"...his prime concern is power..."

Those are the words of The Record columnist Mike Kelly, in an article published in the North Jersey daily Thursday, February 7.  It is one of the most scathing criticisms yet of the chairman of the Bergen County Democratic Organization. We urge you to read it in its entirety and feel renewed in your determination to remove from office his stain on the integrity of the Bergen County Democratic Party.

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Was this Bergen County in the 21st century or Bulgaria behind the Iron Curtain?

 Bergen's Democrats need to ask themselves that question after their party boss shut a door in their faces last week in the midst of what was supposed to be a free and open election.

This political story, largely overshadowed by the Super Bowl and the Super Tuesday presidential primary, sadly has its roots in a pathetically familiar place -- the control-freak personality of Bergen Democratic boss Joe Ferriero.

Yes, once again, we see that Boss Ferriero seems incapable of understanding basic principles of democracy -- namely that elections are about choices and voters are supposed to actually vote.

Worse, Ferriero's Democratic county organization blindly goes along with his antics. Like the fairy tale about the emperor with no clothes, no one wants to say Joe Ferriero has no principles.

We have seen Ferriero's handiwork before. He does not campaign on behalf of issues necessarily; local party functionaries are hard put to remember him ever talking at length about health care, the environment or -- heaven forbid -- poverty.

No, Boss Ferriero's prime concern is power.

But power can be fragile. And Boss Ferriero's behavior lately has been so bizarre that he is beginning to rival New Jersey's legendary prince of political paranoia, Bob Torricelli.

Despite Torricelli's dark obsession with control and his habit of blowing his cool when he felt threatened, he is not known to have locked the doors to a polling station when voters showed up to cast ballots. Boss Ferriero did that -- just like some political thug would do in a Soviet-ruled nation behind the Iron Curtain.

Ferriero's personal Kafka moment of grand illusion took place 10 days ago in Hackensack, at a public middle school. He was supposed to be supervising an election by the 1,100-member Bergen County Democratic Committee to choose someone to fill an open seat on the county freeholder board.

Only there was no choice. Boss Ferriero has already tapped his man, Vernon Walton of Englewood. And because the boss had signaled his preference, no one else was running. Not a soul.

Walton, a former Englewood councilman and a Baptist minister, seems clueless to the possibility that he is under the Fidel-like thumb of Ferriero. Or maybe he knows and just doesn't care.

That night in Hackensack, Democrats were told they could cast ballots from 6 to 8 p.m. But as this magnificent example of manipulated democracy neared, word circulated that Democratic progressives might actually show up and protest Ferriero's creepy excuse of an election.

So rather than ask Democrats to cast ballots, Ferriero looked around the auditorium just after 6 p.m. and asked for a voice vote. He conceded later that he did not actually know if a quorum was present. But, hey, the man is the boss. Why bother with small stuff?

The room of Democratic donkeys grunted their approval for poor Walton and, suddenly, Bergen County had a new freeholder to keep an eye on millions of tax dollars. What was supposed to be a two-hour balloting session took all of 15 minutes.

What was also missing was the possibility of anyone objecting to this charade or writing another choice on a ballot.

No, Boss Ferriero wanted a clean show -- just like they used to do in places like Bulgaria.

He got what he wanted.

Does he know what he lost?

 As you all are well aware, Bergen County Democratic Boss Joe Ferriero is Public Enemy No. 1 with a “Wanted” sign on the bulletin board at Bergen Grassroots. (Some may argue that Dubya belongs in the top spot, but let's face it, our name is "Bergen Grassroots" not "Bergen National." So we concentrate the hardest on the game right under our noses.) 

Boss Joe called for a meeting of Bergen's Municipal County Committee on Jan. 29, for the purpose of filling a vacancy on the Freeholders. If you missed the report in The Record, here it is: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergenpolitics/Bergen-style_election_Your_vote_not_needed.html/

Our Steering Committee voted to picket the meeting because Joe was up to his old tricks: he called the County Committee together only to vote to fill the vacancy, as he has been doing for at least the past two years. So we picketed. We carried signs reading "'ONE MAN, ONE VOTE' DOESN'T MEAN YOU, JOE." And we chanted “Joe Must Go,” demanding that Boss Joe give 1,100 elected committee members (who represent their closest neighbors) a chance to vote and express their opinions about how the BCDO should operate...democratically.

At the beginning, the picketers included Bob Gulack of Fair Lawn, an elected member of the County Committee and an officer of Bergen Grassroots, who brought his guitar and tambourine and provided fresh lyrics to the tune “Come On, Baby, Do the Locomotion.” It became “Come On, Joey, Let Us Make New Motions,” especially suited to Boss Joe and his dictatorial universe.

Ruth and Stefan Neustadter of Hackensack were on hand (Ruth turned out to be an excellent tambourine wielder). Gunnar and Susan Mengers of River Edge joined us in the wind and drizzle, as did Julie Otto of Fort Lee (who brought a hand-lettered sign of her own with a similar message). Edgewater Councilwoman Beatrice Robbio was part of the picket team too, as was your faithful reporter, Paul Eisenman of Cliffside Park. 

When we arrived, we found and joined what might be called "counter-picketers" already in place. Several men hold two huge, professionally painted placards (4' x 5' at least) proclaiming the need for unity behind the BCDO Chairman. Other people carried hand-drawn signs announcing their support for Rev. Vernon Walton, who had been designated by Boss Joe to fill the vacancy on the Freeholder board.

Job #1 for us was to make it crystal clear to the pro-Walton contingent that we had no opposition to his appointment.  Bob Gulack told the unity-sign holders how eager we were to provide party unity behind a chairman who understands that big-D Democrats must have small-D democracy. After Bob led us in singing his "Come On, Joey, Let Us Make New Motions" lyrics, the ice thawed and the "unity" guys actually requested some Simon & Garfunkel tunes!

Since we were expecting a two-and-one-half-hour picket, we had others spaced out as replacements for the first arrivals. One of them was Sabastian Belfon of Cliffside Park, who arrived sometime after Boss Joe had his "voice vote" around 6:15pm and fled. (Re-read The Record article for his feeble explanations: http://www.northjersey.com/news/bergenpolitics/Bergen-style_election_Your_vote_not_needed.html/

Here's what Sabastian  reported:

"Arrived at the school around 6:40PM...and saw the notice [that] a voice vote [had been taken]. People were still arriving, loitering and complaining. They had expected to vote and were none too pleased to have arrived for naught. One person complained that his  [Boss Joe's] letter clearly indicated a vote was in order."

Sabastian later told your reporter that there were ten or a dozen people present and that they were clearly annoyed. These are County Committee members whose votes are needed to keep the king on his throne. We wish to express our sincere appreciation to Joseph A. Ferriero for continuing to shoot himself in the foot every chance he gets. 

Certainly, many of you saw the front-page story “Molinelli vacationed in Italy with probe target” in Tuesday’s (Oct. 9) copy of The Record. If you didn’t, go to http://preview.tinyurl.com/2t4aum. It’s worth the effort.

A name crops up. It’s not that familiar to casual observers of the political scene. Who is Dennis Oury? He’s the busy governmental attorney who recently announced he was joining forces with ultraconservative Bogota Mayor Steve Lonegan to challenge the constitutionality of the pay-to-play reform ordinances recently adopted in Teaneck and now going through the adoption process in Englewood. Dennis is also counsel to the Bergen County Democratic Organization. THAT Dennis Oury.

His embarrassed boss, Joe Ferriero, cancelled at the last minute a BCDO Executive Committee meeting at which he was poised to seek approval from the BCDO to finance the Oury/Lonegan class action suit. Boss Joe backed down because Bergen Grassroots had, also at the last minute, organized a protest at BCDO Hackensack headquarters. THAT Dennis Oury.

Other things about Oury you may not know: Through March 2007, the Bergen County Improvement Authority has paid him $546,163.75 for legal services. He’s also done work for—and is in the pension system at—the Fairview Board of Education ($79,250), City of Garfield ($59,224), Paramus ($30,000), Fort Lee ($18,472) and Edgewater ($5,196). Obviously, he’s an attorney with substantial governmental experience.

Oh, he’s also Bergenfield Borough Attorney where our Real Bergen Democrats—candidates Tim Driscoll for Mayor and incumbent Bruce Carlson and Barry Doll for Council seats—are rattling the bars of the cage demanding a pay-to-play reform ordinance. Before the Council would act, they’d ask their Borough Attorney for his opinion of the ordinance. THAT Dennis Oury. Folks, we don’t make these things up, we simply report them.

Now you know who Dennis Oury is. As Charles Stile reported in The Record, in the current context, he’s the guy who selected State Senator Joseph Coniglio (no longer running for election but serving out his legislative term after being identified as a target in an ongoing Federal criminal investigation) as a last-minute addition to the trip, originally part of Prosecutor Molinelli’s vacation entourage. The nine-person entourage was organized six months earlier by one of the travelers, a person Mr. Molinelli would not name, The Record reported.