One environmentalist calls it as "dirty trick" akin to Nixon
By Gene Robbins, Managing Editor
A flyer sent to Hillsborough voters in the last week by the local Republican organization has drawn criticism for alleged misleading editing of comments by state environmentalists.
The mailer asks residents to vote yes on Tuesday’s local question to give future Township Committees the power to use up to 20 percent of the existing open space property tax for “development and improvement” on township recreation and preserved open land.
The GOP’s flyer used three quotes by state environment organization leaders purportedly to support the GOP’s position. Below the words that say “open space advocates are in agreement,” the flyer’s quotes use ellipsis (the three-dot . . . ) to show that words were left out.
After being contacted by the local citizens’ group opposing Tuesday’s local referendum, the three environmental leaders said the omissions of words changed their meanings and intentions.
Jeff Tittel, director of the N.J. Sierra Club, said his truncated quote wrongfully was a “political dirty trick and a deliberate mischaracterization” of the club’s position.
”The Hillsborough Republican Election Committee willfully put in part of a quote without the entire quote to again confuse and misrepresent Sierra Club’s full position,” Mr. Tittel said. “The people who put out this flyer have basically lied to the people of Hillsborough when it comes to open space and the Sierra Club’s position. “If they can deliberately lie and mislead on a piece of mail they should not be trusted with your open space monies,” he said.
The flyer was written, produced and paid for by the local Republican organization. Steven Sireci, the township’s Republican organization chairman, said the flyer uses a published quote of Mr. Tittel’s.
”We didn’t make it up,” he said.
He said that “nobody was lying because he (Mr. Tittel) said these things” and “the meaning was very clear.”
He said political flyers “don’t typically publish the entire quote.”
”If, in the next sentence, he said something else, “that doesn’t mean he didn’t say what was in the previous sentence,” Dr. Sireci said.
Whatever was published “speaks for itself in the English language,” he said.
A second quote was attributed to the vice president for government relations for NJ Audubon. The quote from 2011 says that state bills would give funding for parks and playgrounds, “which help keep our children healthy and raise property values . . . This is the kind of investment we need . . . to preserve safe, clean places for our children to play.”
That person is Kelly Mooij, who said in an email, the Audubon Society wasn’t working on the measure.
”We have not taken a position, testified nor endorsed this measure,” she said. “We were not asked and did not provide permission for our quotes to be used. The quotes included in the political mailer were taken out of context, without our permission or knowledge, from a press release on an unrelated matter.”
A third quote from “chair of the N.J. Keep It Green coalition” applauded Governor Christie. . . “continuing these wise investments. . . quality parks for our children and children.”
The coalition’s chair is Tom Gilbert, senior conservation finance director for The Trust for Public Land. He said his quote on the flyer “is taken out of context.”
”The Trust for Public Land was not asked for, nor did we provide, our permission to use the quote included on the mailer in support of the Hillsborough referendum,” he said. “The quote is taken out of context, since it applies to state Green Acres funding announced back in 2011, not the Hillsborough referendum. The Trust for Public Land has no position on the Hillsborough referendum.”
Mr. Tittel compared the mailer to historic “dirty tricks.”
”This is type of stuff that Nixon did during Watergate and just like Nixon they didn’t think they would get caught,” he said. “He got caught and we are catching the Hillsborough Republicans doing the same thing. What they did was wrong and despicable,” he said.
Mr. Tittel said the quote came from Sierra Club’s testimony in September on a state bill to dedicate part of the state sales tax for open space preservation. ””Mr. Tittel said, “The Sierra Club opposes the diversion of open space monies for ball fields, especially artificial turf. There are still plenty of important environmentally sensitive properties in Hillsborough that need to be acquired. This diversion will hurt those efforts by promoting sprawl and over development, which will lead to higher taxes, trafficking, and flooding.”
He said the Sierra Club was concerned by that taking open space money for other purposes “would lead to more raids on open space money benefiting developers at the expense of the people of Hillsborough. “We are also concerned since they are willing to do anything to win that they will do almost anything with this open space money,” he said.
“We are especially concerned that they would use this for pay-to-play purposes. Also use the money to clear cut forest, pave over environmentally sensitive lands for large-scale recreational complexes that could be privatized and are more a commercial enterprise then they are for public use.”
”The people of Hillsborough deserve better and should be working to preserve open space and improve their quality of life. We are calling on all environmental groups to denounce this dirty trick. We urge the people of Hillsborough to vote no against these dirty tricks and for open space.”
Dr. Sireci said he felt Mr. Tittel was told about the GOP flyer from Democrats who gave him their perception of what was happening, and that governed Mr. Tittel’s reaction.
”He’s a single-issue guy and it was presented to him as being misquoted about building, especially artificial turf fields, on parkland,” Dr. Sireci said.
An email from John Beggiato from the local Friends of Hillsborough Open Space showed that the group had emailed the three organizations, summarized the local question and said that FOHOS was “dismayed by a statement in a political mailer that implies that open space advocates are in agreement with this diversion of funds.”
FOHOS pointed to published articles and told the three environmentalists they believe the flyer’s quotes were “cobbled” from the printed statements.
“Did you agree to be quoted and do you in fact agree with their proposal?” the FOHOS email said. “If not, could you provide a response” that we can post?
Dr. Sireci, the local Republican leader, insisted the mailer only used material in the public domain.
“The words that are there still say what they say,” Dr. Sireci said.
”I cannot consider what was in the man’s head,” Dr. Sireci said. “We worked with what is published and those words were published, and those words say something about the benefit of enjoying open space.”
He decried about what he called a double standard about “Democrats” statements about the referendum, including the “lie” that the money was going for artificial fields. Criticizing the Republicans use of language and campaign fliers was “a double standard,” he said.
He said opponents used the word “diversion” as if it meant money “was going to go to some secret bank account.”
He said opponents were people who opposed the referendum were for keeping the land into “ticks and poison ivy, without destroying another thing.”
”Mr. Tittel would rather have open space untouched by human hands,” said Dr. Sireci.
”If anybody who thinks that, having paid for the land, taxpayers could use it or enjoy it, I highly encourage him to consider voting for it.”
He pointed to the example of the high school cross country teams lacking a course of their own in the township. Instead they have to travel to the Natirar county park in Gladstone for their “home” meets, he said.