AN INSIDE BERGEN EXCLUSIVE – Most agree Frank Huttle III practices Pay-to-Play the good old fashioned way, but on that Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle has had nothing to say. Huttle’s husband, Frank, is a partner in DeCottis, FitzPatrick, Cole & Wisler, LLP, a law firm that is the model for Pay-to-Play in New Jersey.

It was well reported in The Record that Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle’s husband’s law firm billed $12,022,290.25 on government contracts in New Jersey in 2006. They won many of those contracts as Frank Huttle III’s firm donated over $190,000 to various campaigns throughout the state.

But what wasn’t reported was that although Valerie Huttle carved out a public relations image to win a District 37 Assembly seat as a “reformer” against the Ferriero machine in 2005, her husband Frank and his partners at DeCottis went on to donate $14,569 to Ferriero’s county campaign in 2006 to get Ferriero’s Pay-to-Play team re-elected in county government. (See pages 64, 68, 72, 75, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 89, 91, 92, 94, 97, 99, 100, 102, 104, 105, 106, and 107 of The Business Entity Annual Statement the DeCottis firm filed with NJ ELEC on September 28, 2007.)

It gets worse.  Starting in January of 2001 through December of 2006, Valerie Huttle was also a Freeholder herself (her last campaign was in 2003, so no, that fourteen thousand donated by DeCottis in 2006 wasn’t to help her).  Perhaps it was for this: during that time, the same report shows that the DeCottis firm flourished with a county legal billings of $56,000 and another $193,550 in legal bills at Bergen Community College.  (See pages 2 and 49 of the same report.)

Funny, none of us here remember “reformer” Valerie Huttle saying a thing about her husband practicing Pay-to-Play under that scenario, or even just the plain old conflict of interest of him making so much money off a government she was elected to oversee.

The report also shows Frank Huttle III’s firm billed a fortune off municipal governments in Bergen County while Valerie served as a County Freeholder and Freeholder Director:

On Page 11:                 $48,535.98 off of River Vale

On Page 12:                 $160,086.10 off of Teaneck

On Page 21:                 $136,743.50 off of Edgewater

On Page 21:                 $113,992.96 off of the Edgewater Utilities Authority

On Page 22:                 $5,977 off of Englewood Cliffs

On Page 41:                 $543,982.86 of off Fort Lee

On Page 42:                 $3,105 off of the Fort Lee Parking Authority

On Page 42:                 $2,385 off of the Fort Lee Board of Education

On Page 43:                 $1,653.50 off of the Englewood Housing Authority

On Page 44:                 $12,513 off of the City of Englewood

On Page 44:                 $25,995 off of Cliffside Park

On Page 50:                 $748.49 off of Alpine

On Page 51:                 $8,402.98 off of the City of Garfield

On Page 52:                 $2,289.60 off of Rochelle Park

On Page 54:                 $1,645 off of the Fairview

On Page 54:                 $7,425 off of the Fort Lee Library

On Page 60:                 $1,194 off of Wallington

On Page 60:                 $108 off of Tenafly

HUTTLE’S FIRM’S TOTAL BERGEN MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENT BILLINGS: $1,076,782.80

HUTTLE’S FIRM’S TOTAL BERGEN COUNTY GOVERNMENT BILLINGS (While Valerie was a Freeholder) $249,552.00

HUTTLE’S FIRM’S TOTAL MUNICIPAL/COUNTY GOVERNMENT BILLINGS IN BERGEN (While Valerie was a Freeholder) $1,326,334.80

HUTTLE’S FIRM’S TOTAL GOVERNMENT BILLINGS IN NEW JERSEY (While Valerie was a Freeholder or Assemblyoman) $12,022,290.25

HUTTLE AND HIS FIRM’S 2006 CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE BCDO COUNTY CANDIDATES $14,569.00

Did it help the DeCottis firm win contracts with Bergen County government and Bergen County municipalities because Frank Huttle III's wife served as a Freeholder with influence? 

Many are suggesting that Assemblywoman Valerie Huttle should have something more to say about this inherent conflictit as it pertains to her current plan to “Clean p New Jersey.” As with everyone we write about, we invite Valerie Huttle to submit her position on what many say is a great deal of inconsistency on her part. We will publish it word-for-word.

We can be reached at insidebergen@hotmail.com