work for another. And, as is the case with all massive bureaucracies, there is undoubtedly some waste and some misuse of funds in some of the 31 districts.

Yet there is little doubt that trying to eradicate, or at least lessen, the corrosive effects of extreme poverty on children's achievement levels takes money, lots of money. And it's a bit presumptuous of the state whenever it claims that money isn't the problem, when it's so obvious that money is so much of the problem. Reform is never immediate, but the large doses of aid are helping.

Corzine, to his credit, is right on one important point, and Sciarra agrees: the need to arrive at a new formula for more equitably funding schools. For now, however, it is wiser to leave Abbott funding and its prescribed annual increases intact, despite the attractiveness for many of holding to past levels of support in a tight budget year.

Kudos to the governor as well for suggesting that more stringent controls be imposed on spending, including the hiring of outside auditors to help the education department review annual budgets in select Abbott districts, starting with Newark, Camden, Jersey City and Paterson.

If vast sums of money are to be invested, the least New Jersey can do is ensure those tax dollars are spent prudently, with student performance the chief goal. No one can say that's often enough been the case.

Yeah -- it should really give a lot of foot traffic to the Little India area of Newark Avenue -- I also think it will go a long way to making Journal Square safer!

3-building condo complex for old VW showroom
Monday, April 10, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Condos are coming to Journal Square. But will the traffic bear it?

Journal Square Estates Group, a Jersey City-based limited partnership, has proposed constructing a 249-unit three-building condo complex at the site of the old Volkswagen showroom, on Kennedy Boulevard, just north of St. Paul's Avenue.

Always a heavily-trafficked area, the site is a block from where Route 139 runs into Kennedy Boulevard, and cars shuttle down a ramp to the Tonnelle Circle.

The owners of the limited partnership - Kotla Srinath, and brothers Ravi and Murali Adusumulli - have given the city a study showing a limited affect on traffic, but that hasn't erased neighborhood concerns.

"It's a problem," said Luis Santiago, president of the Brunswick Condominium Association, about the additional traffic.

But Santiago is in favor of the new development. He praised the designs of the new buildings and said traffic congestion in the area is a group problem, to be addressed by the community, government and the developers.

Having met with the local residents twice in the past six weeks, the Estates Group partners have already altered the plans to help alleviate traffic.

Instead of having one common 263-space parking garage, which residents would enter and exit from Kennedy Boulevard, the developers now plan to build two separate garages. Roughly 100 cars will use a garage with access from Skillman Avenue.

The $75 million project will consist of seven-, eight-, and 11-story buildings, and will have ground floor retail space on Kennedy Boulevard. The project requires a height and density variance and goes before the city's zoning board on April 20.

This project, along with the proposed high-rise towers at the old Hotel on the Square building, and the roughly 200-condo units going in at the former American Can facility off St. Paul's Avenue are helping to fuel the resurgence of Journal Square, said Ward C Councilman Steve Lipski, the representative for the area.

This is a real shame -- I think the Abbott preschools are a vital thing for the poor children in NJ. Like Head start this is the best way for NJ to spend money -- every dollar spent here saves tons of money that the state will end up having to pay otherwise. I wonder if these news articles are just trying to justify cutting funds to these programs.

I am all for going after the people who run these programs and then turn around and steal from these kids, but these programs are really needed!

It is really wrong to take away from the most needy in NJ and give more breaks to the rich suburbs who already have the best schools and services.

Just my 2 cents.

-------------------------here is part 2----------------

Monday, April 10, 2006

By JEAN RIMBACH and KATHLEEN CARROLL
STAFF WRITERS



Second of four parts

The allegation could not have been more blunt:

"Wendy Williams, director of the Right Direction Day Care, has embezzled funds for personal gain," an audit of the taxpayer-funded preschool began.

State education auditors flagged $182,833 in "questionable" expenses at the privately owned Irvington center, including ATM withdrawals in Las Vegas and payments for cruises, airfare, motels, restaurants and clothing. The state was so alarmed that it referred its findings to New Jersey's chief law enforcement officer.

The state Attorney General's Office closed the Williams case. No action was taken against her.

In all, five of the seven preschool cases forwarded to then-Attorney General Peter Harvey by the state Department of Education were closed under his watch.

The reason given: The state's contracts with the private preschools were so lax and loosely written that they failed to spell out even the simplest rules on what taxpayer dollars could -- and could not -- be used for.
LESSONS IN WASTE

Sunday: A look at waste and mismanagement in the state's multibillion-dollar preschool program.

Monday: Why no one has been prosecuted despite the misuse of public funds.

Tuesday: How underpaid preschool teachers are demanding their rights.

Sunday: What could be next for Abbott preschools.

"You may have misappropriation of government dollars or theft by deception or something of that nature," spokesman John Hagerty said in an interview late last year. "But the way the contracts were, the way the monies were provided to the day cares, it didn't place limitations on the dollars per se. Therefore, we can't charge a crime."

Education officials say they've tightened their contracts and spending guidelines for the so-called Abbott preschool program, begun seven years ago under a court mandate to provide free classes to 3- and 4-year-olds in the state's 31 neediest communities.

But they remain frustrated by the attorney general's lack of movement.

"I've never been given a satisfactory explanation for why what was seen at the start as criminal activity was not prosecuted," said Gordon MacInnes, the assistant state education commissioner who oversees the program.

Now, those cases will be getting a second look. Last week, four days before the start of an investigative series by The Record, Hagerty said the dormant cases could be revived under the new attorney general, Zulima Farber.

"The Division of Criminal Justice is reassessing all of the Abbott preschool cases to determine whether or not any of the cases should be reopened for additional investigation," Hagerty said.

The preschool program will hand out more than $560 million in taxpayer dollars this year to try to help 38,400 disadvantaged children catch up to their more affluent peers. The program relies on private centers to serve two-thirds of the children because the public school districts don't have enough space to accommodate them.

State audits sent to the attorney general uncovered apparent financial abuses -- from rent kickback schemes and gambling to Jaguar car payments and indulgent spending sprees.

Closed cases

# Right Direction Day Care in Irvington

"Suspected Embezzlement of Funds" was the title of the auditors' report on Right Direction Day Care. They determined that personal expenses were classified as "loans" -- including payments to Williams' Right Direction bus company and Right Path charter school. They found $51,000 in cash withdrawals but no record of how the money had been spent. Endorsements on $11,414 in checks made out to employees looked suspiciously like Williams' own handwriting.

Before Right Direction's contract expired last year, public dollars filled the storefront preschool with supplies. Today, two abandoned classrooms are still packed with blocks and toys. Little wooden chairs are pulled up to matching desks. Child-sized easels, picture books and computers are visible from the street. Shelves lined with plastic jugs of paint are gathering dust.

State education officials said they did not know the supplies had never been retrieved.

Irvington school district officials declined to discuss Right Direction, believing the matter remained under investigation. Howard Weinstein, Williams' attorney, said he had heard nothing since his client turned over "a load of documents" two years ago.

"I'm presuming the investigation has not uncovered any unlawful activity," he said.

Hagerty said late last year, during The Record's four-month investigation of the Abbott program, that any possible case against Right Direction was hampered by the Education Department's failure to detail its spending rules. Auditors' findings, he added, are a long way from a criminal prosecution.

"While a report may say one thing, you've got to have the proofs, the evidence, the contracts, the paperwork, the expenditures -- a paper trail," Hagerty explained at the time. "If it doesn't come up to that, it doesn't matter what a recommendation or referral says. We have a far different standard than an audit in order to move a case to a court for trial."

# Kidz Pre-school Academy in Paterson

It was nearly six months before Malikah Abdullah, the owner of Kidz Pre-school Academy and a former nine-year member of the Paterson Board of Education, answered auditors' requests for her financial records.

When documents were made available, auditors found that Abdullah wrote herself more than $46,000 in checks from the company account -- not counting any salary she was collecting. She wrote an additional $7,000 in checks to a property management company in Manhattan, they said.

Meanwhile, Abdullah was sending monthly checks to a local Board of Education member. Jonathan Hodges, a former co-owner who had sold his share of the business to her for $500,000, was paid monthly installments of $2,666. Hodges eventually faced a hearing before the state School Ethics Commission. The matter was dismissed with a reprimand and Hodges is still on the board.

In an interview, Abdullah said she stopped paying Hodges after her Abbott contract ended.

"We're not able to make any type of payments, my funds have dwindled so," she said, also noting a costly legal dispute with her preschool landlord. "I'm just barely surviving, because the contract was taken."

She maintains that the audit report was "unfounded," and that a decision to end her contract in 2002 was politically motivated. She said she never spoke with state investigators.

Local education officials told reporters they had been alarmed when they visited Kidz.

"They would say, 'Look at that corner there -- that's the science corner,' " said Anna DeMolli, director of early childhood education in Paterson. "And all there would be is a sign that said 'Science Corner.' No materials, no desks, no books. You would go by and see three dolls with their hair pulled out. They're filthy dirty, no clothes on them. That's the corner for 'housekeeping.' "

Abdullah tried unsuccessfully to regain a Board of Education seat in 2003. She now runs a day-care center called Wee Kidz, serving children whose tuition is paid by taxpayer-funded voucher programs.

Abdullah asked Paterson for another Abbott preschool contract in the fall. She never received a response, she said.

# Miss Dot's Small World in Paterson

Auditors say they also got the runaround at Miss Dot's, where, they said, public funds intended for New Jersey children appeared to have been used by owner Dorothy Williams to buy land for a camp in Pennsylvania and to promote her city-based transportation service.

Williams, who had moved to Pennsylvania, said she was too busy to meet with auditors. Her records were being reconstructed by her daughter and son-in-law -- in California.

Eventually, her accountant dropped off "all the records he had on hand." Williams and her son delivered more paperwork two days later, including bank statements and canceled checks.

The records that materialized were "unorganized, incomplete, and lacked supporting documentation," the auditors found.

Petty cash and non-payroll checks made out to Williams totaled nearly $30,000. Money was used to pay for "a driver, a tow truck, repairs, and insurance for several vehicles." There were checks to Jaguar and Ford dealerships in two states. Checks written to "Rick" were marked as bus inspection and repair payments. Williams' accountant said she owed about $100,000 in payroll taxes.

And tickets for bus trips to Atlantic City were for sale at the preschool, where auditors believed Williams was also operating Miss Dot's Transportation.

Auditors said there was evidence she had purchased property in Pennsylvania with preschool funds and planned to open a camp. They cited, for example, checks to a lawyer marked "Pa. land."

Public records show that Dorothy Williams filed to open a business named Miss Dot's Small World in Freeland, Pa., in 2002. Efforts to reach Williams were unsuccessful.

# First Steps Day Care in Jersey City

In 2003, auditors found nearly $180,000 in personal spending at First Steps, including $11,381 for gambling in Atlantic City, $6,276 for Princess Cruises and $4,887 for the Diamond Den.

Director Jacqueline DiFranco said in a 2004 interview that she had done nothing wrong -- she just didn't know she was supposed to keep money from her other day-care center separated from state tax dollars. She said all the state money given to her for the preschool program was spent properly.

DiFranco said the Attorney General's Office took documents from the preschool and returned them 18 months later.

"Nothing was found that I did anything inappropriate," she said last week. "I was cleared."

The Jersey City school district renewed DiFranco's contract for two more years, entrusting her with hundreds of thousands more in tax dollars.

But in early 2005, auditors returned to First Steps and found that an additional $2,500 had been spent in Atlantic City, including cash withdrawals at the Caesars casino. The company hadn't completed its tax returns, financial statements or required independent audits since 2002.

They also learned that DiFranco was charging families $2 a day for food, even though the state strictly prohibits such charges and pays the centers to provide meals and snacks.

DiFranco last week denied auditors' findings and said she had never seen their report. Auditors said she told them that she often deposited her personal money into the Abbott account to cover expenses, then reimbursed herself through the ATM and debit card. However, she had bounced 40 checks.

Jersey City school officials, who had defended DiFranco in the past, said they took the unusual step of ending her contract in the middle of the school year.

# My Little Friends in Vineland

Although owners Helen and John DiTomo received state funding for six computers for the children at My Little Friends -- a requirement of the Abbott program -- they provided the school with only two. They leased two other computers and brought them to Florida, where they moved in September 2003.

Meanwhile, teachers told auditors they had to use their own money to buy needed classroom supplies.

Auditors noted that the DiTomos' son had also moved to Florida during the school year, although he was still being paid as a janitor. But his timecards were missing for two months, and the owners were also making regular payments to a cleaning company. The school's director, Stephanie Knight, said she was instructed to punch the son's timecard in his absence, but did not.

An arrangement between the owners and Knight may have violated state and federal tax laws, auditors said. Knight, who rented a house next to the preschool from the DiTomos, was promoted to director after they moved. When she opened her next paycheck, she discovered her salary increased by $440 -- which was much more than negotiated. The DiTomos then told her to pay back the bulk of that money in a $340 monthly rent increase, auditors said.

In an interview, John DiTomo described the rental agreement as "my private issue. They can surmise whatever they want to surmise."

The preschool closed when the DiTomos lost their state contract in 2004.

Open cases

# Hoboken HOPES

HOPES -- the Hoboken Organization Against Poverty and Economic Stress -- charged taxpayers twice for the same preschoolers.

The state attorney general was alerted last year after a random audit.

"This is a serious and possibly criminal violation," the auditors wrote, "since public funds were inappropriately obtained resulting in a duplication of revenue."

When The Record took a close look at HOPES, reporters found an estimated $1.8 million in payments for Abbott preschool and day-care services that may have been duplicated by federal Head Start money.

HOPES identified itself as "fully state funded" on its budgets for 2003-04 and 2004-05 even though it was also receiving federal dollars for some of the same preschool costs for 120 children. As a result, state education officials say, HOPES was overpaid by as much as $800,000.

HOPES contends that the federal Head Start money was not spent on preschool, but on before- and after-school day care, food, and health and social services for the students.

However, the agency accepted nearly $1 million in additional state funding that was also earmarked for some of those costs during those same years: $777,000 from the Human Services Department and $209,000 from the Agriculture Department, The Record found.

Ora Welch, HOPES' president and chief executive, said the agency operated with good intentions.

"By doing good by these children, doing things they wouldn't ordinarily get -- health care and dental -- that is not something these kids take for granted," Welch said.

State education officials have kept HOPES in the Abbott program -- and even expanded the agency's contract this year to 135 children.

In a meeting last week, the Education Department gave HOPES a blank budget form for the 2003-04 school year and asked for a new accounting, to show how all of the Abbott dollars were spent, officials said. The apparent duplication of funds during the 2004-05 school year is still under review.

The Hoboken school district has recovered $205,000 from HOPES and state education officials say the duplicate funding has been eliminated in the current school year. The state's audit also revealed missing computers and employee contributions to health insurance premiums that had already been paid for by the state.

Meanwhile, officials at the Human Services Department and the federal Health and Human Services Department, which oversees the Head Start program, said they were not investigating how money was spent at HOPES.

# New Africa Day Care in Newark

New Africa Day Care was referred to investigators after owners failed to show how $160,677.99 was spent to benefit the children. Financial records included debits for Burlington Coat Factory, Macy's and Oriental Rug Warehouse. The 2003 report noted charges at flower and wig shops, restaurants and hotels -- including the Chicago Hilton.

"That was fraud," said Gail Griffin, head of early childhood education in the Newark school district. "We had records that showed they spent this on personal expenses. That was in the record. We could prove that this was criminal activity."

Attempts to contact Muslimah Suluki, owner of the defunct preschool, were unsuccessful.

Griffin said her staff never recovered any supplies from New Africa -- because "there was nothing for us to collect."

"They had stolen the money," she said.

E-mail: rimbach@northjersey.com and carroll@northjersey.com

How public money fed private greed

Sunday, April 9, 2006

By JEAN RIMBACH and KATHLEEN CARROLL
STAFF WRITERS

First of four parts

A Jersey City preschool owner charged state taxpayers for a Caribbean time share two years in a row. She said it would help her teachers relax. They never vacationed there, but she did.

A Hoboken center collected hundreds of thousands of dollars in state funds without telling New Jersey that the federal government had already paid for the same preschoolers.

And taxpayers are still supporting an Irvington preschool even though the director did such a "horrible" job in Newark that her program was shut down.

Seven years after New Jersey launched its landmark program for disadvantaged preschoolers -- with $561 million budgeted this year alone -- the state continues to send tax dollars to programs that have flagrantly misspent or wasted money. The state's slow reaction to early problems and sluggishness in pursuing and punishing the cheats have allowed uncounted millions to flow out of the classroom and into preschool owners' pockets. Only the very worst have been denied new contracts.

And when programs shut down, the state doesn't go after the squandered money.
LESSONS IN WASTE

Sunday: A look at waste and mismanagement in the state's multibillion-dollar preschool program.

Monday: Why no one has been prosecuted despite the misuse of public funds.

Tuesday: How underpaid preschool teachers are demanding their rights.

Sunday: What could be next for Abbott preschools.

That means Rise & Shine Day Care Center in Jersey City is not being pressured to return $239,000 in questionable spending. And it means Regina Okafor, who gave herself a $291,000 salary, has defiantly kept state-funded computers, books and furniture since her contract expired.

The Record analyzed audits of more than 100 state-funded preschools in New Jersey's poorest communities, reviewed tax returns, financial documents and contracts and interviewed dozens of state and local officials, owners and teachers in an effort to detail the fiscal workings of the program.

The four-month investigation of the 2003-04 accounts, the last full year available, found:

# Sloppy bookkeeping at virtually every school, so bad in most cases that auditors couldn't tell how much money had been spent on the program. Payments for luxury car leases, Omaha steaks, shrimp, Godiva chocolates, wedding gifts, motorcycle insurance, even cat food were buried in the books.

# Inflated rents, six-figure salaries and $900,000 in personal loans while some schools shortchanged teachers' wages and benefits.

# Uninterrupted funding for schools showing clear financial distress, such as tax liens, negative bank balances, lapsed insurance policies and failure to meet payroll. One agency rang up more than $24,000 in bank fees alone on 758 bounced checks.

# Contracts so loosely worded that the Attorney General's Office said it couldn't prosecute. Cases involving blatant abuses were closed. But four days before publication, a spokesman said the office is reassessing those decisions.

# Windfalls for owners who walk away from the program; they have been able to escape their debts to taxpayers and some have kept entire classrooms of state-funded supplies.

# A backlash against state efforts to take back some wasted tax dollars from existing programs. Schools are threatening to close -- one shut its doors last month -- and a major social service agency is suing. The case could cost taxpayers millions if the state loses.

# Little financial scrutiny by the agency that doles out a fifth of the state funding and no plans to change that approach.

The taxpayer-funded preschool program -- ordered by the state Supreme Court in its Abbott v. Burke ruling -- is an unprecedented effort to provide free classes to all 3- and 4-year-olds in New Jersey's 31 poorest communities. Since 1999, two state agencies have poured more than $2.5 billion into the initiative. Much of that money has gone to hundreds of private day-care centers and community agencies recruited to meet the mandate to help disadvantaged kids catch up to their suburban peers.

Indeed, educational experts say the program -- one of the most ambitious in the country -- is working. Students' test scores are improving, enrollment has doubled and virtually all teachers are certified. State officials say they are reining in misspending and taking steps to recover wasted tax dollars.

But those attempts to fix the program's financial troubles come after years of chaos and in some cases have backfired.

Attorney David Sciarra, whose Education Law Center sued to create the preschool program, expressed frustration -- but not surprise -- at the problems.

"We have a Department of Education that simply isn't capable, that has shown itself incapable of really performing the oversight and management responsibilities," he said.

Years of missing funds

No one will ever know how much money went missing in the program's early years.

The state didn't verify spending or enrollment. The priority was to add classes quickly, and the state told overcrowded school districts to hire licensed day-care centers to serve the kids.

Four years into the program, the state discovered that only 85 percent of the funded spots were actually filled, said Robert Ortley, chief auditor for the state Department of Education. And it took another year for education officials to begin to add some spending limits and do more than a dozen or so audits annually.

And officials at the Education Department, which distributes four-fifths of the funding, say they can't look back now.

"It's more important that we're taking actions that will produce either a decision that somebody shouldn't be a provider -- which has happened in a lot of cases -- or a decision that allows that provider to improve their management," said Gordon MacInnes, the assistant education commissioner who oversees the Abbott preschool program.

For the 2003-04 school year, the department audited about one-fifth of the centers, about 60 percent of those chosen at random. The Record's analysis of the audits found rife mismanagement.

School after school couldn't explain its spending. The majority were missing invoices or other documentation and the records that did exist were usually inaccurate or misleading. A few had no paperwork at all. About four out of five mixed education funds with day-care money or other revenue, making it difficult to track tax dollars.

"I think the findings were pretty much consistent," said Ray Montgomery, director of the Education Department's Office of Compliance Investigation. "Every time I would read a report I would say, 'My goodness, is everybody going to the same school in terms of doing the same kinds of things?' "

At least 40 percent of the schools had shaky finances. Some couldn't pay vendors, bounced checks or missed rent or insurance payments. Several stiffed the IRS.

Harmony Education & Life Partners in Irvington missed its payroll twice, and received shut-off notices from Public Service Electric & Gas. Sunnyside Academy in Jersey City had $92,000 in unpaid payroll taxes and an overdrawn bank account.

Babyland Family Services in Newark bounced 758 checks and rang up $24,635 in bank fees.

A previous audit cited "substandard conditions," such as cold food, no heat, staffing shortages, a lack of supplies and a wealth of administrative positions, with salaries as high as $230,000. Federal 2003 tax returns for the sprawling social service agency put the executive director's compensation at $350,000, including salary, retirement contributions and an expense account. Babyland officials have said the administrative salaries were not covered by Abbott funds.

Auditors also cited one in four centers for personal expenses, including unexplained credit-card charges, checks written to cash and questionable ATM withdrawals -- some from machines in Atlantic City, Las Vegas and Miami.

There were Christmas bonuses and wedding gifts from Macy's and Victoria's Secret. Auditors couldn't tell where the money came from for restaurant bills, liquor store payments and a $1,000 donation to the Asbury Park mayor's ball. A Volvo was on the books at a West New York center one year, two Volvos the next.

$900,000 in loans

There was no evidence that $900,000 in loans at more than a dozen locations were repaid.

At Tinyville Learning Center in Jersey City, the Rev. Rudolph Daniels ended up with $15,000 in loans in his pocket, auditors found. Daniels has told Jersey City officials he paid back the loans, but the district says it has no proof.

Over and over, auditors found inflated rents -- some had doubled, tripled, even quadrupled in a single year. The owners of Little Tots in Asbury Park took home an extra $136,500 by nearly doubling the rent, auditors said. They never told the state they were both landlord and tenant.

Rental costs at Little Kids College in Trenton shot up 31 percent. Owner Deborah Pontoriero told auditors that her landlord -- who was also her father -- had refinanced his mortgage and passed the costs on to the Abbott program.

One-third of the centers underpaid staff or charged employees insurance premiums that had already been paid for by the state. Some offered no benefits at all.

The owner of Happy Face in Jersey City charged the preschool program for federal and state corporate taxes and bonuses. Auditors said she underpaid teachers by as much as 15 percent. And she used state money to buy health insurance for her husband and to pay for the Caribbean timeshare -- $1,243 one year and $1,988 the next.

In an interview, owner Marly Caro said the vacation home was intended for the preschool's teachers, as a means of relaxation that she felt would contribute to their health. The money was eventually returned.

At Apple Tree Daycare in Paterson, the director diverted state-funded supplies to her other day-care center in a wealthy suburb, auditors found. She said that deliveries to Paterson get stolen -- but "could not explain why or by whom the invoices had been altered," the auditors reported.

Fidela L. Mercedes of Franklin Lakes is collecting two full-time salaries, from two preschools she owns in neighboring towns, The Record found. In West New York, she goes by Fidela Mercedes and makes $60,000 as director of Little Angels. In Union City, she's called Lazara Mercedes and is paid $41,120 as director at Kiddie Corner. Holding more than one director's job violates Abbott rules.

And state education officials say a Hoboken agency collected as much as $800,000 in Abbott preschool funds that were duplicated by federal Head Start money. The agency then failed to reveal the federal dollars on the budget it gave the state.

The Hoboken Organization Against Poverty and Economic Stress -- called HOPES -- disputes any duplication but has yet to document how the money was spent.

"Our motives here are motives of good," said Ora Welch, president and chief executive.

All of these preschools are still getting state funds.

State officials say it's difficult to close down centers because the priority is to serve as many kids as possible. School districts don't have the room to do it on their own, so they rely on about 500 private centers to serve two-thirds of the students.

"It may not be as simple as: 'Look at what they're doing -- they are out of here,' " said David Joye, acting co-director of the state's Office of Early Childhood. "It's a scale. I mean, do they have someplace for these kids to go?"

School districts decide

The threat of being audited and losing a state contract should be enough to compel preschools to follow the rules, state officials say. And every year, they say, about 10 of the worst-managed schools are weeded out. But that's only after years of problems and many keep getting other public funds to provide day care or social services for poor families.

Even though state officials set policy and dole out the Abbott preschool money, they say it's up to individual school districts to decide who to keep and who to let go.

"In all cases, I leave it up to them," MacInnes said.

But some districts are more aggressive than others.

For example, officials in Camden have never canceled a preschool contract. Audits of five programs there reviewed by The Record showed serious problems, including double billing, possible labor and tax violations, questionable personal spending and haphazard financial records.

It's also possible for preschool owners who flunk out in one town to keep collecting state money in another.

Take Rosemary Nwosu, whose Rising Sun Academy lost its contract in Newark almost two years ago. Newark officials described the program as "terrible" and "horrible." They said teacher-student interaction was poor and financial records were a disaster.

"It was just -- just a mess," said Gayle Griffin, Newark's assistant superintendent in charge of early childhood.

Yet today, Nwosu is collecting $14,000 per child to run a three-room preschool in Irvington.

"It's not sufficient to say that a program operated by Mr. X in Newark was found wanting, and therefore we assume that Mr. X's program in Irvington will also be wanting and needs to be shut down," MacInnes said. "I don't think you can do that."

In an interview, Nwosu acknowledged the problems in Newark and admitted she held two full-time jobs as director at both preschools -- a violation of Abbott rules. She said her Irvington school is meeting all its obligations and that officials there have been more cooperative.

Two years later, New Jersey is back where it started with Rising Sun.

It's doing another audit.

Getting money back

State officials say they have moved to curb financial abuses and are recovering both misspent and surplus funds through audits and improved monitoring.

The Education Department says it saved $17 million by trying to match its 2003-04 funding with permitted expenses and enrollment numbers. Some $5.1 million of that had to be recovered after the year ended.

And it's not over yet.

Some agencies, including HOPES in Hoboken, are allowed to reconstruct their books more than once to justify spending. Last week, the state gave it another shot at building a 2003-04 budget, after auditors found funding was duplicated by the federal government.

Many smaller districts are up to date in recovering funds. But some of the larger ones are struggling. Jersey City and Newark are still collecting money owed from the 2003-04 school year.

Babyland in Newark has been given five years to pay back $772,626 in Education Department funding, and $678,453 is still outstanding. The federal government recently put it on "high-risk status" and is deciding whether to continue its Head Start grant.

The agency, which operates five preschools in Newark and one in East Orange, is still getting about $2.8 million a year from the Education Department for more than 300 children. In an interview, agency administrators said they have improved business practices and brought in a new chief financial officer.

Paterson recently began deducting debts for 2004-05 from preschools' checks after collecting $3 million from 2003-04. In response, Catholic Family & Community Services -- a large social service agency -- sued in February to stop the district from collecting more than half a million dollars in old debts from Friendship Corner preschool.

The suit says the preschool contract does not allow the district to take back money once a school year is over. Should the state lose, preschools that were forced to return such funds could ask to be reimbursed.

"This is really the first one that has come along," said Kathryn Forsyth, a spokeswoman for the Education Department. "So it really is a case of some significance."

Other preschool operators in Paterson are threatening to shut down.

One of them, Silver Fox Learning Center, closed last month. The executive director said he had no choice -- the district was withholding funding to cover old debts and he couldn't pay his bills. District officials, however, say the school repeatedly failed to document spending.

Part of the problem is that it took so long to put in any rules at all.

It wasn't until 2003-04 that the state required line-item budgets and quarterly financial reports and specified in contracts that it could take back money not spent as intended.

And it wasn't until the next year that the state spelled out what preschool owners were not allowed to purchase with tax dollars.

Budget guidelines now forbid spending on personal items, entertainment and first-class travel. Fiscal monitors installed in the districts are supposed to review financial records every quarter and track spending.

Next year, for the first time, directors' salaries will be capped at $108,000. Salaries that already exceed the limits, however, won't be cut. Also next year, preschools will have to justify their rent costs.

State auditors, who are reviewing 90 preschools from 2004-05, say those reports will show management is improving.

But some preschool operators say the growing list of spending rules is too strict and that they haven't been trained to keep up with the paperwork. The rules don't allow preschools to save money in one area -- say, on utilities -- and spend it on another part of the program.

"Every day they are coming up with something new. They used to say, 'It's a new program, we're still learning.' But the program has been around for years now," said Youssef Ismail, who owns Leaders of Tomorrow in Jersey City. "They are treating everybody as if they are thieves. They talk to you as if you are trying to take advantage and take money from the district."

Human Services funds

Although the Department of Education has been phasing in some spending rules, the Department of Human Services has not.

And that means one-fifth of taxpayer funding -- about $57,000 per classroom for before- and after-school care -- still comes without any spending restrictions at all and virtually no fiscal oversight.

That's how Yami Lasval of Fort Lee was able to spend tax dollars on expensive vehicles for herself and her husband.

When Education Department auditors looked at her Kiddie Land Learning Center in West New York, they found two leases totaling $1,229, which Lasval said in interviews paid for a BMW and a Chevrolet Tahoe. Lasval told auditors she paid for the cars with Human Services money.

And there was nothing the Education Department could do about it. Human Services pays strictly based on enrollment, with no budget required. So Lasval's actions didn't break any rules.

"DHS is not asking where that money goes," Lasval said in an interview before the district decided it would not renew her contract this summer, after six years. "They care whether we're open from 7:30 to 8:30 and 3:30 to 5:30."

The Education Department suggested that Human Services audit Lasval's program. It didn't happen. Human Services hardly ever audits preschools -- only six or eight have been done over the life of the program, officials said. The department requires attendance reports and visits the programs yearly.

"We're paying just based upon a rate," said Bonnie Beach, contract manager for the Division of Family Development. "We can't look at line items, because there are no line items to look at."

This fragmented system further hampers accountability.

"It would be a lot easier and more sensible if you were dealing with a single program and single funding source and all that. You're not. And so it may be a loophole," MacInnes agreed.

No one prosecuted

Even in cases of apparently flagrant abuse, state criminal investigations have not led to any prosecutions.

And for that, education and law enforcement officials blamed each other.

Seven cases were referred to then-Attorney General Peter Harvey's office, but a spokesman said the Education Department's vague contracts and lack of rules hurt chances for prosecution. Representatives of the Attorney General's Office discussed tightening the contracts and requiring more documentation for spending, said John Hagerty, a spokesman for the state Division of Criminal Justice.

MacInnes maintains that the Attorney General's Office didn't do its job.

"I am confident in saying they haven't pursued it in ways that I would want to see as a taxpayer," he said. He said Harvey was initially encouraging, as were investigators.

"[Harvey] looked it over and told me that based on the information we had provided -- whatever the contract may provide or not provide for -- there was clear evidence of probable offenses of a criminal nature," MacInnes said.

The investigated centers included Right Direction in Irvington, where auditors cited questionable costs of $182,883 and alleged the owner "embezzled funds for personal gain." Financial records for the two-room storefront showed expenses for cruises, airfare, motels, restaurants and clothing.

The problem in most cases: too much "wiggle room" in the contracts.

"While there may have been some excessive expenditures, the bottom line was it does not violate criminal statutes because it was not prohibited by the contracts," Hagerty said in an interview late last year.

"How can it be a crime if you are not violating any restrictions on how dollars are to be spent?" he added.

MacInnes said some changes were made to the contracts after the department was told it "would improve their ability to follow up and prosecute cases." But he questioned whether that was the real issue.

Perhaps, he said, the amount of money involved was too small.

"You accept this money so you can pay a teacher and an assistant teacher and have $2,500 in supplies and provide meals -- and instead you used the money to go to Atlantic City," he said. "Is that fraudulent? I think it is. Do you need to have it in a contract in order to enforce it? I doubt it."

Under Harvey's tenure, five cases were closed -- leaving only two, involving Abbott preschools in Hoboken and Newark, open. Education officials say the Attorney General's Office also contacted them about Babyland in Newark.

On Wednesday, in response to renewed questions from The Record, Hagerty said the office under Zulima V. Farber, the attorney general who took over in January, is taking another look at the preschool cases.

"This administration is assessing all of the cases and some of those cases may ultimately be reopened," Hagerty said.

No 'legal actions'

Mahmoud Arafat of Little Star Nursery School used preschool funds for Godiva chocolates, Omaha steaks, cellphones and electronics -- and paid himself $71,000 to run a two-room preschool in Jersey City. He paid his son $60,675 for a job labeled "clerical." He charged $44,100 for rent and $950 for a personal parking space.

In all, auditors concluded that 78 percent of Little Star's $185,000 budget went to Arafat and his family -- and that didn't include any extra funds he got for day-care. They said the excessive administrative salaries were made possible, in part, by underpaying teachers and not providing benefits.

Jersey City ended the contract -- but without collecting $76,596 that Little Star still owes. Arafat recently sold his building for $565,000, The Record found. Efforts to reach him were unsuccessful.

State officials say it's up to school districts to recover the funds, even if it means taking "legal actions."

Jersey City school officials said they are considering legal remedies against Little Star and two other preschools they cut loose. But early childhood supervisor Pat Bryant said, "We really haven't got much direction" from the Education Department.

Had officials placed a lien against Arafat, he would have been unable to sell his building without settling his debt with the school district.

One district that tried that approach was told to back off by the state. Newark officials said they filed a lien in 2004 on assets owned by Babyland. But in August, state officials told Newark to rescind the lien, Griffin said. Babyland also had federal and state tax liens against it, and the district was told that "taxes come first," she said.

At Tender Care in Newark, employee paychecks bounced. Bank balances ran into the red. Auditors found payments to Saab and Volvo and bills for satellite dish and travel services.

In 2003-04, the school's rent shot up by 20 percent, to $6,000 a month, and owner Roger Mendes charged four times the agreed amount for a janitor. The janitor and landlord were the same person: Rosa Fromkin. Public records also list Fromkin as the owner of Mendes' home in Livingston, a luxury town house, The Record found. Mendes did not respond to repeated messages.

The owner of Tender Care chose to shut down last summer rather than return $37,306.

"This is a perfect way out for them," said Nancy Rivera, director of Newark's early childhood program.

No one is pressing the owners of Rise & Shine Day Care Center I and II in Jersey City for any money. Saeed and Riffat Sheikh still owe $239,000, the district says.

They made $82,080 by padding their rent, auditors found. They skimmed from every teacher's state-funded salary but one -- a relative. When auditors asked them to substantiate their spending, the Sheikhs showed receipts for just 61 percent of the money.

Rise & Shine no longer exists. Efforts to reach the Sheikhs were unsuccessful.

MacInnes says it's not always worth it to chase providers that leave the program. Some go out of business so there may be nothing left to pursue. Sometimes, it would cost more for lawyers to collect the debt than the debt itself, he said.

"I think you could say at least in some cases this is just good business judgment," MacInnes said. "At some point the district may conclude the effort required is not worth the potential of the return."

He said it shouldn't come as any surprise that a program as large and expensive as Abbott is "not airtight."

"I think," he said, "there is a point at which you have to write off bad debt."

$377,000 for rent

Villa Maria preschool in Irvington was a modest, non-profit day-care center that received $142,000 in public dollars for child-care services in 1999. As director, Regina Okafor was paid less than $50,000, tax documents show.

Then she landed a preschool contract.

By 2001, the non-profit organization that owns Villa Maria had purchased two Mercedes-Benzes as company cars. By 2003, it was taking in $2.7 million a year to serve 135 preschoolers. Okafor's salary rocketed to $291,347. She changed her title to "chief executive officer."

Okafor also pocketed profits from a generous rental agreement for nine classrooms in a squat brick building she purchased for $240,000 in 1999. Four years later, she was charging the state $377,000 a year in rent.

Her luck finally ran out in 2004, when her contract was not renewed.

So what became of the fortune that taxpayers invested in Villa Maria?

Unopened boxes of school supplies and computers are gathering dust in a half-empty building renovated with a $200,000 state grant. Shelves of books, paints, blocks and other supplies fill classrooms that were meant for poor preschoolers.

Federal tax documents show Okafor took home $1 million in salary during her years in the program. Okafor said in an interview she didn't do anything wrong. Preschool, she said, is not a money-making venture.

"I want to make a difference for poor kids," she said.

She said the Irvington school district never sent her last monthly payment. When the district asked that she give back some supplies, Okafor refused.

"They have no right to do that," Okafor said, indignant. "It's not in the contract."

Taxpayers will never know if Elie Jean-Pierre, who runs two preschools in Orange and West Orange, walked away with hundreds of thousands of dollars of their money.

That's because nobody is bothering to add it all up.

State auditors noted that he took out $377,000 in IOUs from Christian Family Day Care. All the while, he was bouncing checks and racking up $41,000 in bank overdraft fees.

The Orange district ended its contract with Christian Family in 2004 and withheld $51,324 from its final check, said Kathleen Priestley, supervisor of early childhood programs. But it hasn't tried to recoup more money, she said, and hasn't been told by the state that it should.

In an interview, Jean-Pierre denied the findings and said the district did not withhold any money. The loans were appropriate, he said, because they were "personal money" that was owed to him.

"If I was so bad, why did they keep me in the program for three years?" he said. "As far as I'm concerned, we met all of the requirements. That's why we got the check every month."

E-mail: carroll@northjersey.com and rimbach@northjersey.com

* * *

BY THE NUMBERS

# More than 38,000 students attend preschool in the 31 Abbott school districts.

# About 500 private preschools serve two-thirds of the children. The rest are in public schools.

# For each student, the state pays about $14,000 yearly -- about $10,100 for six hours of class time and $3,800 for before- and after-school care.

# The state Department of Education pays for class time -- about 80 percent of the costs. That money is given to the districts, which distribute it to the schools.

# The state Department of Human Services pays for before- and after-school care -- about 20 percent of the costs.

# Classes are capped at 15 students.

# More than 99 percent of the teachers are certified.

# There is no cost to parents.

# The centers provide two free meals and snacks each day.

* * *

OUTSTANDING DEBTS

Preschools can walk away from the program owing thousands in tax dollars. Some examples:

Mahmoud Arafat, Little Star, Jersey City

Used preschool funds for Godiva chocolates, Omaha steaks, cellphones and electronics.

Owes: $76,596

Roger Mendes, Tender Care, Newark

Auditors found payments to Saab and Volvo and bills for satellite dish and travel services in the books.

Owes: $37,306

Saeed and Riffat Sheikh, Rise & Shine Day Care Center I and II, Jersey City

Made $82,080 by padding rent; skimmed from every teacher's salary but one -- a relative.

Owes: $239,000

Elie Jean-Pierre, Christian Family Day Care, Orange

Auditors said he took out $377,000 in loans from preschool, but couldn't determine source of the cash.

Owes: unknown

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The picture is from Vienna -- there is a lot on the web about green roofs.

http://www.greenbuildingsbc.com/new_b ... .0_general_resources.html

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I really like this idea! I'm reading up on it

That sounds great -- how about drainage -- how is that handled? Also do you start with putting down good rubber roofing?

Ok -- I'm not sure what you mean by "green roof"

Asbury Park PAL gets $15,000 anti-gang grant
Posted by the Asbury Park Press on 04/7/06
BY NANCY SHIELDS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU

ASBURY PARK ? The city's Police Athletic League is one of six local chapters in the state to receive $15,000 for anti-gang activities, the state PAL has announced.

The funds are to be used to expand existing recreational and athletic programs and to incorporate education about the dangers of associating with gangs into those programs.

The other five municipalities to receive similar grants are Elizabeth, Hoboken, Jersey City, Rahway and Vineland.

Corzine asks court's permission to freeze aid to some poor schools

April 7, 2006, 5:24 PM EDT

TRENTON, N.J. -- For the second year in a row, New Jersey is moving to freeze aid to some of the state's poorest school districts.

Gov. Jon S. Corzine announced Friday that he had asked the Attorney General's Office to request permission from the state Supreme Court to keep aid in check.

In a series of rulings known as the Abbott v. Burke cases, the state's high court has required the state government to give extra money and other help to school districts in 31 poor cities. Holding spending for those districts in check requires the court's approval.

In Corzine's proposed $30.9 billion state budget, the districts would get a total of $4 billion _ an increase of about $140 million over the current year.

But some schools with especially low local tax rates _ including Newark, Jersey City and New Brunswick _ would have aid cut. To make up the difference, those districts would have to raise taxes.

Most of the state's roughly 600 school districts have been told their aid from the state will not change for the 2006-07 school year.

Friday's move comes one year after Gov. Richard J. Codey froze the aid to most of the poor districts.

"I have called upon state officials at all levels to reduce expenditures and to find ways to do more with less," Corzine said in a statement. "They have been fully responsive to this call. I expect nothing less from local municipal and school officials."

Corzine said holding back school spending this year does not mean he's not committed to improving the poor schools.

Education advocates, such as the Education Law Center, which sued for more help for the poor districts, have called for Corzine to reverse course and offer more aid to schools.

Cities Move To Prevent Rail Attacks

JERSEY CITY, N.J., April 7, 2006
Written by Alexandra Marks - Christian Science Monitor.

"In their mind, it's better for the public to be at very high risk and in blissful ignorance than to do something about it."
Fred Millar, consultant

Boston officials envision keeping rail cars carrying hazardous chemicals at least 10 miles away unless the city is their destination.

A plan in Chicago would prohibit such tanker cars in its downtown Loop. In Cleveland, city officials are considering banning them near Lake Erie, water treatment plants, and crowded neighborhoods.

Transport of these chemicals presents one of the knottiest public policy problems in the effort to protect the nation's cities from terrorist attack. Federal law requires railroads to carry such chemicals, which are used in manufacturing, water-purification systems, and wastewater-treatment plants.

But with no federal regulations for securing the transport of these chemicals, The District of Columbia has enacted rules of its own and at least five other cities are considering them. These moves have drawn a sharp rebuke from industry and federal officials, who say such piecemeal efforts are misguided. Since 9/11, they point out, railroads have fortified rail yards and worked with the chemical industry to conceal where and when these tanker cars pass near or through cities.

The threat looms large. Government studies suggest that the explosion of one tanker car carrying, say, chlorine would cause up to 100,000 deaths in a densely populated area.

So Boston, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Cleveland, and Chicago have proposed ordinances requiring that such deadly chemicals be rerouted around them unless they're destined for the cities themselves. The fact that the rail industry, with federal support, has sued the District of Columbia over its law has not deterred them.

"The federal government says, 'We preempt the field,' but their preemption is abdication because they're not doing anything. They're letting the railroads determine the routes," says Stuart Greenberg of the Cuyahoga County Emergency Planning Committee in Cleveland. "Either we need to allow local jurisdictions to exercise their obligation to protect the public, or we need a comprehensive federal routing system designed by a neutral party."

Critics' main concern is that it's too easy to gain access to the tanker cars. A few miles from midtown Manhattan, for example, a chain-link fence topped with razor-sharp wire surrounds a rail yard in Jersey City, N.J. "No Trespassing" signs abound. But it's easy to step through some weeds and onto the tracks that lead directly into the fenced-in rail yard. No one stopped a reporter when she approached those tracks or tracks in two other areas where tanker cars sometimes travel.

Rail officials contend that's not a fair representation of how easy it would be to target dangerous cars. First, they represent a small percentage of the nation's rail cargo, they say. Of 1.7 million carloads of hazardous materials transported each year, only about 100,000 contain the most dangerous toxic inhalants like chlorine and anhydrous ammonia. Second, the industry has increased the safeguards on information about where and when such shipments travel. Third, and most important, rerouting toxic chemicals would cause them to travel longer routes on less well maintained rural tracks, increasing the risk of accidents.

"You're compromising safety in the name of security, which is not a good idea or public policy," says Peggy Wilhide, of the Association of American Railroads in Washington, D.C.

Critics counter that an accident or an attack in a less populated area would create far less damage, mitigating the trade-off. They also say the federal government is intentionally downplaying the risks.

"In their mind, it's better for the public to be at very high risk and in blissful ignorance than to do something about it," says Fred Millar, a consultant to the Washington, D.C., city council.

In response, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Transportation last Friday issued "recommended security action items" for the rail transport of "toxic inhalation hazard materials." It calls for putting one person in charge of these shipments; restricting access to information about them; and ensuring regular communications with federal, state, and local emergency responders. But the memo's second sentence reads: "All measures are voluntary." That prompted an angry reaction from some on Capitol Hill.

These "are the latest sign of how this administration would sooner jeopardize homeland security than ruffle the feathers of a big corporation," says Rep. Edward Markey (D) of Massachusetts.

Federal transportation and homeland security officials defend the guidelines as just a first step that can be implemented right away. They also say the guidelines don't preclude future regulations. "Our goal is to balance safety and security, rerouting doesn't mitigate the risk, it simply moves it to another location," says Darrin Kayser, spokesman for the Transportation Security Administration.

Rail officials contend this is one of the most difficult and expensive security problem it faces. Indeed, Ms. Wilhide says the railroads would rather not carry such dangerous cargo at all. Recently, the AAR came out in favor of industry switching to less dangerous chemicals where possible, a move that puts it at odds with its customer, the chemical industry.

"If we had our choice we wouldn't move it because it constitutes less than 1/10th of our profit and 99 percent of our risk," says Wilhide. "We'd at least like a clear set of guidelines."

Manzo trying to head off school tax hike
Friday, April 07, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Assemblyman Lou Manzo says he is trying to save the average Jersey City property owner about $60 on their annual tax bill, but it's not clear if he will be successful.

When the state Department of Education officials announced school aid figures two weeks ago, they had slashed aid to Jersey City by roughly $7.5 million for the upcoming school year, from $430.4 million to $422.8 million.

The school district won't feel the cut, though; state officials also ordered local officials to raise the school tax levy by an amount equal to the state aid reduction, which translates to a $90 tax hit for a homeowner whose property is assessed at $100,000, city officials have said.

Manzo's position is that the state doesn't have authority to impose higher taxes in a school district with an elected board. Voters in what's known as a "Type 2" district should get the chance to vote on the increased tax levy, he said.

That vote should take place on April 18, the date of the school board elections, Manzo said. But since those ballots are already at the printer, Manzo says the state should bite the bullet and cough up the $7.5 million.

However, the state has a different opinion. Even though Jersey City has an elected board, which would normally make it a "Type 2" district, it's really a state-run school district, and therefore a different set of rules apply, says Department of Education spokesman Richard Vespucci.

In a state-operated school district, the DOE approves the budget, then certifies a tax rate with the county, Vespucci said.

Manzo asked Albert Porroni, legislative counsel for the Office of Legislative Services, to look into the matter, who said he'll have a response by the end of the week.

The increased school taxes would not kick in until August, said Tax Assessor Maureen Cosgrove.