Christie's Union County probe delayed by Harrison inquiries?

Plainfielders who have been waiting for US Attorney Chris Christie to shift his attention to Union County may have to wait a bit longer.

A front page story in this morning's Ledger focuses on his latest target -- Harrison.

If you ever thought nepotism was a problem in Plainfield, your eyes will pop when you read this one.

But nepotism seems to be the least of the issues in Harrison.

As with all towns hell-bent on redevelopment -- and you can include Plainfield on that list -- REDEVELOPMENT is the vehicle of choice for corrupt pols, hungry developers and vendors on the make.

The first things that go are INDEPENDENCE and TRANSPARENCY --

"No one is truly independent in their decision-making," said John Pinho, an attorney who served three years on Harrison's redevelopment authority. "It breeds a culture of patronage that is not good for open government. It exists everywhere, but it's magnified in Harrison."

One of the other tricks used was to hire a retired school official to coordinate school construction projects, classifying the job as non-educational so the official would not be punished over his first pension and would become eligible for a SECOND one. (Puts me in mind of the proposal for construction management that came before the PMUA board a couple of years ago. Thankfully, those straight arrows saw it for what it was and shot it down.)

The article is a concise ABCedary of corrupt practices.

Oops! There goes my Sunday School self again.

I forget -- this is Hudson County.

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• Harrison: "Little town a big target in hunt for corruption"

-- Dan Damon

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