Booker Slams Devils Owner Into the Boards

Newark Mayor Cory Booker Wednesday unleashed a half-decade’s worth of frustration with the owner of the New Jersey Devils, repeatedly referring to Jeff Vanderbeek as a “liar” and “bamboozler” who has cheated the city and state residents.

Speaking early Wednesday afternoon at the Prudential Center in downtown Newark, the hockey team's home since the arena was completed in 2007, Booker said New Jerseyans should be “spitting mad” following an arbitrators’ ruling Tuesday upholding an agreement guaranteeing the team millions in back-payments from parking revenue and for other costs. Those payments, totalling more than $15 million, more than offsets the $14.7 million in rental and other payments the arbitarors said the team owes the city.

[Click here for video from Wednesday's press conference.] 

Vowing to challenge the ruling, a combative Booker said the city’s legal staff is exploring its options.

“And now it’s on,” Booker said today as he stood alongside city firefighters, police, sanitation workers and members of the Newark Municipal Council.

A spokesman for the Devils responded to an emailed list of questions, but was unable to provide answers to those questions before this article went to press. But in a statement quoted Tuesday in The Star-Ledger, the team said it was “pleased” with the arbitrators’ decision.

“The three arbitrators must be commended for their diligent and thoughtful work in bringing this matter to a close,” the statement read in part.

For years the city and the Devils have been negotiating to settle a dispute over how much each side owes the other. The arena deal was largely completed during the administration of Booker’s predecessor Sharpe James, who, with municipal council approval, agreed to provide $210 million towards its construction. That money came from a separate deal with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which in 2002 agreed to renegotiate its lease with the city for Newark Liberty International Airport.

Aspects of the arena deal remained under contention, however, including precisely how parking revenue should be shared. In 2005, under the James administration, the city’s then-business administrator,  Richard Monteilh, signed a separate agreement with Vanderbeek guaranteeing the Devils $2.7 million annually in parking fees. The Booker administration has been negotiating with the Devils since shortly after Booker became mayor in 2006 to finalize the city’s deal with the Devils, including the issue of parking revenue.

On Wednesday, Booker slammed that part of the deal, saying that a state Superior Court judge had already found the parking agreement unconstitutional because it had been entered into without the approval of the municipal council. The arbitrators therefore should never have factored it into their deliberations, Booker said, adding that no lone official, particularly an un-elected one like Monteilh, could authorize an agreement on behalf of the city involving millions of dollars.    

"This is a patent subversion of the Constitutional process. It undermines who we are as a city and a state," said Booker, later adding that "We believe the Superior Court has spoken."

Booker has long been a skeptic of the agreement that brought “the Rock” to downtown Newark, echoing concerns voiced by some experts who contend host cities rarely get a good return when using public funds to help build entertainment venues. While acknowledging that the city has gotten a boost from the arena’s presence—downtown bars and restaurants do a brisk business on nights when acts like Taylor Swift or the Devils are in town—Booker also pointed out that Newark has furnished added police protection when the venue is being used.

The city no longer pays overtime for police service during hockey games, a city spokesperson, Esmeralda Cameron, said. During special events like NCAA games, the event sponsors pay for added police services.

A disgusted Booker said that the city, which had already provided more than half the funding for the arena’s construction, is now being ordered to pony up even more.

“[Vanderbeek] now wants more of our tax dollars. He now wants more of our sweat,” said Booker. “Who does Jeff Vanderbeek think he is to come into our city and promise us the world and only bring us more debt?” 

He also said Vanderbeek has routinely reneged on promises made to the city and has resorted to hardball tactics in negotiations, a harsh assessment Booker said he had not previously shared publicly because he was trying to deal with Vanderbeek in good faith.

Booker, however, most decidedly took the gloves off today.

Vanderbeek, Booker said, rescinded a promise to build a 20,000-square-foot recreation center for city youth, and failed to follow through on another pledge to open up the arena for youth basketball during the Devils off-season. Booker also said Vanderbeek repeatedly threatened to pull the Devils out of the arena over relatively minor details like roadway repairs.

“Here’s a Wall Street millionaire who plays into every stereotype out there …. he’s trying to bilk us at every turn,” Booker said.  

Despite the scorching rhetoric, however, Booker left the door open for yet another round of negotiations with the Devils’ owner.

“I give Jeff Vanderbeek one more chance to come back to the table, to prove he has honor, to prove that he didn’t come here to bamboozle this community,” Booker said.