Donovan Calls for Attorney General to Investigate Sheriff's Department

The ongoing feud between Sheriff Michael Saudino and County Executive Kathleen Donovan intensified again this weekend, with Donovan calling for the attorney general to investigate claims the sheriff's department jeopardized the public's safety in handling "live mortar rounds".

In a statement released to the press on Saturday, Donovan said the sheriff's department failed to turn live mortar rounds to Bergen County Bomb Squad members during the April 13-14 county gun buyback, as is protocol.

"We applaud the Sheriff for a successful and worthwhile program, but we are concerned about the inappropriate and potentially dangerous way live mortar rounds were dealt with," Donovan said. "My concern is that the safety of the citizens of Bergen County may have been jeopardized by what appears to be a breach in the handling of active munitions."

She called for Attorney General Jeffrey Chiesa to investigate whether any laws or procedures were broken.

"It’s unfortunate for the taxpayers that we have a county executive who doesn’t know what she’s doing or talking about,” Richard Moriarty, a spokesman for Saudino, told northjersey.com. Sheriff's officers turned over two inert grenades to a county police officer (who was not a bomb squad member), Moriarty said. He did not immediately return a request for comment.

Once running mates in 2010, Saudino and Donovan, both Republicans, have publicly sparred, notably over the fate of the Bergen County Police Department. Saudino is up for re-election in November.

Donovan, an ardent defender of the county police, has maintained public safety would be threatened should the 90-officer department be absorbed by the sheriff's department. She also disputed the purported savings a merger would bring.

Saudino has called the $22 million county police department model as "archaic" and "wasteful".

The county freeholders ultimately voted down legislation that would have folded the agency into the sheriff's department. The Democrat-controlled legislative board is expected to take up the matter again.