EnCRAP: Weinberg ignores running mate’s connection to scandal ridden project in calling for reforms, while Hipp gets elbowed by Ortiz to deal with Trump.
The EnCap project started as a program to remediate and cap a garbage dump in the Meadowlands. There needs to be a second phase added to the project: Capping the political BS emanating from the failed project.
Recently, Republican Rutherford Mayor John Hipp and Democrat North Arlington Mayor Pete Massa held a joint press conference to attack EnCap (they both campaigned against it to win office), during which it was reported that they refused to invite Republican turned Democrat Lyndhurst Mayor Philip DiLascio because he had the audacity to meet with Donald Trump to make sure his town got recreational fields finished as promised under past agreements.
Fast forward a week or two later. Hipp’s lips say “NO!”, but he swears to Ortiz that he really means “yes…”
THE BOSS SWEARS IN HIS MAYOR: Hipp was sworn into office by Republican GOP Chairman Rob Ortiz in January.
On March 9th, Charlie Stile at The Record revealed that Hipp too will meet with The Donald. Why? Well, Republican County Chairman Rob Ortiz “interceded” on behalf of Trump. But that still doesn't explain why Hipp must do what his Party Boss asked.
From Stile’s column:
“Take the ornery Rutherford Mayor John Hipp, for example. He has reluctantly agreed to meet Trump and his people, after ignoring more than a half-dozen phone messages from Trump lawyer Michael Cohen and a half-dozen from The Donald himself.
“Hipp, who agreed after Bergen County Republican Chairman Robert Ortiz interceded as a volunteer Trump emissary, plans to "politely listen'' but will make no promises.”
In all of this, it can’t be ignored that Rob Ortiz is both a professional lobbyist (is he working for Trump?) and the BCRO Chairman, a role in which he is hosting a major Bergen County Republican Party fundraiser at Trump’s plush golf resort in Bedminster, New Jersey.
Why did Ortiz “volunteer” to push Hipp to meet with Trump? Is Ortiz paying market rates for that fundraiser at Trump’s club? Opponents in the GOP are asking for full disclosure, including invoices.
And along that vein, yesterday Senator Loretta Weinberg joined in asking for openness on EnCap too. She wants to overhaul the state’s thirty year old Sunshine Law so the people can really know what happened with their public funds to prevent an EnCap mess in the future.
Weinberg’s Democratic detractors say Weinberg should start by asking her running mate Valerie Huttle for full disclosure. Assemblywoman Huttle’s husband is a partner in the law firm that structured the entire EnCap deal and arranged most of the state’s now very questionable funding. Some also want to know if Weinberg ever talked to an attorney from Huttle’s law firm about EnCap before she voted for the deal’s financing. She supported it. Shouldn’t Weinberg have been looking for the kind of public disclosure she now advocates before the s**t hit the fan?
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