The Record from Hackensack, New Jersey • 3

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9. 2X2 THEPECOD A-3 A Action in Trenton GOP lawmaker takes helm for three-day term Bennett uses spotlight to praise Republican rule State Sen. John 0. Bennett, right, before being sworn in as New Jersey's acting governor because of a quirk in the state constitution. Below left, Bennett taking the oath as his daughters Caitlin, left, and Meghan watch.

Below right, Bennett and wife Peg after the swearing-in. Vl By JEFF PILLETS Tranton Bureau John 0. Bennett, a relatively unknown Republican lawmaker from Little Silver in Monmouth County, strode into history at 2:20 p.m. Tuesday through a constitutional loophole that transforms him into the acting governor of New Jersey for a total of 84 hours. By 3:20 p.m., Bennett was making history again, as the first governor to begin his tenure by delivering the State of the State speech, the annual address where New Jersey's popularly elected leaders offer their hopes and dreams for the future.

For Bennett, however, the speech became a paean to the past and 10 years of Republican rule that came to an end Tuesday. At times, the 31-minute speech took on a nostalgic flavor as Bennett celebrated a decade of Republican tax policy, health insurance plans, and pubhc education reform. "We can look back with pride on the glory days of our Legislature," said Bennett, touting GOP programs ranging from the open space preservation program to the Senior Gold Prescription Plan. "Because of all we've accomplished together, New Jersey's best days lie ahead." ASSOCIATED PRESS PHOTOS After the speech. Democrat were quick to offer their own valedictory version of the Republican era.

At the top of their list were items that did not find their way into Bennett's speech racial profiling on the New Jersey Turnpike, long lines at motor vehicle inspection centers, and a $1.9 billion budget deficit This speech wasn't a vision of the future," said Assembly Majority Leader Joseph J. Roberts D-Camden. "It was an attempt to put the last 10 years in the best possible light" Freshman Sea Joseph Coniglio, D-Paramus, concisely described what he hoped to learn on his first day in office: "When is the first session going to start, so we can begin to work to straighten out the mess the Republican administration left us in." Former Gov. Jim Florio, a Democrat who lost reelection in 1993 after authoring a $2.8 billion tax increase, said Bennett and the Republicans have left Governor-elect James E. McGreevey with a far worse fiscal situation than he inherited after becoming governor in 1989.

"These Republican deficits are going to make my time as governor look like a cakewalk," Florio said. For politicians of both parties, Tuesday's round of swearing-in and speechmaking took on a fairy tale quality as the state entered into the quirky transition between acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco and McGreevey. For the next six days before McGreevey is swom in, Bennett and state Sen.

Richard J. Codey, D-Essex, will each serve 3Vi days as acting governor. "John Bennett gave a nice, upbeat speech today, but was anyone really taking him seriously?" asked one high-ranking Republican. "We're sort of in this make believe period where everyone is going through these weird motions until McGreevey finally gets here." Codey, asked what he thought of Bennett's speech, just shrugged. "It was a fine speech," he said.

"But frankly, I thought Don Di-Francesco should have been giving it" Codey was one of many observers who faulted Bennett for not stepping aside from his acting post to allow the departing DiFrancesco a chance in the limelight. DiFrancesco, they pointed out, is a 26-year Trenton veteran who has led the state admirably since the Sept 11 terror attacks. DiFrancesco frequently stated that he would have liked to give the speech. "I think it was really Don's moment Unfortunately, he didn't get it," said GOP lobbyist Roger Bodman. Bennett, however, said he was only following the dictates of the state constitution, which states that the senate president must make the state of the state speech if there is no governor.

Yet Bennett and Codey, his counterpart in the evenly divided state Senate, said Tuesday that they would try to change the weird set of constitutional rules that led to Bennett's speech and a single week of three acting governors. They proposed a constitutional amendment that would clarify the line of succession the next time an elected governor leaves office before the term ends. The amendment would require the Senate president to resign before becoming acting governor. For the past 11 months, DiFrancesco had been Senate president and acting governor. "Hopefully, the real legacy of all this will be a better constitution," Codey said.

DiFrancesco OKs expanded public access bill Acting governor ends 1 1 -month term He also signed legislation allowing physicians to jointly negotiate with managed-care companies. By CHARLES STILE Trenton Bureau In the final morning of his temporary and tumultuous reign, acting Gov. Donald T. DiFrancesco signed 69 new laws Tuesday, including a landmark bill that will vastly expand the public's right to inspect government records. DiFrancesco, who finished a 26-year career in the Legislature and 11 months as acting governor Tuesday, heralded the signing of the public records law as a highlight of his administration.

"This bill is truly unprecedented and historic," DiFrancesco said in a bill-signing ceremony in the governor's office. "It throws open the doors of government like we've never done before by affirming the public's right to access virtually all government records." The public access bill was one of more than 100 measures approved in a marathon session on Monday, the last day of the Republican-controlled Legislature. The final-push was fueled by a do-or-die mentality: Bills that failed to win approval on Monday would die, forcing their sponsors to start over in the new, Democratic-leaning Legislature swom in Tuesday. DiFrancesco signed noteworthy legislation, including a new law requiring the state to begin issuing digital licenses with pictures. They would replace photo licenses, which are easily duplicated.

Two of the hijackers in the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks fraudulently secured valid licenses or state IDs that helped them open bank accounts, get credit cards, and board airplanes. The new law appropriated $1.5 million for the license program, which must be implemented by next Jan. 1. DiFrancesco also signed legislation allowing physicians to jointly negotiate with managed-care companies for higher payments.

And a new law mandating all newborns be tested for hearing loss was also signed. DiFrancesco not only wielded his pen to create new laws, but to slash spending in eight of the bills. Using his line-item veto power, DiFrancesco scaled back an $18 million measure to beef up purses at New Jersey racetracks, to $6 million. A plan to deplete a $1 million grant for a Somerset County school for troubled youth, which is owned by a major Republican Party donor, was cut in half. DiFrancesco also cut $2 million in grants for Regional Child Abuse Treatment centers to $1 million and a plan to use $7.2 million to make improvements to the USS Battleship New Jersey visitor's center was reduced to $3.5 million.

The last-minute trimming comes after weeks of almost daily calls from Democratic Governor-elect James E. McGreevey and Democrats, not to sign any new spending bills in the final throes of the lame-duck Legislature. McGreevey said it was irresponsible for Republicans to increase state spending when the state could face a shortfall nearing $2 billion next year. McGreevey hammered home that point in a letter to Senate Democratic Leader Richard Codey and his Republican counterpart, John 0. Bennett, who will split acting governor until McGreevey is sworn in Tuesday.

But Tom Wilson, a spokesman for DiFrancesco, denied DiFrancesco knuckled under to McGreevey's demands. Wilson noted that the entire raft of bills that hit DiFrancesco's desk called for $180 million in new spending. Using the line-item veto, DiFrancesco allowed only $27 million in new spending. DiFrancesco said the new spending will be offset by other cost-saving moves, such as a decision to delay a scheduled reduction in an energy tax, which will save the state $105 million. Bennett and Codey will have the opportunity to take action 27 bills that DiFrancesco did not sign or veto on Tuesday.

They will have until next Tuesday to sign the bills or the measures will die. Among the bills left for Bennett or Codey to sign are a cut in the sales tax on cigars, and $1 million for construction of a World War II memorial. DiFrancesco also left behind a controversial measure that would take $15 million from the state's limited open space funds to purchase a portion of a Superfund site in Ocean County. Environmentalists opposed the expenditure because it was not first vetted by the Green Acres Preservation Trust. Many of the bills that hit DiFrancesco's desk Tuesday were introduced after the Nov.

6 election, the beginning of the lame-duck period when controversial bills are pushed through before the session ends. But the new public access law was no newcomer to Trenton. It's passage culminated a 12-year crusade to make a wider array of records available. The overhaul allows citizens to view and copy government documents, including electronic records, unless current law exempts disclosure. The new measure, however, does not provide carte-blanche access.

It exempts access to correspondence that legislators receive from constituents and memos, e-mails, and other written material from 9taff members. That exemption, which was tacked to the bill in its final stages, drew opposition from the New Jersey Press Association, which argued that it could allow lawmakers to shield data that they receive from public agencies. Despite the loophole, the new law was hailed by public watchdog groups as the first important overhaul of the law since it was created in 1963. fit i DiFrancesco names Farmer to state panel Watchdog agency made permanent DiFrancesco sets free man who killed friend Pardon is one of six on last day By RANDY DIAMOND Trenton Bureau In one of his last acts in office, acting Gov. Donald T.

DiFrancesco commuted the sentence of a man who had just begun serving an 18-month prison term for accidentally shooting to death his best friend in a prank that went wrong. DiFrancesco's action announced in a news release after the acting governor left office at noon allowed Anthony "Smokey" Saduk 30, of Woodbine to leave the Cape May Jail on Tuesday after serving only three weeks of his sentence. DiFrancesco also pardoned five others who had been found guilty of minor crimes. None were in prison. Under the state constitution, the governor has the power to pardon or commute the sentence of any person, except those charged with high treason.

Officials of the DiFrancesco administration did not return phone calls seeking comment. Saduk is the son of Woodbine's Republican Town Council president. On Feb. 11, Saduk, an avid hunter, was hosting a party at his home, when he decided to pull a prank, according to testimony at his trial. He loaded one of his antique-replica rifles with black powder and cigarette butts and shot across the room at his best friend, Wesley Geisinger.

Geisinger died almost instantly after three butts penetrated his rib cage. He was the father of two young girls. Saduk was sentenced last month under the Graves Act, which mandates a minimum 18-month prison sentence when a firearm is used in a crime, even in the case of accidental shootings. "Wes was my brother," a choked-up Saduk said at his sentencing. "I never intended anything to happen." At the same hearing, First Assist- By WENDY RUDERMAN Trenton Bureau In his final hours in office, acting Gov.

Donald T. DiFrancesco appointed outgoing Attorney General John J. Farmer Jr. to a post on a state watchdog agency with the power to investigate political corruption. The appointment of Farmer, who will step down as attorney general next week, to the State Commission of Investigation is automatic and doesn't require Senate approval, unlike most other nominations.

DiFrancesco also signed a bill Tuesday that will make the SCI permanent. Under the new law, the SCI will no longer depend upon the whim of the Legislature for its existence. Previously, legislators and the governor decided whether to keep it operating during periodic reviews every five or six years. The SCI was scheduled to dissolve in June. Farmer, 45, who was appointed to a three-year term, will become the second former attorney general to serve on the commission.

Former Attorney General W. Cary Edwards' term expires in December 2002. The SCI was created in 1968 to combat organized crime. In recent years, the commission increasingly has undertaken investigations into politicians, local government, and allegations of abuse and waste of taxpayer money. The SCI took on the administration of former Gov.

Christie Whitman, finding that officials wasted taxpayer money when they chose to privatize the car inspection system and then steered the lucrative contract to Parsons Infrastructure and Technology Group. Whitman named Farmer as attorney general in June 1999 after Peter G. Verniero left to become a state Supreme Court justice. ASSOCIATED PRESS Acting Gov. Donald T.

DiFrancesco on his last day in office Tuesday at the State House In Trenton. His term expired at noon. heur, a spokesman iur the state Corrections Department. Reached at home Tuesday, the father of the victim said he was glad that Saduk had been released from jail. "It was a tragic accident," said David Geisinger.

"Nothing would come out of Smokey staying in jail. One life was lost and another life was ruined." ant Cape May Prosecutor David Meyer said Saduk bore a heavy responsibility. "We have taken the position that the death itself was an accident, but it could not have occurred without the criminal conduct," he said. Saduk started his term on Dec. 14.

He was due to be transferred to state prison shortly, said Deirdre Fedken-.