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By Victor E. Sasson
Editor
The Record's front page today reports Hackensack's famously corrupt police chief "may have been paid twice for unused sick time in 2010" (A-1).
Why are these payments to Ken "I Am The Law" Zisa -- one in April 2010 and another in June 2010 -- hitting Page 1 of The Record just now?
Or are they?
Today's story by Staff Writer Hannan Adely reports Zisa, who was arrested at the end of April 2010 on fraud charges, was paid $93,513 from a $4.6 million bond ordinance approved by his allies on the City Council on May 4, 2010.
On that same day -- May 4, 2010 -- The Record reported Zisa had been suspended with his pay of $191,000 a year, but no story about the $93,513 payout ever appeared.
Old news
Today's story also reports Zisa cashed out $53,671 in unused sick pay, receiving the money on June 1, 2010.
But the second payment is old news, having been reported in The Record of June 8, 2010, according to my notes of local news coverage at the time.
Poor editing
Today's story is poorly edited and contains at least one error:
The story and photo caption on A-6 report Zisa "has vowed to appeal" May 2012 guilty verdicts in state Superior Court for official misconduct and insurance fraud.
The appeal of the convictions and a 5-year prison sentence imposed on Sept. 20, 2012, has already been filed, and he is under house arrest pending a ruling from a higher court.
Who is dishonest?
It was a city official's accusation of dishonesty against a formerly homeless man that triggered today's story on payouts to Zisa, and earlier accounts of the inflated salary and a payout to Agatha Toomey, head of the city's Department of Human Services.
Toomey had denied benefits to James Brady, claiming the formerly homeless man hadn't reported the $850 he found on the street and was awarded after no one claimed the cash.
Local news coverage
The Record has been doing a much better job of covering Hackensack since a reform City Council slate took office on July 1, but in 2010, city news was treated with benign neglect by head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes and her deputy, Dan Sforza.
It was not unknown for nearly a month to pass between Hackensack stories as the paper's local news coverage waned dramatically after North Jersey Media Group and its flagship daily abandoned 150 River St.
A good argument can be made that voter apathy in local elections is linked to spotty news coverage of Hackensack and other communities.
Health-care reform
Today's and Thursday's front pages are dominated by stories reporting problems with implementation of the Affordable Care Act.
But neither account tells readers Governor Christie had a hand in throwing state residents into the problem-plagued federal marketplace after he vetoed a measure that would have set up a state marketplace with more health-insurance options (A-1).
News media coverage of the health-care rollout has been relentlessly negative, and this morning, House Speaker John Boehner was quoted on National Public Radio as claiming that before the Affordable Care Act, the United States had the "best" health-delivery system in the world.
No reporter asked Boehner how the "best" system in the world left 30 million to 40 million Americans without insurance, and the rest of us paying for their care in emergency rooms.
Christie's plan?
Since Christie won reelection on Nov. 5, I haven't seen any stories about what he plans to do in his second term. Do we have to wait for his state of the state address in January for that?
Wednesday's paper led with the split between the GOP bully and former Gov. Thomas H. Kean, who reportedly was "very disappointed" with Christie's attempt to unseat his son, Thomas H. Kean Jr., as Senate minority leader.
Gee. After months and months of reading Record accounts of how Christie is the great compromiser who can walk on water, this rift among state Republicans comes out of left field.
LG controversy
Coverage of the controversial LG headquarters north of the George Washington Bridge continues to be plagued by fuzzy reporting (A-1).
This story and previous accounts haven't explored whether the Parisi family that rules Englewood Cliffs has in the past made similar deals with big corporations that adversely impacted residents' quality of life and the environment.
If you are looking for local news that explores that and similar questions, you won't find it in Sforza's section today.
Shoot 'em up
In the absence of Sykes, who has been sidelined for months by a mysterious ailment, Sforza continues to rely heavily on sensational Law & Order news to fill his section.
The attempted murder of a Hackenack woman, allegedly by her husband, leads Local today (L-1), and every other page carries police, fire or court news.
Deadly cream and butter
In Better Living, Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung's 3.5-star appraisal of Cenzino in Oakland claims the regional Italian fare is "made with a light hand," even though the cover photo shows a rich, artery clogging dessert (BL-1) and another photo has ravioli swimming in a sea of butter (BL-20).
A cannelloni stuffed with ground veal she sampled came in a cream sauce, but she describes it as "delicate."
The reporter also misspelled the great Italian cheese, Parmigiano Reggiano, and mistakenly added a hyphen to its name.
Ung seems oblivious to the dietary restrictions followed by the majority of her readers, who are far older than her and don't eat as if they are going to live forever.
At the end of the review's data box, The Record states "the newspaper always pays the tab" (BL-20).
Why doesn't a similar statement appear every Sunday in The Record's Travel section?
