PRESS RELEASE

BERGEN COUNTY – Following an InsiderNJ story showing Westwood Mayor John Birkner illegally shooting a campaign commercial in his own town during the workday, more information has come to light regarding his “sometime-show” six-figure position with the Bergen Municipal Utilities Authority (BMUA).

An Open Public Records Act request to the BMUA revealed several discrepancies with Mr. Birkner’s timesheets and his actual activities. A comparison of Birkner’s timesheets with his public facebook page show multiple incidents of his attending partisan political or other events when he claims to have worked a full day on the taxpayers’ dime.

“John Birkner is a triple-dipper who already collects money from three taxpayer-paid sources, and now we find out he may be defrauding taxpayers by playing politics when he’s supposed to be at work,” decried Assemblyman Bob Auth. “John Birkner is either a magician or he’s not telling the truth. How can he work a full day in Hackensack, while still being in Trenton for the Mayors’ Legislative Day? Or work a full day in Hackensack, while also playing golf in River Vale? He can’t and needs to explain himself.”

Birkner collects a $130,000 salary at the Bergen County Utilities Authority. He also earns $7,000 in compensation as the Mayor of Westwood, and according to his financial disclosure statement, receives public compensation from the Westwood-Bergen Municipal Joint Insurance Fund.

“This is just another example of the politics-as-usual that people are tired of,” stated Assemblywoman Holly Schepisi about the information. “The voters of Bergen and Passaic Counties have the right to know the truth, and John Birkner must come clean on these troubling irregularities.”