PRESS RELEASES

Bogota's Democrat-controlled Council's purchase of two fire trucks shows how the process can be manipulated "when a select manufacturer receives favored treatment virtually from the start," according to a 61-page report issued on September 16, 2008 by the State Commission of Investigation. The Commission called for a major overhaul of fire truck purchasing procedures, using Bogota's 2007 purchase as a prime example of why we need reform.

In January 2007, the Mayor and Council sought bids to buy two fire trucks as authorized by the voters in November 2006. According to the Commission's report, Wisconsin-based Pierce Manufacturing, Inc. had the inside track from the start. A Pierce sales representative, Gregg Cariddi, helped prepare the technical truck specifications working with Bogota's assistant fire chief and truck committee purchase chairman. He and Carriddi were Hackensack firemen. The Borough received only one bid. It was from Pierce, and was just a few dollars under the $800,000 budget. The Council first accepted the bid, over former Mayor Steven Lonegan's objection.

At the next Council meeting it was revealed that, in a private telephone poll, the Council reversed itself. The Borough then advertised for bids again, and received bids from Pierce and Ferrara Fire Apparatus. Ferrara's bid was the lowest by $128,000, but the Council awarded Pierce the contract. The Commission found that the Borough let Cariddi criticize Ferrara's bid, and that his comments "were incorporated by borough attorney Joseph Monaghan into a letter to the mayor and council formally recommending rejection of the Ferrara bid." Pierce assigned Cariddi to the Bogota sale even though Bogota is not in his sales territory. He made a $14,000 commission on the deal.

This was "a lop-sided process that was skewed in favor of Pierce to the exclusion of other manufacturers," according to the Commission.

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The Facts About the 2008 Bogota Property Tax Increase

Bogota property owners who received their 2008 estimated tax bills in July were handed a huge tax increase -- for the second year in a row -- by the Democrat-controlled Borough Mayor and Council that passed the Borough's 2008 final budget at the July 17, 2008 meeting.

A Bogota resident with a home assessed at $230,000 will pay property taxes of $9,269 for 2008, an increase of $690, or 8.04% more than 2007. This follows a $759 or 9.7% increase in 2007 on the 2006 property taxes of $7,820 for a $230,000 home.

The portion of your property tax bill that pays for the Borough's municipal government went up 10%, the school portion went up 7%, and the county portion went up 9.4%, for a total increase of 8.04%.

Don't be fooled by the Democrat double-talk; in both 2007 and 2008 and Democrats had control of the Council. The Democrats gained control of the Bogota Council in June of 2006. In the first two full years of Democrat control, our property taxes have gone up 18.5%, while the consumer price index in this region went up only 3.8% in 2006 and 2.8% in 2007.

The 2008 municipal budget that the Mayor and Council initially approved called for a $1,226,591 tax increase, 26% more than in 2007. In a press release given out at the meeting, the Mayor claims that the final budget reduced a still-massive $557,691 increase by "approximately $670,000." In fact, $643,900 of this "reduction" is made up of state aid that was not included in the original budget, with only $25,000 in spending cuts. Among these cuts, however, is an $8,000 reduction in the amount of the increase in the Borough's legal budget, which in the final budget will go up $12,000 instead of the originally-approved $20,000 increase over the 2007 budget for this spending.

The Borough thus temporarily avoided an even greater tax increase by the partial restoration of regular state aid (still $234,589 less than last year), and an increase in extraordinary aid of $400,000 over last year's $100,000. "Without that extraordinary aid bailout, our taxes would have gone up even more, but the problem with extraordinary aid is that we cannot count on it from year to year, it is only a temporary fix," said Council candidate Andrew Fede.

One of the biggest budget increases is for police salaries. The Mayor and Council awarded a new contract to our police that raises base salaries each year by 4.04% in 2007 and 2008 and 4.30% in 2009 and 2010. The highest paid patrol officer's base salary level in 2008 will rise to $101,764, excluding overtime and other benefits. This year we also are paying $35,000 for the 2007 retroactive increases for 2007 plus about $150,000 for the 2008 raises. The total cost may be understated, however, because the budget calls for $65,000 less than the amount the Borough actually paid for police overtime expenses in 2007, but the Mayor and Council are not adding any new officers in 2008; in fact two are retiring.

The new contract also gives away a provision that the Republicans negotiated to create an incentive for our junior officers to continue their employment with the Borough. The junior officers were to receive regular increases as they moved up the scale until they reached the top pay grade. The annual percentage increases on top of these step increases were to be banked and paid later as an employee retention program. As a result, in 2008 the four least senior officers will receive massive salary increases of between $13,200 to $25,400 each, which, under the Republican-negotiated contract, they would have received in later years only if they remained employed by the Borough.

The Mayor and Council also claim that our Borough debt service increased by $160,000 in 2008, but the actual 2008 payment is $400 less than the 2006 figure. The increase will pay for the debt costs necessary for the two new fire trucks that Bogota's voters approved in 2006. The Borough employee health insurance costs increased by $150,000. The Mayor and Council had the opportunity to shop in the market for better rates, but did not get a better deal. The State-mandated pension contribution increased by $106,000, another tax that the Trenton Democrats passed along to us as a State tax increase that is hidden as a property tax increase. The Borough's legal budget also was increased from $65,000 to $77,000.

Angry residents attending the July 17 Mayor and Council meeting demanded to know what the Mayor and Council was doing to contain costs and raise revenue, and why the Democrats did not keep their promise to stabilize taxes. The Mayor and Council Democrats had no answers, and again and again try to pass the buck and blame the prior Republican administration for these increases. The Democrats even have tried to blame the Republicans for about $50,000 in bills included in this year's budget that they state were not paid in 2006, even though the Democrats had control of the Council at the end 2006 when they say those bills were not paid.

These property tax hikes come instead of the 20% property tax cut promised in 2006 by Democrat Governor Corzine and the Democrat-controlled New Jersey State legislature, and they are in addition to the 16.67% increase in the state's sales tax that we all have been paying since July 2006. Instead of property tax reform, the state legislature and governor's office slashed regular municipal aid to Bogota in 2008 by $234,589, a 21% reduction, when our neighbors saw their aid reduced much less: Hackensack 8.6%, Teaneck 9.1%, Ridgefield Park 10.11%, and Little Ferry 10.94%.

This year's taxes pay for the budgets of the all-Democrat Bergen County Board of Freeholders, Bogota's Democrat-controlled local school board, and Bogota's Democrat-controlled Borough Mayor and Council. "We cannot afford to let the Democrats continue to have control of our state, county, school board, and municipal governments, we need some balance and the return of the two-party system," said Fede. "Our local Democrats need to stop making excuses and remember the words of Harry Truman, who said: 'The buck stops here,'" Fede said.

This tax and spend approach of the Bogota Democrats comes as no surprise to those who remember the years 1988 to 1995, the last time Democrats controlled our borough's government. The Democrats increased municipal spending from $4,154,710 in 1989 to $6,043,000 in 1995, causing our property taxes to skyrocket, while they also increased our Borough's debt. The Democrat mayor during those years was hired this year as the Borough's chief financial officer. The Mayor and Council did agree to not collect their salaries for a part of this year, but this creates only a small savings. It also is not a new idea; the Republicans did this in 1996, over the "no" vote of a Democrat who then was on the Council.

Council candidate Rick Gil de Leon said, "We Republicans are opposed to these property increases at more than the rate of inflation because they hurt senior citizens and others on fixed incomes the most."

In contrast, between 2000 and 2006, under the prior Republican administration, Bogota had the fourth best property tax record out of all Bergen County municipalities, according to The Star Ledger . "If the Bogota United team is elected in November, we pledge to return to the principles embodied in the Taxpayer Protection Ordinance, which was a Bogota Republican innovation adopted in 2002; we will keep Borough spending in line with the rate of inflation, and we will ask the Borough's voters to approve any borrowing that will increase our Borough's current debt levels," Fede and Gil de Leon said.

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2007 Election Wrap-up

By: Andrew T. Fede

On behalf of the entire Bogota United slate, I am writing to thank all of you who voted for some or all of us last November . Anne Marie Mitchell was declared the winner of a seat on the Borough Council.

Anne Marie's victory ensures at least one voice and one vote to balance the one-party domination of our local, county, and state government. In 2008, we have a Borough government with Democrats holding five of six seats on the council and a Democrat mayor; a county government with a Democrat county executive, a Democrat county sheriff, a Democrat county surrogate, and an all-Democrat county freeholder board (only the county clerk is a Republican); and a state government with a Democrat-controlled state legislature and a Democrat governor.

Going door-to-door, I spoke with many unaffiliated voters and Democrats who agreed with me that this one-party rule by the play-to-play champion party is not a good thing. That is one reason why we will be continuing our website. Keep looking here for information that you may not be able to get elsewhere in this one party ruled area.

Remember that you first read about many facts here or in our Bogotians, such the truth about the 9.7% 2007 property tax increase that the Democrats approved and why the property tax rebate checks will provide no relief to Bogotians. We exposed and told you about the secret telephone poll meeting of the Democrat "Open and Honest Government" council, the McHale/Sharp all-expense-paid junket to the Wisconsin factory of the highest bidder to whom they previously awarded the fire truck contract, and (after the junket was uncovered) Pat McHale's misstatements of "fact" that he made about the savings that he "mistakenly" said he got for us on his trip.

We broke the story of the two $5,000 contributions the new Borough attorney and engineer made to the Democrat campaign in October 2007, after they were appointed by the Democrat council in January 2007. The Record apparently refused to expose these excessive contributions or write about this story.

We will be at the Bogota mayor and council meetings and will report here also because we realize that almost half of you voted on Election Day for our Bogota United slate. More important is how we got this support in what was an uphill battle. At the top of the ticket, state senator Loretta Weinberg beat Republican challenger Clara Nibot by a vote of 1057 to 577, a 64.7% to 35.3% landslide. In contrast, Pat McHale beat me by an 886 to 837 margin, a slim 51.4% to 48.6% lead (counting the absentees and provisional ballots).

Therefore, more than 200 of you who voted Democrat switched to vote for me and for my running mates. Our slate won three of the six election districts, and I won in district 5 by a 115 to 86 margin.

We are also encouraged because Bogotians voted "no" to the open space tax rate increase public question that the County Democrat freeholders supported. Bogota's voters rejected this question by an overwhelming 890 to 449 margin (66.5% to 33.5%). We urged you to reject this question because this tax rate increase would have directly increased your property tax bills in 2008.

We were the only candidates who wrote and talked about this vital issue. Our Democrat opponents could not oppose the tax increase because their own Democrat freeholders wanted you to double the county's open space tax to provide more of your tax money for the play-to-play kings to spend.

Although we lost the battle of Bogota this year many Bogotians agree with our positive message of unity and our platform in favor of smaller government, lower taxes, and individual freedom instead of government over regulation, and against political party boss rule. We told you that New Jersey is ranked among the top states in taxation and among the bottom in business friendly atmosphere. This poisonous combination explains why residents and businesses are moving out of our state, and, even worse, why recent polls show that almost half of New Jersey's residents plan to leave our state in the future. This exodus of people and productivity means fewer jobs, less tax revenue for government on all levels, and higher taxes for those of us who want to or have to stay here in New Jersey.

We once more say that it is time for more of us to start voting with our heads and not our feet or our emotions. We believe that many Bogotians voted with their emotions this year and last year and not with their brains. We again ask you to read up on and think about the issues; do not be fooled by mere accusations and lies that are not backed up with facts.

If you believe in some or all of these ideas keep reading this site. Please send us an e-mail here if you agree with our philosophy and if you want to join with the Bogota United Republicans, or if you just want fiscal responsibility and some checks and balances on the one-party domination of our state, county, and local government.

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Bogota Democrat Campaign Takes Excessive Contributions and Distorts the Truth

BOGOTA --Bogota Republican Mayoral candidate Andrew Fede has sharply criticized the municipality's Democrat election ticket after learning that the campaign accepted two donations of $5,000 each from two vendors to the borough of Bogota.

"In a routine check of our opponents' legally required financial filings with the State Election Law Enforcement Commission, we discovered two contributions totaling $10,000 from two vendors who provide professional services to the Borough of Bogota," Mayoral Candidate Fede said. "We have never before seen contributions anywhere near as large as these in Bogota," Fede added.

The limit for contributions from individuals or corporations is $2,600 per election per candidate.

The contributions are from the engineering firm T&M Associates of Red Bank, New Jersey, the Borough Engineer, which has been linked to the pay-for-play policies of Bergen Democrat Party boss Joe Ferriero in the past, and Hackensack attorney Joseph G. Monaghan, the Borough Attorney. Both contributed $5,000 on October 4, 2007. Both were hired by the Bogota Democrats in January 2007 after they took control of the Borough Council.

The engineering firm of T&M recently was dubbed the State's pay-for-play king by newspapers and concerned public officials who discovered that the Red Bank firm contributed more than $600,000 to statewide elections campaigns.

At the same time, the two contributions, which were reported on October 6 , 2007, also triggered the requirement for a complete R-1 report; a very detailed report required by the State of New Jersey, which would have been due on October 26, 2007. This report does not appear on the Election Law Enforcement Commission's website.

Patricia McHale, the wife of the Democrat candidate for mayor, is the campaign chair and Fred Pesce, the husband of a council candidate is the campaign's treasurer.

"It is an outrage that both the engineering company and the lawyer hired by the Democrat majority to represent the borough are flagrantly making these excessive contributions," Fede charged.

"Outrageous contributions often increase the fees charged by vendors so they can recoup the money used to finance the campaigns of the politicians who hire them. The Bogota residents cannot be assured that the council members who owe their positions to the huge contributions of vendors will always act on their behalf or in their interests," he added.

These are the same people who have falsely accused me of running for mayor so I could hire my own law firm to represent the borough if I am elected mayor," Fede said, adding that the suggestion is absurd because he could not ethically or legally hire his own firm to represent the borough. "It would be a conflict of interest, and I simply would not do it or even think of doing it," he said.

In another lie, the Democrat election ticket accused Council candidate Daniele Fede of diverting money from the environmental commission, which she chairs, to the Borough Quarterly newsletter. "Even if I knew what they were talking about," she said, "as a commission chairman I do not have the power to divert funds from my single line item budget. That power rests with the Mayor and Council. I see nothing wrong, however, with transferring the funds to the Borough's major information publication as public outreach because this is the best means for educating the residents on environmental issues. Our approved community forestry plan calls for the use of the Quarterly as our preferred method of public outreach," she added.

Both candidates pointed out that the Democrat election ticket is desperate and is stooping to the lowest tactics possible in order to try to win on Election Day. "They want to win and they are taking large amounts of funds from their employees and vendors to try to secure that victory. They may be winners on Tuesday, along with the vendors, but the big losers will be the people of Bogota and their wallets," they said.

Why You Can Be in Favor of Open Space Preservation

and Against the Open Space Tax Increase

By Andrew T. Fede*

     While I am in favor of preserving open space in Bergen County, I am opposed to the freeholders' latest proposal to double the county's open space tax rate because the increase simply is unnecessary. This tax has a built in inflation adjustment that increases the open space tax assessments each year when property values are increasing. ( County will ask voters to double open space tax , The Record , August 9, 2007, and Some towns taxed double for open space , The Record , August 19, 2007).

     For example, this inflation factor has increased Bogota's assessment by almost 50% since 2004. Because property values have increased in most Bergen County towns during the last few years, the open space tax assessment has increased at this or similar rates throughout the County.

It was only in 2003 that the freeholders last asked Bergen County voters to approve a ballot question doubling this tax's rate from ½ cent to 1 cent per $100 in equalized property values. The year after the voters approved that question Bogota's assessment for this tax was $59,159. According to the tax bill I recently received, my town's assessment rose to $87,816 in 2007.

If the ballot question calling for the doubling of the rate passes, Bogota's assessment will rise to over $175,000 in 2008, a 300% increase since 2004. To put this in perspective, in 1999 Bogota's assessment for this tax was only $17,079; if we voters approve the latest proposed rate increase, Bogota's assessment for the open space tax would be ten times more than it was just nine years before.

     It is time for the voters to stand up and say "enough is enough." The open space tax has been going up each year because it applies to equalized property values, not assessed values. Therefore, the main reason advanced for the tax rate increase - "increased property values mean the county needs more money to make credible offers for land acquisition" - is nonsense.

We have heard a lot of talk from our county politicians in Hackensack and the state leaders in Trenton over that past two years about real property tax reform, while we all are paying a 16.67% state sales tax increase. Bergen County voters need to send what would appear to be an all-too-obvious message: The best way to start lowering property taxes is to stop finding new ways to increase property taxes.

I believe that a "no" vote on the latest proposed open space tax rate ballot question increase will send that message. The very worthy cause of open space preservation will also be served; the county's open space tax will continue to raise more money each year when property values go up.

* The author is a lawyer practicing in Hackensack and is the Republican candidate for mayor in Bogota.