Top Ten + 1 reasons to Reject Dave Kenny’s Candidacy

1. Did Marliese Ljuba funnel over $10k in cash to the Kenny campaign?  She says she did and she said it under oath in a Federal Courthouse under the threat of perjury. 

 

2. Kenny says he never took $$$ from Ljuba, but his June 22, 2009 ELEC filing says otherwise.  Why would Kenny hide or misrepresent the apparent Ljuba donation?

 

3. According the Newark Star Ledger database of Birdsall engineering’s illegal campaign donations, Kenny’s campaign was the recipient of $2,200 of illegal donations over the course of 3 separate events. . http://www.nj.com/politics/index.ssf/2013/06/secret_list_birdsall_donations.html

 4.  Publicly available ELEC filings do not show that Kenny has returned or donated the ill begotten gains from the illegal donations. http://www.elec.state.nj.us/publicinformation/viewreports.htm

5.  Kenny still has not been honest with Hamilton Voters and acknowledged his receipt of the dirty Birdsall money!

6.  Kenny repeatedly voted to give Birdsall over $300,000 in Township contracts, even after his campaign had received the illegal funds. Examine Hamilton Council Minutes from 2009 -2012. http://www.hamiltonnj.com/content/83868/83968/85141/default.aspx

7.  Even after the Birdsall scandal was disclosed by statewide media reports and after Birdsall and its executives were indicted...Kenny voted yet again for another Birdsall contract. Hamilton Council Minutes page 15, Dec 4, 2012

8.  Kenny participated in a non public meeting of the full Hamilton Council on Nov 15, 2013   for the purpose of discussing and plotting the selection of Hamilton’s next Mayor even before Bencivengo was convicted.  Councilman Meara was present at the meeting and said it violated the NJ Sunshine Act. (Trentonian 12/1/2012).  Former Councilman Capodanno filed a State Ethics Complaint because of the Sunshine violation. (Trentonian 2/25/2013) Public officials should conduct the people’s business in the light of day at properly advertised meetings rather then in private back rooms.

9. Kenny voted to disband the Township Local Ethics Board at a time when the Board should have been empowered to hear resident’s complaints about municipal corruption, conflicts of interest, illegal campaign donations, OPRA, Sunshine Act violations and pay-to-play contracts in Hamilton. Hamilton Council Minutes page 15, March 19, 2013, (Trentonian 3/5/13 and 3/19/13).

10. Our sources tell us that Kenny, an attorney, has asked that his name be submitted for a Judgeship.  That process is apparently currently underway.  This means that if Mr. Kenny were to get his judge position, he would not serve out his term, even if elected. Politicians should be honest with the voters and tell them if they do not intend to complete the term they seek.  In this case Kenny has failed the test.

11. Mayor Bencivengo is in jail.  Former Hamilton Director, Rob Warney is in jail. Former Mercer GOP Chair and Hamilton Director of Recreation, Cathy Tramontana was fired.  Receipt of Illegal campaign contributions directed by another former Mercer County GOP Chairman and indicted engineering firm.  Disbanding the Local Ethics Board in the midst of the largest scandal in Hamilton history. Allegations of a bag of cash from a government witness.  Sunshine Act Complaints. THE CLOUD OF CORRUPTION must be completely swept out of the Hamilton Township and the people’s Municipal Building.

Hamilton's Public Safety Advisory Commission - The Rest of the Story - Shocking!

Fred Yaede, or the suppression of any mention of Gangs in Hamilton, may be the most important public safety issues in Hamilton Township! Sounds, strange, but as you read on sadly you are sure to understand.

The Public Safety Advisory Commission was unanimously approved by Hamilton Council on May 6. 2008. Ms Yaede moved the motion for approval which was unanimously approved by Council, including Messrs Kenny and Pone. The record of this vote appears on page 40 of the Council minutes of that date. Thereafter, Ms, Yaede voted yes for the appointment of each and every member of the PSAC that was brought before her.

The Ordinance establishing the PSAC, Ord. No. 08-026, states its purpose is to “act in an advisory capacity to the Mayor and make recommendations for the development of policies and procedures in general to improve the state of public safety of the community.” Any statement or representation by Ms. Yaede, Chief Collins or any of their surrogates alleging this Commission’s purpose is “public oversight over the police department” is just an unequivocal, purposeful misrepresentation or as it is called on the street, a big LIE, or horse manure. 

The Public Safety Advisory Commission ordinance can be found at Sec 2-820.36 in Hamilton’s Code of Ordinances. The Commission per the ordinance “shall meet monthly at a time and place determined by the membership.” These meetings are not optional.  An approved ordinance is the law until modified or revoked and is not to be selectively enforced at the whim of any elected official. When information was previously requested regarding the Commission, incomplete records were provided by the Township with numerous meeting minutes missing. It begs the question, are they covering something up?  Have the records been removed or destroyed?

The PSAC met 10 times. It did serious work and made meaningful recommendations to Mayor Bencivengo.  Just a portion of the minutes show it addressed the police computer system; workload and manpower efficiency; the necessity to replace the radio system by 2013; problems with the TKR radio tower; and radio interoperability problems. It wasn’t until the Commission breached four hot button issues that it got serious push back and effectively shut down.

The critical issues that apparently offended our elected officials or at least one of them, Ms Yaede:  the repeated mention of gangs in Hamilton during meetings 4-6;  a series of problems within the Fire Districts and the mention of the “consolidation”; an admission by Business Administrator, John Ricci that there is no accounting of the Fire District tax monies collected  by the Township; and finally perhaps most important to our newly appointed Mayor, the possible mention of  Fred Yaede.

With the serious nature of all the issues mentioned in the prior paragraphs you likely think we jest when we mention Fred Yaede.  Sadly, we are not jesting. Just the poor, pitiful truth that a sitting member of Council would demand to know if the Township’s Public Safety Advisory Commission “discussed her father at October’s meeting”.  See email dated Wed. Nov 10, 2010 regarding PSAC October minutes addressed to PSAC members. Apparently, with all the issues mentioned by the PSAC, with all the crime in Hamilton, with a documented gang problem, the most important issue for our Mayor is nepotism and protecting her father’s position as a paid Fire Commissioner.

Pitiful, selfish, juvenile, immature, misguided, inappropriate, are just a few of the adjectives that come to mind when describing Ms. Yaede’s apparent motivations. Is Fred Yaede, the mention of gangs in Hamilton or breaching the possible consolidation of Fire Districts really more important then all of the PSAC's recommendations?  Is Kelly Yaede really qualified to be the Mayor and leader of New Jersey’s 8^th largest town?

 

YAEDE'S Dubious $$$ -Contracts-Conflicts of Interest

Ms. Yaede has been bragging about her tough stance on ethics in Hamilton.  But, there are multiple examples of Yaede’s questionable ethics that make us a bit squeamish.  Yaede has a clear pattern of rewarding large contributors with Township contracts and then skirting the Hamilton pay-to play laws and ignoring conflicts of interest.  Examine the contributions below from Yaede's ELEC reports:

August 31, 2011 – Sean’s Landscaping- $2,500 – to Yaede for Council

March 27, 2013 – Sean’s Landscaping - $2,500 – to Yaede for Council
March 25, 2013 – Central Jersey Waste - $1,000 –to Yaede for Mayor
March 25, 2013 –Rusling Hose Company- $400- to Yaede for Mayor
June 29, 2011 –   Sharbell Building Co. - $1,000 to Yaede for Council
April 4, 2013 -    Sharbell Building Co.-   $1,000 to Yaede for Mayor
April 13, 2013 – Brenda Hoffman -           $200 – to Yaede for Mayor
April 13, 2013–  Chief James W. Collins-  $200 -to Yaede for Mayor

Sean’s Landscaping was given a $40,000 Township contract on November 11, 2012.  Kelly Yaede voted for the contract benefiting her campaign donor rather than to disqualify herself; then Sean's donated another $2,500 to Yaede's Mayor campaign.  Central Jersey Waste was awarded a 5 year - $13.8 Million dollar contract on June 18, 2013, less then 2 months after donating $1,000 to the Mayor’s campaign.

Hamilton Fire Companies raise funds via a fire tax on its residents. Is it appropriate for Yaede to collect partisan political contributions from a public entity supported by your tax dollars? Brenda Hoffman is the wife of Hamilton Township Chief Municipal Judge, R. Douglas Hoffman. Should Yaede be accepting donations from the wife of the Chief Judge whose appointment is made by the Mayor? Hamilton’s website says the Hamilton Municipal Court is an “independent branch of government constitutionally entrusted with the fair and just resolution of disputes”. Than why is Yaede accepting monetary contributions from the Judge’s family. Chief James Collins is the highest ranking police office in Hamilton. He is entrusted with leading a police force to protect and serve all Hamilton residents. Is it appropriate for the interim Mayor to solicit or accept political donations from the Chief of Police?

Yaede was appointed to a Council sub-committee in 2012 by Council president Meara, to investigate the complexities and irregularities perceived by residents with the proposed Sharbell development of the Italian American Sportsmen Club. She accepted the appointment and co-authored a report beneficial to the developer. Sharbell had already donated $1,000 to Yaede’s campaign and after the report donated another $1,000 to her Mayoral campaign.  Shouldn’t Ms. Yaede have declined to participate in an investigation of her contributor?

Why is it that Ms. Yaede cannot seem to comprehend what a conflict of interest is?  Why does she consistently cast votes for and exercise judgments for her political contributors? If Yaede’s actions were acceptable to our current leaders; Hamilton’s Ethics rules and its pay- to play laws need to have a few more teeth put into them!!!!!!!!!

Kenny, Pone & Marliese Ljuba-Truth or Consequences

Dave Kenny is an attorney who has served on Hamilton’s Council since 2006 with his running mate Dennis Pone. Marliese Ljuba was the US government’s star witness in the corruption trial that resulted in the convictions of Mayor John Bencivengo and Hamilton Director, Rob Warney. Kenny and Pone were on Council during Bencivengo’s entire tenure as Mayor. They would have Hamilton voters believe that they never saw anything improper and were unaware of any of the illegalities relating to Ms. Ljuba’s bribery scheme that took down 3 Hamilton officials. Kenny and Pone have stated repeatedly that they never received any funds from Marliese Ljuba and were never influenced by any campaign donations from Birdsall Engineering.

Public records show that the Kenny, Pone 2009 campaign received $2200 of Illegal campaign donations funneled through Birdsall Engineering.  Despite their assertions to the contrary, NJ ELEC reports show the Kenny, Pone campaign received funds from Ljuba or someone residing in her home. A June 22, 2009 post primary filing by the Kenny, Pone campaign lists an April 2009 contribution received from a Bear Delaware address, the same address reported to Ljuba on numerous other ELEC filings. It is most interesting that the Ljuba name was omitted from the ELEC filing.

Ljuba testified under oath during the Bencivengo trail that she funneled $11,000 to Kenny and Pone in a bag of cash. The Trenton Times reported on February 27, 2013, that Ljuba had entered into a Consent Order with the State of New Jersey wherein she admitted to wrongdoing and surrendered her insurance broker’s license. The Times reported that “In the consent order and during Bencivengo’s trial Ljuba said she funnelled $11,000 to the 2006 campaign of Councilmen Dennis Pone, Dave Kenny”.

Both Kenny and Pone have denied Ljuba’s testimony is true.  Why would a sworn witness, under the penalty of perjury lie about funneling cash to 2 Councilmen who were not even the subject of the government’s investigation?  If any of you were falsely accused of corrupt behavior wouldn’t you attempt to prove your innocence?  Would you sue the person making the allegation, particularly if you were a seasoned trial attorney?  If you were a public official like Kenny and Pone, perhaps you would even submit to a lie detector test to clear your name. To the best of our knowledge the Kenny, Pone response was to just shout loudly that they had never received money from Ljuba. At a minimum, the NJ ELEC records their campaign filed suggest they are wrong!

 

 

 

 

Yaede-Christie & Hamilton Police Manpower-Overtime

Governor Christie made a campaign stop in Hamilton Wednesday night doing a meet and greet at Jo Jo’s Tavern. So it begs the question why did Mayor Yaede order 15 Hamilton Township Police officers to work overtime from 6 -9 pm?  Our sources confirm that 15 Hamilton officers in 15 separate police vehicles were ordered to be in the Mercerville area during the period of the Govs Hamilton visit. The last time I checked the NJ State Police were responsible for the Governor’s security and by all accounts Christie’s security detail is quite able and competent.

Several important questions come to mind. Why were an additional 15 officers and vehicles required to be present for the duration of the Governors visit?  What was the cost to the Hamilton Taxpayers for paying 15 officers 3 hours of overtime pay?  Who directed the redistribution of police manpower? Is it appropriate to direct any taxpayer funded assets to benefit a partisan political function?  Finally, if Ms Yaede requested/demanded the extra police presence does she even have the authority to make such a decision as the Mayor and as a civilian Public Safety Director?  For this answer take a peek at our prior post as well as some of the authorities it references. http://hamiltonintegrity.blogspot.com/2013/10/yaedes-police-equipped-suv.html

In these tight budgetary times, less than a week before the election, should our appointed Mayor be wasting thousands of the taxpayer’s hard earned dollars for a political event?  We do not think so.  If Hamilton was spending overtime dollars to increase the police presence, might the manpower and funds have been better spent for township wide safety on mischief night and Halloween?  They could have been distributed to the South Broad St. and Park Ave area where there have been 2 armed robberies in 2 weeks.  Perhaps the extra police could have been placed in the Bromley area where there has been a wave of shootings in the past 6 weeks.  Or maybe the funds could’ve been used to fix the malfunctioning surveillance cameras in the Bromley area.  Our sources suggest that law enforcement may have had video of several of the Bromley shooters and hard evidence of those crimes, if those Bromley cameras were operating properly at the time of the shootings.

Ms Yaede, tell the truth to Hamiltonians about the rising violent crime and end your silence regarding the shootings, armed robberies, assaults and gangs in Hamilton. If, you are insistent on playing Public Safety Director, then lead, instead of being a mime in a silent film.


Ms Yaede, stop the partisan politics on the taxpayer’s dime!  Stop playing cop when you do not possess an ounce of law enforcement experience or police training and stop interfering in police operations.

 

 

 

 

ED GORE Ethical Failings & Censure- Part II

In Part I of our post regarding Ed Gore’s ETHICAL failings we highlighted the decision to publicly censure him for his actions as a member of the Hamilton Township Board of Education. In his appeal of the State Ethics Commission decision, Gore expressed concern about the Censure sullying his reputation in the Hamilton community.  He used every procedural ploy, twice filing appeals to delay the decisions for nearly 8 months. It shocks the conscience that Mr. Gore never grasped the nature and magnitude of his purposeful acts. Gore ever apologized for his actions and the negative impact his intimidating actions had on Hamilton BOE employees. Instead, Gore argued that the addresses of Board employees were public information and his 1^st Amendment right to free speech permitted him to send the intimidating letter in an attempt to sway votes and influence the election outcome.

The State School Board was so shocked by Gore’s behavior they said the following:

Gore obtained the information solely for his own political purposes....the inappropriateness of his conduct is aptly demonstrated by the fact that the letter was constructed so as to convey the initial impression that it related to official Board business and was sent out...over Mr. Gore’s signature as Vice President of the Hamilton Board of Education. The sanction is for using his position as a member of the district board of education to obtain the home address of vulnerable employees in order to send them a targeted letter to solicit votes for the candidates he supported.

Mr. Gore... has not yet acknowledged the impropriety of his conduct or comprehended its seriousness. It is critical that members of district boards recognize the importance of maintaining public confidence in them. Central to this is the ability and desire to conform their conduct to the standards set forth in the School Ethics Act. There is no question that Mr. Gore failed to do so in this instance and that the imposition of a sanction is necessary in order to impress upon him the seriousness of this failure.

Yet, at a recent debate, we are told that Mr. Gore said he was a little fuzzy about his public censure and that he thought his actions to help some people were misinterpreted. Are you kidding? That response was intentionally evasive and disingenuous. Can any reasonable, honest person misinterpret the scalding language of the sanction? Then the Hamilton Republicans have the nerve to have Gore speak about ETHICS in their online commercial!

Mr. Gore breached the public trust placed in him when he advanced his own personal political agenda. Mr. Gore, admit the TRUTH! Acknowledge your bad act!! And apologize to the victims of your actions & the voters of Hamilton!!!  Otherwise, you are not worthy of any public office!!!! Mr. Gore’s ethical failures, his refusal to acknowledge the seriousness of his wrongdoing and apologize for his actions, should render him unfit for any public office.

View the State Board of Education Gore decision by clicking the link below:

http://www.nj.gov/education/legal/sboe/1997/gore2.pdf

 

HAMILTON TAXES – Facts & Fictions

Throughout the campaign season there has been much discussion about the taxes in Hamilton, how they became so high, and where Ms Yaede and her Council friends project them to be in the not so distant future. Yaede, Kenny and Pone are fond of touting what they call the “tax stability” they have brought Hamilton residents over the past 5 years. A brief look back at history reminds us that in 2007 former Mayor Bencivengo, and Kelly Yaede were elected and Yaede joined Councilman Kenny and Pone on an all Republican Hamilton Council. That was 6 years ago.  So why do Yaede and her is designated spokesmen only refer to her 5 year record on taxes?

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  So here is the picture that will answer the 5 year question. 

In their first year of all republican control, Yaede, Kenny and Pone (Gore was not elected until 2010) raised your taxes by 46%!

The above chart is based upon the documented historical Hamilton Tax Rates.  You would think these rates would be available online at the Township website  http://www.hamiltonnj.com/, but no such luck.  The only rates posted by the appointed Mayor and her rubber stamping running mates are the 2010-2012 tax rates. Not even the current tax rate is available in this election year. I imagine the posted tax rates fit their 5 year argument better than if they provided us with all of the information.

The Bencivengo/Yaede/Kenny/Pone 2008 tax hike yielded the township over $13 Million in additional tax revenues. Mr. Joe Zannoni recently pointed out in his letter to the editor in The Times (see our previous post), the republican crew in our Municipal Building has accrued huge tax revenues on the back of Hamilton residents since the 2008 tax increase. The actual figure of $104,349,231 in budget revenues raised through higher taxation is astounding, particularly after hearing the Hamilton Republican campaign rhetoric of stable taxation.  REALLY?

 

Do Ms. Yaede, and her surrogates really believe Hamilton residents cannot count back 6 years?  We are still feeling the pain of the last major tax increase!!!

 

Hamilton Republicans have a pattern of delivering the bad news after their elections. After each of the past 2 Mayoral elections the Hamilton Republicans raised your taxes; 46% in 2008; 1.87% in 2012.  Will they raise your taxes again next year?  We will have more tomorrow on Yaede’s future tax plans for 2014 and 2015