Fox hearing delayed until after BPU case

The Senate Judiciary Committee won't hold a confirmation hearing on Board of Public Utilities President Jeanne Fox until after a whistle-blower case against the BPU is finished, the committee's chairman said Friday.

"Well, we wouldn't call it before the trial is over, some sort of whistle-blower case," Judiciary Chairman Sen. John Adler, D-Camden, said. "I don't want to predict what might happen. We have to go slow on nominations of this importance."

Fox, the BPU, and two other top officials are named in the suit brought by BPU fiscal chief Joe Potena, who claims retaliation for alerting state officials to an $80- to $100-million ratepayer-funded Clean Energy account set up outside state Treasury purview.

Sen. Gerald Cardinale, R-Bergen, who has called on Gov. Jon S. Corzine to withdraw Fox's nomination, said he's backing off that request to give Fox a chance to prove her claim that she was following legal guidance in setting up the account.

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Senator Jennifer Beck says Fox should not be leading the BPU

State Senate Judiciary Committee Member Furious Over Plan to Keep Jeanne Fox as President of the BPU

The good news is that Fox must be confirmed by the committee to be re-appointed

A member of the State Senate Judiciary Committee is strongly criticizing Governor Corzine's decision to re-appoint Jeanne Fox to a new six year term as President of the Board of Public Utilities.

Senator Jen Beck says Fox should not be leading the BPU because she's under investigation for "taking some 83 million dollars off-budget, and using that money to hand out grants to what seemed to be politically connected people…both the Feds and the State are investigating this - they've had some difficulty because she shredded many of the record that were associated with that grant giving."

Beck says another problem with re-appointing Fox is that "she's in the middle of a whistle blower lawsuit, and she has been politicizing the BPU with a number of patronage jobs."

A spokeswoman for the BPU says "unfortunately, Senator Beck appears to be unfamiliar with the BPU's accomplishments under President Fox's leadership, and to have relied upon factual errors to form her opinions…President Fox looks forward to speaking directly with the Senate Judiciary Committee on her full record of achievement, answering any questions on that record, and talking about why she is a prudent choice for shepherding New Jersey's utility policies."