HUDSON COUNTY — The New York Daily News reports today that Gov. Christopher Christie has pledged to close a loophole that had allowed politicians who have held more than one taxpayer-funded job since before 2008 to keep all of those jobs.
Former Gov. Jon Corzine had signed a bill cutting down on multiple office-holding, but the pols who already had two or more jobs were grandfathered in.
The Daily News reports that Christie is going to try to un-grandfathered them, and it makes a particular example out of North Bergen Mayor/State Sen. Nicholas Sacco, who besides those two part-time offices, also works full-time as the assistant superintendent of schools for the district. Until the last few years, Sacco also earned thousands of dollars each year by performing weddings in his town on weekends.
The News writes:
North Bergen Mayor Nicholas Sacco is also a state senator and the district’s assistant superintendent of schools.
Critics say Sacco’s three public offices give him way too much power, and one place that shows up is the county’s vocational school network, the Hudson County Schools of Technology (HCST).
They allege HCST’s two campuses in North Bergen and Jersey City — which house four high schools and vocational and alternative-education programs for children and adults — are a dumping ground for his political cronies.
“Nick Sacco runs that,” said Hoboken labor lawyer and political activist Bob DuVal, referring to HCST…
Although former NJ Gov. Jon Corzine signed a bill making it illegal to hold dual elective offices, Sacco, mayor since 1991 and state senator since 1994, was grandfathered in, along with about 40 other multiple-office holders elected before February 2008 — a loophole new Gov. Chris Christie has pledged to close.
The story lists other dual-job holders and includes a photo of Jersey City activist Yvonne Balcer as wellas DuVal.
Should Christie force those with two or three offices out of those offices? What do you think?