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12 Months Later / Marsh, Langford forced to repay money
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An occasional update on local stories that were in the news just a year ago.
Oct. 31, 2008: City Council cannot vote on new terms for the repayment of an $850,000 settlement improperly obtained and spent by the resort's former mayor and current City Council president, according to state Attorney General Anne Milgram.
In a letter obtained by The Press of Atlantic City, Milgram told Superior Court Judge Valerie Armstrong that council's plan for an election-eve vote would cause another conflict of interest in a case solely based on previously ignored conflicts.
Outgoing Mayor Scott Evans had announced that council would hold a special meeting to vote on a new restitution method for the award to former Mayor Lorenzo Langford and City Council President William Marsh in 2002.
But Milgram said the potential for Langford, the Democratic nominee for mayor, to retake his seat just days after council's vote could affect its decision. Langford is the campaign's front-runner and is opposed by Republican John McQueen Jr. and independent Joseph Polillo.
Council heeded Milgram's warning and took no action the day before the Nov. 4 election, which Langford easily won.
City documents showed the new plan would have reduced Langford and Marsh's remaining debt to as little as $67,300 combined.
In April, Marsh sought permission to reduce his own monthly payments from $2,063 to $1,000, saying, "I am trying my best to avoid bankruptcy." Armstrong refused, saying, "The situation in which Mr. Marsh finds himself is entirely self-created."
Oct. 28, 2008: Casino patrons will take their last breath of fresh air on city gaming floors Nov. 16 after City Council lifted a smoking ban.
The 5-4 vote overturned council's unanimous decision in April to ban smoking at all 11 Atlantic City casinos, instead choosing to revisit the ban in a year with hopes that the country's economic crisis has subsided.
Atlantic City casinos can allow smoking on as much as 25 percent of their floor space. Under a total ban, industry lobbyists say, they would forfeit ground to out-of-state competitors, and revenue has been down for three years already. Others want to go smoke-free to protect casino workers' health.
As for revisiting the ban in a year, council scheduled no vote on smoking this month, and its members remain divided.
Oct. 4, 2008: Windmills could start sprouting off New Jersey's coast as soon as 2010 after the state Board of Public Utilities signed off on a proposal at its meeting Friday morning.
The board unanimously approved granting $4 million to Garden State Offshore Energy over four competitors to build a wind farm, while strongly hinting that this would be just the beginning of the state's foray into wind power.
The company, a joint effort by PSEG Renewable Generation and Deepwater Wind, proposed to generate 345.6 megawatts from 96 wind turbines in a 3.5-by-5.5-mile grid to be built about 20 miles east of Avalon.
Three days later, Gov. Jon S. Corzine tripled the state's goal for wind power generated by 2020, from 1,000 megawatts to 3,000 megawatts - enough to power as many as 1 million homes.
And in December, the BPU tripled its grant money to $12 million, bringing Garden State Offshore Energy competitors Bluewater Wind and Fishermen's Energy into the fold.
Two federal agencies in April ended their feud over jurisdiction of offshore wind farms, which had held up the money. In June, the federal government issued its first ever windfarm leases to the three companies, allowing them to build from six to 18 miles off shore.
The companies agreed in September not to restrict fishing near their planned windmills. And later in September, the state Department of Environmental Protection simplified the permit process for small wind projects to be built along the coast.
Oct. 11, 2008: Motorists protested until the last minute but still will have to dig deeper into their pockets to pay higher fares on the state's three toll roads.
Atlantic City Expressway operators authorized toll hikes of 50 percent to 60 percent, depending on the location. Two hours later, the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, which runs the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway, approved two toll increases. The original proposal called for three.
Drivers will begin paying higher tolls near the end of November or beginning of December. The second toll hikes on the parkway and turnpike will take effect in 2012.
The South Jersey Transportation Authority announced in November that expressway tollbooths would disappear by the end of 2010, with drivers required to pay by E-ZPass or have their license plate numbers captured for billing later.
In May, the authority calculated that a drop in traffic meant it was getting 87 percent of the revenue it had expected through the expressway toll hikes.
Staff writer Eric Scott Campbell
Posted in Atlantic_city on Monday, October 26, 2009 3:05 am
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