Letter to Governor Corzine

The following was sent by leaders of NJ's environmental community to Governor Corzine on 8.13.09. To date, his office has yet to respond.

The Honorable Jon S. Corzine

Governor, State of New Jersey

125 W. State Street

Trenton, NJ 08625

Dear Governor Corzine:

We are writing to urge you to aggressively pursue reforms in response to the recent round of corruption scandals and criminal indictments of local and state officials. Reform cannot wait.

As you know, Assemblymen Smith and Van Pelt were allegedly bribed to exert political influence to expedite permits and approvals at the State Departments of Environmental Protection (DEP) and Transportation. The involvement of State agencies in these two indictments raises serious concerns that warrant investigation and corrective action, if only to remedy NJ Ethics Law public “appearance” standards and norms of good government.

We believe that these cases are not isolated, and illustrate a systemic threat to New Jersey’s environment, because the health of our environment is dependent upon faithful execution and effective enforcement of environmental laws.

We are pleased to note that your Executive order # 148 recognizes this link between government integrity, corruption, and environmental permits. EO #148 imposed a moratorium on state permits and approvals under certain circumstances. However, we are disappointed to note that the scope of EO #148 is far too narrow. We believe that it must be applied statewide, and at a minimum to the CAFRA, wetlands, and site remediation programs mentioned in the Smith and Van Pelt complaints.

In furtherance of reforms, we recommend the following steps:

Investigation

We urge you to conduct an independent investigation of the Smith and Van Pelt contact with DEP, including the larger question of the extent, internal controls upon, and effects of political intervention on the integrity of DEP programs. Perhaps the State Commission on Investigation is best suited to this task, pursuant to the following authority

52:9M-4. Investigation of departments or agencies.

At the direction or request of the Legislature by concurrent resolution or of the Governor or of the head of any department, board, bureau, commission, authority or other agency created by the State, or to which the State is a party, the commission shall investigate the management or affairs of any such department, board, bureau, commission, authority or other agency;

New transparency and public disclosure.

Transparency and public disclosure can serve as checks on corrupt practices. A petition for rulemaking to force DEP to disclose all meetings and contact with third parties was filed by Public Employees for Environmental responsibility on July 27, 2009 (attached). This low cost and technologically feasible option is consistent with current ELEC requirements and would go a long way towards restoring public confidence in DEP.

Comprehensive campaign finance and ethics reforms as described in the CleanGreenNJ agenda attached.

Environmental leaders involved with CleanGreenNJ welcome the opportunity to meet with you or your staff to discuss these reforms in detail.

Sincerely,

Dena Mottola Jaborska, Environment New Jersey

Michael Pisauro, New Jersey Environmental Lobby

Dave Pringle, New Jersey Environmental Federation

Joe Reynolds, Bayshore Regional Watershed Council

Jeff Tittel, New Jersey Sierra Club

John Weber, Surfrider Foundation

Bill Wolfe, NJ PEER

Cc:

Ed McBride, Chief of Staff

Michellene Davis, Chief Policy Officer to the Governor

Deborah Howlett, Director of Communications, Office of the Governor

Mark Mauriello, Commissioner, Department of Environmental Protection