Town Administrator Anthony Iacono denied that town officials had held any secret meetings with former County Executive Robert Janiszewski in conjunction with the development of two billboards in Secaucus, one more chapter in an ongoing saga that has plagued the town over the last few weeks.
Rumors and two published reports claimed in the last two weeks that Iacono, Mayor Dennis Elwell and Janiszewski met at several prominent eateries in Secaucus to hammer out a deal that would eventually provide finances for two town non-profits and benefit two prominent former members of Gov. Jim McGreevey’s 2001 campaign staff.
“Janiszewski played no part in this,” Iacono said last week. “While we might have met with him during that period, he had no role in helping us get approvals for the billboards.”
For Janiszewski to be connected with a deal casts a shadow over it, as Janiszewski was indicted last year for allegedly extorting money from a county vendor (unrelated to any dealings in Secaucus). Janiszewski has pled guilty but has not yet been sentenced.
Former county official Geoffrey Perselay, who helped bring the town together with the billboard providers, also denied any participation by the former county executive.
“This had nothing to do with Bob Janiszewski,” said Perselay, who served as county administrator under Janiszewski until 1995.
In 2001, the town opted to lease two pieces of town-owned property in order to generate funds for two non-profit organizations, part of an effort town officials hoped would generate funds for the newly construction library and a planned recreation center. The process came under scrutiny several weeks ago when a team of reporters from the Philadelphia Inquirer connected the deals to former high-ranking members of Gov. Jim McGreevey’s staff, who at the time of the deal were members of McGreevey’s election team.
The series of stories that have appeared in the Inquirer sought to determine if Secaucus as well as other towns used political connections to gain necessary state approvals for the billboards, and whether or not Secaucus generated the amount of money it should have from the deals.
In other published accounts, reporters raised questions as to whether or not meetings had been conducted in two Secaucus restaurants between local officials and Janiszewski – who supposedly had a hand in brokering the deal with the state.
“We had no discussions with Janiszewski about any of this,” Iacono said.
At the time of the alleged meetings, Janisewski would have been wearing a wire by federal authorities due to a wide-ranging anti-corruption sting operation.
How did the town get the waivers?
Information obtained by the Philadelphia Inquirer showed that the state Department of Transportation had reservations about approving the billboards because of safety issues. The billboard located on the town’s DPW property faces traffic coming into Turnpike tollbooths.
While Mayor Elwell admitted that the Turnpike Authority appealed the billboard approval last year, he was convinced that this was routine.
“If the Turnpike Authority or the state DOT had a problem with approving the billboards in Secaucus, we weren’t made aware of it,” Iacono said. “As far as we knew, the Turnpike appeals all billboard approvals.”
Secaucus was granted special waivers that allowed the town to lease property to the Friends of the Secaucus Public Library and the Secaucus Youth Alliance – this last, a non-profit that has since evolved into a funding mechanism for constructing a new recreation center. These non-profit organizations, one currently registered with the IRS, the other in the process of being registered as a federal non-profit, were to receive about $6.25 million over a 50 year span, or about $60,000 each per year.
That way, the library could pay back a bond that the town had taken out on their behalf in order to fund new furnishings.
Town officials reached out to two men close to the McGreevey campaign, Gary Taffet and Paul Levinsohn, who at the time owned a billboard business, and these men shepherded the request through the various agencies necessary to get approvals. The signs were too close to existing billboards and one was posted near a toll plaza, prompting Turnpike officials to appeal the approval.
For some reason, the Turnpike ended its opposition once the McGreevey took over as governor, prompting questions as to whether or not the two billboard representatives pulled strings after they had taken positions in the McGreevey administration. (They had given up their interest in the company as required before they could take the McGreevey posts.)
To get approvals, Taffet and Levinsohn hired former DOT commissioner Roger Bodman and former Hudson County Administrator Perselay.
Perselay, who resigned his position with Hudson County in 1995 to become a lobbyist for a variety of business firms around the state, received a finders’ fee of $60,000 to make introductions between local officials and the billboard men. This has raised several questions locally among critics of the billboard deal.
“We were told at the time that there were no finders’ fees connected with this,” said Councilman Bob Kickey.
Could Secaucus have gotten a better deal?
Approvals from the DOT and the New Jersey Meadowlands Commission depended on the fact that the cash from the billboards was to go the two local charities.
How much these billboard rentals are worth has become the center of controversy, as local officials and newspapers are speculating on whether or not the town would have received more if it had gone out to bid on the projects, instead of dealing only with Taffet and Levinsohn.
Published reports claim the billboard could have generated much more if the town had chosen to bid out the project. In 2001, when the billboard project was first proposed, former Board of Education Trustee Bill Donnelly claimed they were vastly undervalued.
Since news reports raised the issue last month, other people have questioned how much money these billboard should be generating, and where the rest of the rental is going if not to the not-for-profit.
“It is reasonable to raise the question as to whether or not this was the best deal that the people of Secaucus could have realized,” said Board of Education Trustee Tom Troyer, who believed if the town had gone out to bid it would have received more. Weehawken, which bid out for its billboard, is getting $20 million over 20 years.
Iacono disputed this, saying the billboards would not have gone up at all.
“Because these were for non-profit organizations, we got the deal,” he said, also disputing claims that Secaucus got shortchanged. “People are not comparing apples to apples. Most of the billboards in Secaucus don’t even average what we’re getting for these two. Weehawken’s billboard is the hottest location in the state. You just can’t compare ours to those.”
Jerry Moska, who represents Matt Outdoor Advertising, the company that purchased the contracts from Taffet and Levinsohn after they became members of the McGreevey administration, called it “a fair lease” that gave the non-profits a good value. He said the size and the location of the billboards determine the price, and that the Secaucus billboard generated “an above average” revenue.
Moska also noted that Secaucus officials have control over the content so that no lewd advertising or advertising for alcohol will be displayed on them. While he admitted some sites along the Turnpike generate as much as $80,000 a year, these have more billboard faces and also are directly on Turnpike property.
Former mayoral candidate Frank McCormack has long been a critic of some fundraising activities conducted in the name of charity in Secaucus, and has raised questions before.
Meanwhile, Secaucus officials will move ahead with their plans for the recreation center, setting up a funding package similar to one used to furnish the library. The town has already developed artists’ conceptual drawings for a recreation center to be built at the high school. The estimated cost is about $4 million. The town will use $1.9 million from the sale of Board of Education-owned land to New Jersey Transit. The town is also working out a deal to sell the Nutrition Center on Centre Avenue to the Secaucus Housing Authority for $1 million. Then, to fill in the missing million, the Town Council will be asked to pass a $1 million bond ordinance, similar to one that was passed last year to finance the furnishing of the library.
“We know we cannot use the billboard money to pay off this bond either,” Iacono said.
“But the Secaucus Youth Alliance can pay to put things in the new recreation center, using that money.”
No secret meetings Town officials continue to defend billboard deal as legal
