Mood:
don't askTopic: Lib Loser Stories
Governor's office steered terror aid Records contradict official claims over how Democratic towns got lion's share of grants
Despite its public statements, the office of acting Democratic Gov. Richard Codey played a key role in doling out millions of dollars in state homeland security grants this yearto legislative districts controlled by his party, a review of government documents shows.
A series of internal letters, memos and e-mails messages, obtained under the Open Public Records Act, makes it clear that decisions on which towns got grants have been influenced by the governor's office from the time the program was established in 2002 under Gov. James E. McGreevey.
The documents contradict repeated claims by Codey's spokespeople that the program was handled by the state Attorney General's Office without political influence.
A May 12 e-mail message from the coordinator of the grant program in the Attorney General's Office to a legislative staffer from Gloucester County seeking a grant update explained who was in charge.
"I've asked the Gov.'s Office to advise if anything changed in terms of Franklin Twp. receiving funding," Steven Talpas wrote to the aide of Democratic Sen. Fred Madden, who represents Franklin Township. "Our office does not make the funding determination for this grant program."
Among hundreds of pages of other documents obtained by The Star-Ledger was a memo from a top administrator in the Attorney General's Office who describes the program as "Christmas Tree funding" -- a term long used in Trenton to describe grants given along party lines to loyal and politically connected lawmakers for use on pet projects in home districts.
Other letters and e-mail messages show Talpas conferring with the governor's office on the distribution of the grants and, at one point in 2003, asking a McGreevey staffer when the grant decisions would be made.
The homeland security grants sparked controversy in July when The Star-Ledger reported that 93 percent of the $23 million handed out since 2002 had gone to districts controlled by Democrats. At the time, Codey spokeswoman Kelley Heck said the governor's office "didn't play a role in the awarding of those grants."
More than $8 million was allocated for the program this year with 94 percent going to districts controlled by Democrats. The money was part of the 2005 budget approved six weeks before McGreevey announced his resignation last summer.
The distribution of those funds to each municipality came after Codey took office. Codey has eliminated the program for 2006.
POLITICAL PRESSURE DENIED
Spokesman Sean Darcy acknowledged the governor's office was part of the bureaucratic chain through which the requests went, but said that no political influence was exerted.
"The Legislature makes recommendations to us and to the Attorney General's Office for their districts," Darcy said. "Those recommendations get passed along from our office to the Attorney General's Office and the Attorney General's Office makes the final decision."
Last month, Attorney General Peter Harvey issued a statement saying "the grants were awarded based on the strength of the proposals and the homeland security needs of the municipalities." He has declined further comment.
But a senior official in Harvey's office, speaking on the condition he not be identified, said the grants were made without input from the Attorney General's Office.
"This is the governor's budget ... and they determine how the money is spent," the official said.
That same official also said McGreevey's office established control of the awards in 2002 after ignoring a proposal from the Attorney General's Office to give each county a base amount and then distribute the rest according to population. Control of the system stayed in the governor's office when Codey replaced McGreevey, the official said.
Harvey has been a target of Republicans since the funding disparity was reported. Several Republicans, including gubernatorial candidate Doug Forrester, have called for his resignation. They have also asked Codey to spend $40 million from the current budget to correct the imbalance in funding.
A RESPONSE TO SEPT. 11
When McGreevey and the Legislature created the Statewide Local Domestic Preparedness Equipment Grant Program nine months after 9/11, the grants were touted as a way to help towns purchase "first-responder" equipment to respond to a terrorist attack.
Soon after, the Attorney General's Office sent letters to every mayor and lawmaker in the state asking them to identify equipment -- such as new radios, gas masks, protective suits and bomb-sniffing dogs -- they wanted to purchase for their police, fire and emergency services departments.
The office received requests from 374 towns seeking a total of more than $64 million.
The correspondence shows the Attorney General's Office initially approached McGreevey's office with proposed guidelines to administer the grants.
In a letter hand-delivered to James Davy, who was McGreevey's chief of management and operations, on Aug. 19, 2002, Thomas O'Reilly of the Attorney General's Office suggested grants go to counties to maximize the limited funding. One suggestion was for each county to get a base award of $200,000, with the remaining funds based on population.
No response to that proposal was included among the documents provided by the state last week.
In an interview Friday, Davy, now the state human services commissioner, said the proposal could not be implemented because the Legislature wanted grants sent to municipalities, not counties.
Davy said his involvement in the grant program was limited to creating the application process, and he never discussed how the money should be distributed.
GOP AREAS GET LESS
Records show that on Dec. 11, 2002, McGreevey's office e-mailed a list of grant recommendations to O'Reilly based, in part, on input from legislators.
The memo was followed up with a meeting in the governor's office that night during which the Attorney General's Office was "advised to begin cutting checks out to the towns who were identified to receive an allocation," Talpas wrote in an e-mail message.
Towns in Democratic-controlled legislative districts received $8.28 million that year. Municipalities in Republican-controlled districts got $384,188.
At the beginning of the second year of the grant program, Talpas sent Karen Kominsky, deputy chief of staff in McGreevey's office, a spreadsheet with all 422 municipalities seeking a total of more than $48 million for various grants. He followed up two weeks later.
"Given that we've been receiving numerous phone calls from the municipalities on the status of this program, can you shed any light as to when a decision will be made on the awards?" Talpas wrote in an e-mail message dated Sept. 25, 2003.
For that year, towns in Democratic-controlled legislative districts received $5.18 million. Republican districts got $740,000.
In the summer of 2004, the Attorney General's Office mailed requests seeking proposals for 2005, the third round of funding. Officials there also sent a letter to McGreevey's operations chief, Diane Legreide, to let her know they were preparing for the 2005 grant program.
"As in past years, upon receipt and review of all applications, staff from my office will forward the listing of municipalities and requested funding amounts to the Governor's Office for further guidance," wrote Robert Caccese, the attorney general's director of finance and grants.
When the grants were distributed in April, more than $7.8 million went to Democratic legislative districts. Municipalities in Republican districts got $523,454, despite requesting a similar amount as Democrats.
NJ Star-Ledger ~ Rick Hepp ** Governor's office steered terror aid
Posted by uhyw
at 7:29 AM EDT
