McPHERSON RETREATING FROM FILM STUDIO PLAN AT IZOD CENTER

Local Outrage At Secret Plan Forces Freeholders to Back Off “Half Baked” Idea

East Rutherford NJ – Bergen County Freeholder Bernadette McPherson and her freeholder colleagues are in full retreat -- backing away today from a plan they supported last week to turn the Izod Center in the Meadowlands into a movie studio, say Republican officials in Bergen County.

The plan to close the Izod Center was apparently hatched behind closed door meetings between the Bergen County Film Commission, McPherson and the Bergen County Economic Development Authority. No local officials, not even the mayor of East Rutherford – home of the Izod Center -- were contacted about the plan.

The movie studio plan was inadvertently leaked a little more than a week ago along with a state plan to provide $15 million in state tax incentives for the movie industry. The plan to study the closing of the Izod Center caused a firestorm of controversy from local officials who want to keep the Izod Center open. Local officials are concerned that their county government and the New Jersey Sports and Exhibition Authority are bowing to the demands of Essex County politicians who want it closed so as to eliminate competition for the Prudential Center.

Yesterday, in the face of mounting criticism of the plan to close the only major indoor arena in Bergen County, McPherson and the county backed backed away from the idea.

East Rutherford Mayor James Cassella, whose community is home to the arena – said the “slipshod way the county freeholders handled this matter is an embarrassment to Bergen County and New Jersey.”

McPherson’s challenger in the upcoming Freeholder election, Chris Calabrese, a local business owner, said the fact that McPherson never backed off the idea of closing the Izod center even as criticism mounted, demonstrates her lack of concern for the people whose livelihoods depend on the arena and the consumer traffic it generates.

“Freeholder McPherson is more concerned with using taxpayer money to finance her pet projects than she is with the people she is paid to represent,” said Calabrese.

He added that by failing to support the continuing operation of the Izod Center, McPherson “is apparently more interested in representing Newark than Bergen County. She is caving in to the Newark politicians.”

East Rutherford councilman Joel Brizzi, who along with Mayor Cassella has maintained a long feud with Essex County officials over the arena, said the retreat by McPherson and the film commission is the result of election politics.

“Obviously, this leaked out prematurely for the county Democrats. They wanted to keep this under wraps until after Election Day,” said Brizzi. “They never expected the reaction they got.”

“My concern is that a month or two after the election is over, we will see the plan to close the Izod Center resurrected because that’s what the political bosses in Newark want,” added Brizzi.

Republicans agree that the idea of movie studio in the meadowlands may be a good idea, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of the Izod Center.