http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/local/4578233.htm
How deal went through for $900,000 billboard McGreevey aides got private approval despite a Washington Twp. ban. By Maureen Graham and Tom Turcol Inquirer Staff Writers Two days after the June 2001 primary, Paul A. Levinsohn, the chief fund-raiser for soon-to-be-Gov. James E. McGreevey, traveled to Washington Township to meet with local officials. Though Levinsohn held a key post in McGreevey's campaign, the visit had nothing to do with the governor's race. Levinsohn wanted to erect a billboard in the Gloucester County town, which had an ordinance banning billboards. Big money was riding on the outcome of the meeting. When it was over, the 34-year-old lawyer walked out with the paperwork needed to consummate a billboard transaction worth nearly $900,000, according to financial documents obtained by The Inquirer. The approvals would lead to the construction of one of the highest billboards in South Jersey. The deal's proceeds later went toward a $2.2 million payment split between Levinsohn and his partner, Gary B. Taffet, for their role in the Washington Township deal and 11 other billboard transactions. Taffet, now McGreevey's chief of staff, was then his campaign manager. Levinsohn is the governor's chief counsel. A review of details of the financial statements shows that Levinsohn and Taffet each stood to gain more than $180,000 on the Washington Township billboard alone - if local officials gave them a zoning permit. A top land-use expert now questions whether critical steps in the zoning process - including a public hearing - were omitted in order to get the project under way. "At the very least, a public hearing was necessary," said William Cox, an author whose book Zoning and Land Use Administration is a primary source for interpreting the state's land-use laws. Financial records show the deal was brokered under an umbrella corporation known as Philcor Media. The end purchaser was NextMedia Outdoor Inc. of Denver for a gross price of nearly $900,000. After subtracting $80,000 for construction and money for other commissions and deductions, the parties arrived at an adjusted purchase price of more than $730,000. Of that, Levinsohn's company, the Montrose Team, and Taffet's company, Matthew Management, were each to get 25 percent, or more than $180,000. Another partner, Matt Outdoor Inc., was to get the remaining half. One hurdle, however, was the township ban on billboards. Only a year earlier, the Zoning Board of Adjustment had turned down a longtime local business that wanted to construct a billboard on land adjacent to the Levinsohn site. But at the meeting, Levinsohn had something that the previous applicant, P&S Ravioli Co., did not - approvals from the State of New Jersey to construct his billboard on land owned by NJ Transit. In the end, that would make all the difference. With Levinsohn at the meeting was his attorney, David Thatcher. They were there on behalf of Philcor Media, a corporation owned by Francis Doyle, a McGreevey campaign contributor and the insurance broker for Washington Township. Also there were the township's attorney, John W. Trimble Sr., 69, who died Aug. 7; the township's zoning board attorney, Timothy Scaffidi; and the planning and zoning director, Rosemary Flaherty. At the meeting, Levinsohn and his attorney said they were acting as agents for NJ Transit. They argued that their billboard was being constructed on state-owned ground and was exempt from local zoning laws. They also presented some court cases to support their position. Township officials, including Trimble and Scaffidi, agreed, according to those at the meeting. That meant that no public hearing would be held, and that a permit could be issued before the public learned about the project. Levinsohn and Henry Hill, an active Democrat who was named counsel to NJ Transit after McGreevey became governor, have argued that since NJ Transit received rent money from the billboard (a net of $13,000 a year), there was a "public benefit" and therefore no need for a zoning board hearing. They have since also argued that the exemption applied even though the billboard was privately owned. Less than a week after the meeting, Levinsohn had a zoning permit that otherwise could have taken months to obtain, Flaherty said. According to Cox, the land-use expert, the project should have been aired at a public meeting. Private meetings are not where decisions on projects such as a billboard should be made, he said. Cox said state agencies' exemption from local zoning laws was meant to be applied to buildings or structures built for the public good or as part of the agency's operations. A $13,000 rental payment to NJ Transit hardly brings a billboard into that category, he said. "If it were a facility necessary for the operation of NJ Transit, then it would be different," Cox said. "While it was state-owned land, aside from the fact that NJ Transit would get ground rent, it's not within what [NJ Transit] was designed to do." "I disagree with Cox," said Hill, a past chairman of the New Jersey State Bar Association's land-use section. "It didn't need a public hearing." McGreevey, through his spokesman, declined to comment on whether he thought a public hearing was necessary. He also declined to say whether he was aware of the billboard transactions at the time. In January, as Levinsohn and Taffet were preparing to join the McGreevey administration, only the Washington Township billboard project had all the necessary approvals. Levinsohn and Taffet, eager to divest, agreed to sell their holdings to Matt Outdoor and settled for $2.2 million to cover Washington Township and 11 other sites. Five days before McGreevey's inauguration, according to records, $2.2 million was wired from Matt Outdoor to Levinsohn's corporation, to be divided between him and Taffet. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ---- Thanks, John Ellingsworth Project Leader Virtual Curriculum PGP Public Keyring: http://ellingsworth.org/pubring.pkr ---- You are receiving this because you are subscribed to the list named "UnivCity." To unsubscribe or for archive information, see <http://www.purple.com/list.html>.
