Setting The Record Straight On The Career Of Bob Shinn

“Open For Business” Relegated To The Grave

J. Garfield DeMarco (right) with Bob Shinn, former commissioner of the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, at a dedication of the A.J. DeMarco Cranberry Meadows Natural Area in October 2013. Photo Submitted By New Jersey Conservation Foundation

I just learned that Bob Shinn died last Friday (May 5). I learned that fact from a highly praiseworthy press release issued by the NJ Pinelands Commission, where Shinn served, see:

• Pinelands Commission Mourns Passing of Robert C. Shinn, Jr.

I am biased and can not be objective because Shinn, as DEP Commissioner, fired me as a whistleblower in 1994. But still, I can and must inject historical facts to balance the record.

I need to collect my thoughts in order to write something in the near future.

But in the meantime, a comprehensive source of information on Shinn’s DEP record can be found in Christie Whitman’s US Senate Confirmation hearing transcript . That transcript provides testimony that documents that record, which was one of “failing a core mission”. Don’t miss my friend Bill Neil’s testimony.

There was extensive critical press coverage of Shinn’s record, so these facts are readily accessible.

The Bergen Record even won a journalistic prize in environmental reporting, based on Whitman’s own slogan that NJ is “Open For Business”. See the Bergen Record’s award winning expose series which won a national journalism award for “A New Genre of Environmental Reporting”  the John B. Oakes Award for Distinguished Environmental Journalism.

Both Record reporters, Dusty McNichol and Kelly Richmond are dead, so I really hope that the NJ Press corps – especially the Bergen Record – honors their legacy and tells the truth about Shinn’s record. (Dusty later wrote for the Star Ledger.)

So I can’t imagine that the Record (Jim O’Neill!) and the Star Ledger (Tom Moran!) can possibly ignore all that critical coverage. Even the NY Times wrote several stories. Here’s just one:

During the administration of Gov. Christie Whitman, the staff of the environmental agency was cut 20 percent, and hours were reduced to 35 from 40 a week, said Bill Wolfe, a former department official who today is director of New Jersey Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, a nonprofit watchdog group. The agency’s site remediation program, which is responsible for overseeing cleanups, dropped to 500 employees from 600 in 1996, even as the department’s responsibilities were expanded to include the regulation of solid and hazardous waste.

“The D.E.P. never recovered,” Mr. Wolfe said.

But in anticipation of another highly spun press release by DEP and similarly misleading reporting by the NJ press corps, I just sent this email heads up to the usual suspects, including DEP Commissioner LaTourette and his Deputy Moriarty:

Bob Shinn was DEP Commissioner for 8 years under Gov. Whitman’s “Open For Business” administration. He presided over the huge (30%) downsizing of DEP’s staff and budget and his first priority and actions were to abandon the Florio DEP’s nationally leading Solid Waste Management Plan, dismantle the Mercury Task Force, and gut the implementation of the Pollution Prevention Act.

I have a written transcript of sworn testimony by former DEP Assistant Commissioner Richard Sinding stating that Shinn misled the Gov. and directed Sinding to flat out lie about the science, toxicity, and public health risks of mercury (Shinn fired me for blowing the whistle and leaking his memo to Whitman that put those lies and a cynical proposed PR campaign in writing).

He was the least qualified DEP Commissioner in DEP’s history.

I trust that DEP’s press release will accurately reflect this history and not be a hagiography.

Be forewarned of the facts.

Bill Wolfe