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Posted by Manolo on April 15, 2003 at 05:35:06:
O'DEA BLASTS HCIA DISCLOSURE Urban Times News
April 11-April 17, 2003 By UTN Staff Jersey City-Freeholder Bill O'Dea
repeated his demands for full disclosure
from Hudson County Improvement
Authority officials whom he has accused of
fraud after they delivered information that
failed to address the questions that he
raised. O'Dea demanded an accounting
from the HCIA of the use of proceeds of
numerous issues of municipals bonds that
were earmarked for the construction of an
incinerator at the County-owned Koppers'
site in Kearny. Hundreds of millions of dol-
lars were raised by the sale of 26 issues of
bonds since 1988 and the money is gone
except for a cash balance of $26Million,
according to the HCIA. "We are talking
about real money here. Where did it go?
What was it used for? We did not build an
incinerator. We did not build a hospital.
And we have $373 Million in outstanding
bonds. We are talking about one-third of a
Billion Dollars and I want answers," said
O'Dea.
O'Dea said that the materials
delivered by the HCIA in response to his
request were informative but raised more
questions than they answered. "Is this
another attempt tc mislead?" O'Dea asked.
"These are great answers, but they should
have saved them until I asked these particu-
lar questions. This is a non-answer, com-
pletely unresponsive to the issue." The
materials delivered include a memo listing
some issues of bonds by the HCIA but do
not explain what happened to the money the
HCIA received from the sale of those
bonds. "The Iraqis delivered a 12,000 page
memo weighing more than 100 pounds
before the war started when they were
asked to make a complete disclosure of all
their Weapons of Mass Destruction. The
HCIA has delivered a package of about 10
pounds of documents that are just the same
old stuff rehashed and repackaged and say
nothing about what was asked of them,"
said O'Dea. "It explains nothing about what
was done with the money. That was what I
wanted to know and that is what I still want
to know. Where did the money go?"
"I also asked to the see the projec-
tions of revenues and the projections of
expenses that prompted HCIA to represent
to this Freeholder board that future rate
increases would be in the range of 3 to 3.5
percent. Then we get hit with 16 per cent. I
asked to see those projections and the pres-
entation made to this Freeholder board at
the time those representations were made. I
believe they may have been misleading and
I want to know if were misled. I want to
know if we were hustled and conned. It is
that simple. They have sent us 10 pounds of
documents that detail the history of garbage
through the ages, everything but an
answer."
O'Dea said that he was concerned
by the extent of the County's obligation for
the repayment of the outstanding bonds and
to what extent they County guaranteed the
repayment. It was O'Dea's understanding
that the payment by the County to the
Hudson County Improvement Authority of
$33 Million was the extent of the County's
loan guarantee of the HCIA debt associated
with the HCIA's incinerator project at the
Koppers' site. But O'Dea added that it
would take legal analysis to determine the
full extent of the County's obligation for the
HCIA's debt in total. The agency's revenues
are almost entirely dependent on the solid
waste disposal run by the HCIA for the
municipalities of the County. There have
been numerous allegations of irregularities
and abuse. Former Freeholder and current-
ly an Assembly candidate in the 31st
District, Louis Manzo has been a long time
critic.
"These guys signed a put-or-pay
agreement with a landfill in Pennsylvania
that required them to pay an annual mini-
mum whether they dumped garbage there
or not. For at least five years that I know of
they dumped elsewhere and paid tipping
fees at other sites and also paid tippin*es
at the Pennsylvania site because they were
obligated by the contract. They paid twice
to get rid of the same trash. That is where a
lot of money went. I saw this coming years
ago, and I said this years ago, that this
would be a runaway train z
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