Maeroff v. Szilagyi - round three!

Just saw John Szilagyi's letter to the editor here - the rebuttal to Maeroff's rebuttal. You know, you gotta give Szilagyi a big Kudos for what he's trying to do here even though this is something that's best handled face to face - at a board meeting. Get to the facts and away from the he said - he said.

Be that as it may - Kudos to you Mr. Szilagyi.

Anyhoo, here's my comments under his letter:

You know - these rebuttal letters of rebuttal letters are fine but it would be more helpful to all the residents if this discussion was taken up at a board meeting. Enough with the he said - he said.

Be that is it may, there's no doubt that these Lease Purchase arrangements, albeit it legal, are hideous and a total slap in the face to the residents/taxpayers. They cut us out of any decision to incur major capital expenditures and the resulting debt. It was hideous when the Dickinson-Led Board did this and it's just as hideous when the Maeroff-Led Board does it.

As for the school officials having no credibility or fiscal responsibility on the school budget - uh..duh! Of course they don't. Unfortunately, Maeroff turned over control of this school district to Dr. Richard 'Build the Trust' O'Malley and the rest of the board sits there silently and lets it happen. O'Malley's someone that should be barred from any numbers having to do with the school district or presenting them (just look at his last 2 budgets). If and when he does though, you should treat it with a healthy dose of cynicism and a huge 'Yeah Right.'

Now don't get me wrong, O'Malley's one smart guy - no doubt about it. But, to me, the most important thing isn't how smart someone is but rather what we do with the smarts we have. If we use it to help people, that's a good thing. If we use it to mislead, misinform, trick people who may be less informed or knowledgeable or hurt people - that's a bad thing. As a taxpayer in Downtown Edison, he falls in the latter for me.

Sadly, we don't have a school board here in Downtown Edison, we have a 'Social Experiment' going on to see how long it will take for us to catch on to what they're really doing with all our money.

Finally, other than O'Malley's board presentation, it's hard to say what's in this year's budget - all we have so far is his press release - but no budget.