Rodeo Clowns Gone Wild

Ever wonder what our teachers' union leaders say when uncensored, unguarded, and unplugged? These videos of a New Jersey Education Association (NJEA) leadership conference at the East Brunswick Hilton hotel (supported by union dues from the Matawan Regional Teachers Association) offer a glimpse.

But beware, viewer discretion is advised as some of the language is highly offensive.

Full disclosure: These videos were created by James O'Keefe, the same guy who brought down ACORN, and are highly edited.

NJEA Teachers Gone Wild 1
NJEA Teachers Gone Wild 2
>>> Read more!

I Know What You Did Last Winter

In honor of the Matawan Regional Teacher’s Association latest negotiation tactic, a blunder so incredibly stupid that one wonders if the union leadership should be placed on suicide watch, I’d like to dedicate the Bedroom Intruder newscast and its accompanying music video to our dear Rodeo Clowns.

As part of negotiations, the union and school board had agreed to a media blackout – neither side would make any public statements regarding negotiations – so long as neither side declared an impasse. That is why I refrained from attacking the union leadership on this blog.

Recently, the school board changed its entire negotiating team (yes, there’s a story there but I’ll save it for later in case Fearless Marty chooses to run again) and hired a new negotiating attorney. At this point, the only items successfully negotiated were the rules of negotiation and some meeting dates. Not a single contractual item was ever discussed.

So, what happened at the very first negotiations meeting with the new team and the new attorney, before anything is even negotiated? The MRTA declared an impasse.

That means the media blackout no longer exists and school board members are free to discuss negotiations or the lack thereof.

For example, the school board is free to discuss the sweetheart deal it offered the teachers union last January to save the custodial positions, an offer made before the board realized how desperate the district’s financial situation would become. Or, better yet, the ridiculous counter-offer demonstrating the union leadership cared more about themselves than their members. (And the counter-offer was made in writing should the rank and file care to see it.)

Or we could discuss the custodial negotiation session in April when the union leadership had the outsource bids in their hands. They knew the district would save over a million dollars a year from outsourcing even though the school board was only requesting half of that in concessions to save the custodial positions. Regardless, the union offer (also in writing), fell so far short that the school board voted unanimously to outsource rather than waste more time in bad-faith negotiations.

Or maybe we could discuss some of the ludicrous labor grievances that were also part of the negotiations?

Or how about the union offering the district virtually nothing to save three long-time union members from losing their lifetime health benefits.

I’m tempted to post everything online but these are the types of shots that can only be fired once, so I’m going to let this play out a bit more. Let’s see if the union attempts to intimidate board members’ children, picket at their homes, or try to frighten the community again.

I’m also tempted to see what the union membership will do. Scores of jobs are potentially at stake next year. Bus drivers, secretaries, teachers aides, child study teams, and guidance counselors can all be outsourced. Without increased funding from the state (unlikely at best), there will need to be more cuts through either outsourcing or reductions in force to cover increases in salary, healthcare, and pensions.

As for the teachers union leadership, I leave you with this quote from the Bedroom Intruder Song – “You don’t have to come and confess. We’re looking for you. We gonna find you. We gonna find you.” >>> Read more!

Not Dead Yet

Pleas note: This article has been updated to include Ruprecht's motion to commend Ms. Zavorskas for her service upon her resignation in March, 2009.

“Hey Marty, Sports Authority is having a sale on balls.” – Anonymous comment on March 9, 2010

Poor, Marty. He's been waiting all this time to publicly attack me but couldn't garner the courage until after I resigned the school board and left town. The Independent only partially quotes him because he mumbles through his delivery, apparently fearing me even in absentia, but he appears to complain that I had caused “dissention”.Thirty months on the school board and the only time Ruprecht ever makes a motion to amend an agenda item is to remove the following line - “The Board of Education would like to commend Mr. Warren for his service to the Matawan Aberdeen Regional School District.”

Such moral outrage is ironic coming from the unindicted co-conspirator of violations of campaign regulations, the New Jersey School Board Code of Ethics, and state law. Ironic but not surprising.

Ruprecht will probably be best remembered for his waffling on O’Malley’s contract extension. Being the critical swing vote, Ruprecht first voted to table O’Malley’s contract and, when that motion failed, voted to approve the contract. (Now Ruprecht can claim to have voted against the extension before voting for it.)

Then there was the time he tried to stage a minor coup. When Zavorskas’ seat became vacant, Ruprecht conspired to appoint an unknown during a lame duck session and thereby circumvent the board’s past practice of interviewing candidates and deny Liz Hayward and me from voting on Zavorskas’ replacement.

Or how about voting on personnel matters without disclosing who contributed to his election campaign? We know Ruprecht voted on Principal Olsen’s tenure the following April despite having solicited her.

When discussing a board goal to limit future tax increases, Ruprecht argued against setting any goals that would restrict the superintendent’s ability to set a budget that was in the district’s “best interests”, exactly the kind of thinking that lead to the school district’s out-of-control spending.

In fact, the only spending Ruprecht ever objected to were legal fees to defend a board member’s right to publish public information and criticize union leaders (a.k.a. Rodeo Clowns). Ruprecht believed the money could be better spent on school board jaunts to Atlantic City for the NJSBA’s annual convention.

Ruprecht’s philosophy is diametrically opposed to mine. I believe a school board member's job is to inform the public, set expectations and priorities, and hold the administration accountable. Ruprecht believes his job is to simply point his thumb up or down when the administration recommends an agenda item. It’s a common position for people who love to take credit when things go well and blame someone else when they go awry. It’s also why those same people never actually do anything but complain about others while throwing bouquets at themselves.

The teachers union spent about $3,000 on Ruprecht’s election campaign but not one dollar towards saving three custodial positions so those people could earn their lifetime healthcare benefits. Makes you wonder.

As for Ruprecht's claim that there's no "past practice" of commending a resigning board member, eighteen months earlier he made the motion to "commend" Ms. Zavorskas upon her resignation, using the identical language. Nice to know Ruprecht's allegiances are still intact.

Hmmm. Maybe I do cause dissension? Well, when children are being robbed of their futures and the taxpayer’s money is being squandered, causing a little dissension is the least I can do. Ruprecht can thank me later. >>> Read more!

I Resign

I have informed the officers of the school board, the superintendent, and our board secretary, that I intend to resign from my position as board member of the Matawan-Aberdeen Regional School District.

Furthermore, I am selling my residence and leaving Aberdeen Township.

I respectfully request that members of our teachers union and supporters of our governing town council refrain from dancing in the middle of the streets. :)

As for this blog, I'm not done, yet. Not at all. :) >>> Read more!

A Question of Competence

Nearly nine months into the fiscal year, Aberdeen Township passed a budget. Woo hoo! Mayor Tagliarini spoke proudly over the township’s ability to deliver a double-digit tax increase, the largest tax increase in Aberdeen Township’s history, “without furloughs and without layoffs”. The same mayor who damned the school district for requesting a 1% tax increase has now levied an 11.4% tax increase on top of the sewer fee increase. And, contrary to the school district cutting expenses, spending has increased 2.6%.

According to the article, the township partly blames the budget increase on a decrease in state aid. Either that’s a typo or another sign of the fiscal insanity that has plagued Aberdeen.

Pensions jumped, naturally, after a one-shot payment deferral last year that Mayor Tagliarini characterized as a “decrease in spending”. As expected, debt payments rose by $118,000 – gotta pay for that missed pension payment, not to mention all the debt from our vaunted road program.

About that road program, “the governing body did not want to discontinue its road program, a move very important to Deputy Mayor Vincent Vinci.” Looks like CME Associates has a champion on the town council. Guess they’ll keep getting their million dollar-plus service fees each year. Maybe that’s why CME, along with our town attorney and Anchor Glass developer, have cosponsored Aberdeen Day. Such generosity, such gratitude, who cares if they plunder our town a little? Unless, of course, you happen to be a homeowner.

Sadly, it looks like the good times may be coming to an end. As shown in the chart below, the township is quickly burning through our reserves. At this rate, we’ve only got one more year before we’ve completely exhausted our surplus. We hit asset depletion in five years. At some point, our bond rating will drop and financing our CME-approved roads will become a whole lot more expensive.

Values are in millions
	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Assets		7.60	6.34	5.06	4.38
Year-End Surplus	1.57	1.49	1.36	0.72	0.40

However, our councilmen aren’t concerned. They figure if we’re ever in trouble, we’ll just mug the library, again.

Unfortunately, even the budget numbers are suspect. Each budget publishes the prior year’s “Surplus Balance – December 31st”. Since the budget is published months later, it should be an easy thing to know how much money is in our bank accounts at the end of the prior year. But we don’t. As the next chart shows, each year’s end-year surplus is revised; 2007’s surplus was revised by a whopping $300,000.

Values are in thousands
	2006	2007	2008
Original Surplus	1,497	1,064	744
Revised Surplus	1,490	1,365	720
Discrepancy	7	301	24

Our town council has retained a lawyer who blatantly lied to the council and the public stating COAH would immediately withdraw Aberdeen’s certification. (Further proof of the lie can be seen from Marlboro’s loss of COAH certification. Marlboro’s de-certification was on COAH’s agenda whereas no such decision was ever scheduled for Aberdeen.)

Our town council has retained another lawyer who threatened local residents with police force after the townspeople objected to his denying their right to speak at a public meeting.

Our town council has recently re-appointed a felon convicted of attempting to bribe an IRS auditor to be our lead developer on the transit village.

Our town council claimed we had no choice but to accept a massive low-income housing development on County Road only to see the developers voluntarily work with the Cliffwood Housing Association to scale-down the project.

At some point, you begin to question the council’s competence. If only they were as good at running our township as they are at getting themselves elected. At the very least, they should earn their council salaries.

On a final note – Kudos to the township employees for accepting a wage freeze. I wish other public employees had done the same. >>> Read more!