Loretta Weinberg has had it with the Christie administration's delaying tactics.
Weinberg - prime Senate sponsor of legislation to restore $7.5 million in state funding to women's health and family planning programs - has filed 3 Open Public Records Act (OPRA) requests with State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristof, looking for information behind the Christie administration's objections to budget-neutral funding source identified in her bill (S-2139). Weinberg:
If the Treasurer can't bring himself to work with us to identify funding solutions for critical women's health programs, than we'll use the tools at our disposal to access public information and hopefully dispel the myth that our funding source doesn't work.
State funding was cut from the budget by the governor. An alternative revenue-neutral source suggested by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services (OLS), taps surplus funds in the State Employee Prescription Drug Program. The funding would provide greater access by women and men to basic health services including cancer and high blood pressure screenings, HIV testing, pre- and post-natal care, treatment for sexually-transmitted disease, and contraception. Abortions are off that list; the funding does not cover their payment.
Weinberg's right to get to the bottom of the Christie administration's truculence. If Sidamon-Eristoff has reason to dispute the alternative funding source, he should be able to provide those reasons beyond the vague and unspecific short letter he provided to Weinberg (the Treasurer skipped a request to answer questions publicly before the Senate Health Committee, which Weinberg chairs).
What Weinberg is looking for, if the funding source is faulty as they say it is, is cooperation from the administration to work with her and Asw Linda Stender - the go-to in the Assembly - to replace that funding with a better solution. The OPRA requests, she says, are the administration's opportunity to either produce documentation for their objections or admit Christie's real opposition is driven by "his out of touch, far-right political ideology."
This is posted here under my name, but I didn't write it - Loretta Weinberg did. I'm posting this for her, as her west coast family is visiting. Loretta's Op-Ed was posted last week at The Daily Record, and it's posted here with Fred Snowflack's permission, and Loretta's. - REE
'Let the people decide." It sounds populist and popular, and to the proponents of initiative and referendum - I&R - it's all they have to say to gin-up their supporters.
But before New Jersey rushes headlong into accepting I&R as the ultimate savior for the state's ills, we need to take a big step back and look at what, exactly, is before us.
The faults of the legislative process are that it's slow, deliberate and boring. But it is a process, and that's a good thing. Making good policy requires conversation, careful analysis and care. Most importantly, good policy is independent of rank politics.
But I&R makes every issue inherently political. Under I&R, every issue that can be put on a ballot-no matter how innocuous- would become the focus of an organized political campaign. Gone would be hearing process, replaced by sound bites that fit on a bumper sticker. Major state issues deserve better than competing 8-by-10 glossy mailers bankrolled by special interests.
What I want to know is why the New Jersey Democrats could spare 10 lawmakers for a Summit in Atlantic City, to spend one entire day chattering about gambling, horses and tourists. And let Loretta Weinberg and Linda Stender walk into a room by themselves to be ambushed by GOP staffers one-upping them with news that women's health funding just lost all key GOP support.
What about this confuses you Democrats, in terms of priority?
Does nobody in the Democratic Party get the disastrous optics of this? All that Dem firepower all day long to rescue gambling industries that on their best day are fun places to spend leisure money and on their worst are a regressive tax on poor saps we tempt into risking their mortgage money while distracting them with half-dressed women, colored lights and booze? While what's at stake for the women of New Jersey is maintaining access to health care for at least 40,000 women? That is necessity, not leisure. Are you kidding me?
Tell me all you want that the AC Summit was about jobs. Union jobs. Good.
Shut the GOP out of your summit because Christie's Hanson Commission was hand-picked and secretive. Whatev.
Suit up to fight off a Christie takeover AC plan that's GOP incursion on your Democratic-controlled city. If you must.
But you did not look good doing this. You let the conversation in the papers be about your decision to shut out the GOP. No less outrageous than the governor's choices, but way more public, and thus more publicly petty. Particularly when you start trotting out old turf wars North v. South, which was some time after the bugler dressed in a red costume get-up opened the summit like he was blowing the start of some race. Do you feel me here?
Legislating with the Governor from Hell must be demoralizing and frustrating. But it's time to get your act together. And leaving two women legislators hanging in the wind to advocate for the most at-risk members of half your citizenry is not it.
I don't know if the Dems have the legislative strength to overcome this veto, now that Christie pulled the leash on GOP senators Diane Allen, Kip Bateman, Andrew Ciesla, Christopher Connors, Sean Kean & Robert Singer, and stopped them thinking for themselves. Is this override just a sinking ship you don't wanna be on? If so, think again. You want to be Democrats, you're going to have to show up for women, and for people at risk. You're not going to do that, you'll have to call yourself something else.
Because the GOP's dominated by the Christies and the Jay Webbers, for whom Roe v. Wade isn't settled law, it's law they don't feel like recognizing. Access to birth control and the prevention of unplanned pregnancy isn't access to health care for them, it's an excuse to inflict their opinions about morality on the rest of us on women, never risking their own lives. Forget pap smears, breast cancer screenings - that's not even on their radar.
We see you Dems who came out for women. Thank you. But, Democrats, for most of you - Your house is burning, and you left your women inside while you went to the track. Get straight.
Blue Jersey made history in 2007 as the first Blog in America to send one of its own to cover the State House beat. Those were heady, innovative times for the Liberal Blog-o-sphere and our relevance and access seemed without peer.
And then we lost the Governor's mansion and it was a whole new ballgame. So we're back in Trenton. And judging from Democratic leadership's performance thus far, this move is way over due.
The two point people working to override Gov. Christie's veto on women's health care funding say they're not done fighting - and won't give up in the face of some Republicans peeling off to back their party's governor. Loretta Weinberg:
We will continue to appeal to lawmakers of good conscience on both sides of the political divide, because failure on this override would be a catastrophe of epic proportions for health care in NJ.
Yesterday, as Weinberg and Stender were about to start a news conference, Senate GOP staffers came in to distribute a release announcing that 6 of the 7 Republicans who backed the funding when the bill came up in June would now vote against the override (the 7th, Sen. Jennifer Beck, is out of the country). Weinberg & Stender say there's strong-arming going on by GOP leaders ideologically opposed to funding women's health care (scroll for it). And those 6 are their first mission.
Linda Stender:
For our part, this battle's not over until the vote is taken, and legislators are called on to either stand with us, or against uninsured women in NJ.
Both continue to ask Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff's for an explanation of the reasons he opposes their bill, and believe the flip-flops partly traceable to him. They cite a letter he released yesterday citing unspecific and vague actuarial concerns for the State employee prescription drug program - more than 1 month after the legislature voted.
That's relevant because the suggestion of how to generate funding - using surplus funds in the prescription drug program - was actually suggested by the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services. And the Treasurer's 3-paragraph letter never addressed that, or much else. (Actually, failure to fund would cost us money).
As promised earlier, here is the video of Senator Loretta Weinberg and Linda Stender at their news conference this morning, talking about the "tough uphill battle" for bi-partisan support in the legislature to override Gov. Christie's veto of $7.5 million funding for women's health care at family planning centers.
There's some levity at the governor's expense. Then, the serious businesss, calling out the Republican governor wrapping his own ideology inside a hypocritical, and faked, excuse that New Jersey can't afford not to cut tens of thousands of New Jersey women loose, and exercising party discipline at the expense of good policy.
Late this morning, Loretta Weinberg and Linda Stender stepped up to a microphone and launched an effort to generate enough support from responsible legislators of conscience - of both parties - to override the veto of Governor Chris Christie. A letter from them both (posted after the jump) went to every legislator in both houses today.
We should have video later today - I'll post when I get it. There was apparently a little satire prologue.
As this effort gets off the ground, Chris Christie is pulling in GOP senators who previously supported restoring the state's funding to women's health care centers. A simple, cold demonstration of party unity. Six senators - Diane Allen (a particular disappointment), Christopher "Kip" Bateman, Andrew Ciesla, Christopher Connors, Sean Kean and Robert Singer - all now say they would reverse their yes votes in an override because state Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff convinced them that the money Democrats had earmarked to pay for the restoration would put the state's prescription drug program in a $5.6 million deficit. And by the way, the Treasurer, who skipped a request to appear in public before the Senate Health Committee has never told the legislators why he differs with the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services, who suggested the $7.5 could be generated by taking surplus cash from the state employee prescription account.
At stake is the health of more than 136,000 Jersey Girls - the number served last year by family planning centers whose funding is now in doubt. Many of those women have had nowhere else to go.
Also at stake, the number of abortions NJ's likely to see next year if Christie's veto holds. The legislators cite research from the Guttmacher Institute demonstrating that without family planning funding to support contraceptives, NJ will actually see an increase in abortions due to an explosion in unplanned pregnancies. Legislators who claim the pro-life mantle should think hard. Last year, these centers helped prevent 40,000 pregnancies, 19,000 abortions.
At stake, too, is access to services that include not only birth control and routine gynecological exams but also prenatal care, screenings for high blood pressure, anemia, diabetes, sexually transmitted infections, and breast and cervical cancer, and critical education & outreach to people who need it.
Money's also at stake, but it's not Christie says. By providing publicly-funded contraceptive services, NJ saved $156M in state & federal Medicaid dollars in 2008, the legislators say, money NJ would have had to spend on pre- and post-natal care, delivery and infant care. NJ would save an estimated $4 for every $1 spent, by allocating $7.5 million, or 1/10th of 1% of the total budget. Weinberg and Stender also said they would require the state to apply for 90% match in federal dollars - funding we are eligible for right now - which would save an additional $90M over the next 5 years. Weinberg/Stender letter after the jump.
The Governor still hasn't either vetoed or signed into law funding for Women's health services. This past money, the Senate Health and Senior Services Committee held a hearing to discuss the situation. Here's a video put out by the Senate Democrats following the hearing:So the Governor said the only problem was a budget problem and funding source, but the Treasurer or someone from the Department of Treasury couldn't find time during the 3 hour hearing to question the funding source. If it's not the money and the treasurer can't be bothered, then what's this all really about?
.....to talk about Family Planning Centers, their funding and women's access to health care. Assemblywoman Linda Stender and I met with Governor Christie and Lt Governor Guadagno for an hour this afternoon. It was a seemingly amiable and respectful exchange. Mr. Christie was interested in the statistics we gave him outlining the number and kinds of services provided at these centers. He did say that the Treasurer questioned the funding source we have in the bill, so we supplied him with the OLS analysis which confirmed our figures. No promises were made, but he did say we would have an answer sooner, rather than later. Both Assemblywoman Stender and I assured him that we would prefer taking this issue off his plate while giving back to uninsured women this important access for themselves and their families. However, though we thanked him for his courtesy during the meeting, we also made it clear that this is not an issue which can be easily dismissed. Women's access to health care is a priority and will continue to be!This funding must berestored.
Promoted by Rosi. Proud of her feminist friend, Jay. And the Senator from Teaneck.
It's nice to see the Senate Democratic leadership so supportive of this issue but it's really lame that Gov. Christie is still so intransigent on women's health and family planning. So we paid him a visit. Again.
Updated 3:25pm: Sen. Weinberg says via email the legislature is meeting Thursday - to discuss the agreement the legislative leaders made with the governor.
Updated 2:56pm: Here's what we're hearing now: Deal reached. Sweeney and Gov. to have press conference at 3:30 p.m. Today
Updated 2:09: From State House Steps tweet: "Because Speaker Oliver is not on board with plan, press conference has been moved to 2:30 pm at the earliest."
Despite rumblings coming out of Trenton by tweet, by hurried phone call and most definitely by rumor, we're unsure that all the players are on the same page right now.
We hear there's a press conference at 2pm, 8 minutes from when I'm writing this, in Gov. Christie's office announcing a deal reached on whether we'll have a statewide property tax cap, and if so at what level and how structured. But we're also getting messages every few minutes from the spokesman for the Assembly Democratic majority office distancing Speaker Sheila Oliver and the Assembly from such a deal.
Spokesman Tom Hester's latest message:
The Speaker has not been part of any closed door deal. As the Speaker has said repeatedly, we will thoroughly vet any proposal. The Assembly Budget Committee will meet on Wednesday to consider proposed legislation that represents the Assembly plan.
Our friends at politickernj.com have put together a list of 2010 NJ Budget Winners & Losers. The list excoriates Cory Booker (Fastest Change from "Too Early to Tell" to "Budget Loser" Award) and the entire NJ Assembly (Worst Use of the Legislative Process), and makes fun of Chris Christie's presidential aspirations. There's plenty more where that came from, some of it infuriating, and some amusing.
But here's the first item, and we couldn't agree more with politickernj:
1. Best Use of the Legislative Process Award:
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg
Last seen sinking with the Viking funeral pyre of Jon Corzine, state Sen. (and former Lieutenant Gov. candidate) Loretta Weinberg (D-Teaneck) rebounded from last year's statewide loss with vigor during the budget session. When Gov. Chris Christie chopped family planning out of the budget, Weinberg proved why she is one of the state's most resourceful and effective lawmakers. Not only did she put the women's caucus to work and mobilize Republican senators Diane Allen and Jennifer Beck in support of a bill that would restore the $7.5 million allocation, she even tapped the hardened hearts of several male Republicans to land the required two/thirds majority to effect an override. A version of Weinberg's bill simultaneously passed in the assembly, shepherded by Assemblywoman Linda Stender (D-Fanwood) but is not veto-proof. Weinberg identified her issue and applied every legislative tool at her disposal to drive it forward.
Hope you all had a Happy Father's Day, and enjoyed some family time. I started the day by attending the kick-off of a new Muslim effort to end hunger in our larger community. It was a well attended gathering at the Glenpointe Hotel in Teaneck where money was raised to purchase and outfit a building in Newark for a soup kitchen. Beside feeding the hungry, this new social service group will help to foster outreach to victims of domestic violence. Congratulations and best wishes for this new endeavor. Gave me a chance to renew acquaintance with the good women of WAFA House who are working to start a residence for Muslim women who might be victims of domestic violence. I'll be meeting with them next month to see where we might help.
Today it's off to Trenton again starting with a Judiciary Committee meeting to deal with judicial reappointments, the new Commissioner-nominee of Children & Families, Dr. Allison Blake, (seems like a good appointment) and various other Christie nominations. My main interest will be the nomination of Dr. Kevin Barry of Mendham to a position on the Board of UMDNJ. Have lots of questions for Dr. Barry such as how he feels about making sure that there is a continued commitment to provide physician training in women's reproductive health, and how to improve physical conditions at the dental school where they provide much needed services to the developmentally disabled population in awful surroundings. Hope Dr. Barry will show some interest in these important areas. By the way, if we have any more nominees from Mendham, they will soon have enough folks to fill their own commuter van to Trenton.
We all also be meeting to discuss the new Democratic leaderhip initiative on capping property taxes. The Democratic proposal is a 2.9% cap with certain exceptions. I like our democratic ideas much better. You know that Governor Corzine was actually producing results with his 4% "soft" cap. Under our prior Governor's leadership, the rise in property taxes actually slowed from a high of 7% to a more realistic average of 3.3%. I'm glad that the Democratic legislature will stand up - and I hope stand together - on this important issue. We have the better plan!
Senate voting session is slated to begin at 2 p.m. and will continue all afternoon as we await the results of the Assembly attempt to override the Governor's veto of the "more than millionaire's" tax. Hardly a cliffhanger I know, but all legislators should be on record about who will really be "sharing the pain" of this budget. Is it senior citizens who will lose property tax relief? Is it the family planning centers who will lose the money used to support women's health care? Is it developmentally disabled youngsters who need early intervention? Is it the much needed services of our local libraries? Just to name a few! Or is it those in New Jersey making more than a million dollars? You get the idea. All our residents will see a clear picture of their own legislator's answers to these questions with the red and green votes registering on that big board in the Assembly.
SCR-108 will be on the Senate agenda. It urges the Governor NOT to join other states in suing against the enforcement of the new federal health care reforms. Caused quite an uproar in last week's Senate Health, Human Services & Senior Services Committee. The hearing I chaired went on for several hours as Steve Lonegan and members of Americans for Prosperity came out against the bill. Folks were respectful toward each other, and we even got an American history lesson through the interchange between Senator Whalen and Assemblywoman McHose. I did point out that the Governor already turned to funds from the federal bill to maintain the PAAD prescription program for low income seniors and the disabled in his new budget! It would be a little late to decide that the federal government had no right to pass this law. But consistency has not been a hallmark of this administration, so anything can happen!
Congratulations to Assembly colleague Jerry Green who rightly slowed down the S-1 train in his committee. He even took testimony on the bill! I for one appreciate his leadership. Now I hope we can work to make it into a law which respects the rights of municipalities, the business community, as well as those who are entitled to affordable places to live within our larger community!
Will have more news on the budget after this afternoon's caucus. We are still aiming for a budget adoption this Thursday, but nothing is etched in stone just yet! The coming week will be busy and our votes will set the priorities for our state during the coming fiscal year. Let's hope we collectively make the right decisions.
Gov. Chris Christie, who made opposition to a medical marijuana law for ill New Jerseyans a campaign issue, now says he supports the law passed right before his inauguration and won't make it more restrictive like he said he would when he was running. But Christie wants to delay the kickoff of NJ's program until January or July, 2011. And that prompted our Quote of the Day from Sen. Loretta Weinberg:
I understand this governor has some questions, but I would like to point out to everybody, including the governor, this is the law.
Tick Tock, Governor. Tick Tock. Bear in mind that when the lady in the video talks about a July start, she was talking about July this year, not next year.
After first surrendering to authorities for insurance fraud charges at the end of April, Hackensack Police Chief Ken Zisa was charged today with official misconduct relating to a 2004 assault and robbery. Following the news of the additional charges, State Senator Loretta Weinberg called for his resignation from the county elections board:
"Even though Mr. Zisa has been charged with serious breaches of the public trust, he still enjoys a position as a commissioner on the Bergen County Board of Elections. How someone facing such serious charges of misusing their office can remain in any public post - especially one that oversees the fairness of our election process - is beyond me.
"I have been waiting patiently for the Governor or our own Democratic Party leader, to call for Mr. Zisa's resignation from the elections board. The silence has been deafening."
For all the talking that Christie did as US Attorney, he has been virtually silent when it comes to the FBI Raids in Toms River, charges against then Hunterdon Sheriff Deborah Trout and in this case. It will be interesting to see if either Christie or Wisniewski respond to the call from Weinberg and the latest developments.
This past Thursday was a busy day for many of us, but if one just read the mainstream press, you might not have realized it.
It was Women's Healthcare Week, and many of our women legislators decided to mark the occasion by protesting Governor Christie's wiping out all the dollars ($7.5million) in the Family Planning budget. As has been noted before, this money is earmarked for uninsured or underinsured men and women who get HIV testing, cervical cancer screening, family planning information and general reproductive health care through these centers. Joined by Assemblywomen Valerie Huttle, Linda Stender, Linda Greenstein, Elise Evans, Cleopatra Tucker, Pam Lampitt, Annette Quijano, Mila Jasey, Joan Voss, and Connie Wagner, we held a well attended press conference, that is except the press! Though, NJN did stop in for a brief moment or two. Apporximately 50 pink shirt supporters joined us bringing along hundreds of signed post cards protesting these cuts! The cards were delivered to the Governor's office. Do you think he'll read them? In my remarks, I suggested some cuts to other programs withinthe budget to transfer much needed funds to this program. Let's see if the Governor will look at these re-ordering of priorities, and we'll know if this budget cut is a matter of dollars or a matter of philosophy!
My next stop was the Senate State Government Committee meeting to speak for my bill giving the Governor veto power over the minutes of the Passaic Valley Sewer Authority and the North District Water Commission. These were the only two commissions we could find which were State appointments with no governor veto power. I reminded the committee, that I started on this road several years ago and first coined the description "shadow governments" to describe these authorities. In 2007 when Assembly colleagues Gordon Johnson, Valerie Huttle and I first took a look at the PVSA, we found that over a six year period, they spent more than $13 million on legal fees, and more than $3 million on consultants. Included in the consultant fees was $100,00 for a well connected flak to produce a children's coloring book called, "Messy Marvin". Makes Brian Christiansen look like one of the pikers of the hangers on at the PVSA. It's all so outrageous!
And as outrageous, is it took several years to get this bill posted in committee. Since Governor Christie has rightly made an issue of these "shadow governments" which spend millions of our tax dollars and user fees with very little accountability, this bill should pass both houses before the summer break.
Next was the Judiciary Committee meeting where we approved the nominations of Lori Grifa as the Commissioner of Community Affairs and Harold Wirths as the Commissioner of Labor & Workforce Development. Acting Commissioner Wirths was closely questioned about his lack of experience (he has been a Republican county Freeholder) in the area of labor relations. I was concerned with his continuing in his Freeholder position while serving as an "acting commissioner". Asked OLS for an opinion on the subject, and they said it was important to get an Ethics Board ruling. It was claimed that such a ruling had been forthcoming last February which gave him permission as long he turned down his Freeholder salary. I still believe this could be a court challenge, but since he was resigning both his elected position and his service on a bank board with his confirmation, it became moot. Both nominees now move to the full Senate for a vote.
We all know we have a reduced statehouse press corps., and they were covering the Millionaire's Tax hearing and the Lesniak theater action for the voucher bill held on the statehouse lawn. Curious juxtaposition! Several hundred religious and private school students were brought to Trenton to support the Lesniak/Kean bill. I didn't hear anyone from the Governor's office refer to them as "Drug Mules" or denounce them as youngsters who had no idea why they were there. Don't get me wrong - I think it was great that these young people got to see their government in action! They probably learned more that day than they would in classrooms. I do, however, think the Governor's "double standard" is quite evident! Students who support Christie's initiatives can get the day off from school, but those students who disagree with his cuts to public schools deserve to be derided and insulted.
The prior Monday, I had the great pleasure of joining Senator Ray Lesniak for our book signing at Kean College for "What's Love Got to Do With it", about the fight for Marriage Equality in the New Jersey State Senate. It's a beautiful book with wonderful pictures and contains many of the words which were shared on January 7, 2010. There were more than 100 people who turned out for this event at the new Kean Human Rights Institute. My thanks to Ray for including me in this adventure. Yes I know: Lesniak & Weinberg - definitely an odd couple - but fun nevertheless!
So all this while the very much smaller group of print media folks were elsewhere. And how about Channel 12? Do they ever really cover New Jersey News live? Seems every time I turn them on they are doing the "Weather on the Ones" or the "Pet Doctor". We need to keep NJN. They are the only statewide New Jersey television news. I've written to the administration to try and find out if anyone has actually worked on a plan to transition NJN into a private company. And what happens to their state owned assets? Lots of unanswered questions here, but we must work to preserve this NJ television news.
In an Open Letter I posted here to the next Democratic State Chair - aimed to John Wisniewski - Point #5 was Listen to the Citizens' Campaign:
New Jersey has an idea factory for vibrant civic engagement and good government. They're about clean, fair politics, and they have the sharpest tools in the toolbox to get us there. They don't work for you - and that's good - but they have all the answers. Same suggestion, by the way, for my GOP brothers and sisters.
On June 9th, Wisniewski is one of the panelists at the Jersey Call to Service Summit, convened by the Citizens' Campaign. I plan to be there too; Citizens' Campaign is expecting 1,000 people. It's free to most (read).
Panels on Party Democracy Act, Citizen Journalism, Property Tax & Government Waste & Government Policy Boards and speakers include: Govs. Brendan Byrne and Donald DiFrancesco, Wisniewski and Sen. Joe Kyrillos, Mayor Dana Redd and Michele Brown, who serves Gov. Christie. The Citizen Journalism panel seemed heavy on non-political featurey stuff, but I'm open to listen.
I've had to explain the Citizens' Campaign to a few people since I wrote that post. I'm no expert, but I've studied with them, and watched them develop good-government legislation - they were key in stronger pay-to-play legislation (which Bergen just voted down) and the Party Democracy Act. Citizens' Campaign is non-profit and non-partisan.
In fact, it is relentlessly non-partisan. They teach ways citizens can take stake over policies and laws that govern daily life; power that's always been available, but often goes begging. Think of it as a giant civics lesson for grownups, which is hotter than you think, given that it has the power to take complainers and turn them into leaders. It applies equally, no matter what Party. That's the relentless non-partisanship; less how you should participate but that you can participate.
Most of us here are daily combatants in the cage match of partisan politics. For us, it may be a little hard to wrap around raw info about the infrastructure of governing, given we spend so much time pounding inside it. But knowing the fundamentals is crucial. And it's a heady, buzzy atmosphere - ordinary people all angling for greater democracy. I'm bringing my local candidates. Networking and bouncing ideas around so many good-government advocates is exactly what I where I want them to be.
As news of Zisa's arrest and separation from the department spread throughout the city, some of his critics rejoiced.
One of the strongest critics, Bobby Egan, owner of Cubby's Restaurant on River Street, flashed an electronic message below his sign that said "ZISA ARREST" four times.
Then a message scrolled across the screen: "POLICE CHIEF KEN ZISA ARRESTED FOR FRAUD HASTA LA¬VISTA CHIEF ZISA GOOD BYE GOOD RIDDANCE."
