Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Getting Our Act Together

The best line from the Govenor's budget speech or any speech for that matter was, "Get your act together and get it together now" which was directed at towns and cities.  Under the Govenor's current budget, Linden is due to lose over $3 million in municipal aid. 

For years, a certain City resident has been calling on Council to engage a professional outfit to conduct a thorough study to identify waste, mismangement and/or fraud and offer a profession opinion as to how the  the business of the City can run more efficiently.  It very well could be that had this study been understaken, Linden would have its act together today and be better prepared to deal with reality that the State is broke. It's also possible that the study may have uncovered the criminal acts that were being committed by three ex-Linden employees.  For whatever reason, Council has foolishly rejected this idea.

Linden has a "family friendly payroll", probably second to that of the County.  Many of those lucky enough to have obtained their jobs through political connections also have close ties to City Council members or are directly related to a Council member, past and present.  Two years ago, a report was issued by a Committee made up of council members to explore possible consolidation and/or restructing.  It's a total joke to even imagine that council members are capable of this task for numerous reasons. 

We also need a study regarding the numerous partnerships between the City and the Union County Improvement Authority.  

Let's get a professional aready.  In this fashion, the City can move forward in determing where savings can be made and leave the politics for elections. The taxpayers are owed at least this much. 

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

FYI, the law department was not studied or considered for that report.

NFS said...

I'm very aware of that anon 5:32 and I would have mentioned it, but then my point gets lost, so I'm glad you mentioned it. To prove why the committee is compromised, let's take a look at who served on that committee. Armstead, Koziol, Frazier and Strano. With the exception of Frazier, all the rest have ties to the democratic party and/or get funding from the UC dem organization. Maybe not anymore with Armstead, who has fallen out of their good graces, but certainly Strano & Koziol. And Strano, it is said, is going to run again. Just what Linden needs ... another County hack on Council so Linden can continue to be taken advantage of by the incompetent County government.

Anonymous said...

So in other words, the committee failed to study the law department because the law department heavily donates to the democrat organization? Fking right on.

NFS said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
C2 said...

I take issue with you comment about the Consolidation Report presented to Linden Council by the Consolidation Committee being a "total joke". I was chairman of the committee, I did the research in every major department, I developed an objective list of questions which I presented to employees from every level of departmental government, we compiled the results, and I wrote the report. The results were presented to Council. Some were not happy, because the results were objective, and factual. Some Council people were not happy, some department heads were not happy. But the results and the findings were factual.
Have you, as the author of this critical article, read the report findings? Do not criticize it if you have not.
To those on here who like to attack family members, use profanity, and assume things you know little about - call me, personally. Don't hide behind a screen name like a coward. Rough words? You better believe it.

NFS said...

I'm sure you spent numerous hours compiling the data and I don't doubt your efforts were sincere.

However, the report is vague in many instances and doesn't delve deep enough IMO.

Also, in order to avoid conflicts, an independent study should be made. This way, Council has a professional report upon which to base further actions without either side accusing the other of politics and possibly avoid future lawsuits by employees. For instance, your report states: "...a review of the position established for our recently appointed legal advisor should be considered and an evaluation be made relative to costs versus service". A professional study would have included that evaluation. And here we are today, still in the dark, as to whether we are overstaffed with lawyers while both sides bicker over whether it's politically driven.

The City's hiring practices weren't addressed.

A long term plan was not included in the report.

There was no study as to the benefits versus the pitfalls of doing business with the UCIA.

My criticism was also directed at the inordinate amount of time that has elapsed since a study was first suggested, over and over for years.

As far as attacks on family members, I don't see it that way. A family friendly payroll is what we have and it's no secret that preferences have been made when it comes to hiring. Therefore, it can be argued that not all positions have been filled by the best qualfied applicant because some applicants arent's even considered.

Very rarely is profanity used here. Most people are more offended by the increasing size of their tax bills than an occasional curse word.

While you may consider me or those very few that post here as cowards, we are taxpayers and are entitled to our opinions, harsh and distasteful as they may be.

just ed said...

read any of our papers today

NFS said...

I check the PA papers every so often ed. Any particular story you're referring to? Too many to keep up with.