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NORTH BERGEN  — Not only is Nicholas Sacco the mayor of this township on the Hudson River, he's also its state senator and assistant superintendent of schools.

"Where does he find the time?" Gov. Chris Christie asked about Sacco at a town hall meeting last month.

Christie has been flaunting Sacco's resume and paychecks — he makes nearly $300,000 a year — throughout the state as an example of why New Jersey needs to pass an ethics reform bill that would ban residents from holding multiple public jobs, a longstanding New Jersey tradition.

Sacco, who was appointed mayor in 1991 and won election to the Senate in 1993, is coming under fire closer to home, too. Residents complain that government is not transparent and services are not up to snuff. They say it's time for new leadership in the town of 60,000.

"It's time for him to go," said resident Vivian Smith. "He's been in office too long. He doesn't do his job. His jobs."

One group of citizens is even challenging what they claim is Sacco's decades-long lock on power in the town, which they said is the engine in a political machine. While Sacco hasn't been accused of wrongdoing, some residents think that the government is inactive and operates only for certain spheres of influence.

"You just understood that Sacco was all-powerful and all-knowing and can do anything," said Mario Blanch, a lawyer and activist who lives on the same block where he grew up. "It's time for a change."

Blanch and others started the North Bergen Concerned Citizens Group, an organization dedicated to improving quality of life issues — and changing the town's power structure. It put up a slate of candidates for mayor and town offices last year, though all lost.

"While families struggle to survive in this economy, the city and school board payrolls are padded each year with no-show jobs for the political friends of Mayor Sacco, costing you millions of dollars each year," reads a flier the group distributes to residents. One side was in English, the other Spanish. North Bergen is 68 percent Hispanic.

"This group is a total sham," said Paul Swabinski, a spokesman for Sacco. "Mayor Sacco is one of the most successful and popular and highly regarded mayors in New Jersey."

Swabinski said that town services are "excellent" under Sacco and the town is a "very solid economic growth engine." He also defended Sacco's paycheck.

"It's certainly a unique situation," he said. But Mayor Sacco is a unique individual who does an extraordinary job for the people of his town and the people of his district."

The group has been active for a few years, but Blanch and others said two recent arrests, one of the DPW superintendent and other of a local activist, have caused the group to redouble its efforts.

In September, a superintendent in the town's department of public works pleaded guilty to using municipal workers for personal chores and political campaigning while they were being paid by the township. Prosecutors said James Wiley ordered employees to do work around his home, including winterizing his hot tub, cleaning his grill and installing Christmas lights. Officials also said Wiley instructed workers to canvass neighborhoods and post campaign signs for mayoral races in Bayonne and Jersey City and a sheriff's race.

Two of Wiley's subordinates were arrested on the same charges. The attorney general's office said the investigation remains active.

No elected officials, Swabinski said, "had any idea that these things were going on" at public works. The town is cooperating with the investigation, he said.

In August, the director of operations for the North Bergen housing authority was arrested on extortion charges. In September, a health department employee was arrested on theft charges.

Town meetings have gotten more heated and crowded since Wiley's arrest. In early October a frequent critic of Sacco was arrested for making remarks after her allotted speaking time was up. As police officers approached the woman, Janice Zorovich, Sacco said he had warned her about speaking out of turn. Police escorted Zorovich from the packed room as people filmed the encounter with their cellphones and yelled about First Amendment rights. Zorovich was charged with defiant trespassing and released on her own recognizance that night.

"This is 2012 and people can't go to a public meeting and speak their minds?" Zorovich asked in the parking lot outside the police station shortly after a group chanted "Sacco's got to go" as the mayor pulled out of the parking lot.

Swabinski said Zorovich pulled a "publicity stunt."

New Jersey has long had a reputation as a place where corruption flourishes. The mayor of Trenton was arrested in September for accepting bribes, and 44 officials and others were arrested in 2009 during one of the state's largest corruption sweeps.

Despite the reputation, a study by a consortium led by the Center for Public Integrity concluded that New Jersey is the state with the least risk of political corruption.

The legislature passed a bill in 2007 barring officeholders from having more than one public job, but grandfathered in those who already had them. Christie wants to completely abolish the practice.

"It's problematic. It should have never happened, and it's long past time to end it and resolve these issues," said Jerry Cantrell, president of the Common Sense Institute of New Jersey, a nonprofit public policy research organization. "It's mind-boggling."