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: Is this the capital of corruption?

: Hudson County is trying to buck a long trend.

: Philadelphia Inquirer
: 08/04/04

: By Robert Moran
: Inquirer Trenton Bureau

: WEST NEW YORK, N.J. - Hudson County has a booming waterfront, a vibrant immigrant community, and a spectacular view of the Manhattan skyline from the palisade overlooking the Hudson River.

: Hudson County also has a problem with misbehaving public servants.

: Of 55 significant corruption cases pursued by federal prosecutors in New Jersey during the last three years, 17 - nearly one-third - originated in Hudson County, according to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Newark.

: Now being deliberated by a federal jury is the fraud and extortion case of Rene Abreu, a former fund-raiser for West New York Mayor Albio Sires, who is also speaker of the state Assembly. Sires has not been charged.

: The case emerged from a massive police-corruption scandal that exploded in West New York in the late 1990s and that prosecutors consider the worst in New Jersey's history.

: "It's almost expected that our public officials will be corrupt," said Richard Rivera, a former police officer who blew the whistle on corrupt officers in West New York.

: In the most densely populated state, Hudson County is the rock-solid core, with more than 13,000 people per square mile.

: And in a state notorious for corruption, Hudson is the most notorious county.

: There have been two guilty pleas this summer related to the case of former County Executive Robert C. Janiszewski, who pleaded guilty in late 2002 to accepting bribes. A county freeholder also was sent to prison in the case.

: In an unrelated case, Freeholder William C. Braker pleaded guilty in June to a charge of attempted extortion by an official. He had been accused of demanding cash and V1agra from a county vendor.

: On June 14, a contractor was sentenced to prison for his role in a corruption case involving several top officials in North Bergen, including the township administrator, who was also sent to prison.

: A former mayor of Guttenberg pleaded guilty last year to a tax charge involving his personal use of campaign funds. The trial of a former mayor of Hoboken charged with bribery is set for September.

: So what is it about Hudson County that breeds so much official wrongdoing?

: U.S. Attorney Christopher J. Christie said he believes the county suffers from a "culture of corruption" that has roots going back decades.

: "It almost has become part of the institutions, no matter who the individual players are," he said.

: "They watch everyone else take bribes and illegal campaign contributions, and when they finally graduate into positions of power, they believe it's just their turn - their turn to cash in," Christie said.

: That culture was personified by "Boss" Frank Hague, mayor of Jersey City from 1917 to 1947 and head of a Democratic political machine that dominated New Jersey politics.

: Hague reportedly never made more than $8,000 a year as mayor, but he died leaving an estate worth millions.

: David Rebovich, a political analyst at Rider University in Lawrenceville, suggested that one-party rule had encouraged ethical abuses.

: "The odds of corruption occurring seem to increase when you have one-party rule for a long time," he said. "The Democrats have ruled Hudson County forever."

: Republican Bret Schundler bucked the trend when he became mayor of Jersey City in 1992 after the previous elected mayor, Democrat Gerald McCann, was sent to prison after being convicted of fraud charges.

: "What leads to the corruption is you have unaccountable power," said Schundler, who was mayor until 2001, when he unsuccessfully ran for governor. "The lack of accountability that produces corruption remains."

: The Democrats are still in charge, and they disagree that their overwhelming control of the county is the problem.

: State Sen. Bernard F. Kenny Jr., chair of the county Democrats, said most public officials in Hudson County were honorable public servants. What corruption there has been, he said, was the result of "poor choices by a few individuals in power."

: But after several years of relentlessly humiliating publicity about the corruption cases, Democrats are trying to clean house.

: Janiszewski's replacement, Thomas A. DeGise, campaigned for ethics changes and has implemented several, including ethics training for county officials.

: As part of the training, the officials - mainly managers and lawyers - were encouraged to vent about "what it was like to be made fun of when you told people you worked for Hudson County," county spokesman Jim Kennelly said.

: As for regaining public trust, Kennelly acknowledged that there were no quick fixes.

: "The way you do it is to build a record over time," he said.

: When all the criminal cases wind down, he said, "the onus will be on us to do the right thing."

: Meanwhile, a federal jury is deliberating the Abreu case.

: The West New York police scandal involved officers accused of taking payoffs to protect gambling and prostitution operations. More than two dozen officers and residents, including the police chief, were convicted or pleaded guilty.

: The chief, Alexander Oriente, testified in court that he had routinely collected payoffs from organized crime.

: He also testified that he had paid $2,000 a week from the payoff money to Abreu, a confidant of and fund-raiser for Sires, who was elected mayor in 1995. Oriente testified that he believed some of the money was intended for Sires.

: Sires and Abreu have repeatedly denied the allegation. Sires, through a spokesman, declined to discuss the case.

: Rivera, the former officer who tipped off federal authorities a decade ago, is watching the trial closely. He now spends his days as a political agitator and muckraker in West New York.

: Rivera ran for sheriff this year and got crushed - 31,520 to 6,240 - in the primary by the incumbent, Joseph Cassidy, who was backed by the county Democrats.

: But Rivera is not giving up.

: Ten years after he made a fateful decision to expose corruption, he said, "I'm not finished. My work's not done."


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