Thursday, February 29, 2024

State School Aid - Fiscal Year 2025 K-12 State School Aid

Just saw the state school aid for 2024 (FY 2025):

By School District - Middlesex County:


 











Middlesex County:












Recognize that last year's school tax rate of 3.191 was erroneously overstated by $518,750 (should of been $3.184) by double counting the debt service and will further inpact this year's school tax rate by half of that $518,750 or $259,375, which brings the total overstatement of the school tax rate by $778,125.

Anyhoo, Edison is up another $20.9 million over last year's $73.5 million. Let's hope they $pend it wisely in their 2024-25 Preliminary School Budget due down to the County Super by March 20, 2024. They also might want to reschedule their March 21, 2024 meeting to approve the Preliminary School Budget due by March 20, 2024.


Saturday, January 13, 2024

Finally got a Response to a December 17th Request for the Current salaries in Ordinance O.2197-2023 Adopted December 27th - on January 11, 2024

 Well, unlucky for me that we couldn't know what these positions were currently being paid before the Council voted to adopt these new salary ranges (See the December 29th Post).

Silly me, you'd think that if someone was asking you to consider raising the salary ranges, the first question you'd ask would be - How Much do the Positions Currently Pay to see if the proposed changes make any sense?

But nah, not this Council. Didn't hear anyone ask any questions about that in any meetings and when I tried to reach out to some of them, they couldn't or wouldn't tell me the current salaries for the positions listed in the Ordinance.

Hence, the OPRA Request on December 17th, which seems like more than enough time before the December 27th vote to look up the salaries of 17 individuals, but nah - on the 7th day at 4:03 PM they responded by saying they need an extension to January 11, 2024.

Having now looked at what they eventually sent as the current salaries, it's easy to see why they didn't want to public to see any of this. It raises a whole bunch of questions that should of been asked and answered before the vote - but weren't.

Look at this schedule (below) which compares the current salaries to the old and new salary ranges. Under the Ordinance adopted (which excludes those positions in red) there are only 3 positions that had salaries at the top of the old salary range and required an adjustment. Only 1 position was even close to reaching the High under the old salary range in the near future yet they all were substantially increased.

What's that all about - would of been nice to of heard an explanation before the Council vote? 

And what's going on with the two non-employees? The finance guy has a contract for $201,000 and the change to the High was to $195,000. Not for nothing but we pay the Director of Finance $201,000 and we pay a CFO $144,200 - that $345,200 and from what I can see, we have serious deficiencies listed in the 2022 Audit report? Have to get a copy of that report.

And what's with the Planning guy? He has a contract for $130,000 but they pay him $175,000? That doesn't concern anyone on the Council? And they issue and adopt a new contract for that $175,000 on January 10, 2024.

And seriously, what going on with the change in the Director of Parks and Recreation position? The old range went from $110,000 to $160,000 but they increased that $160,000 to $195,000, and the position is currently only paying $132,613 - Yikes!

There's obviously more going on here than just the arbitrary nonsense about being comparable to what other towns do and no one is willing to tell you.Who cares what other town do? Every town is different and have their own idiosyncrasies to deal when hiring .We have enough problems worrying about what this town does.

Here's the 17 positions with the Current Salaries provided:










You know, these are questions you'd think our Council would be asking and explaining to the public before they voted. If they had been helpful in getting the current salaries at least the public could of asked the questions before the vote - but they weren't. Unfortunately, this Council has long relinquished their responsibility over the purse strings and any modicum of transparency.

Anyhoo, who'd of thought 7 days isn't quite enough time to look up the salaries of 17 individuals?

Thursday, January 4, 2024

Edison School District's Current Salary File

 Well, unlike a December 17th OPRA Request for 17 public salaries relating to an upcoming December 27th Council Vote on the 'Not to Exceed Ordinance' over there at 100 Oligarchy Blvd. with a response on December 28th which was the 7th day at 4:03PM - and the response, the day after the Council Vote, was for an extension to January 11, 2024. Guess they need more than 7 Days to look up the salaries of 17 employees.

A Request for the School District's Current Salary file with 2,296 employees was returned in a day. 

Kudos to the School District BA Jonathan Toth for the quick response for public information.

From that file, a summary by salary range was added and also a table that you can use to sort the data and drill-down by any of the column headings. Unfortunately, this Blog can't handle Excel drop-down lists so I can only show screenshots of the file here. If anyone would like to have the Excel file, just email and you're welcome to it.

Anyway, this Current Salary file lists 2,296 employees with Total Salaries of $173,044,900 with some very interesting additions.

Here's a Summary by Salary Range:













Here's a Sort by Title for Principals:










Here's the Top 20 Salaries:










Anyhoo, it's helpful and important to know what makes up the largest expenditure in the School Budget.



Friday, December 29, 2023

Edison Council Passes 'Not to Exceed' Salary Ordinance O.2197-2023 by 4-0 - but has yet to disclose what these positions were currently paying

Well, not for nothing but as you can see from the previous post, there were 14 positions for which they wanted to raise the Max Salary. 

Now, don't really have an issue with a review of the current salaries to see if they're in line with the responsibilities of the positions. However, you'd think the first thing anyone on the Council would do when asked to consider raising the Max Salaries would be to ask how much we are currently paying for these 14 positions so they could have a basis to see if the increases make sense and the Public could be informed before they Vote.

Unfortunately, no-one on the Council did - I know, I asked. 

So, I made an OPRA Request on December 17, 2023 asking for the Names and Current Salaries for those 14 positions plus the 3 positions that were removed in this final Ordinance (Dir. of HR, BA and Cons. Code Official) so we would see if the proposed increases made sense before they Voted. 

Now, you would think that it shouldn't take 7 days to look up 17 salaries and provide that before the Council Voted on Wednesday, December 27, 2023. 

But, Unlucky for You and Me, they waited until the 7th Day at 4:03, a day after they already Voted to approve the Ordinance to send me the following:


 














Seems they need until January 11, 2024 to look up 17 names in their payroll system. I reminded them in response that the OPRA Request was for the Names & Current Salaries as of December 17, 2023, the date of the Request and Not on January 11, 2024 the date of their extension. That's so we can see what they were under the existing and applicable Salary Ordinance before they passed this one on December 27, 2023.

Can you Smell the Stench here? Why wouldn't they provide the current salaries for the positions they wanted to increase Max Salaries for before the Council Voted and why would the Council refuse to ask the Administration before they Voted? Either the Council couldn't or wouldn't provide that information before they Voted. Either way, doesn't make the Council look good.

You then have to ask - Why? Makes no sense and clearly signals that there may be a problem with the current salaries for some of these 14 positions (plus the other 3 that were removed) under the existing Ordinance and there was a rush to pass a new one before year-end.

Whatever the Council issues are for not pursuing the information they needed before they Voted, it Clearly demonstrates that the Council is nothing more that a Bunch of Enablers and Poor monitors of the purse strings in this town.

Anyhoo, this is what happens when you have No Checks & Balances in this Politically-corrupt town and You Keep Voting the Same People back in to do more of the same. 

Welcome to Edison, Home of the 2017 Racist Flyer.




Tuesday, December 26, 2023

Edison's 'Not to Exceed' Salaries again up for a Vote at tomorrow night's Combined Council Meeting

 Just saw the agenda for tomorrow night and here's the latest update to the 'Not to Exceed' Salary Range List which was reduced down to 14 from the Original 17:















Removed from the Original List:

  • Dir, HR - Low $110k to High $195k (up from $175k)
  • BA - Low $160k to High $240k (up from $230k)
  • Cons. Code Official - Low $100k to High $180k (up from $160k)

Mayor's Salary - No High and Low is a Joke on You.

Here's the Original List:















Good thing Mayor Sam 'the Big Lie' Joshi has this Bunch of purse string protectors with eyes wide shut Voting to increase the 'Not to Exceed' Salaries' - since his 2023 Budget that claims of the first homeowner tax cut since since 1988 actually Exceeded that bogus claim by some 3%. And let's not even mention how the 2023 Total Property tax bills were Overstated by some $518,000 to boot.










Anyhoo, made an OPRA Request to see where the Current salaries for the Original 17 positions fall within these 'Not to Exceed' numbers up for a Vote. Haven't received a response as yet and, hopefully will receive one before they Vote tomorrow night.


Wednesday, December 20, 2023

Jerry Shi's Farewell Board of Ed Meeting and Doug 'the Barista' Schneider is obviously missing the 'Class' gene

 Well, watched the final meeting of the year for the Edison Board of Mythomania which also happened to be Jerry Shi and Mohin Patel's last meeting as Board Members.

Now clearly, I'm not a fan of Jerry Shi's 10-year tenure on the Board for all the reasons I've stated in this blog over the years. The best thing I can say about him is that he's gone but that's just my opinion as a Resident/taxpayer of his dismal presence, demeanor and performance over the years.

However, I'm not a Board Member and no matter how vehemently one Board Member may disagree with another Board Member, surely you can find something nice to say when someone's term is up.

Which brings me last night's meeting where all Board Members had an accolade or two to share about Mr. Shi - except for Doug 'the Barista' Schneider who couldn't find anything to say and sat there silently.

Seems Mr. Schneider doesn't follow the basic civility Rule to Never Rain on Anyone's Parade or Kick Them when They're Down and that's too Bad. Surely, he could have found something to say after so many years dishing dirt at each other in the political muck and mire that is now the Edison Board of EdDems.

But he didn't and that shows you the Class of the People You elect to the Board of EdDems and who they're serving.

Geez, even I can find something that Jerry Shi and I agree on - when Former Board Member Ralph Errico was complimenting Mr. Shi on their service together and he thanked Mr. Shi for letting him have that awful shade of Red Baseball field at EHS, even I agree with Mr. Shi that it's horrendous and, as I told Mr. Errico back then, for $1.5 million we should of at least gotten a Refund for that Eye-Blinding Shade of Red.

Anyway, here's the meeting:



Anyhoo, let's hope they select an 'Adult' to be the next Board of Mythomania, aka Board of EdDems, Board of Hoarders, Board of Dysfunction President come January - if they can find one.

Wednesday, December 13, 2023

Geez, hard to believe this town could be any more Politically Corrupt than it is now - but they're trying

 Well, just heard some disturbing news that the Council is now considering moving the School Board elections back to April. Looks like the School Board doesn't have enough votes on their own to make it happen, so somebody is bringing it to the Council.

Now, remember how that works - the School Board can do it, the Council could do it and it can be done by Public petition.

Now, don't get me wrong - it was a mistake moving it to November for the very reason you see today - the Boe is a Dem-party political mess, aka cesspool. The rationale was for greater voter turnout only meant greater turnout for the Dem-party, the only party in town. 

Not only did we turn the Boe over to the Dem-party but we gave up our right to Vote on Huge School Budgets (Now over some $350 million) with Out-of-Control and Misguided $pending and no effective Oversight.

There are a lot of reasons why we should move the School elections back to April but just because one-faction of the Dem-party doesn't like the results of the last election - isn't one of them. Particularly since Jerry 'ReferenDumb' Shi was finally Voted into Forced Retirement. There's someone you don't want to give an early opportunity to join the Board again.

Clearly, this isn't about what's Best for the School District, it's about which faction has Control over all that money in play.

So, let's get serious with this political maneuvering right after the recent Boe election - any attempts to move the School Board elections now should be looked upon with devious purposes and it should have to wait until 2025.

Seriously now, You clearly don't want this bunch below making decisions like this especially when they've got their own issues with oversight and checks & balances. And, not for nothing but who decided to put the township seal on the floor (and not on the wall behind the Council dais) where everyone walks all over it? That's a disturbing decision in itself.












Now don't see the Agenda for tonight's Regular Council Meeting posted yet on the website so don't know if it will show up tonight or not. But hey, there's still one more meeting left in December after Christmas.

Anyhoo, aren't you glad you live in Edison, Home of the 'Committee of the Hole' and now permanent Home of 2017 Racist Flyer?