Peek-a-boo Francis…I see you!

By Russ Cote

So Francis favors transparency. Well that’s terrific. The first step down that long hallway toward redemption for Mr. Pallone you ask?

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FEC Questions Pallone Too

By Art Gallagher

The Federal Election Commission is requiring that Pallone for Congress amend its 30 Day Post General disclosure, to address discrepancies with previously filed reports and apparent inaccuracies in the reporting the aggregate contributions of two donors during the 2010 election cycle.

Pallone has until January 18, 2011 to submit the amended report, and any other reports that must be corrected as a result of the errors.

During the 2010 election cycle, Pallone raised $2,247,629.82 and spent $1,951,239.11.  He had $3,229,847.56 on hand on November 22, according to his post general report.

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Sad Story Continues At Fort Hancock

Pallone, Lautenberg and Menendez should put up. The Asbury Park Press should shut up

By Art Gallagher

In their editorial today, Sad chapter ends at fort, the Asbury Park Press editorial board demonstrates that their grasp of reality is insufficient for a newspaper of record for the Monmouth-Ocean region.

The press rehashes the sorry history of  Sandy Hook Partners’ failed plans to redevelop Fort Hancock. They fault the National Park Service for granting the developer nine years of extensions to obtain financing for the redevelopment plans.  They fail to mention that SHP’s ability to finance the project was thwarted by litigation and grassroots opposition to the commercialization of the park.  The litigation and opposition was supported by the APP and by Congressman Frank Pallone.

Now the APP says,

Fort Hancock must be preserved for future generations. In order for that to happen, a developer or developers with both the money and sound plans need to be found. The park service would do well to heed the suggestion by Reps. Frank Pallone and Rush Holt, both D-N.J., that the historic buildings be leased to entities one by one, rather than as a package.

Clearly, neither the Neptune Nudniks nor the Congressmen have even an elementary understanding of how development works.

Where does Pallone, Holt and the APP think the Park Service will find a developer, or developers, with an extra $60-$100 million sitting in the bank who would be willing to commit it to Fort Hancock after what Sandy Hook Partners went through? James Wassel, the head of SHP is no slouch.  His experience and personal committment to our community made him the right developer, if a public-private partnership was the best method to redevelop the fort.

Private partners were, and apparently still are, sought because federal dollars are not available to rehabilitate the park.  Said another way, Frank Pallone, Frank Lautenberg and Robert Menendez (and Jon Corzine, as U.S. Senator before Menedez) either did not have the clout or commiment to secure federal funding to rehabilitate Fort Hancock.

The Pallone/Holt/APP idea of leasing the 36 buildings of the fort one by one, to non-profits, rather than as a package, is crazy.  Even if 36 organizations “with both money and sound plans” on hand could be found, managing 36 separate projects with 36 separate project managers is not feasible.

Wassel’s plan to “commercialise” Sandy Hook would not have turned the park into Times Square or the Monmouth Mall.  He would have developed the fort into an educational and cultural campus.

As a neighbor of and frequent visitor to Sandy Hook, I never understood how Wassel’s plans would have been commercially viable or returned the investment required for the rehabilitation, given the location and climate of the site.  Yet, I supported the plan because the proposed usage would have been an enhancement of the park.  If private investors or lenders were willing to risk their capital on a project that enhanced the park while giving the National Park Service control of what could be done with the site in the event of failure, there was no downside for the public.  Yes, I read the master lease.  The public was protected from turning Fort Hancock into an amusement park or shopping mall.

Now that Wassel’s is out of the picture, it is incumbent upon our federal representitives to secure funding to preserve the fort.  Failing that, the Park Service should fence it off and install Keep Out-Hazardous signs like there has been for most of the fort’s ruins for decades. 

Alternatively, the Park Service should either level the buildings and convert the land to a recreational use like a marina and camp ground.

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Fort Hancock Developer Evicted From Sandy Hook

Sandy Hook Partners, LLC has been evicted from the three buildings it retained control over after its MasterLease with the National Park Service to rehabilitate Fort Hancock was terminated.  The former park headquarters, the theater and the chapel were subject to the separate lease that Sandy Hook Parnters defaulted on in October.

The park service changed the locks on the buildings on November 24, according to a report in the Asbury Park Press.

Sandy Hook Partners was chosen from a pool of 20 applicants to rehabilitate Fort Hancock in 2001.  There plan faced strong opposition from the late Judith Stanley Coleman who formed Save Sandy Hook to oppose the private redevelopment of the fort.  The Sandy Hook Partners master lease was terminated last year when the firm failed to secure financing for their plan after six extensions to the agreement.

Congressman Frank Pallone supported private redevelopment before joining the opposition.  He and Congressman Rush Holt are now urging the Park Service to lease the 36 rundown buildings to non-profits on a building by building basis and not as part of an overall rehabilitation effort.

That won’t work either.  If Fort Hancock is to remain a historic landmark and open to the public, federal funding is the only viable option to restore the buildings.  Pallone did not have the clout to make that happen during the Clinton administration nor during the first two years of the Obama administration.  Not only is it unlikely that he can get funding for it now that he is soon to be a minority member of Congress, he’s not even trying.

In the meantime the buildings continue to deteriorate.  It is very likely that they will continue to decline, unless Pallone can prevail on Senators Robert Menendez and/or Frank Lautenberg to secure funding for rehabilitation.

As the Park Service seeks public input on the future of the fort, they should also consider turning it over to the military….either the adjoining Coast Guard station or to the Earle Naval Weapons Station.

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Vote For Frank Pallone

Politickernj has a poll running, “Who is the Democrats’ best 2013 candidate for governor?” that includes Congressman Frank Pallone.

Governor is probably the only higher office that Pallone would run for because can run in an odd-year election and not risk his congressional seat.  He declined to risk his seat to take Senator Robert Torricelli’s place on the ballot in 2002.

The only way Pallone could win the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2013 is if no one else wanted to run against Chris Christie.

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Christie’s Travel As U.S. Attorney Criticised Again

In a reprise of an issue from last year’s gubernatorial campaign, Governor Chris Christie’s travel expenses while U.S. Attorney have been criticised in a Justice Department Audit.

The audit says Christie over spent by a total of $2,176 over 14 trips.  12 of those trips involved cases that earned the government $311 million in civil penalties.

I wonder how much the audit cost.

The Asbury Park Press has the story.  The APP gives the story much more prominent coverage than they did the ReGen story  that involved Senators Robert Menendex, Frank Lautenberg and Congressmen Frank Pallone and Steve Rothman pressuring the FDA to approve an unsafe medical device in exchange for campaign contributions.

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Cities Sunk Sipprelle and Little

Urban Democratic strongholds in Trenton and Plainfield figured prominently in the outcomes of the Congressional races in NJ 12 and 6.

In the 12th district,  Trenton voters provided Rush Holt with 8,044 votes to Scott Sipprelle’s 437.  Holt won the entire district by 13,836 votes.

In NJ-6, 43% of Frank Pallone’s margin of victory came from Plainfield were he won 7950 votes to Anna Little’s 667.  Democratic sources told MMM that Pallone spent $30,000 to get out the vote in Plainfield.

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Audacious in defeat, Little declares for 2012

Before an enthusiastic crowd 250-300 people, Anna Little conceded her CD-6 congressional race to Frank Pallone and announced that she would be back in 2012.

Little announced the formation of the Anna’s Army Foundation , Anna’s Army PAC and the Little Government is Good Government PAC.

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Pallone takes Plainfield 7950 to 667

MoreMonmouthMusing is calling CD-6 for Frank Pallone. 

With a 10,500 lead in Middlesex County and 7,300 in the City of Plainfield, there is no way for Anna Little to make up the roughy 16,000 vote lead Pallone has with only 26% of the districts yet to report in Middlesex.

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LITTLE CAMP: THE FINAL ARGUMENT

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