Middletown Board Of Education Approves $144 Million Funding Plan

At last night's Middletown Board of Education meeting, the school board approved a $144 million dollar spending plan for fY 2011-2012, that will be presented to voters on April 27th.

According to the Asbury Park Press's article, the spending plan seems reasonable and I see no reason for voters to reject it. The budget will increase by 1.38% which is well below Governor Christie's 2% cap on budget spending.

This budget will provide for the hiring of additional teachers this year, which will help to alleviate classroom overcrowding in a few of the districts school.

I was not at last night's meeting but from what I was told, a few who were in attendance questioned the leanness of the budget and whether or not the school board left enough wiggle room within it in case it was rejected by voters, as it was last year.

I was told that the response to this questions was that the budget was purposely put together lean in an attempt to show residents and the Township Committee that this budget, unlike previous one, was honest and reflective of the times. And if the budget was rejected, it would be devastating to the district.

The main thing that I am curious about, is how contract negotiations with the teacher's union is going. unlike in years past, these talks have been relatively quite but still unresolved over issues concerning healthcare contributions. So I wonder how the Board of Education can produce and honest, lean budget without a signed contract with the teachers?

Middletown Letter to Property Taxpayers,Prior To Next Weeks Budget Presentation, Suggests Rebate Program Was Township's Idea

Hypocrisy and disingenuousness has reached new heights in Middletown when it comes to what our Republican politicians will take credit for in order to given an impression that they are being fiscally prudent and watching out for our tax dollars.

In a letter to taxpayers that arrived with quaterly tax statements, just prior to next weeks Township budget introduction, Middletown's Mayor Fiore states that taxes will not really be going up this year, that they will actually be going down.

How can that be when it has already said that there will be increases in this year's Township budget? It seems that our mayor is jumping on the bandwagon and taking credit for the new NJ Homestead Rebate Tax Credit program initiated by Gov. Christie this year that some homeowners can qualify for t, after the governor eliminated the old rebate program last year.

Middletown residents should know that not all Township residents will qualify for tax rebate credits and that Middletown had nothing to do with the new NJ Homestead Rebate Program, which entitles some to the tax credit. Middletown has to cooperate with the Governors office because it is a State program, not a Township program. I repeat Middletown had absolutly nothing to do with this program.

So once again, here is another example of how those that run Middletown are trying to take credit for something that wasn't their idea and had nothing to do with. It's all just a smoke and mirrors attempt to fool resident taxpayers into thinking that the property tax rate that they pay to the Township will be going down, when in fact it will be increasing once the budget is released, to offset lower property assessments.

Nice try Tony, you really earned your "fibber" moniker on this one!

If you haven't seen the letter you can read it >>> Here

Ringing Controversy; Concerned Citizens of Middletown Robocalls Strike A Nerve

It seems that the latest round of Robocalls that went out yesterday afternoon by the group calling themselves "Concerned Residents of Middletown" have struck a nerve with some sitting on the Township Committee who say that the calls don't ring true.

In a column published this morning over at Redbankgreen.com, Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore and his Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill question the legitimacy of the group Concerned Residents of Middletown and it's message.

“It appears to be just another desperate attempt by the Middletown Democrats to spread misinformation to the taxpayers,” Fiore is quoted as saying in reference to who he thinks is behind the calls. He adds “the real truth will come out. The information they’re pointing out is just not accurate,” when referencing that the Townships budget will be introduced next week.

As if that has any real barring on the truthfulness of the messages contained in the robocalls. Remember last year how Mayor Scharfenberger and those sitting on the Committee, other than Democrat Sean Byrnes, insisted that the Township tax increase was only 2.8% when the proposed budget for 2010 was introduced in last June, when in actuality the municipal tax rate increased by 13.9%.

I think the people lacking credibility on budget issues are those that sit on the Township Committee. The real truth behind the budget numbers and any proposed tax increase which will be presented next Monday night, wont really be known until revised tax bills are sent out to residents, after the budget is adopted later in the year, just as it was last year. When residents looked at their tax statements expecting to see only an increase of 2.8% in the municipal rate, they were stunned by the difference.

Before passing judgment on these robocalls, it is important to see if the message included in them pan out as describe. Only then can we tell who was spreading false information to residents.

In Case You Missed It: Local library budgets get separate line on property tax bill: Law might shelve impulse to merge

In case you missed it, there was an article posted Sunday on the Asbury Park Press's website that would be of particular interest to those that had been following the drama that had been playing out between Middletown's Township Committee and the Middletown Library over the past 2 months.

A new law signed by Gov. Christie on Tuesday of last week, created a dedicated line on property tax bills for funding municipal libraries and makes a library's budget exempt from the state's new 2 percent cap on annual spending increases.

...Although taxpayers will continue to pay a percentage of their property's assessment to fund their local library, the money will no longer be considered part of a municipality's budget, making the process less political, said Assemblyman Upendra J. Chivukula, D-Somerset, one of the law's sponsors.

"Unfortunately, some municipalities were not providing the funding to their libraries on a timely basis," said Chivukula, who noted that library usage has increased statewide since the recent economic downtown.

The law should help to bring parity between local libraries and county systems, which already had dedicated line items exempt from the cap restriction, said Patricia Tumulty, executive director of the New Jersey Library Association.

"This was a very important piece of legislation," Tumulty said....

What impact, if any, would this new law have had if in the battle between Middletown and it's Library if it had been known prior to the Library agreeing to the Township's terms for transferring $500,000 of reserved forms from the Library's coffers to that of the Township?

I'm not sure, but I think the Library wouldn't have felt the immediate need to pony up the excess funds over it's legitimate surplus, in an attempt to head off the Township from transferring the operations of the Middletown Library to the Monmouth County system. I think the negotiations between the lawyers for both sides would have been extremely different.

The library's Board of Trustees gave up a lot for very little in return and the impact of the Boards decision will be felt by the library for an extremely long time based on the wording of the 3 Library resolutions passed at it's March 16th meeting, which authorized the funds transfer.

As the article states, local municipalities that fund their own library system can't just transfer control of it's library to it's county system on a whim. If the municipal library system was created by an ordinance, as most have been, then the municipality would have to propose a new ordinance stating it's intention to transfer it's library over to the county and then place the ordinance on the ballot for referendum approval by township residents.

...For decades, the state's policy for dissolving libraries has been that municipalities must repeat whichever process was used to create the system originally, Tumulty said. Typically, that has meant a public referendum is required, she said....

I would have like to have seen what would have happened if residents of Middletown did have a say in the matter. I don't think such a referendum would have gained approval.

Contrasting Styles Between Cuomo & Christie; Different Approach, Same Outcome No Animosity

NJ.com yesterday had an interesting editorial that I think a lot of people should be reading.

In the face of an $11 billion dollar budget defect, NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo balanced NY's budget by cutting spending and entitlement without raising taxes just as our governor did last year (although that is somewhat debatable). Cuomo achieved this by reaching out to legislator and including them in the process. Gov. Christie on the other hand, has created divisiveness between the governor's office and those in the legislature with his take it or leave it approach and sledgehammer style.

Interestingly Cuomo was able to balance his State's budget without demonizing any one group (public employees) or had to hold nonstop "Town Hall" meetings to convince people that there is a problem and his way of solving it, is the only way that it can be done.

Resident of NJ should take notice and see how a different, less caustic and abrasive style can achieve similar yet far different results.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo just won agreement on a budget for New York state that cuts overall spending and contains no new taxes. He even blocked an attempt by fellow Democrats to extend a surtax on millionaires.

If this sounds familiar, it’s because New Jersey did all that last year. Perhaps Cuomo looked across the Hudson and liked what he saw.

Now maybe Gov. Chris Christie can return the compliment. Because Cuomo has something to teach him as well.

Note the lack of personal attacks in Albany. Cuomo was tough, but he wasn’t abusive. He didn’t call his Assembly speaker a liar, for example, or clear his schedule for a nonstop tour on the unlimited greed of teachers and cops.

And he negotiated. Especially relevant to New Jersey was Cuomo’s approach to Medicaid.

Like most states, New York and New Jersey are facing daunting increases in health care costs. Cuomo’s approach was collaborative.

He invited key stakeholders, including hospitals and unions, to sit together and hammer out an agreement on cuts. If they couldn’t come up with an answer, he said, then he would do it for them.

After two months, Cuomo’s committee pulled it off, agreeing to 79 cost-cutting measures, from lowering reimbursements to shifting patients to managed care plans.

Christie wants to cut $540 million in Medicaid spending next year, a huge sum that both sides expect to be a main point of contention. But he’s drawn up his plan in secret, and even now is keeping the Legislature out of the loop. People such as Sen. Joseph Vitale (D-Middlesex), a key architect of the current system, are still looking for basic answers.

“They are crafting their own proposal in a vacuum,” Vitale says. “They would be wise to include legislators.”

Cuomo’s collaboration ensured that his plan had broad political support, and would pass. Christie’s approach risks just the opposite.

New Robo Call From Concerned Citizens Of Middletown on Bonding Debt

Shortly after 12:00PM this afternoon my phone rang, on the other end of the phone was another robo-call from the group calling themselves "Concerned Citizens Of Middletown". This time the robo- call's message was geared toward "bonding" and the amount of debt that the Township has incurred over the years.

According to the call, Middletown is currently $73 million dollars in debt and nearly 20% of very tax dollar collected by the Township is must be allocated to pay it off, which seems about right to me, give or take a little either way.

People have been asking me if I have any information on this group, unfortunately I don't but would like to find out. My suspicions are that they are a Tea Party group or a few disgruntled township employees who want to get information out about the shell games the Township Committee has been playing over the past couple of years.

If any one has any other information on this "Concerned Citizens of Middletown" group, please send it along.

Below is the message that went out today, I recorded off my answering machine so that I could post it here.

Heard It In The Hallways....

Last week when an anonymous poster left a tidbit of information in the comments section for the post "Middletown Tax Assessor To Receive $15K "Bonus" Under New Salary Ordinance", referring to Middletown Township Administrator Tony Mercantante being offered a job in Trenton by the Christie Administration, I found it hard to believe. I didn’t think it was plausible that the guy would leave a nice cushy position in Middletown making over $125,000 a year, to take a less stable, patronage job that wouldn’t pay him anywhere near what he is currently being paid. But I kept it in the back of my mind and started to ask around. What I was told surprised me, but after it was explained I could understand it.

The person that I talked with did not want their name mentioned, but as a Township employee they can be found very often around Town Hall. This person told me that Tony Mercantante was indeed offered a job down in Trenton, somewhere within the State Planning Office and he will be leaving Middletown for his new gig sometime in May.

When I questioned the person why Mercantante would leave Middletown, they explained it thusly:

The late Judy Stanley, who was often referred to as the Queen of Middletown, was very fond of Mercantante and acted as a mentor to him for many years. She was instrumental in Mercantante’s rise through the system. It was Stanley that brought Mercantante back to Middletown as a planner after a few years absence working out of state and it was her idea to promote him from his Township planning job to his current position as Township Administrator, when Bob Czech left that position in order to become Monmouth County Administrator a few years back.

Once Judy Stanley placed Tony Mercantante into the position as the Township Administrator, it became evident to some that he was in over his head. They thought that he had a problem with telling the truth, as in, being to honest when some one asked a question, while others thought that he was (is) a bungler who causes more problems than what he solves.

Allegedly, 3 out of the 5 currently sitting Township Committee people can’t stand him and have been making it extremely uncomfortable for Mercantante to do his job. As a result, it’s often hard to get a straight answer out of him. And on top of it all, Mercantante has to deal with a Township Attorney who has a Napoleon Complex and who also happens to be the #2 Republican in Middletown, Brian Nelson, on almost every decision, every day (that alone would be enough for me to seek out new employment).

So, as a result of all this, I was told that the powers that be, seeing that things have not been working out to their liking for sometime now, have worked out a face-saving arrangement for Tony Mercantante to leave his position as Township Administrator, for a job with the Christie Administration in Trenton.

If this turns out to be true, and I have no doubt about the person who passed along this information, than I want to wish Tony Mercantante well in his new position down in Trenton. I’ve personally never had a problem with him he has always been personable with me on the few occasions that we have talked. He probably deserves better than what he is getting, I always thought that he was on top of things, but then again since when have I thought anything that meant a damn to those that run Middletown anyway.

Good luck Tony, your going to need it now more than ever.

Red Bank's Ed Zipprich and Juanita Lewis announce their plans to run for reelection

Posted from Redbank-Shrewsbury Patch.com

Red Bank Council Members Ed Zipprich and Juanita Lewis announced their candidacies for reelection to the borough council at a recent celebration of Red Bank’s 103rd birthday.

The reception, held Sunday at the Red Bank home of Zipprich and his longtime partner JP Niccolaides, drew more than 100 supporters from across Monmouth County, including the borough’s other council members, Mayor Pasquale Menna, and other county officials.

County Freeholder Amy Mallet championed the accomplishments of both Zipprich and Lewis, lauding them for presenting balanced budgets in consecutive years for the borough. She encouraged them to remain focuses on their record of fiscal responsibility and commitment to Red Bank’s community and future prosperity.

Lewis said she looked forward to continuing the commitment she and Zipprich made to the people in Red Bank when they were elected in 2008.

“We will continue to work on issues that affect our town’s families and stand by our pledge for greater transparency and accountability in our town’s government.”

Zipprich said that the borough’s council doesn’t always see eye to eye, but that’s a positive quality in local government. And, as the only African American and openly gay candidates running for borough council this year, “Juanita and I love this town and proudly represent the diversity here.”

As A Matter Of Fact.....Budget hearings on the economy and State revenue collections

This week, the legislature will begin to consider Governor Christie’s proposed FY 2012 budget. This is traditionally the time when the State Treasurer and the Legislative Budget and Finance Officer (LBFO) present their assessment of the state’s economy and what that means in terms of revenue collections for this year and the next. Today, State Treasurer Andrew Sidamon-Eristoff and LBFO David Rosen addressed the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee; tomorrow, they will address the Assembly Budget Committee. Both of these full-day budget sessions traditionally are broadcast online.

The seven taxes in the table below account for eighty percent or more of the revenue collected by the state. It compares actual revenues collected in FY 2008 and FY 2010 to the amounts Governor Christie is using as a basis for his FY 2012 proposed budget. In an earlier blog, Taking the Long View, we outlined why it is appropriate to consider state collections and spending over a longer period of time than the year-to-year manner of the Governor’s annual budget. Suffice it to say, these are unprecedented times and we need a clear understanding of the situation.

In FY 2008, the state collected and spent more money than in any other year. Then the recession hit and revenues dropped precipitously. The FY 2008 and FY 2010 tax rates and structures are roughly comparable in those two years, i.e. no major increases or decreases were enacted in FY 2008 or FY 2010. Governor Christie is proposing a budget that also includes no significant rate changes.

The one rate change impact would be from the calendar year 2009 income rate increases on taxpayers earning more than $400,000. This likely had a residual effect on income tax collections in FY 2010. This is because higher income taxpayers tend to settle their tax bills in April and in 2009 their tax bills would have been higher (so additional calendar year 2009 taxes that are due would have been paid in FY 2010).

To understand more about state revenues and what these numbers mean, tune in to the hearings and look for Treasurer Sidamon-Eristoff and LBFO David Rosen’s testimony.




Note: NJJP's "As a Matter of Fact" blog has taken the place of NJJP's Monday Minute and will be posted here from time to time.

Crime Scene Middletown: MIDDLETOWN POLICE REPORT BUSY WEEK WITH NUMEROUS ARRESTS

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER


On March 25, 2011 at approximately 11:00 am police responded to the area of Cooper Road in reference to a report of a subject parked in a vehicle possibly using drugs. Upon arrival officers located Tiffanile Czaplicki, age 28, from Kruger Place in Middletown, sitting in the vehicle.

Officers Ian May and Anthony Ciccone conducted an investigation and located two hypodermic syringes inside the car. Czaplicki was placed under arrest and was charged with Possession of hypodermic syringes. She was released on a summons pending a court appearance.

On March 26, 2011 at approximately 3:26 am police received a call from the New Jersey State Police reporting a vehicle which was driving erratically and had struck a barrier on the Garden State Parkway and then exited at exit 109.

Sgt. William Colangelo located the vehicle on Newman Springs Road and conducted a motor vehicle stop. Patrolman Savino Capilupi responded as back up. The officers conducted an investigation which resulted in the driver, identified as Thomas Delia, age 52, from Dawn Court in Tinton Falls, NJ, being arrested and charged with Driving While Intoxicated and Reckless Driving. He was processed and released on summonses pending a court appearance.

On March 26, 2011 at approximately 4:45 am Police Officer Janine Kennedy responded to the area of Mulberry Lane in reference to a report of a suspicious vehicle parked on the street.

Upon arrival Officer Kennedy located the vehicle and conducted an investigation which resulted in the arrest of Ryan Kelty, age 21, from Bray Avenue in Middletown. Kelty was charged with Possession of a prescription legend drug. He was transported to police headquarters where he was processed and released on a summons pending a court appearance.

On March 27, 2011 at approximately 10:56 am police responded to the area of Wilson Avenue in reference to a report of a man standing in the street swinging a weapon at passing cars.

Upon arrival Police Officer Larisa Doriety located Sean Lynch, age 25, from Danemar Drive in Middletown standing in the street holding a leather belt with a combination lock fastened to the end and a knife. The officer drew her firearm and ordered Lynch to drop the weapons. Sgt. Anthony Bagileo arrived as backup and the officer were able to place Lynch under arrest without further incident.

Lynch was transported to police headquarters where he was charged with Disorderly Conduct, Unlawful Possession of a weapon, and Possession of a weapon for an unlawful purpose. He was processed and released on his own recognizance pending a court appearance.

The Middletown Police Department also reported the following arrests on warrants between March 23 and March 27:

Ryan Canavan , age 18, from Jefferson Street in Middletown. He was held on $500.00 bail on a Contempt of court warrant issued by the Middletown Municipal Court.

Michael Roy, age 30, from Bayside Parkway in Middletown. He was held on $6,800.00 bail on a warrant issued by the Atlantic County Sheriff’s Office.

Ryan Kelty, age 21, from Bray Avenue in Middletown. He was released on $200.00 bail on a warrant issued by the Ocean Township Municipal Court.

Freeholder Mallet Comments on Blog Posting, "...Limit Terms Of Volunteer Squashed By Opposition"

Monmouth County Freeholder Amy Mallett just so happens to be a reader of this blog as well as personal friend. She sent me the following comment via email yesterday after reading Saturday's post, Monmouth Freeholder Mallet's Proposal To Limit Terms Of Volunteer Squashed By Opposition. After expressing her gratitude for the post she added:

...Their opposition to this is clearly an insult to the people of Monmouth County. The allegiance here is to the many personal and political ties with those on these boards. Checking attendance records and closer scrunity at reappointments is not adequate. Many have served for decades, and some are appointed based on political patronage. Regardless, turnover is healthy and practiced for a reason by many professional boards.

What also needs to be addressed is that these autonomous agencies have spending authority, and are responsible for millions of tax dollars. They make the decisions on hiring as we recently read about with the recent library hire, spending such as choice of vendors, policy as in the parks commission and the list goes on and on....

Thank you Freeholder Mallet for your kind words towards myself and the blog in your email response. You're doing a great job representing the tax payers of Monmouth County by being a watchdog over those that would rather watch out for their political cronies rather than the tax payers they're suppose to represent.

Middletown Library Issues Three Resolutions to Release Excess Funds To Township

The Middletown Library made it official last week when it issued the three resolutions requested of it from the Township, that would authorize the release of $500,000 from previously reserved library funds, to the Township.

These resolutions have no yet made it onto the Middletown Library's website, but i was told that they will be posted soon along with meeting minutes from the March 16th Board of Trustees Meeting.

Resolution 2011-23/Unrestricted Library Capital Reserves, Resolution 2011-26/ Forfeiture of Unreserved Funds and Resolution 2011-27/ Intent to transfer excess funds to the municipality of Middletown pending approval of the NJ State Librarian.

Resolution 2011-23, authorizes the release of $500,000 of reserved funds to the Township.
Resolution 2011-26, states that the Library Board of Trustees have agrees to forfeit 2008 & 2009 budget surplus of $196,831 as part of unrestricted funds o be transfer to the Township, and Resolution 2011-27, reaffirms the Library's intent to transfer $500,000 to the Township once approval is given by the NJ State Librarian.

You can read the resolutions by clicking on the hyperlinks above if you are interested to read them.

It's Your Town - Newsletter Volume 3, Issues 6- 3/21/11; The Mayor Explains The "Bonus"

This edition of the It's Your Town Newsletter contains information about the March 21,2011 Middletown Township NJ Committee meeting. The meeting was short, lasting a little more than an hour. After Committee comments only two members of the public addressed concerns to the Committee.

Items that were spoken about include the transfer of surplus funds from the Middletown Library to the Township for the purpose of tax relief and the giving of a $15,000 bonus to the Township Tax Assessor Charles Heck, that Mayor Fiore later categorized as a stipend, for his work preparing for the township wide reassessment.

Here is a small excerpt from the newsletter that contains Mayor Fiore's explanation of the bonus to Tax Assessor Heck:

...Mr. Fiore said in respect to the bonus of $15K to the Tax Assessor, Mr. Heck and the $5K bonus to the Assistant Assessor is very simple. He said the Township Committee reached a consensus and agreed that since Mr. Heck saved the Township $50K by doing some of the work Reality Appraisal was contracted to do he deserves the bonus. He said the Committee had the same consensus last year and that in order to spend $20K to save $50K, that is a pretty good spend when it is a net savings of $30K for the Township. He said that was not a bonus, but a stipend for the additional services by taking on more responsibility with the reassessment. Mr. Grenafege said that he and Mr. Fiore both worked in corporate environments and this is considered a bonus...

You can read the full Newsletter >>> Here

Monmouth Freeholder Mallet's Proposal To Limit Terms Of Volunteer Squashed By Opposition

According to the Asbury Park Press, Monmouth County Freeholder Amy Mallet, the lone Democrat on the Freeholder Board, proposed a resolution at Thursday's worship meeting that would have placed 10 -12 year term limits on those that serve voluntarily on various County boards, commissions and authorities. Her reasoning behind this resolution was to provide "fresh ideas" and eliminate complacency on boards that have fiduciary control over county programs and services, the APP reported.

Her proposal was voted by the four Republican members of the Freeholder board for various reason, none of which, in my opinion hold much salt.

Why should members that have sat on boards or commissions for up to 33 years be "grandfathered" and allowed to sit upwards to another 12 year before having to leave, as Freeholder John Curley argued when he opposed the measure?

I think Mallet is on target here and her measure should be debated, refined and eventually implemented to one degree or another. It makes sense, but of course, because it makes sense it has no chance of being passed by the Republican dominated Freeholder Board.

Here is a snippet of the APP's article:

A resolution that would have created term limits for volunteers who serve on Monmouth County's autonomous boards and commissions was squashed by the freeholder board's Republican majority.

Freeholder Amy Mallet, the lone Democrat, posted a resolution for consideration at Thursday's workshop that would prohibit volunteers from serving more than 10 or 12 years at a time, depending on the length of their term. She argued that a rotating membership is critical to provide "fresh ideas" and eliminate complacency on boards that have fiduciary control over county programs and services.

"This is a good start to making the necessary systemic changes," Mallet said, adding that she drafted the resolution in response to the recent Brookdale Community College scandal over the former president's generous benefits package and a criminal investigation into spending irregularities within the president's office.

But the four Republicans argued that good volunteers would be thrown out with the bad.

"I am completely opposed to this resolution," Freeholder Lillian G. Burry said. "It's an insult to the people who give their time and talent and are not compensated for it."

Freeholder John Curley had expressed support for term limits before the meeting and even conceded Thursday there was public support for the measure. But he said he couldn't vote for the resolution because the lack of a grandfather clause for sitting members nearing their limit was "too harsh."

Freeholder Director Robert Clifton said he would have preferred each board member start from zero when they come up for re-appointment, but Mallet said that's too long to wait for change. She insisted Friday that she will work with the Republicans on a compromise version but wasn't immediately sure where she would bend.

Clifton stressed that what needs to be changed is how the freeholder board decides who should serve in these critical roles. Essentially, no more rubber stamping appointments.

The freeholders, he said, need to be more vigilant in scrutinizing each appointment. That means reviewing the meeting minutes, attendance records, interviewing candidates and getting recommendations from respective staff members and board chairmen.

But shouldn't they have been doing that all along?

"There's no excuse," Clifton said Friday. "We are where we are, and we need to step it up. It's more work for the freeholders, but that's what we were elected to do."...

You can read more >>> Here

Taking On The Teachers

Consortiumnews.com 3/23/11
by Lawrence Davidson

Editor’s Note: The American Right has fully embraced Ronald Reagan’s mantra that “government is the problem” – and that dogma is being applied in a wide variety of ways, including a nationwide assault on the pay and job security of public school teachers.

Republican-controlled state legislatures and Republican governors are in the forefront of this campaign, advancing under the cover of parents’ concerns about their kids' schooling and behind the idea that standardized tests can be a cure-all. In this guest essay, Lawrence Davidson challenges the assumptions behind this effort:

The Florida state legislature has passed Bill 736, and Gov. Rick Scott has signed it. So this effort to "reform" teaching practices in the Florida public schools is now law.

But reform them how? According to the Miami Herald, the bill will eventually "tie teacher pay to student test scores, eliminate so-called tenure for new hires as of July 1 [all subsequent hires will get only yearly contracts] and end layoffs based on seniority."

It was, of course, a Republican-sponsored bill and that had the Democrats looking for flaws. It did not take them long to spot an obvious one.

According to the Florida House Minority leader Ron Saunders, D-Key West, "if you are basing a teacher’s pay on test scores, there’s going to be a natural incentive for the teachers to teach to the test, instead of, maybe, expanding other areas of interest."

The Republican response to this concern was to dismiss it as a false issue. According to Rep. Eric Fresen, R-Miami, who sponsored the bill, "As long as the students are learning, I don’t think there’s a problem with that."

The state of Florida is actually rather late in coming to this. The bill largely mimics the still-extent Bush administration policy known as "No Child Left Behind" which came into existence in 2003 and was overhauled by the Obama Administration in 2010.

As the Florida legislation suggests, this approach relies on assessment based on standardized tests and has made a lot of money for companies who put such tests together.

There are number of assumptions that lay behind all these efforts and here are some of them:

1. The American public school system is performing poorly.

2. This is the fault of bad teachers.

3. Getting rid of the tenure system will get rid of bad teachers.

4. Using standardized tests will allow you to measure necessary levels of learning for specific ages.

5. Having instituted such tests, the attainment of adequate scores means that both the student has successfully learned and the teacher has successfully taught.

It just so happens that all of these assumptions are problematic. Let’s take them one by one.

1. Is the American public school system performing poorly? Well, yes and no. There are plenty of supposedly scary statistics out there that show that the majority of public school students are not fully proficient in a number of academic areas, given a definition of proficiency set by standardized tests.

For instance, the U.S. Department of Education reports that, as of 2009, 17 percent of 12th graders are proficient in math and 18 percent are proficient in Science (let’s keep these percentages in mind), and that "in comparison to 1992, reading scores were lower in 2009."

However, these statistics beg the question of what criteria is being used to determine proficiency? Or, if you will, just what does it mean to be educated?

Historically (and here I mean from the dawn of civilization onward), the notion of educational proficiency has always been tied to making a living. In other words, either through apprenticeship or formal schooling, what most children have learned over the ages is what their economic environments required of them.

Applied to our own time this means that, for all students in all schools, there are two curricula. Whether you want to be a lawyer or an auto mechanic, the primary curriculum is vocational and the second one is, shall we say, elective.

This elective category may or may not include independent critical thinking which, in any case, is a pursuit that is often disapproved of by local school boards.

By the time American kids are in junior high school, they usually know the difference between what is vocationally valuable and what is not, and most gear their learning efforts to what they believe are their future career interests.

That means vocational learning will most often trump elective learning. It also means that it is not the school per se, or the teachers, that are actually setting the criteria for learning. It is the economy and the student’s local culture.

So, if the economy demands reading and writing abilities at the level of business memos and technical reports, that is the proficiency, on average, that you will get. On average, all learning beyond that, regardless of the courses taken, will be seen by the student as elective and will be absorbed (or not) depending on personal interest.

Ask yourself how many American students want to – or will be required to – know anything beyond basic math in their future workplace? Seventeen percent sounds like a roughly accurate number. How many are going to want to – or have to know – much science? Eighteen percent sounds about right.

Thirty years ago, computer savvy was not a job-related skill. Schools largely ignored it and relatively few people had real proficiency in this area. Today, the situation is reversed. So you see for most students, and their schools, useful knowledge is deemed to be employment knowledge.

Actually, almost all American schools, even the "failing" ones, deliver employment knowledge. You might think that this claim is off-base, but it really is not.

High-end public schools cater to students, most of whom by virtue of their cultural background, have professional career expectations. And that is the educational preparation they get. Just so, low-end schools (admittedly underfunded) cater to students, most of whom have very different expectations, and they are educated accordingly.

I am not claiming this is a good thing, only that this is the way it works. If you want to change it, you have to change culturally driven expectations and the structural nature of the economy.

Just looking at tests and teachers won’t do it. To achieve this sort of change means a lot of social rearrangement and revenue shifting. Historically, the U.S. has never been willing to do these things.

2. And that brings us to our second assumption. If you are not satisfied with the status quo in education, but are not willing to acknowledge where the real problems lie, you might be tempted to find a scapegoat.

So, it all becomes the fault of bad teachers.

First of all it should be determined what is meant by bad teaching. Do we define it by poor student scores on a standardized test? Or do we define it as the failure or inability to make a good faith effort to address the required material?

It should be kept in mind that you can have the first without the second. I would be very suspicious of the first definition because of the reasons given above. So let use the second definition. Given that meaning, are there bad teachers in our public school system? Yes there are.

But it is highly doubtful if, in terms of percentage, they number any more than bad administrators, bad bank managers, bad lawyers, bad doctors, and even bad Florida state politicians, etc.

Nor is it true that, allegedly unlike the other categories, teachers are "insulated from accountability." Almost every public school teacher in the country is under contract.

One assumes that failure to teach competently is a breach of a teacher’s contract. Just as in all other contractually governed employment settings, it is the administrator’s (the principal’s) job to document the situation and fire the worker who is not doing his or her job.....

Finish reading this essay by Lawrence Davidson >>> here

President Obama's Weekly Address 3/26/11: The Military Mission in Libya

WASHINGTON – In his weekly address, President Obama told the American people that the military mission in Libya is succeeding even as responsibility is transferred to our NATO allies and partners. Qaddafi’s air defenses have been taken out, his forces are no longer advancing across the country, and in places like Benghazi, his forces have been pushed back. Every American can be proud of the lives we have saved and of the service of our men and women in uniform who once again have stood up for our interests and our ideals.

APP: Middletown assessor to get $15G payment for reassessment work

So what do you know, I guess someone over at the Asbury Park Press has been reading my blog.

In today's paper APP report Kevin Penton has written an article about the $15,000 bonus that Tax Assessor Charles Heck will be receiving for doing his job.

Two things that stand out in the article are that no one would make themselves available for comment other that Tony Fiore; not Township Administrator Tony Mercantante or Charles Heck himself, would comment.

Secondly is the arrogance of Fiore himself. Fiore is quote, "Let's face it, without this money, there would have been no incentive for them to do the work." referring to Heck and his assistant working extra hours for the bonus, instead of doing what would be expected from someone who earns $108,572 from the tax payers of Middletown.

Lets face it, Heck has a very cozy job, so cozy that he is able hold similar positions in town other towns, which has increased his salary and benefits to over $164,000 according to Data Universe , so let's not try and kid anyone. Heck should not be getting anthying extra from the Township for doing a job that he is already highly paid to do.

Any money that the Township has realized as savings from Heck's work should go to saving jobs, not lining Heck's pockets. For Fiore to justify Heck's bonus by stating ,"To spend $20,000 to save $50,000, that's a pretty good spend." as he did at Monday night's Township Committee meeting is asinine. The whole $50,000 belongs to taxpayers and should be used towards saving jobs,services or paying off debt. Not for lining a political flunky's pockets.

Robo Call From Concerned Citizens of Middletown

While I was going through my voicemail last night I discovered a Robocall left by a goup calling themselves "Concerned Citizens of Middletown".

The robocall was about the recently completed township wide reassessment and seems to have been smartly timed to coincide with the mailing of property tax notices to Middletown homeowners.

The message seems to be simple enough; Just because homeowner's property valves have been reassessed lower it doesn't mean that the amount of taxes they will pay will be lower as a result. Middletown must raise the tax rate to correspond with falling property values in order to collect the $45 million dollars or so needed to support the Township budget.

I recorded message off my answering machine and have posted it below along with a transcript below that.

My only question about this robocall is, who is this group that calls themselves Concerned Citizens of Middletown? I like their message.

I wonder if they have anything to do with local TEA party activists?

Hello, I am a concerned Middletown resident.

Have you heard that the Township committee is engaging in an elaborate shell game with our tax dollars?

After spending millions on a re-evaluation and now a reassessment to fix faulty property values, our taxes will not be going down.

As a matter of fact they will be going up!

Regardless of how our homes are valued the Township needs to collect $45 million to balance its budget.

Pay close attention to your next tax bill then check with your neighbors. Were their taxes affected?

Paid for by the Concerned Citizens of Middletown.

New Civil War erupts, led by super rich, GOP

I was sent this article yesterday by a friend, it is very interesting and an eye opener for those that think trickle down Reaganomics actually works and is what's best for America's working class.The only people that have benefited from Reaganomics are the super rich and the gap between those that have and those that have not is growing increasingly larger every day. Before you know it, a new civil war will be fought in this country if economic conditions do not become more equitable for all.

This article appears online at Marketwatch.com:

By Paul B. Farrell, MarketWatch

SAN LUIS OBISPO, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Yes, “there’s class warfare, all right,” warns Warren Buffett. “But it’s my class, the rich class, that’s making war, and we’re winning.” Yes, the rich are making war against us. And yes, they are winning. Why? Because so many are fighting this new American Civil War between the rich and the rest.

Not just the 16 new GOP governors in Wisconsin, Michigan, Ohio, Florida, and across America fighting for new powers. Others include: Chamber of Commerce billionaires, Koch brothers, Forbes 400, Karl Rove’s American Crossroads, Grover Norquist’s Americans for Tax Reform — which now has 97% of House Republicans and 85% of the GOP Senators signed on his “no new taxes” pledge — the Tea Party and Reaganomics ideologues.

Wake up America. You are under attack. Stop kidding yourself. We are at war. In fact, we have been fighting this Civil War for a generation, since Ronald Reagan was elected in 1981. Recently Buffett renewed the battle cry: The “rich class” is winning this war. Except most Americans still don’t realize they’re losing, don’t see the prize at stake.

All this was predicted back in September 2008 by Naomi Klein, author of “Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.” Yes, we were warned that the GOP’s Reaganomics ideology would stage a rapid comeback … warned before the market collapsed … before Wall Street was virtually bankrupt. … before Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson conned Congress into $787 billion in bailouts … warned before Obama’s 2008 election

Free-market Reaganomics roaring back, more powerful than before

Yes, back in the heat of battle, in September 2008, Klein warned America: “Whatever the events of this week mean, nobody should believe the overblown claims that the market crisis signals the death of ‘free market’ ideology.” Then the meltdown went nuclear.

Klein warned: “Free market ideology has always been a servant to the interests of capital, and its presence ebbs and flows depending on its usefulness to those interests. During boom times, it’s profitable to preach laissez faire, because an absentee government allows speculative bubbles to inflate.”

But “when those bubbles burst, the ideology becomes a hindrance, and it goes dormant while big government rides to the rescue.” Remember: A week later Paulson was on his knee, begging House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for that $787 billion bailout, to save our incompetent Wall Street banks that caused the meltdown from certain bankruptcy.

“But rest assured,” continued Klein in September 2008, Reaganomics “ideology will come roaring back when the bailouts are done. The massive debts the public is accumulating to bail out the speculators will then become part of a global budget crisis that will be the rationalization for deep cuts to social programs, and for a renewed push to privatize.”

And yes, America, this war strategy is happening thanks to General Buffett, the new GOP Congress and 16 aggressive anti-democracy GOP governors.

GOP using ‘shock doctrine’ to gain new anti-democracy powers

The GOP is anti-democracy: With the GOP, “this whole democracy thing” is “very inefficient,” warned Klein. Republican governors are using “a fiscal crisis as a pretext to do stuff they otherwise want to do … Republicans in Michigan want to be able to unilaterally abolish your town. And how do you know when you’re in a financial emergency? Because the governor tells you … or a company he hires.”

Yes the GOP, the party of big business and billionaires, secretly hates democracy, it’s too inefficient for the rich class.

In the interview, Klein reiterated: The GOP governors’ strategy is a clear example of “disaster capitalism,” the Reaganomics war strategy that has dominated, obsessed and driven the GOP for a generation. Klein warns, “these guys have been at this for 30 years,” it is “an ideological movement … they believe in a whole bunch of stuff that’s not very popular,” like “privatizing the local water system, busting unions, privatizing entire towns. If they said all this in an election they’d lose.”

And that’s why crises are so crucial to the GOP war strategies to take over America: Crises “are very, very handy, because you can say we have no choice. … the sky is falling in.” Then the GOP governors “can consolidate power. We remember this from the Bush administration. They did this at the federal level. After 9/11, they said, we have a crisis, and we have to essentially rule by fiat.”

But the truth, warns Klein, is that the GOP “really doesn’t believe in the governments that they are running … this is a really old story.” The greed of their billionaire backers is insatiable. They do not like democracy. And the actions of the new GOP governors is proof that what they really want are dictatorial powers to privatize government and get personally richer.

Continue reading >>>> Here

Independent: Twp. and BOE begin to discuss shared services; Middletown and school district form committee to explore opportunities

Hmmm, this sounds vaguely familiar.

Wasn't it Former Committeeman Sean Byrnes that championed the idea to form a committee to between the Middletown Township Committee and the Middletown Board of Education for the purpose of finding areas in which the two could share services? I'm just saying....

MIDDLETOWN — A collaborative committee between the township and the Board of Education that would facilitate shared services has begun to take shape.

The Township Committee approved a resolution establishing the new commit- tee’s members at its March 7 meeting.

Mayor Anthony Fiore, Committeeman Steve Massell and public member Judy Benedict will serve on the committee along with Township Administrator Anthony Mercantante.

Board members Vincent Brand and Michael Mascone, Interim Superintendent Thomas Pagano and Business Administrator Amy Gallagher will represent the school district on the committee.

The committee aims to identify areas of overlapping expenses and investigate possible shared or consolidated services between the two entities.

“A lot of those discussions happen already; however, we’re always more than willing to comply with trying to find every idea that we can to share resources with the Board of Education and other entities,” Fiore said in an interview.

“Hopefully, that committee will allow us to explore other and every avenue that we possibly can with the Board of Education to share services as much as possible for the benefit of the taxpayers of Middletown.”

Board President Michael Donlon expressed similar sentiments, but stressed that the committee is still young.

“Our Board of Education is looking to get a better understanding of the benefits that shared services may bring,” he said.


“We sincerely believe that collaboration is a win for both parties, and the board will continue in our efforts to work side by side with the township as we both proceed through these very interesting and changing times,” he said....

Read more >>>> Here

In The Face Of Tax Increases And Layoffs Middletown's Mayor Fiore Justifies $20K In Bonuses to Tax Assessors

It never seizes to amaze me what the news media considers news when it involves Middletown. Case in point; Monday night was Middletown's monthly Township Committee meeting and the only news coming from the Asbury Park Press, Redbankgreen.com and Middletown Patch about the meeting was that Middletown will be sticking to it's intention of not exceeding Governor Christie mandated 2% cap on budgets, which is nothing new and has already been reported on numerous times, and that the budget will be introduced on April 4th, which I mentioned over the weekend.

What should have been reported as news by these three is the fact that in the face of a tax increase, employee layoffs and other potential service cuts, Tax Assessor Charles Heck and his assistant will be receiving bonuses worth $20,000 ($15K for Heck, $5K for his assistant).

Mayor Fiore justifies these bonuses because Charles Heck supposedly saved the Township $50,000 while negotiating the price of the recent Township wide reassessment with Reality Appraisal (a former employer of Heck's) and worked many long hours helping prepare paper work for Reality Appraisal leading up to the reassessment.

When you factor in that Heck is will be receiving a statutory 2.5% raise to his $108,500 salary along with the $15,000 in bonus money, he will be receiving quite a windfall from the Township this year when other will be losing their jobs.

In the audio clip below you can hear Fiore at his best "fibbing" about why the Township Committee is giving Heck his bonus and about how last year, the entire Township Committee was in agreement about providing Heck and his assistant this windfall.

The thing is though, that when I spoke to former Township Committee Sean Byrnes about this he said that he had no recollection of a discussion taking place about Heck saving the Township $50,000. He stated that they wanted to pay him more because of all the tax appeals he had been working on, and that they subsequently approved the $400,000 price tag for reassessment by Reality Appraisal and that they (the Committee) must have worked this deal out later without him. He stated, as I had posted earlier, that last year when he was a Committeeman the Committee attempted to pass a similar resolution to reward Heck but t was dropped when he opposed it.

Fiore really needs to think about this before he opens his mouth again on this subject, I really can't understand how he or anyone else can justify this when other peoples livelihoods are at stake. How can he look those, about to lose their jobs in the eye and tell them that someone will be receiving a bonus at their expense? If I were in contract negotiating with the Township right now, I wouldn't cave in and give anything back when something as blatant as this is being waved in my face. I'd play hardball until the end.

It doesn't make sense to spend $20,000 to save $30,000 when you expect a person to do a job that he is well compensated for already. Middletown tax payers should be benefiting by having the complete $50,000 put towards tax relief, after all it is their money more so than Heck's.

On a side note, I hope those on the Library Board are paying attention to this. This is a perfect example of what others tried to warn them about before they voted to hand over $500,000 of reserved funds to the Township. The Township Committee can not be trusted to spend OUR money wisely or prudently. It's OK to give a$15,000 bonus to an already highly compensated tax assessor but it is unconscionable give 1% raises to the lowest paid employees of the library, a raise that would average out to about $1 per week in their paychecks?

Shame on you Kevin Settembrino and the rest of you who sit on the Township Committee for allowing this to move forward.

Crime Scene Middletown: MAN ARRESTED FOR CAR BURGLARIES AT EXTENDED STAY AMERICA MOTEL

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER


On March 22, 2011 at 2:15 am Patrolman Ryan Riffert responded to the parking lot of the Extended Stay America Motel in Lincroft in reference to a report of a suspicious person who was observed breaking into vehicles parked in the lot.

Upon arrival a witness provided the officer with a physical description of the subject which was then broadcasted to other patrol units in the area as well as the neighboring Red Bank Police Department.

Patrolman Michael Zadlock of the Red Bank Police Department located a subject fitting the description given by the witness walking on Shrewsbury Avenue. The subject, identified as Louis DeAngelo, age 34, from Howard Avenue in Tinton Falls was found in possession of property stolen from the vehicles.

DeAngelo was placed under arrest and was transported to the Middletown Police Department where he was charged with Burglary, Theft and Possession of Burglar tools. He was held on $15,000.00 bail with no 10% option set by Judge Richard Thompson.

Crime Scene Middletown: TWO JUVENILES ARRESTED FOR DRUG POSSESSION IN LOCAL PARK

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER


On March 18, 2011 at approximately 6:50pm Patrolmen Brady Carr and Brian Dilworth were on patrol in the area of Kunkel Park when they observed two juvenile males crouching down and holding a plastic bag.

The officers approached the two subjects and upon speaking with them discovered the bag contained a green vegetative type substance believed to be marijuana and two pipes used for smoking marijuana.

Both juveniles were placed under arrest and were transported to police headquarters where they were charged with Possession of under 50 grams of marijuana and Possession of drug paraphernalia. Both subjects were processed and released to their parents pending a court appearance.

Crime Scene Middletown: WOMAN AND STORE EMPLOYEE ARRESTED FOR SHOPLIFTING AT TARGET STORE

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER


On March 20, 2011 at approximately 2:45 pm Corporal Bernard Chenoweth responded to the Target Store in reference to a shoplifting. Upon arrival store security advised the officer that they had observed a woman, identified as Allyson Forte, age 40, from Gayle Drive in Middletown, enter the store and begin collecting merchandise.

Forte then proceeded to the guest service counter where she spoke with store employee, William Acton, age 23, from Nevada Drive in Hazlet, NJ. Forte then, with Acton’s knowledge and assistance, returned the items she had just collected without a receipt and received a store gift card with approximately $1,300.00 worth of store credit.

She then continued shopping and was observed concealing merchandise on her person. She was arrested as she attempted to leave the store. The officers also arrested Acton for allowing Forte to return the items which he knew she had not purchased.

Both subjects were transported to police headquarters where they were charged with Shoplifting. They were processed and released on a summons pending a court appearance.

Crime Scene Middletown: WOMAN CHARGED WITH DRUNK DRIVING AFTER MOTOR VEHICLE STOP

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER

On March 18, 2011 at approximately 8:20 pm Patrolman Donald Coates and Sergeant Fred Deickmann were on patrol in the area of Highway 36 in Port Monmouth when they observed a grey Nissan travelling at a high rate of speed and making unsafe lane changes.

The officers stopped the vehicle and approached the driver, identified as Kimberly Kellar, age 30, from Washington Avenue in Highlands, NJ. While speaking with Kellar the officers detected a strong odor of an alcoholic beverage coming from Kellar.

The investigation conducted by the officers determined that Kellar was operating the vehicle under the influence of alcohol. She was placed under arrest and was transported to police headquarters where she was charged with DWI, Refusal to provide breath samples, Reckless driving, Failure to maintain lane and Operating a vehicle while using a cell phone.

Kellar was processed and released pending a court appearance.

Ordinance 2011-3027 And When Is A Salary Freeze, Not A Salary Freeze Explained: UPDATE

Earlier today I was contacted by Middletown Township Clerk Heidi Brunt in reference to yesterdays' blog post, I wasn't available when first contacted, but I called her back around 4:30 this afternoon.

Ms. Brunt, after reading about my experience trying to get information pertaining to the proposed salary ordinance 2011-3027 (that was to be re-introduced at tonight's Township Committee meeting) via an OPRA request. She wanted to apologise and clear the air about any misunderstanding that may have arisen from it. Clerk Brunt informed me that there was indeed a list of employees with job title and salaries available to me for the year 2009. She stated that if she had been in the office when I stopped by on Friday she would have presented me with what I requested.

After speaking with her and telling her exactly what I was after she said it was no problem, she requested me to send her an email so that she would have a record of my request. As soon as I sent her the email, with in minutes, she sent me a list for all township employees, their job positions and salaries for the year 2009 (even though I requested 2010). Ms. Brunt stated that to her knowledge, the salaries contained in this document had not changed.

While on the phone with Clerk Brunt, she did volunteer a small bit of information to me. Ms. Brunt mentioned that Tax Assessor Charles Heck and herself were due a 2.5% statutory salary increase for 2011. She informed me that, she, herself, had no intention accepting the raise and as a matter of fact had already turned it down. Her feelings were such that she in good conscience could not accept a raise while others were losing their jobs. She could not say the same of Tax Assessor Heck, who, she believes has not turned down the raise and is planning on accepting it.

Aftyer hanging up with Clerk Brunt it accured to me that I did not follow-up with her about Heck's $15,000 "bonus" that was part of the ordinance. That is something that needs to be cleared up.

Heck received a salary of $108,572 from Middletown in 2009 which means he is due for an increase of $2714 in base pay increase if he accepts the 2.5% raise. A far cry less than the $15K "bonus" proposed in the ordinance, but which is no less disturbing.

Thank you Clerk Brunt for contacting me and clearing this up!


BTW - as a side note, it accured to me while looking at the list of employees and salaries, that this list doesn't reflect the employees that retired or were laid off last year (2010), which isn't a problem. Where the problem lays (and it really isn't a problem, I just want to point it out) is that last year members of the Police Department were given a retro-active raise of 8% to cover salary increase for 2008 & 2009 in exchange for a 0% raise in 2010 (Gerry Scharfenberger was very proud of this), so I need to add 8% to the base of all members of the Police Department to get an accurate gage for 2011 salaries, which should not be misconstrued to be a jab at the Police.

I believe that the police have a very difficult job and at anytime during the day or night are putting their life on the line to protect other and uphold the law. One never knows when their next traffic stop or domestic dispute call will be their last.

An Eyewitness Account Of How The Middletown Library Board Gave In

By guest blogger Linda Baum

There were only about twenty attendees at Wednesday’s meeting of the Middletown Library Board, a fraction of the crowd that showed up last month. Aside from Committeeman Settembrino, who is on the Library Board, no one from the Township was there. And the mood was different. It was calm, and everyone was polite. I took that as a bad sign.

A handful of people spoke during the public portion at the start of the meeting.

One woman brought up Brian Nelson’s comment at the meeting last month that he had personally lobbied the NJ legislature for the new law that requires public libraries to give part of their surplus to towns. Brian Nelson is Town Attorney. The woman said she found it disturbing that he was being paid with tax dollars to do this. Mr. Settembrino responded that Mr. Nelson has other clients besides Middletown, but of course he failed to mention that many, if not most, of those clients are other towns and the county. So, essentially, Mr. Nelson was paid with tax dollars to do something that most taxpayers don’t support.

Jim Grenafege and I had a common message, that the Township has a history of mismanaging tax dollars, either ignoring problems or responding to slowly or inadequately. Add to that a history of nondisclosure and bad financial decisions – bad for the taxpayers, anyway -- and it’s no small wonder they are looking for rescue now. My take is that if the Township is looking for a handout, the Town Committee needs to show that they have prudently managed the funds already in their charge. There is much evidence to the contrary, and I will get into all of that another time.

Right off the bat, Board President Gabrielan made a motion to give the town $250,000, half the amount that administrators and attorneys had come up with. Only he and Board VP Milne voted yes on the motion, and it failed 5 to 2.

At least one Board member expressed concern that much time had already been spent on discussion by the administrators and attorneys, who were charged with arriving at a figure. Mr. Gabrielan pointed out that they were not also charged with voting for the Board. Mr. Gabrielan felt the negotiations did not accurately represent facts or address concerns, and said that information could be presented in any manner to achieve a desired result. And with that, the sentiment from the last meeting reared its head.

Other Board members seemed just to want to get this issue behind them and get on with other library business. The Board members felt the need to agree to an amount to the town’s liking in order to be insulated from such attacks for the remainder of 2011 and to protect the library from the threat of transfer to the county system, a threat Mr. Gabrielan noted was without merit.

“Tax relief” was a handy feel-good phrase. It had to be obvious to everyone just how little relief the money would provide. I suspect the Board had an eye to how they would be painted in the press. In fact – if I heard right -- a joint press release was part of the negotiated agreement.

There was also considerable concern about the town’s plan to handle the parking lot expansion on behalf of the library as part of the giveback, while still expecting the library to pay the debt service on a bond for the work. The issue, of course, was that the library should not have to pay anything after the giveback, which includes funds that were earmarked for the construction. I am not sure how this was resolved. I think the town backed down, and in the end it was agreed that after the giveback, the library would owe nothing more to the town for the lot construction.

After all was said and done, the Board voted to give just short of $500,000 to the town.

I stayed until the end, just me and two members of the press. There was a second public comment period at that time. I was the lone speaker. I felt the need to point out that the lot construction arrangement was not a good thing for taxpayers because the town would be using the library’s money for some other purpose and then bonding for the construction. That will burden taxpayers with additional unnecessary debt that we would not have had if the library handled the work itself. And it will be yet another reason why the town will be back before the Library Board next year and the year after crying for more money.

Ordinance 2011-3027 And When Is A Salary Freeze, Not A Salary Freeze Explained

I had some spare time on Friday so I thought that I would do a little research into the new salary ordinance being proposed by the Middletown Township Committee. I went down to Town Hall to request some information about it, but before I explain to you what I found out, here is a little rundown on what the new ordinance is about and what it is replacing.

Ordinance 2011-3027 Amending Management Salaries and Non-Union Employees, which can be found on the township website under the Clerk's tab, is an attempt by the Township to be more transparent (TC Attorney Brian Nelson's words) when it comes to non-union employees salaries. The ordinance list about 50 non-union job titles broken down into 5 sections titled:

Management

Statutory Employees(N.J.S.A. 40A:9-165)

Officers

Elected Officials

and

Special Assignments (Expiring 12/31/2011)

Accompanying each job titled is a single salary figure with no further explanation, which leads one to believe that those salaries are the current employee salaries or will be once the ordinance is approved. It is very misleading.

This proposed ordinance will replace existing Ordinance 2009-2996 , which instead of providing a single salary per job title, contained salary ranges per job title. Employee salaries could fall anywhere within a range that would reflect position (title and description) value in the broad market place; the regional market place; specific industry, as well as allow comparison across industries.

As I said, I went down to Town Hall thinking that I could get some information via an OPRA request on employees that currently fill positions and their current salaries as outlined in Ordinance 2011-3027, but I was wrong. It seems that you can only OPRA actual document that contain information, you can't request that a list or document be generated to provide you with information.

Be that as it may, while I was discussing what I wanted to know, I kept being told that all the information that I wanted to know was listed in the ordinance and that NO employee would be receiving any raises in the ordinance due to a salary freeze which was in effect.

When I stated that the information I wanted wasn't there, that I questioned current salaries as opposed to salaries list in the ordinance and that current salaries for a handful of employees that I found on the APP's Data Universe where listed higher, sometime much higher, than those in the proposed new ordinance, it was suggested that I speak to Township Administrator Tony Mercantante.

Tony Mercantante explained that what I was trying to do was not possible because lists like the one I was asking for didn't exist. When I told him that I now understood that, that I questioned the salaries listed in the new ordinance and whether they were accurate, he stated hat the ordinance language will be rewritten before it is reintroduced Monday night because he had concerns that the language was misleading . Mercantante stated that the salaries listed in ordinance 2011-3027 are for starting base pay only and are not reflective of what individuals in those positions are currently earning. But the assured me that no one was getting a salary raise because there was a pay freeze in effect.

He said that many are making more money annually than what the ordinance calls for due to longevity and merit pay. When I asked him for a list of salaries of current non union employees so that I could compare anyway, he said some of those numbers may change between now and the time the numbers would be provided. I asked him how that could be when there is a "salary freeze" in effect? Mercantante became a little wishy-washysaying that the salary freeze is only for actual raises to the base pay rate; step raises, longevity, merit or promotional type raises are not affected by the freeze.

I asked how could that be when you are dealing with non-union employees? He said it is in the contracts. What contracts I said, since when did non-union workers and department heads have contracts? He said whatever contracts are in effect for union employees, the same terms of those contracts hold for non-union Township employees.

I left there shaking my head because it didn't make sense, but then again when did anything that the people who run Middletown do make sense?

So the bottom line for those asking questions or leaving comments on this blog is, proposed ordinance 2011-3027 salaries are starting base only and are not reflective of what individuals in those positions are currently earning. These salaries would be for new employees only, no current non-union employees will have money taking away from them based on the figures in this ordinance.

Also as far as I'm concerned,there is no true salary freeze happening. If a merit, longevity or other type of employment milestone is met by an employees of the township, they will be receiving a salary increase. So if you happen to one of the lucky ones who will enjoy a bump in your pay sometime this year congratulations! All others, piss off as they say.

On a side note, I asked Mercantante when the budget would be introduced. He said tentatively April 4th as part of the workshop meeting. He does not expect at this time to hold a special presentation meeting to introduce the budget, but that may or may not change just as the April 4th date might.

When I asked him about having to submit the budget to the state by March 16th, he said that date keeps changing because the state isn't ready. So as usual the budget introduction is a floating target, but when it is introduced, we will be able to see that planned salaries for all those listed in the ordinance without and Opra request YEAAHH !

Middletown Tax Assessor To Receive $15K "Bonus" Under New Salary Ordinance

According to the new Township Salary Ordinance 2011-3027 that will be voted on and possible adopted at Monday night's Township Committee meeting in Middletown, the Township Tax Assessor Charles Heck, is in for a windfall bonus of $15,000 for doing such a great job preparing for the Township reassessment.

Heck's base salary is already over $108,000 according to the APP's Data Universe . And everyone knows what a great job he did preparing the Township's re-evaluations, he was suspended without pay for withholding information and not turning in reports on time. The work he did was of such quality, it sparked a huge avalanche of tax appeals that the Township is still trying to dig itself out from under.

Now, the Township thinks that Heck was overworked gathering numbers for Reality Appraisal, the company that the Township paid $400,000 to recently and was in charge of the reassessment, so he should be given a $15,000 bonus for all his extra work!

According to former Committeeman Sean Byrnes, the Township Committee tried last year to give Heck his bonus, but when Byrnes complained and disagreed with the idea it was dropped from consideration. Now that Byrnes is no longer on the Committee, those that feel Heck should be compensated for his fantastic extra work on behalf of the Township, have once again introduced it and plan to move forward.

I suppose this bonus money is coming from the funds that have been pilfered from the Library's $500,000 that they Township has just confiscated.

BTW - The Assistant Tax Assessor will also be receiving a $5,000 bonus according to Ordinance 2011-3027 . Does anyone know who that person is? They must be doing an equally bang up job as Heck has done to justify a bonus when other's have been subject to a salary freeze.

Crime Scene Middletown: MAN ARRESTED FOR ARRGAVATED ARSON AND CRIMINAL MISCHIEF AFTER HE SETS RENTAL PROPERTY ON FIRE

I can't believe I missed this one, it happened just around the corner from my house!

PREPARED BY DETECTIVE LIEUTENANT STEPHEN DOLLINGER

On March 16, 2011 at approximately 3:00 PM Patrolman Adam Vendetti and Patrolman Albert Scott responded to a residence on Harmony Road in reference to a report of a subject who had set the residence on fire. Upon arrival the officers found smoke coming from the residence and a fire in a bedroom.

The investigation conducted by the officers along with Detective Peter White of the Middletown Police Department and members of the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office, the Middletown Fire Marshall’s Office, and the Monmouth County Fire Marshall’s Office determined that the resident, Christopher Bossick, age 31, had purposely set the house on fire in retaliation for being advised that he was about to be evicted by the property owner.

Police advise that Bossick also did considerable damage to the interior of the home utilizing power tools as well as other means prior to starting the fire.

Bossick was arrested and was charged with Aggravated Arson and three counts of Criminal Mischief. He was being held on $50,000.00 bail with no 10% option set by Judge Richard Thompson.