Washington, D.C. – Esta mañana, el presidente Bush anunció las modificaciones al tránsito aéreo durante los días de Acción de Gracias (Thanksgiving) y las Navidades.  El Presidente también anunció el plan de su Administración de subastar las horas de las salidas de los vuelos en los tres aeropuertos más grandes cercanos a la ciudad de Nueva York, con el propósito de reducir las demoras.

El senador federal Robert Menendez ha presionado consistentemente a la administración Bush para que tome medidas y resuelva el problema de las demoras en los aeropuertos, en particular en el área de la ciudad de Nueva York, el espacio aéreo mas congestionado de la nación.

El ha detenido el nombramiento de la persona nominada para la posición de Director de la Administración Federal de Aviación, entre otras cosas, por las demoras en los aeropuertos. (http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=292402).   El Senador también se ha opuesto vehementemente al plan de subastar los horarios de las salidas de los vuelos por el potencial que tiene de aumentar significativamente los precios de los pasajes para los residentes de Nueva Jersey (http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?id=304397).

            El senador Menendez emitió las siguientes declaraciones en respuesta al anuncio del presidente Bush:
            “Aunque las modificaciones a las rutas del tránsito aéreo son bienvenidas porque traerán consigo un poco de alivio en las demoras de los vuelos durante la época festiva, millones de norteamericanos que han volado desde que el presidente Bush implementó la versión previa de este plan temporal le pueden decir que las demoras en los vuelos persisten, y se han extendido al año entero.  La administración Bush terminará su período sin atender los problemas más grandes que congestionan nuestro sistema de tránsito aéreo y en su lugar ha recurrido a dar pasos insignificantes y a arreglos provisorios. Si hubiese querido lidiar sistemáticamente con las demoras en los vuelos, se hubiese asegurado que haya suficientes controladores de vuelos trabajando y ayudarían al Congreso a traer el sistema de tráfico aéreo al siglo 21. “
“Además, estoy vehementemente opuesto a la insistencia del Presidente en proceder con un plan ilegal para subastar los horarios de los despegues de los vuelos en los tres aeropuertos del área metropolitana de la ciudad de Nueva York.  Esto es igual a imponer un impuesto adicional a las personas de nuestra área por su lugar de residencia y por los horarios en que desean viajar.  Obligar a las familias de clase media de nuestra región a pagar más por volar en los mejores horarios es injusto y particularmente absurdo en este difícil momento económico.” 

For Immediate Release:
November 17, 2008 RONALD K. CHEN
Public Advocate

Contact:
 Laurie Brewer
609-826-5054
  
 

Public Advocate releases report: “Evicted from the American Dream: The Redevelopment of Mount Holly Gardens”

Calls for changes in state laws governing redevelopment and relocation assistance

TRENTON -- New Jersey redevelopment laws need to be changed to better protect and adequately compensate low- and moderate-income people who are displaced by municipal redevelopment programs, New Jersey Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen said today.

The findings are part of the conclusion of a lengthy investigation by the Public Advocate into the ongoing redevelopment of Mount Holly Gardens, a low- and moderate-income neighborhood that is targeted for demolition.

The investigation reveals that the redevelopment has proceeded without adequate regard for the welfare of the families who lived in the area the Township had deemed blighted and who should by rights have been the first to benefit from its planned revitalization.  Instead, the residents tended to become collateral damage of the redevelopment process.

The investigation shows significant gaps in the state laws governing financial compensation for people whose homes are taken to make room for private redevelopment, leaving displaced families unable to replace the home they lose.  There are similar shortfalls in the laws meant to ensure that tenants get the assistance they need to relocate to comparable rental units.

The Public Advocate launched the investigation with a public hearing in December 2007, in which dozens of residents spoke about the impact that the redevelopment has had on their lives and their community.  A video excerpted from this hearing is located at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5659206087356136484&ei=XMMdScHyHpKYrQKlmMHoBg&q=mount+holly+gardens

The report, “Evicted from the American Dream: The Redevelopment of Mount Holly Gardens,” examines a redevelopment process that began in 2002, and describes the gradual “dispersal and partial destruction of the existing community.”

“The municipality can offer homeowners far less money than it costs to actually replace the home they would lose to the redevelopment.  The local government can offer scant relocation assistance to low-income families who rent their homes in redevelopment areas, and can even deny relocation assistance altogether to residents it does not consider technically eligible. It isn’t right and it isn’t fair, but it is at least arguably permitted under our current laws as written,” said Chen. “That is why we need to change the law.”

“The first duty of any local government is to its existing residents,” said Chen.  “The law should not permit a municipality to proceed on the assumption that some of its residents will simply disappear for the convenience of those who remain or who may arrive to replace them.  It is our hope that statutory reform will reconcile the laws governing compensation and relocation with the overriding principle that the costs of redeveloping a community should not be borne by those who can least afford it.”

The redevelopment area studied by the Public Advocate includes Mount Holly Gardens, a diverse and affordable residential neighborhood built in the 1950s that once included more than 350 attached, garden-style units.

Since designating the area blighted in 2002, the township of Mount Holly has purchased more than 200 of the units without resorting to condemnation.  But the threat of eminent domain hung over the community for many years, and many landlords and some homeowners sold their houses with the understanding that the township intended to take them, by eminent domain if necessary. 

The township has demolished more than 70 of the units it purchased, and has boarded up and left vacant many of the others. About two-thirds of the housing units in the Gardens are now empty.

The report makes these principal findings:

When homeowners are displaced, they are not getting enough money to allow them to purchase comparable homes in the same municipality, or even the region.  A Mount Holly Gardens family who owned the largest three-bedroom unit received a maximum of $84,000: $49,000 for the sale of the property at the township’s appraised value, $15,000 in relocation assistance, and possibly a $20,000 interest-free loan to be repaid upon the sale of the replacement house.

Even this – the most generous compensation package offered – is not enough to buy a replacement property in Mount Holly, where the average sale price for a house last year was more than $206,000.  Senior citizens are hit particularly hard.  Many of them have lived in their homes for decades, and their mortgages are paid.  They live on fixed incomes and cannot assume new debt.
Tenants also end up worse off.  Displaced tenants have relocated to housing that rents, on average, for almost 40% more than the homes they left.  To those it deemed eligible, the township paid $7500 in rental assistance, almost twice the $4000 required by a law that has not been updated since 1972.  Yet even this enhanced assistance was insufficient, covering less than 60% of the average rental increase, and only for a period of four years. 
The law gives the municipality exclusive authority to trigger a household’s eligibility for relocation assistance, depriving the residents of control over when they leave an area that may have become a construction zone.  In Mount Holly, the township did not begin offering such assistance until late 2006, by which time dozens of rental families had already left the Gardens with no financial assistance at all.

Those who remain have watched the neighborhood empty and come down around them.  As the deteriorating conditions intensify the pressure to leave, they have no ready means to demand more adequate compensation and financial assistance when they are ready to go.
Redevelopment threatens the affordable housing stock.  Based on the Township’s estimates, when this project is over, more than 300 homes that were affordable to low- and moderate-income households will have been demolished, and fifty-six such units will be built.  The result will be a loss of more than 200 affordable housing units.
To address those concerns, the Department makes the following recommendations:

First, the law must demand that displaced homeowners receive “replacement value,” that is, compensation adequate to allow them to relocate to comparable replacement homes in their own communities.
 
Second, when tenants are displaced for redevelopment, the law should entitle them to the full difference between their old rent and their new rent in a decent, safe, sanitary, and comparable replacement dwelling for at least seven years – with no time limits for senior citizens or people with disabilities living on fixed incomes.
Third, the law should require municipalities to notify residents at least six months before demolitions begin.  Once residents receive that notice, they must be allowed to demand fair compensation and to qualify for relocation assistance whenever they are ready to go.
Fourth, when redevelopment results in the demolition of affordable housing, municipalities must be required to replace as much of this housing as possible so as to avoid aggravating an already dire shortage of affordable housing in the State.
The Department is working with state legislators to amend the state’s redevelopment laws to better protect vulnerable low-income citizens subject to displacement as a result of municipal redevelopment programs.

“Whatever their original intent may have been, the current compensation and relocation assistance laws allow a redevelopment to proceed, triggering the displacement of large numbers of residents, without ensuring that every resident is protected against the immediate and foreseeable adverse consequences of the redevelopment,” the report states.

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For Immediate Release:         For Further Information Contact:
November 13, 2008                    Division of Criminal Justice (609) 292-4791

LEADER AND CO-CONSPIRATOR SENTENCED TO STATE PRISON
FOR THEIR ROLES IN SOUTH JERSEY DRUG NETWORK

TRENTON – Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that two men involved in a South Jersey drug network, including one of the leaders of the ring, were sentenced to state prison today on charges they bought and sold large quantities of marijuana and cocaine.

The charges resulted from a cooperative investigation by the New Jersey State Police and the Pennsylvania State Police into interstate smuggling of drugs.  The investigation led to the seizure of 63 pounds of marijuana and $47,000 in cash last year.

Joel G. Juarez, 40, aka Enrique H. Penna, of Pilesgrove, was sentenced today to 15 years in state prison with 40 months of parole ineligibility by Superior Court Judge Michael R. Connor in Atlantic County.  Juarez pleaded guilty on Sept. 11 to possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, conspiracy, and attempted possession of cocaine with intent to distribute, charges contained in a May 12 state grand jury indictment obtained by the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau.  He also pleaded guilty that day to a criminal accusation charging him with maintaining a marijuana production facility. 

Juarez was arrested by the New Jersey State Police on the evening of July 13, 2007 at the Budget Motel on East Black Horse Pike in Folsom, along with Damian Constantino, 43, aka Damian Garcia, of Pilesgrove.  Juarez admitted that he conspired with Damian Constantino to sell 59 pounds of marijuana, which they had in their possession.  Constantino’s son, Baltazar Constantino, 22, also of Pilesgrove, was arrested at the same time at his father’s store, Las Delicias Food Market on Central Avenue in Hammonton.  Juarez admitted that, earlier that day, he had loaded containers of marijuana into vehicles at the rear of the store.

Also today, Luis A. DeJesus, 29, of Lawrenceville, was sentenced by Judge Connor to serve five years in state prison.  His brother, Leonardo R. DeJesus, 30, of Long Branch, failed to appear at sentencing and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.  The defendants pleaded guilty before Judge Connor on Sept. 11 to attempted possession of cocaine with intent to distribute and conspiracy.  The two men were arrested with Juarez and Damian Constantino at the Budget Motel.

At the plea hearing, Leonardo and Luis DeJesus admitted that they went to the motel to buy cocaine.  The brothers admitted that they had $47,000 in their possession for the purchase.

At the time of the arrests, search warrants were also executed by New Jersey State Police TEAMS (Technical Emergency and Mission Specialists) Units at Las Delicias, where they allegedly recovered 3 pounds of marijuana and a digital scale, and at the farm labor camp where Juarez lived at 1423 Kings Highway, where they allegedly recovered one-half pound of marijuana and 14 marijuana plants.

Charges are pending against Damian and Baltazar Constantino.  They failed to appear previously in court for a status conference, and Judge Connor issued arrest warrants for them.

The case was investigated by the New Jersey State Police Organized Crime Control Bureau - Drug Trafficking South Unit and the Pennsylvania State Police Vice Unit - Troop J.  Deputy Attorney General Philip S. Aronow of the Division of Criminal Justice Gangs & Organized Crime Bureau negotiated the pleas and represented the state at the sentencing hearings.

For Immediate Release:   For Further Information Contact:
November 13, 2008    Division of Criminal Justice (609) 292-4791

 ESSEX COUNTY PHARMACY OWNER PLEADS GUILTY TO
$10,000 MEDICAID PRESCRIPTION FRAUD

TRENTON - Attorney General Anne Milgram announced that the owner of an Essex County pharmacy has pleaded guilty to bilking Medicaid out of more than $10,000.

According to Insurance Fraud Prosecutor Greta Gooden Brown, Twumasi Ampofo, 39, of Irvington, the owner of Victory Pharmacy on Springfield Avenue in Irvington, pleaded guilty yesterday before Essex County Superior Court Judge Denise A. Cobham to second-degree health care claims fraud.  The charge was contained in a Dec. 20, 2007 state grand jury indictment.

Ampofo faces up to five years in state prison under his plea agreement.  He is scheduled to be sentenced on Jan. 16.  Ampofo must pay full restitution and will be barred for life from participating in any state or federally funded health insurance or prescription assistance program, such as Medicaid and Medicare.

At the guilty plea hearing, Ampofo admitted that between July and October 2007, he paid cash to Medicaid beneficiaries in return for prescriptions, including medications for HIV/AIDS.  Ampofo admitted that he billed the Medicaid program as if the prescriptions had been filled when, in fact, they had not.  Medicaid paid Victory Pharmacy $10,387 on the false claims.

Detective Laura Pezzuti and Deputy Attorney General Linda Rinaldi were assigned to the investigation.  Rinaldi represented the Office of Insurance Fraud Prosecutor at the plea hearing.

The Medicaid program, which is funded by the state and federal governments, provides health care services and prescription drugs to persons who may not otherwise be able to afford such services and medicines.