New Jersey's public
advocate is worth the price
EDITORIAL, from the
Web, May 7, 2008
Statehouse Republicans say New Jersey
would be better off without its Office of the Public Advocate. By eliminating
the agency, they contend the cash-strapped state could save at least $10 million
a year. What those in the GOP fail to acknowledge, unfortunately, is the value
of the advocate's role as a unique and persuasive voice of reason and restraint,
both as a check against the intransigence of officials and their agencies, and
as a direct agent of the people of the state. New Jersey citizens would be all
the poorer without a public advocate, even conceding the dollars saved.
No better example of the importance of the public advocate's office exists than
its role in the fight over eminent domain, specifically the extent to which
government and its officials may leverage their power to seize private property
and use it for other purposes.
By way of explanation, Public Advocate Ronald K. Chen has been a leader of the
push to have the courts and the Legislature reform the state's eminent domain
laws that fail to shield property owners from government abuse in the name of
redevelopment. As such, Chen has gone up against some pretty big names,
including Gov. Jon S. Corzine, who has failed to follow through on his pledged
support of reforms or place a moratorium on eminent domain as a means of
redevelopment in the meantime.
Still, Chen keeps plugging.
Chen issued a report on eminent domain last June that called for legislative and
judicial action that "would allow good redevelopment to continue while
protecting tenants and property owners against the abuses that are undermining
redevelopment across the state.''
He also filed "friend of the court'' briefs in the case of residents fighting
the government's right to use eminent domain for redevelopment in Long Branch,
Paulsboro, Lodi and Harrison.
Chen was recognized for those efforts as the 2007 Lawyer of the Year by the New
Jersey Law Journal, no small honor.
Those initiatives are clear and powerful evidence that the public advocate's
post is essential to the state, especially since it's so often lawmakers
themselves with whom the office tangles. So when state Sen. Steven Oroho,
R-Sussex, suggested last week that the public advocate's duties overlap with
other departments and those of the Legislature, his comments were more than a
source of mild amusement. ""I would think we have 120 public advocates in what's
called the Legislature,'' he claimed.
Sorry, but no cigar.
The state's slow road to reform of eminent domain law is just one bit of proof
that New Jerseyans can't always depend on those 120 lawmakers to act in good
conscience or with requisite speed.
On the other hand, the public advocate can stir the pot and prompt action, while
it serves as a guardian of the state's underprivileged and underserved, from
utility ratepayers, to the aged, to the mentally ill. There's no doubt the
public advocate is worth the relatively small price to keep it around.
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