Sunday, January 25, 2009

~ It's a Kangaroo Court ~

The appointment of the Municipal Judge rests solely with the Mayor, which must be approved by Council. The qualifications which one must possess to become a Municipal Judge are fairly simple. One must be a NJ resident and a member of the bar with five years experience as an attorney. That's it. The municipal court docket is comprised of mainly traffic and parking offenses.

Here in Linden, the current Judge's appointment is up. Mayor Gerbounka has submitted the name of Dan Roberts, who, it cannot be disputed, is certainly qualified according to the NJ statute governing the appointment of Municipal Judges. It's no secret that Dan Roberts has been involved in supporting local candidates, who run against the Union County Democratic Machine candidates. For those of us who know how harmful those particular self-serving democrats have been on the Union County taxpayers, supporting such candidates can only be viewed as a good thing.

On the other hand, Mayor Gerbounka's nomination of Dan Roberts may also be seen as an act of political patronage. Since the appointment of the Judge lies with the Mayor, one of the very few powers given to the Mayor, it can be assumed that the Mayor isn't going to nominate someone who has worked against him or his ideas. On a personal note, I feel that the Mayor should have nominated someone other than Dan Roberts solely to avoid the appearance of political patronage, the very problem this City and this State, on a whole, has long suffered under. It should be noted that Roberts is/was willing to serve the City at a much lower salary without benefits. That would have saved the Linden taxpayer $65,000, which is nothing to sneeze at. However, the audacity of Charles "in Charge of the Linden Dem. Club" Crane, who has been handsomely rewarded with a political patronage position, as well as many members of his own family, to actually stand up in public and criticize the Mayor's selection, is a total joke and cannot be taken seriously. It's been reported that Crane seeks to be your next Mayor. Alrighty then.

In checking salaries of other Municipal Judges, I was limited to searching TNHT Data Universe site. That site has not been updated to reflect 2008 salaries, therefore 2007 figures were checked. According to that site, in 2007, Judge DiLeo pocketed $117,468 for his part time position. In Newark, its top Muncipal Judge, who, BTW, is a full time Judge, made slightly more than Judge DiLeo, @ $117,924. Other salaries of Municipal attorneys are as follows: Rahway's Judge earned $69,506; Roselle Park @ $34,640; Cranford @ $44,668, Roselle @ $67,566. Surely, DiLeo, who now makes $122,000, is overpaid. It's long overdue to stop the excesses and quite frankly, the taxpayers are sick of it and can no longer afford it.

I'd like to note that in 2008 a full time Superior Court Judge earned $149,000. DiLeo, as Linden's part-time Municipal Judge, earned $122,000.

One of the arguments for keeping DiLeo on at his inflated salary is that the Judge is preventing crimes. This is unproven and exaggerated. I don't think the LPD could even support that position. Another argument is that no sitting Linden Municipal Judge has never been re-appointed which leads me to wonder if any Judge, nominated by the Mayor, has ever been rejected by Council. Another argument is that Dan Roberts is unqualfied. This is patently false based on the NJ statute governing the appointment of Municipal Judges. It is my opinion that the current democrats are clamoring to offer up arguments against the Mayor, which fly in the face of their own behavior, to discredit the Mayor with this one issue because they cannot support their own views based on their own records. It's no way to conduct City business and the appointment of a Municipal Judge has now turned into a Kangaroo Court, Soprano State style as usual.

11 comments:

Anonymous said...

shit hitting fan today luzerne county 1:30 out of scranton

NFS said...

Will that spill over to our NJ friends?

Anonymous said...

Do Linden resodents check their brains at the border before coming home?

What a bunch of dopes for tolerating this garbage!

Anonymous said...

names being thrown out could be pa long wait

Anonymous said...

go to grassroots pa full stories

Anonymous said...

times leader or citizens voice both front pages 1-30-09

NFS said...

Is Participant #1 or #2 a NJ resident?

How many children were the victims of these Judges and whoever else is involved? Disgusting.

Anonymous said...
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Anonymous said...
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NFS said...

anonymous 10:25 & 10:26 a.m -- Please refrain from "judging" a person's mental state.

Anonymous said...

DiLeo is making a laughing stock out of Lindens court. That the council would leave him in office and pay him $117K only goes to show the sad state of Linden government, continuing legacy of corruption and political patronage.