NEW JERSEY PUBLIC ADVOCATE PROVIDES A VOICE FOR THE PEOPLE

During the Department of the Public Advocate’s (DPA) third year, the department protected the interests of people across New Jersey, including voters, property owners, children exposed to lead toxins in their homes, people with disabilities and mental illness, and elderly people living in long-term care facilities.

Property Rights/Eminent Domain

Over the past year, the Public Advocate scored some major legal victories in the department’s ongoing effort to protect the rights of property owners fearful of losing their homes to municipal redevelopment projects.

In February, in a case in which the department participated, the Appellate Division delivered a significant victory to property owners and held they are entitled to clear notice and a fair hearing before a municipality takes their property for redevelopment.  The ruling reinforced the constitutional principle that the “government has an overriding obligation to deal forthrightly and fairly with property owners.”

In November, NJDPA released a report, Evicted from the American Dream: The Redevelopment of Mount Holly Gardens, documenting the inadequacy of the compensation paid under current law to displaced homeowners and renters.  The culmination of a yearlong investigation, the report provides powerful support for reforming the current system of compensation and relocation assistance.

Childhood Lead Poisoning

In April, the department brought the long-standing issue of childhood lead poisoning back into the public spotlight when it unveiled a startling report – based on a November 2007 field investigation --  showing that childhood lead poisoning remains a significant health problem.

In response to the DPA’s field investigation into lead paint poisoning, Governor Corzine signed Executive Order #100 which mandated that State agencies take steps to address deficiencies in the State’s lead poisoning response and prevention system.  The department also developed the Model Lead-Safe City Program, in which DPA works closely with cities to improve lead poisoning response and prevention.   Camden, Elizabeth, East Orange, Irvington, Hackensack, Paterson and Newark have signed Model City Agreements and have made significant advances. 

Helping NJ Citizens 

The Public Advocate’s Office of Citizen Relations solved problems for more than 2,000 New Jersey residents who called the department’s helpline seeking assistance in their dealings with public agencies.  This marked a 60 percent increase from the previous year.

Protecting Elderly People

The Department continues to vigorously protect the rights of senior citizens living in long-term care facilities. The Office of the Ombudsman for the Institutionalized Elderly investigated nearly 7,300 complaints of abuse and neglect in long term care facilities, an increase of 16 percent over last year. In addition, the Ombudsman dramatically increased its activities in the area of investigating financial exploitation of elderly people and has collaborated with law enforcement on several high profile prosecutions.

In addition, the department undertook an investigation of a Wisconsin-based assisted living company’s  practice of involuntarily discharging residents who had spent-down all private pay funds and were eligible for Medicaid.  Since July, the Department has conducted nearly 100 in-depth interviews with current and former residents of Assisted Living Concepts facilities in southern New Jersey. The Department is now working with the Department of Health and Senior Services to protect residents who are in the Medicaid conversion process and will issue a public report on its ALC investigation early next year.

Finally, the DPA's Elder Advocacy Division and the Ombudsman took a leadership role in publicizing the need for senior citizens to complete a 2007 1040A tax form in order to qualify for the federal stimulus package offered to taxpayers by the federal government in 2008. 

Voting Rights and Election Protection

In March 2008, the Public Advocate, the Motor Vehicle Commission, and the Attorney General signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) designed to bring New Jersey into full compliance with the 15-year-old “motor voter” law that requires motor vehicle agencies to register voters.  The signing of the MOU ended 15 years of noncompliance with the National Voter Registration Act. 

The initial reports from MVC are favorable, showing that between March and September 2008, MVC registered 42,487 new voters, nearly doubling the pace of registrations from the 2004-06 reporting cycle.   The Division of Elections completed a mailing in September 2008 to approximately 821,000 of the approximately 2.1 million MVC customers who were not on the voter registration rolls, resulting in abundant new registrations and voters in the November 2008 election.

In addition, DPA attorneys were deployed in court houses throughout the state on election day in November. DPA attorneys represented nearly 500 voters whose names did not appear on voter registration rolls on election but who believed they were entitled to vote.

Advocating for People with Disabilities and Mental Illness

The Department spotlighted the gradual disappearance of an important housing resource for people who are elderly, disabled or suffering from mental illness. After visiting every residential health care facility (RHCF) in the state, the Advocate issued a report calling for an increase in the reimbursement rates paid to these facilities.

The Division of Mental Health Advocacy, housed in the DPA, surveyed RHCF residents, most of whom are mentally ill, about their living conditions. While these facilities have been criticized by many, DPA investigators found many of them to be pleasant and appropriate places for mental health consumers to reside and many consumers expressed satisfaction with them.  A DPA report, released in March, is titled “Heading toward Homelessness: Issues in Residential Health Care Facilities” and makes the case that supporting RHCFs will help keep some mental health consumers out of expensive state psychiatric hospitals.

DPA also continued to monitor the quality of care at the state's five psychiatric hospitals and provided legal representation to thousands of mental health consumers committed to those hospitals.

Advocating for Ratepayers

The Division of Rate Counsel settled cases which resulted in an estimated savings of $208 million in 2008. Although not measured in a quantifiable dollar amount, Rate Counsel was an active participant in a number of significant case and policy matters on behalf of ratepayers, such as the Energy Master Plan, the Governor’s Energy Efficiency initiative, the transition to a market-based framework for solar energy, and Demand Response programs.

For telecommunications and cable customers, Rate Counsel negotiated total savings in 2008 in excess of $102 million. Rate Counsel negotiated a stipulation to preserve rate regulation for residential, single line business telephone services, 2 free Directory Assistance calls and a freeze on rates for lifeline service. 

For water and wastewater customers, Rate Counsel negotiated total savings in 2008 in excess of $71 million, in over 50 contested cases.  Rate Counsel has also worked with the water and wastewater industry to improve the security and reliability of the state’s water supply. Rate Counsel is playing a pivotal role in negotiating the sale by the City of Trenton of its outside water system to New Jersey American Water (NJAW) under terms that are fair to the City, the outside customers and the other customers of NJAW.

For gas customers, Rate Counsel negotiated total savings in 2008 in excess of $35 million. Rate Counsel successfully argued before a federal Administrative Law Judge for a more favorable allocation of the costs of merchant transmission lines for New Jersey ratepayers.  Rate Counsel also negotiated a settlement of the request by New Jersey Natural Gas to increase its rates, reducing the increase by about $26 million, resulting in a 3.6% increase instead of the 7.5% originally requested.

With respect to electric rates and services Rate Counsel was instrumental in convincing utilities and regulators not to implement broad scale deployment of Advanced Meters, which are very expensive, and may not achieve significant, actual energy savings.  Instead, the companies will launch pilot programs to assess the best means of deploying such technology.  Rate Counsel has also been active in negotiating demand response programs that are aimed at achieving peak load reductions by summer 2009.  Rate Counsel continues to monitor closely the auctions for basic generation service for residential and small commercial customers and to propose ways to improve the process to hopefully yield lower electricity rates.

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