Finally, a voice for CCRC residents

I was thrilled that Gov. Corzine signed a bill last week that will provide long-overdue resident representation on the state’s Continuing Care Retirement Community boards. My father, who died two years ago, would have been thrilled as well.
My dad was president of the residents’ association at Fellowship Village in Basking Ridge, one of 27 CCCRs in the state, in the late 1990s. CCRCs provide three levels of care – independent living, assisted living and skilled nursing and rehabilitation. He lobbied hard for formal resident representation on Fellowship Village's governing board and worked with association presidents statewide to find sponsors for legislation that would require CCRC boards to have at least one resident serving on them.
A bill to do that was introduced in the state Senate four years ago by Robert Singer, R-Ocean. Slowed by intense opposition from facility operators, it was finally approved in both houses of the Legislature in June.
My father well understood the difficulty of dealing with administrators resistant to change and boards that were disengaged, disinterested in residents’ concerns or snowed by administrators who insisted all was well.
At Fellowship Village, health services – in particular, the management of them and doubts about whether adequate resources were being invested in them – were primary concerns. Residents’ inability to impart those concerns directly to the board and to participate in discussions about budget priorities was a major source of frustration.
The new legislation will not only require CCRCs to have at least one resident sitting on their boards, but to hold quarterly meetings in which a member or members of the governing body – not an administrator - will sit down with residents to discuss their concerns and answer their questions in a reasonable period of time.
Corzine summed the matter up well at the bill-signing ceremony at Seabrook Village in Tinton Falls: "The idea that one ought to be consulted and have a vote in the world that you've made a commitment to, seems like a very small 'd' democratic process that ought to be followed through. This is just simple, common sense. People ought to have a voice."
Thanks to my dad, and good people like him, they finally have one.

Doctor rating sites filling a void

We ran an op-ed piece a couple of weeks back from the president of the Medical Society of New Jersey, Red Bank orthopedic surgeon Richard J. Scott, attacking Web sites that allow consumers to rate their doctors. He specifically singled out RateMDs.com, suggesting that the comments he read on the site about his colleagues were inaccurate and unfairly negative.
That’s just the opposite of my experience. The only thing I don’t like about the site is the fact there aren’t enough comments about enough doctors – including Scott himself, who was nowhere to be found in the listings.
But the responses posted on RateMds.com for the doctors I am familiar with, either through my own experiences or those of family members and friends, invariably seem to be dead-on – particularly when it comes to such things as bedside manner, waiting times, courtesy of staff and the amount of time the doctor spends with patients.
Obviously, technical competence is the most important factor in choosing a doctor. But the manner in which a doctor interacts with patients and runs his office should be important considerations.
Scott says there should be transparency and accountabilty on sites such as rateMDs.com. There also should be transparency and accountability in the profession. Right now, there is very little. Choosing a doctor remains a crapshoot. Other than information about the doctors' medical training, board certifications and whether or not they have been successfully sued - information available on the N.J. Division of Consumer Affairs Web site and at RateMDs.com - there is no objective data available on professional competence. Sites like RateMD.com and DrScore.com help fill a void - one largely created by doctors themselves.
If Scott and the Medical Society are truly concerned about giving consumers accurate information, it is within their power to do so. They should develop a plan that provides consumers with objective data about patient outcomes. Unless that happens, consumer-driven sites will become increasingly popular alternatives.

N.J. moving up in corruption rankings

New Jersey is the 9th most corrupt state in the nation, according to a newly released ranking from Corporate Crime Reporter. That's up from 14th in 2004. It would be higher still if it was based on more recent data. The Corporate Crime Reporter uses 2006 federal prosecution data from the U.S. Department of Justice to come up with its rankings. It divides a state's population by the number of federal prosecutions over the past 10 years.

If the rankings were based on a five-year analysis, instead of 10 years, New Jersey would fare even worse. It has been five years since crimebuster Christopher Christie has come on the scene. From 2002 to 2006, according to DoJ data, there have been 199 federal prosecutions in New Jersey - more than in any of the four most corrupt states cited by Corporate Crime Reporter - Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky and Alabama. New Jersey still has a higher rate than those four, because it has far larger populations. But using the five-year numbers, New Jersey would jump ahead of three other states ahead of it in the latest rankings - Ohio, Illinois and Florida.

Put another way, no large state in the union has had more corruption during the past five years than New Jersey. And Christie says his job is far from being completed.

Weather and beaches perfect together

I took my family to the beach in Point Pleasant last weekend, once again enjoying what has been an extraordinary year for weather. It got me to thinking. Not only couldn't I recall any summer weekends that were a washout, I couldn't remember any weekend days in which the weather kept me from going to the beach or mowing the lawn.
To confirm my recollections, I called state climatologist David Robinson - New Jersey meteorology's answer to baseball's Elias Sports Bureau. There isn't any question he can't answer. Answers to most questions can be found on his Office of the State Climatologist Web site, which provides weather data dating back to 1895. But I wanted to know how many times it rained on weekend days this summer.
Not surprisingly, he didn't need to look up the answer. He already had researched it. Between Memorial Day and Labor Day, there were only three weekend afternoons at the Shore that had any measurable precipitation - 1/100th of an inch or more. I recall two occasions when I left the beach early because of late afternoon thunderstorms.
What makes the great beach weekends, which have extended well into October, even more remarkable is that total rainfall this summer was about average. Most of the rain fell Monday through Friday. Rainfall for the year also is likely to be about average, which in New Jersey is about 42 inches. Average annual rainfall in New Jersey may be the most predictable thing about the weather. Over the past 10 years, it has deviated more than 3 inches from the average just twice.

Ganging up at the Shore

A State Police survey on gangs released today indicates that gang activity continues to increase throughout the state, not only in cities but in suburbs and rural areas as well - including towns in Monmouth and Ocean counties.
Gang presence was reported in 43 percent of the state's municipalities, up from 33 percent in 2004. Gang activity, as reported by police chiefs, was present in 22 of Monmouth County's 53 towns and 11 of Ocean County's 33 towns. The increases were largely fueled by the Bloods - the largest of the state's gangs.
In the Central Region of the state, which includes Monmouth and Ocean counties, the proportion of municipalities with gangs that mentioned the presence of the Bloods increased from 67 percent to 92 percent - an increase partly attributable to sharp changes in the proportion of municipalities in Ocean and Monmouth counties reporting a Bloods presence.
In Ocean County, the report said, mentions of the Bloods rose from 31 percent to 100 percent of the towns with gangs. In Monmouth County, mentions of a Bloods presence increased from 50 percent to 90 percent.
The Monmouth County towns in which a gang presence was reported were Aberdeen, Asbury Park, Atlantic Highlands, Belmar, Eatontown, Englishtown, Freehold Borough and Township, Keansburg, Keyport, Long Branch, Hazlet, Highlands, Interlaken, Matawan, Middletown, Neptune City and Township, Red Bank, Union Beach and West Long Branch.
The 11 Ocean County towns were Brick, Jackson, Lacey, Lakewood, Little Egg Harbor, Manchester, Seaside Heights, Seaside Park, South Toms River, Stafford and Toms River.
The report said most of the gang activity involved drug offenses, aggravated assaults and theft. "The serious violence associated with popular perceptions of gangs is a comparatively rare and relatively isolated occurrence. In fact, dramatic or extremely violent gang crime constitutes a small proportion of total crime attributed to gang members." Thirty-two municipalities reported occurrence of gang homicides within the past twelve months."

Tough time to be stuck in the middle

A new pamphlet from A Century Foundation, "The Middle Class at Risk," paints a gloomy picture of economic life for most Americans. Its 50 pages are chocked with statistics, culled from a variety of sources, that provide interesting comparisons with the two previous generations.
The report's conclusion: "The oft-cited middle-class squeeze is real, and the economic realities are unmistakable. Families are working more hours for less money. Their costs are going up. Life is riskier. Those at the top are doing better while the majority in the middle is stuck.... These are no confusing anomalies or blips on the radar, they are trends. Without change, the economic arc will continue to bend in a distinct direction: a direction that will diminish the American middle class."
Some highlights/lowlights from the pamphlet:
- Workers' hourly wages, adjusted for inflation, have been roughly stagnant from 1987 to 2005, at around $14 per hour.
- Today, the median annual earnings for a full-time, male worker are $41,670 per year, nearly $800 less, adjusted for inflation, than a generation ago.
- In 1980, nearly 40 percent of workers were participating in reliable, defined-benefit pension plans. Today, the number is about half that.
- The odds that any given worker today will suffer an involuntary job loss are 28 percent higher compared to the 1970s.
- Sixty-nine percent of private-sector workers had employer-provided health insurance in 1979; in 2004, 55.9 percent did.
- Nearly half of American families have less than $10,000 in net worth, and the ranks of this group have been slowly growing.
- In 2000, married couples with children worked 500 more hours annually than they did in 1979. Sixty-seven percent of all working parents say they don't have enough time to spend with their children.
- In the period of economic growth from November 2001 to July 2006, corporate profits grew nine times faster than workers' wages. During other post-war periods, wages and salaries grew at an average annual rate of 3.7 percent, while corporate profits grew at a 6.8 percent annual rate.
- Between 1979 and 2001, the top 5 percent of wage earners saw their incomes increase more than four times faster than the middle 60 percent of earners - 79.6 percent to 17.8 percent.
- Members of the middle class that earn income from working pay twice the tax rate of someone getting income idly. Today, the top tax rate on capital gains and dividends is 15 percent (down from 20 percent before the Bush tax cuts) and the tax on large inheritances (only assessed on estates worth more than $3.5 million) is set to be eliminated in 2009. At the same time, the top tax rate for workers who get their income from paychecks is about 30 percent, when both payroll and income taxes are added together.
- Middle-income workers pay 12.7 percent of their earnings for Social Security and Medicare payroll taxes, plus federal income taxes that average 10.7 percent. This adds up to a 23.4 percent federal tax rate on a typical worker's wages. At the same time, someone who lives off investment income instead of earning wages pays a federal tax rate averaging just 9.6 percent.
- As family wages have stalled or dropped in the past two decades, family members have worked more. It is this increase in total family work hours, led by women joining the workforce, that helped drive family income upward over the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s, even as hourly wages have stagnated.

Death on the highways

The latest serious accident involving an underage driver - a three-car crash on the Garden State Parkway in Holmdel Saturday morning that left an Ocean County man in critical condition - prompted me to research whether the number of fatal accidents involving young people has been on the rise. With all the deaths involving teens on the roads in Ocean and Monmouth counties during the past year, it certainly seemed to be the case.

But over the past four years, at least, the trend has been mostly flat. The number of deaths involving teen drivers since 2003: 48, 46, 48 and 46 - about 10 to 11 percent of the fatalities statewide. In 2003, 56 teen drivers under age 20 died.

What surprised me in reviewing the N.J. State Police 2006 fatality statistics was the upsurge in alcohol-related accidents and the huge spike in deaths involving motorcylists.

Nearly 40 percent of the accidents involved drivers who had been drinking and 151 of the 771 accidents statewide involved drunken drivers - the highest number in 15 years. Last year was the third straight year in which the number of DWI-related fatalities increased.

Deaths involving motorcylists soared to 103 last year - nearly double the total of five years ago - and 13.3 percent of the total.

A few other interesting facts gleaned from the 2006 report:
Males accounted for 71.3 percent of motor vehicle deaths.
Mechanical failure accounted for only 9 of the 771 fatalities.
Other factors in the accidents: driver inattention (180), unsafe speed (142), failure to keep right (93), failure to yield (39).

Fatal accidents involving teens are a serious problem. But the problem is much larger than that - one that requires a dramatic, comprehensive approach by the state.

Paving the way for profit

If the site of heavily treed properties that have been clearcut to make way for development makes your stomach churn, steer clear of Essex Road in Tinton Falls.
Chelsea Properties Group, developers of a new 120-store outlet mall off Route 66, adjacent to the Press building, held a "ground breaking" last week. The bulldozers have not only broken ground, they have removed every last trace of trees and vegetation from the property. If trees could indeed weep, their cries could be heard from here to Chelsea's corporate offices in Roseland.

Common ground in Trenton: Protect the wealthy

Recent news stories about the farmland assessment tax breaks state Sen. Ellen Karcher and Commerce Bank founder Vernon Hill have received by virtue of having sold more than $500 in produce - Christmas trees and cords of wood - have renewed calls for reform of the farmland assessment program.
Trouble is, the discussion already took place in the Legislature last year. One of the four special committees on property tax reform proposed a Constitutional amendment that would have increased the farmland assessment roll-back tax period to six years, from the current two, and imposed a "conveyance tax" on land sold to developers. But the Legislature, as it did with many of the 98 reforms proposed by the committees, rejected the idea. The committee studying farmland assessment saw no need to increase the $500 gross receipts threshold for qualifying for farmland assessment - an amount that has remained unchanged since the program was established more than 40 years ago.
Karcher blamed the failure to amend the farmland assessment program on the Republicans, specifically Sen. Leonard Lance of Hunterdon County. Fact is, the special committee recommended reform, and the Democratic-controlled Legislature rejected it. When it comes to protecting the interests of the rich, the party label doesn't matter.

Crime continues to trend downward

More good news, by and large, on the crime front in New Jersey, according to 2006 statistics released today by State Police. The crime rate statewide fell 2 percent, continuing a downward trend that has left the state with the lowest levels of crime in more than 35 years.

The crime rate in Monmouth rose 1 percent - the second time in three years it has registered modest increases. Violent crime rose 15 percent, with the number of murders increasing from 8 to 16 - half of them in Asbury Park. Prior to 2004, the county's crime rate had dropped 11 times in 12 years. Asbury Park, Loch Harbour - believe it or not - and Belmar had the highest crime rates in the county. The lowest rates were in Interlaken, Roosevelt and Shrewsbury Township.

In Ocean County, the crime rate rose 5 percent last year. It, too, was the second increase in three years. Prior to 2004, the rate had fallen 11 years in a row. Violent crime last year rose 4 percent. The highest crime rates were in Seaside Heights, Beach Haven and Long Beach Township; the lowest were in Manchester, Harvey Cedars and Plumsted.

Check our Data Universe for historical information on each town in the state.

Why we need campaign finance reform

In case you are keeping score, state Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth, has raised more money for her election campaign than any legislative candidate but Senate President Richard J. Codey, D-Essex. According to Karcher's 29-day pre-election report, released today, she has raised $985,185. Her opponent in the 12th District, GOP Assemblywoman Jennifer Beck, has raised $148,011 - nearly seven times less.

If this race stays close - it's one of the few competitive Senate races in the state - the final tab for Karcher's campaign could reach $2 million. To date, most of Karcher's money has come from Codey's Senate Democratic Leadership PAC - $620,000 - and the state Democratic Committee - $102,000.

The Democrats actually are pouring even more money into the 12th District Assembly race. The joint Michael Panter-Amy Mallet campaign raised $943,838. Panter and Mallet both had $317,000 in separate accounts. Between the two of them, they have hauled in more than $1.5 million - so far. Their Republican opponents, Caroline Casagrande and Declan O'Scanlon, together have raised about $114,000 - about 14 times less.

The only other candidate in the six districts covering Monmouth and Ocean counties to have raised more than $200,000 is Sen. Joseph Kyrillos, R-Monmouth ($377,000). Of the area incumbents, Assemblyman Jim Holzapfel, R-Ocean, has raised the least ($36,171), followed by Assemblywoman Amy Handlin, R-Monmouth ($40,267).

Undecided in presidential race?

So, who do you like best among the presidential contenders? If you aren't sure, check out USA Today's Candidate Match Game .
You are asked to answer multiple choice questions on the Iraq war, tax reform, immigration, same-sex marriage, global warming, health care and candidate experience. Once all the questions have been answered, it tells you which three of the 17 candidates you would be most comfortable with on the issues. If you don't like those choices, it allows you to weigh the issues according to their importance to you.

The death toll mounts on local roads

By any measure, it has been a disastrous year for motor vehicle fatalities in Monmouth and Ocean counties. Last weekend's carnage set a new standard. There were seven accidents on area roads, four of them fatal. In all, five people died - four of them age 21 or under. Another 12 were injured.
In Ocean County, 55 people have died on the roads this year - a record-setting pace. (The all-time record is 68, set in 1998.) In Monmouth County, 47 have died - one less than all of last year. The two counties have accounted for 102 of the state's 535 fatalities, or 19 percent. They account for 13.7 percent of the state's population.
A commission created more than six months ago by Gov. Corzine in response to the rash of fatalities involving young teens finally held its first meeting last month. Given the severity of the problem, it's remarkable none of the three dozen or so political candidates who have met with the Press editorial board over the past few weeks have broached the topic. It is a major problem that deserves top-priority attention.

Day trip to nation's fourth-largest city

I brought the whole family to Brooklyn yesterday, one of my favorite places. I've taken my 4-year-old son to Manhattan many times, but this was his first glimpse of Brooklyn. We went to the New York Aquarium in Coney Island, walked along the boardwalk and played on the beach. Then we had a late lunch in Sheepshead Bay (at Randazzo's Clam Bar) and later enjoyed the boats and the docks.
Brooklyn has always held a special fascination for me. One of my grandparents lived there at the turn of the century, and during my days with the Associated Press in New York City, I visited it often, exploring different neighborhoods. I wrote a travel piece about Brooklyn for AP in 2002.
One of the amazing things about the borough is how much talent was spawned there. The list of famous people born and/or raised in Brooklyn includes:

Comedy

Joey Adams, Woody Allen, Mel Brooks, Jack Carter, Larry David, Andrew Dice Clay, Pat Cooper, Dom DeLuise, Danny DeVito, Phil Foster, Jackie Gleason, Morty Gunty, Buddy Hackett, Gabe Kaplan, Danny Kaye, Alan King, Jerry Lewis, Eddie Murphy, Rhea Perlman, Martha Raye, Ritz Brothers, Joan Rivers, Chris Rock, Phil Silvers, Neil Simon, Jerry Stiller, Mae West, Henny Youngman.

Film-TV-Theater

F. Murray Abraham, Gene Barry, Clara Bow, Ken Burns, Steve Buscemi, Joseph Chaikin, Tony Danza, Richard Dreyfuss, Harvey Fierstein, Allen Funt, Vincent Gardenia, Louis Gossett Jr., Elliott Gould, Susan Hayward, Rita Hayworth, Gregory Hines, Harvey Keitel, Larry King, Martin Landau, Spike Lee, Alyssa Milano, Mary Tyler Moore, Zero Mostel, Rosie Perez, Mary Pickford, Edward G. Robinson, Mickey Rooney, Judge Judy Sheindlin, Jimmy Smits, Paul Sorvino, Barbara Stanwyck, Connie Stevens, Gene Tierney, Marisa Tomei, John Turturo, Brenda Vaccaro, Ben Vereen, Abe Vigoda, Eli Wallach, Lillias White, Shelley Winters.

Music

Carmine Appice, Eubie Blake, Benjamin Britten, Betty Carter, Aaron Copland, Marshall Crenshaw, Vic Damone, Clive Davis, Neil Diamond, Joey Fatone, David Geffen, George Gershwin, Arlo Guthrie, Richie Havens, Lena Horne, Lainie Kazan, Carole King, Julius LaRosa, Little Anthony & the Imperials, Johnny Maestro, Barry Manilow, Robert Merrill, Bette Midler, Stephanie Mills, Eddie Money, "Cousin" Bruce Morrow, Nilsson, Lou Reed, Buddy Rich, Santo & Johnny, Beverly Sills, Barbra Streisand, The Tokens, Vanessa Williams.

Sports

Riddick Bowe, Howard Cosell, Billy Cunningham, Al Davis, Mike Dunleavy, John Franco, Marty Glickman, Michael Jordan, Albert King, Bernard King, Sandy Koufax, Vince Lombardi, Sid Luckman, Stephon Marbury, Doug Moe, Chris Mullin, Floyd Patterson, Joe Pepitone, Jerry Reinsdorf, Jackie Robinson, Joe Torre, Mike Tyson, Lenny Wilkins.

Writers

Isaac Asimov, Dave Barry, Truman Capote, W.E.B. Dubois, Moss Hart, Pete Hamill, Joseph Heller, Garson Kanin, Norman Mailer, Bernard Malamud, Frank McCourt, Arthur Miller, Henry Miller, Joseph Papp, S.J. Perelman, Erich Segal, Hubert Selby Jr., Irwin Shaw, Mickey Spillane, Iyanla Vanzant, Walt Whitman.

Others

Joseph Barbera, Al Capone, Shirley Chisholm, Alan Dershowitz, Bobby Fischer, Milton Friedman, William M. Gaines (Mad magazine founder), Carlo Gambino, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Rudy Giuliani, John Gotti, Salvatore "Sammy Bull" Gravano, Alexander Hamilton, Charles (Lucky) Luciano, Peter Max, Geraldo Rivera, Steve Ross, Carl Sagan, Dr. Laura Schlessinger, Ben Shahn, the Rev. Al Sharpton, Bugsy Siegel.

Karcher and American Gothic

So, state Sen. Ellen Karcher, D-Monmouth, is a farmer in her spare time. According to a story in today's Press, she and family grow and sell Christmas trees on their property in Marlboro, generating an estimated $500 and $1,000 a year in income - income that until recently Karcher hadn't reported on her legislative disclosure form. Coincidentally, in order to qualify for a farmland assessment - one that reportedly saves Karcher about $14,000 annually in property taxes on the 7-plus acres of land - you must sell at least $500 annually in farm products.
According to Karcher's farmland assessment application with Marlboro, she sold about six Christmas trees and two to six cords of firewood. We hope she's kept copies of the sales receipts. She will need them when officials investigating her assessment come knocking on her door.
Strong arguments can be made for farmland assessment. Karcher's abuse of it argues for a critical examination of the tax break.

Codey comes up short on ethics reform

Senate President Richard Codey is one of the three most powerful men in Trenton, along with Gov. Corzine and Assembly Speaker Joseph Roberts Jr. Most consider Codey a good guy. But as much as anyone, he is responsible for the state's failure to enact meaningful ethics reform.
In our "Profiting from Public Service, Four Years Later" series this week, Codey showed his colors in two of the articles.
In Sunday's piece on ethics reform, Codey said the Legislature's work was pretty much done. "The best way to stop corruption would be to elect people who would not be corrupt," Codey said. "It's all dependent upon the individual (elected). We can pass all the laws to try and stop corruption, but someone who is determined to be corrupt is not going to be stopped by any laws." I beg to differ. So do most residents in this state. The penalties for those convicted of public corruption must be far more severe.
In today's story on the joke known as the Joint Legislative Committee on Ethical Standards - a body that hasn't even reprimanded a legislator in nearly 15 years - Codey defended the presence of lawmakers on that committee - something that nearly half the states in the nation prohibit.
“I’m certainly against a select group of elite people running the ethics committee," Codey said. "I don't think it's wrong to have some legislators on it, who've been there and understand the difficult problem of having to be a legislator and pay college tuitions and earn a living."
Codey blocked a bill that would have banned legislators from the ethics committee that was introduced by Roberts and approved in the Assembly.
Codey is only partially right when he says the best way to stop corruption is to elect people who are not corrupt. We also need leaders who set the highest standards for integrity, do everything in their power to discourage corruption and refuse to look the other way at the corrupt and self-serving practices of their peers.

Better late than never ...

The state League of Municipalities announced today it has formed a committee to recommend changes to the school funding formula, which is grossly unfair to suburban taxpayers. The timing seems odd. Gov. Corzine said last week he will soon be releasing his proposal for revamping it. He is already running about a year behind. Changing the formula was one of his many unkept campaign promises.

The league says its new committee "will be actively engaged in reforming the current School Funding Formula over the next several months." It should be an interesting exercise, sure to pit the suburban mayors against the urban mayors - unless, of course, they decide the way to address the funding inequities is to spend more in the non-Abbotts rather than spending less in the Abbotts, even if the state can't afford it.

Two of the 17 committee members are from Monmouth and Ocean counties: Marlboro Mayor Robert Kleinberg and Stafford Mayor Carl Block. Five Abbott district towns are represented on the committee - Jersey City, Irvington, East Orange, Plainfield and Haddonfield.

Southpole Arena?

The N.J. Sports and Exposition Authority board may decide Thursday whether to accept any of the three bids for naming rights to the Continental Airlines Arena. Continental decided against renewing its naming rights contract.

The three bidders are all apparel companies - Izod, Rocawear and Southpole . None of those names roll easily off the tongue. The latter two companies feature hip-hop clothing.

Southpole Arena? In the swamps of New Jersey? Rocawear Arena? Nuh-uh. Izod Arena? New Jersey already is saturated with geckos. Now we have to be bombarded with alligators? Spare us.

I'm not sure what's worse: the three naming rights options or the fact only three companies were interested in having their names associated with the arena.