Who is He Working For? Door Revolves at DEP

Adam Zellner (facing) then a Corzine policy advisor talks with Lisa Jackson, DEP Commissioner at Governor Corzine’s Turnpike financing briefing (2/9/08)

Apologies for the poor quality of the photo, but it was the only one I had of Adam Zellner, a political player in NJ democratic party circles, and most recently Governor Jon Corzine’s policy advisor (for the story on Zellner, see: Jersey guy is Gov. Corzine’s new policy counsel

According to the Governor’s Office:

Adam Zellner was appointed policy director in January 2008. He came to the Governor’s Office from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, where he served as deputy commissioner for policy and legislative affairs.

Prior to joining DEP, Zellner served as executive director of the New Jersey Highlands Council and is a former executive director of the New Jersey Office of Smart Growth. He also served as chief of staff to U.S. Rep. Steve Rothman.

A perfect example of “revolving door” abuse, Zellner is now President of a company called Green by Design and politically wired into the Obama administration.

I just got a call from inside DEP advising that Zellner was in the DEP building today.

If so, who is he meeting with from DEP, and what kind of political deal is he negotiating?

We’d know if DEP were to approve PEER’s petition for transparency. 

That petition is now on Commissioner Mauriello’s desk and a decision is imminent.

DEP is a government agency designed to serve the public interest.

All business done with DEP is PUBLIC business.

Under current ELEC laws, ALL such meetings MUST be reported as “attempts to influence government processes“.

I can assure you that for every citizen or environmental group meeting with a DEP official, there are 99 other private meetings with industry lobbyists and developers’ engineers. This may explain why DEP approves between 95 – 98% of permit applications (see DEP “Permit Activity Report” aka “Doria Report” or “EMAP“).

Disclosure and transparency can only HELP citizens and media protect the environment and the public interest.

Revolving door abuses can be controlled by the CleanGreenNJ ethics reform agenda:

Extend current ethics law post-employment restrictions (see here) from companies seeking DEP approvals from one year to five (and perpetuity for any matter involving a company or a regulatory approval that the DEP employee worked on), and strengthen, monitor and enforce the restriction.

We urge your support.