| ||||||||||||
Star Ledger ‘N.J. Attorney General to review role of Race to the Top consultant after failed application’
NY Times 'Political Memo' Christie, in Perpetual Motion, Aims to Put Lapse Behind Him
Star Ledger ‘N.J. Attorney General to review role of Race to the Top consultant after failed application’
Published: Tuesday, September 07, 2010, 9:45 PM Updated: Wednesday, September 08, 2010, 6:19 AM
Lisa Fleisher/Statehouse Bureau
TRENTON — The state Attorney General’s Office today said it is reviewing the contract of a consultant paid more than $500,000 to help New Jersey through two rounds of competition for federal education funding, as lawmakers called for more details about the company’s involvement in the failed bids for up to $400 million.
During a hearing today, state education officials said they still could not say the exact source of a crucial error that helped sink the state’s chances for funding as they detailed how they put together a more than 1,000-page application.
A Newark Public Schools official said he flagged the error for the consultant — after the deadline and too late to correct the mistake — as he prepared to help state officials present the application to contest judges in Washington, D.C.
Daniel Gohl, in charge of innovation and change in Newark schools, said the consultant, New York-based Wireless Generation told him the state could not change information after the June 1 deadline. He said he did not mention the error to state education officials.
"I was told there was nothing we can do," Gohl said. "The rules of engagement were extremely clear."
Assembly Republicans said the consultant "failed to assure the technical accuracy of the application in violation of their contract" and called on Attorney General Paula Dow to review it. Lee Moore, spokesman for Dow, said a review was already underway.
"We have been looking into this matter for several days now," Moore said. "We’ve been examining the issues and analyzing the agreement with the consultant, Wireless Generation. As part of our review, we are looking at all of the options that may be in the State’s best interest."
Wireless Generation spokeswoman Andrea Reizel declined to comment.
The on-going fight over the state’s application has largely centered on why a question on whether New Jersey kept funding for education steady from 2008 to 2009 was answered using information from 2011 — and whether the state tried to correct the error at the presentation in Washington on Aug. 11.
Last month, Gov. Chris Christie fired Education Commissioner Bret Schundler after a dispute over whether the former commissioner told the governor he tried to fix the mistake during the presentation. Schundler has said he told Christie the state did not provide new information; Christie said he told him the opposite.
New contradictions arose during the hearing today.
Deputy Commissioner Andrew Smarick said Schundler also told him he remembered providing "additional information" to the judges, which is in line with Christie’s version.
Meanwhile, Gohl said he recalled Schundler telling a judge after the presentation, "We can get you anything that you need." Schundler, who declined to attend the hearing, tonight said: "Sounds like everyone is on the same page, further evidence that I haven’t lied to anyone," he said.
State education officials described a process lasting weeks and culminating over the Memorial Day weekend, with up to 12 versions of a section going back and forth between state officials and representatives from Wireless Generation. Assembly Democrats produced a document they received from the Christie administration with hand-written edits removing the correct information. Schundler tonight confirmed the handwriting was his and said he made assumptions about what the question was asking.
"I should not have assumed anything, and Wireless, our consultant, should have caught the error," he said in a statement.
The hearing was called a "witch hunt" by Republicans. Democrats said it was a sincere attempt to determine "how a mistake of this magnitude was made."
"We have serious issues with the amount of money that was paid to that consultant group, and the number of days of service they provided," said Assembly Speaker Sheila Oliver (D-Essex).
Staff writer Jessica Calefati contributed to this report.
NY TIMES 'Political Memo'
Christie, in Perpetual Motion, Aims to Put Lapse Behind Him
By RICHARD PÉREZ-PEÑA
Published: September 7, 2010 pm
·
You might have thought New Jersey’s politicians were living in two different countries on Tuesday.
With much buildup, Assembly Democrats convened a hearing to explore the mistakes that cost the state a $400 million federal grant and cost the education commissioner his job. At the same time, Gov. Chris Christie mostly ignored the topic and mounted one of his biggest public relations offensives, calling for sweeping changes in ethics, pensions and education by Christmas.
Democrats would be happy to keep the public’s attention on the biggest series of missteps yet made by the Republican governor, in the competition for Race to the Top education financing. And Mr. Christie would like nothing more than to change the subject — or, more accurately, to change it back — to his drive to overhaul state and local government.
Those dueling narratives on Tuesday shed light on how the governor has operated in his first nine months in Trenton, an approach that contributed to his stumbles on the education grant but could allow him to seize the momentum again. His blunt, man-in-a-hurry manner, disdain for compromise, talent for insulting opponents and self-deprecating wit have made him popular with his constituents and the national news media.
He turned to that strength on Tuesday morning, appearing in quick succession on three cable programs that offered sympathetic forums: “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, “Imus in the Morning” on the Fox Business Channel and “Fox & Friends” on the Fox News Channel. Their hosts treated him as a national figure, inquiring about possible presidential ambitions, asking him to comment on President Obama’s stimulus plans, giving him a chance to promote still-unspecified initiatives — and serving up just a few gentle questions about the lost education grant.
Then Mr. Christie was off to Wayne, N.J., for the first in a series of town-hall-style meetings on government reform. He promised to flesh out his plans over the next few weeks, and his office promoted a Web video of the governor talking about the need for change.
“The governor realizes that the Democrats are going to balk at a lot of what he wants to do,” said Patrick Murray, director of the Monmouth University Polling Institute, “and he needs to use the bully pulpit and get the public on his side.”
Few governors have had the skill or “a high enough profile to carry that off,” Mr. Murray said, “but he can.”
When it was revealed two weeks ago that a clerical error had kept the state from winning the $400 million grant, Mr. Christie’s reaction, as is his wont, was to lash out at Washington officials for being too picayune. When his version of events was proved incorrect, he blamed his education commissioner, Bret D. Schundler, and fired him.
As Mr. Schundler has said, “The governor told me that he’d always rather be on offense than on defense.”
The Race to the Top episode emboldened Democrats to challenge Mr. Christie more than they had since he took office, and briefly put him on the defensive for the first time as his office spent a few days trying to clarify what had happened. There is a saying in politics: If you’re explaining, you’re losing.
But political analysts say that unless a pattern of bungling emerges, the episode should not slow the governor down much.
“The same aggressive attitude and force of personality that has helped him also helped trip him up, but it will help him again,” said Ben Dworkin, director of the Rebovich Institute for New Jersey Politics at Rider University. Reflecting on Mr. Christie’s previous job, as a federal prosecutor, Mr. Dworkin said, “He governs like a prosecutor arguing a case, on the attack.”
The Assembly Appropriations Committee heard testimony on Tuesday from several officials of the state’s Education Department, who shed little light on the Race to the Top episode.
The committee had asked several aides to Mr. Christie to testify as well, but the governor’s office said they would not. Nor did Mr. Schundler, who has said he wants to put the episode behind him.
As for the governor, his approach to the day was to ignore the hearing and move ahead.
