Board of Education Regular Meeting 1/2/18: Is The Township Committee Planning To Return BOE Elections To April?

Last night the Middletown Board of Education held it's annual Reorganization meeting, which I watched via the YouTube live stream and heard an interesting bit of information being introduced.

It appears that the Middletown Township Committee will be introducing a resolution within the next few weeks that would reinstate the April elections for the Middletown Board of Education. This would mean that in November, residents would no longer vote for BOE candidates on the ballot.

If the election were to be moved back to April there would be a significant cost to residents for holding such an election, as well as a potential issue with the school budget.

I've taken the liberty to Que the video from last night's meeting to the portion in which the resolution was discussed.

I wasn't a fan of the Christie Administration moving the Board of Education election to November in the first place due to the politics that would naturally be involved as a result of the move. But to move it back to April and have residents tax dollars spent for such and election is senseless. Chris Christie had the elections moved to save taxpayer money  to cost it.

In my opinion, this is just a ploy by the Township Committee to get a say in future Board of Education budgets, by getting the spending approved by voters who will need to approve of it first, just like the old days, if the budget isn't approved, the Township Committee can make cuts to the failed budget. It's also a way for the Township Committee to have a bigger influence over who is elected to the Board of Education. Fewer voters participating in an election means better odds for Township Committee chosen candidates.

Guadagno’s Worrisome Record as Sheriff of Monmouth County

The following was written by former Monmouth County Freeholder John D'Amico and was published last week on Insidernj.com. As we head to the polls tomorrow Kim Guadagno's shady actions as Monmouth County Sheriff should be in voters minds before casting a vote for her:


By John DAmico
October 31, 2017,
 INSIDERNJ

Kim Guadagno dodges responsibility for the failures of the Christie Administration by alternately hiding behind or blaming the Governor.  But she cannot hide from her record of dishonesty as Monmouth County Sheriff.

Kim Guadagno and Gov. Christie

In 2009, to cover a large budget deficit resulting from the recession, the Monmouth County Board of Freeholders, of which I was a member, froze the wages of non-union county employees and asked the unions to agree to a wage freeze. Failing such an agreement, some union members would have to be laid off.

The Freeholders asked Sheriff Guadagno to persuade the unions representing her sheriff’s officers and corrections officers to accept the freeze.  She refused to cooperate, predicting that the savings anticipated from a wage freeze or offsetting layoffs would be lost because she was going to use overtime to continue running the jail, serve warrants, and discharge other functions.  When invited to comment on her budget at a public meeting, she turned her back on the Freeholders and told the hundreds of union members present that they were right to object to the freeze and the Freeholders were wrong. (Asbury Park Press, 7/21/09).

The Sheriff’s unions rejected the freeze, and fourteen of their least senior members with young families were laid off. In addition, Guadagno laid off process servers who had agreed to the freeze and replaced them with higher paid personnel.  After intervention by the county administrator and attorneys, the process servers were reinstated (APP, 7/27/09).  Despite Guadagno’s machinations, the county ultimately did realize salary and fringe benefit savings in the Sheriff’s budget (APP, 10/1/09).

At her first press conference as a candidate for Lieutenant Governor, Guadagno said, “I can tell you that I’m probably the only elected public official who had to stand toe-to- toe, eye-to- eye and negotiate with unions.”  The truth is she was playing footsie with them. At a closed Freeholder meeting earlier in the year, the Republican County Administrator and County Counsel had recommended that the Freeholders pull operation of the jail and youth detention center from Guadagno because of “complaints and concerns relative to the …performance of her duties and lack of responsiveness to the Freeholders” and her close alignment with labor unions in opposing payroll cuts. (APP, 9/30/09).

Angered by these episodes, a Republican blogger wrote “it is common knowledge that Guadagno made the union men and women feel as if she was 100%  PRO them. Then after the smoke clears and she is running with Christie she publicly states that she fought hard to suppress the unions she was protecting.  She still makes 110K as sheriff….What do the laid off workers have?  Sheriff Guadagno is a fraud.”  (PA_TH_TIC, 9/30/09).

This history of shady behavior by former Sheriff Kim Guadagno, strikingly similar in many respects to that of President Donald Trump, is worrisome and calls to mind the warning in the following Bible verse: “If you are faithful in little things, you will be faithful in large ones. But if you are dishonest in little things, you won’t be honest with greater responsibilities.” (Luke 16:10, New Living Translation).

Pallone Statement on Court Ruling Approving Controversial ExxonMobil Settlement

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 25, 2015


LONG BRANCH, NJ – Today, Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. (NJ-06), Ranking Member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, decried today’s state court approval of the Christie Administration’s controversial settlement with ExxonMobil. The Christie Administration decided to settle New Jersey’s $8.9 billion environmental damage lawsuit against ExxonMobil for a mere $225 million. The settlement comes after an 11-year legal battle to recover damages from ExxonMobil for the contamination of more than 1,800 acres of wetlands, marshes, meadows and waters in northern New Jersey.

“The Christie Administration’s settlement destroys years of hard work and sets an extremely dangerous precedent for future polluters to degrade our state with virtually no consequences,” said Congressman Pallone. “New Jerseyans deserved nothing less than to be fairly compensated for the degradation of our land and resources. However, the settlement and the ruling, along with ExxonMobil’s attempts – supported by the Christie Administration – to shirk responsibility, are an insult to New Jersey. I am further troubled that the settlement fails to hold Exxon accountable for pollution at 16 other facilities in the state. Today’s ruling, which effectively lets big oil off the hook, is a reminder that those of us in New Jersey who are committed to the environmental health and economic well-being of our state must redouble our efforts in the leadership void left by Governor Christie.”

In June, Pallone wrote to the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection urging the rejection of the proposed settlement.

In his letter, Pallone wrote, “I was sent to Congress in 1988 to put a stop to ocean dumping and the reckless industrialization of the Jersey Shore. Ensuring the ecological vitality of New Jersey’s coastline and waterways has always been one of my top priorities. This insufficient settlement is an affront to the long term objective of cleaning up New Jersey’s legacy of toxic contamination.”

The full text of his letter is available HERE.

Sandy Recovery Funds Public Hearing At Brookdale Community College 2/21/14

From Middletown Alerts:


Fri, Feb 21,2014
The Christie Administration rescheduled the public hearing on the second round of federal Sandy recovery funds at Brookdale Community College Robert J Collins Area to Friday, February 21, 2014 from 4-7:30pm, because of the recent severe winter weather. Individuals who registered to attend or speak on the original hearing date of February 13th do not need to re-register.

The hearing will be held at Robert J. Collins Arena and Recreation & Events Center on the Brookdale Community College campus at 65 Newman Springs Road from 4:00- 7:30pm. Individuals interested in speaking at the public hearings will be given up to three minutes. In order to accommodate all participants, pre-registration for the public hearing is strongly encouraged. Participants may pre-register at https://bitly.com/SandyPublicHearings. Read More

Mobile Governor's Cabinet in Highlands March 18, 9 am to 5 pm

On Monday, March 18th, the Christie Administration will host a Mobile Cabinet in Highlands to help residents rebuild and recover following Superstorm Sandy. All day long between the hours of 9:00am to 5:00pm, residents affected by Sandy will have access to representatives from the Departments of Banking and Insurance, Community Affairs, Environmental Protection, the Business Action Center, SBA, and FEMA to answer their questions and help resolve any issues they have.

Location: PTAK Towers Community Room 215 Shore Drive, Highlands, NJ, Street parking is available.

Survey Confirms that New Jersey is a Solar Power; Two Garden State utilities finish in the top 10 nationwide when it comes to adding solar capacity

If you are a proponent of green and clean energy and think that solar energy is the best way to go, then the following article posted on NJspotlight will be of great interest to you. Our great state of New Jersey is among the leaders of the nation when it comes to installing solar panels that generate electrical power for both the general public, individuals and industry.

561 megawatts of electricity were added last year through solar panels around the state, which represents a 300% increase over what was reported in 2009.

The road forward in solar energy production may be changing in the near future however, if proposed changes by the Christie administration move forward.

In another indication of the fast-paced growth of New Jersey’s solar market, two of the state’s four electric utilities ranked in the top 10 nationally in adding solar power in the past year, according to a new survey.

Newark Schools Partner with PSE&G to Create Green Curriculum

Public Service Electric & Gas (PSE&G) and Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) ranked third and ninth, respectively, in the amount of solar capacity added in 2010 according to a survey by the Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA). Atlantic City Electric, ranked 12th in new solar capacity, but broke into the top 10 at ninth in solar watts per customer, which is a measure of the utility’s new solar capacity divided by number of customers. PSE&G finished second in that category.

The annual survey, the fourth one done by the association, reflects the growing trend of utilities to incorporate solar power into their energy portfolios. All told, the nation’s utilities integrated 561 megawatts of solar electricity into their deliveries, a 100 percent increase over the previous year, the association said.

Christie's Changes
The findings come at a time when Gov. Chris Christie on Tuesday recommended sweeping changes in New Jersey’s solar program, which is second to only California's in the number of systems that have been installed. The Governor’s overhauled Energy Master Plan recommends steering most of the state’s efforts in developing solar away from residential installations to commercial and industrial applications, where, it argues, the state will get a bigger bang for its buck.

It is unclear how the changes will affect the electric utilities in the state, all of whom have programs geared to encouraging residential solar installations. But Al Matos, a vice president for PSE&G, said the utility will tailor its program to conform to the new recommendations....

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