Nine years ago, Asbury Park seemed helplessly mired in corruption and decay.

A letter I wrote to then-Governor Christine Todd Whitman on behalf of the Asbury Park Homeowners Association began, "During the past year particularly, residents, business owners and community groups have been working hard to improve the quality of life in Asbury Park.

"Despite our best efforts, however, our city is rapidly deteriorating under a never-ending barrage of crime, drugs, alleged electioneering, beachfront and neighborhood deterioration, real estate scandals, reported ethics violations, dangerous budget deficits, and distressing attempts to further erode our quality of life through moves to relax zoning and code enforcement laws, permit drinking on our beaches, etc.

"As taxpayers with a large personal stake in Asbury Park, we feel that the time has come to acknowledge that individual efforts alone cannot turn our city around. Our frustration, anger and despair have reached the breaking point."

That letter - along with a 2-1/2 inch binder of statistics and documentation on apparent government irregularities - was accompanied by over a thousand signatures from concerned residents and friends of the city.

We took that binder to anyone we thought could help us: the Governor, state elected officials and department heads, the state and county Departments of Education, our U.S. representative, the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office, the N.J. Attorney General, the U.S. Attorney, the FBI, the newspapers.

Most elected officials (with the notable exception of Assemblyman Steve Corodemus) ran from us. An intensive investigation by the Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office essentially went nowhere.

Some of us were sued, along with the county prosecutor and the state attorney general. (That suit was thrown out in federal court.) City resident Robert Sanders was arrested for legally and peacefully videotaping a Board of Education meeting. (He later successfully sued the Board.) People told us our backgrounds were being investigated. A caller warned that my house might be burned down.

And, all the while, people from surrounding, more prosperous towns told us that Asbury Park was hopeless: It had always been a corrupt, boss-run town, and it always would be.

I particularly remember one group of local elected officials - both Republicans and Democrats - cracking jokes about Asbury Park's "no-party" system that allowed the number of city council candidates to swell to two dozen or more in our free-for-all elections.

And then the tide changed with tsunami force: U.S. Attorney Christopher Christie appeared on the scene.

Suddenly, former Asbury Park elected officials, their appointees and backroom bosses were being arrested, indicted and/or convicted.

But - astoundingly - so were elected and appointed officials and government employees from Neptune, Ocean, Middletown, Hazlet, Keyport, Marlboro and Monmouth County.

And the more I read about party bosses and contractor money determining candidate selection and election financing throughout the state, the more Asbury Park's free-form, no-party system seemed like a blessing in disguise. At least honest, intelligent, well-meaning candidates didn't have to appeal to area party chiefs - and their backers - to be listed on the party line.

But when I really began to appreciate Asbury Park's non-party form of government was when I joined forces with the statewide Citizens' Campaign to promote pay-to-play legislation limiting how much campaign money candidates could accept from potential developers, attorneys, engineering companies and other professionals hoping to get lucrative government contracts.

Asbury Park's city council passed those clean-election measures in a heartbeat. And, last month, they also passed a Citizens' Campaign ordinance that establishes a clear process and application form for people interested in applying for city boards and commissions.

But those same ordinances have been a hard sell in many Monmouth County towns: When I mentioned them to a newly elected friend in a neighboring municipality, he initially expressed enthusiasm. But I was startled to learn that he had to ask permission from county political bosses before introducing them in his town.

That "outsider" permission obviously never came: His town has neither pay-to-play legislation nor an ordinance defining how residents will be selected for city boards and commissions.

Similarly, I wrote in April about Citizens' Campaign efforts to tighten up the county's pay-to-play laws to limit election donations from developers and county contractors. Members of the all-Republican Freeholder board are resisting such legislation, and Freeholder Director William Barham showed me why:

In the last Freeholder election, state Democrats "wheeled" hundreds of thousands of campaign dollars into Monmouth County from other parts of the state - contributions that couldn't be effectively monitored by the type of pay-to-play rules that Asbury Park's non-partisan council enacted.

The Citizens' Campaign is looking for alternate ways of shoring up campaign donation limits at the county and municipal levels, but it's going to be up to local and county residents to ensure that Chris Christie's anti-corruption mission doesn't become a never-ending one.

One positive sign, I believe, was the recent election of Adam Puharic as the new Monmouth County Republican Chairman. I met Puharic when he was the Monmouth County Undersheriff and was favorably impressed. It is obvious that any real campaign finance reform in Monmouth County will need to start with the support of him and his Democratic counterpart.

Of course, some political leaders still don't get it: A few weeks ago, area newspapers covered the trial of former Middletown Township committeeman and county motor pool director Raymond O'Grady, who was convicted on extortion and bribery charges. Key to that conviction was testimony by Anthony Palughi, the former county superintendent of bridges.

According to the Asbury Park Press, former County Republican Chairman William Dowd groused that, although Palughi betrayed the public, he deserved no pity because "he betrayed his friends, and he worked actively to make sure they got arrested."

"After he got caught, he turned, so you are left with selfishness, pure self-interest, and that is the problem."

No, Mr. Dowd, that is not the problem: The real problem is that it's been too easy for too long to hide such behavior in Monmouth County and all through New Jersey.

Asbury Park is slowly getting its act together. It's time to spread the vibes.