Letter: Freeholder Calls Consultant's Offer to Bergen Community 'Disturbing'

The decision by Alan Marcus and The Marcus Group to withdraw their $90,000 contract with Bergen Community College was the appropriate course of action given the County Executive’s past practice of weeding out unnecessary and wasteful spending. 

However the decision by Mr. Marcus to offer “free” consultation services regarding upcoming labor negotiations is equally disturbing.

When does a public agency or in this case a county school board take collective bargaining tips from a public relations executive?

Doesn’t Bergen Community College have on retainer legal counsel to handle such matters?

The withdrawal of this contract does not cause harm to the institution as suggested, but it saves taxpayers $90,000 on something that wasn’t needed or necessary.

As a freeholder, I reject the process in which this was handled as well as the timing in awarding this contract. It is clear by any reasonable standard that Alan Marcus is not a just a vendor, but the County Executive’s most trusted political advisor and confidante. To ignore this relationship would be to ignore political reality and that flies in the face of Donovan’s insistence that things have changed with her in charge.

Those trustees who voted for this contract clearly thought little about appearances and the jaded view of which taxpayers, students and parents have reacted to such an arrangement that only causes one to believe that the County Executive seems to have a selective memory when it comes to using her veto power in the name of good government here in the County of Bergen.

Whether for a fee or for free, having the County Executive’s most trusted political advisor act in this shadow government capacity of power broker diminishes the credibility of her office and it questions just who is in charge.

- Steve Tanelli is a Democratic Bergen County Freeholder