Recommending a four-day work week

I recently recommended a four-day work week and came under fire from people claiming it was not feasible. The biggest reason that was cited to be against it was that the public would be inconvenienced. I don’t see how extending working hours by two-hours per day for four days causes an inconvenience – it actually makes government more accessible to working people.

I don’t usually agree with David Mazur, from his letters he appears to be a Lou Magazzu apologist. He has a letter in the Daily Journal today, however, that I have to comment on.

I am concerned about the economic picture here in Cumberland County. We have serious fiscal problems, runaway, skyrocketing taxes and declining revenues. Now we have another snowstorm, which taxpayers have to pay for. This is to go along with the almost bankrupt funding we have for the county Road Department. With more than 13 percent unemployment and about 9,500 people out of work, Cumberland County cannot afford to sink much deeper.

The Cumberland County Board of Freeholders has to find an answer, and quickly, in dealing with the budget problems. Pay freezes, layoffs and furloughs may not be the right answer, but what do you do if you cannot make payroll or pay your debts?

I was so glad to have an opportunity to go to the freeholder board meeting on Jan. 27. I could see the concerned look on Freeholder Director Louis Magazzu’s face when I brought up the issue of possible layoffs in the county. What happens when an employee gets laid off? Those workers go on unemployment, which is another fund paid for by workers and taxpayers. Also, it cuts down on revenue coming into the county budget.

If this happens, the county could slide down even further economically.

The freeholders are working hard to try to find the right answers. But one thing is for sure — everyone must sacrifice in these very difficult times to help solve our budget problems.

So what can the county do? It could defer pay raises, lay off workers or institute furloughs. Let’s hope it doesn’t come to layoffs.

There is another option.

I believe that the county can go to a four-day workweek to save money. Back in 1999, I was working for Monmouth County Board of Social Services. At that time, we went to a four-day workweek, except for essential employees. This worked for the amount of time the county needed it to work. I believe that this type of format would produce a reasonable savings for the county.

David W. Mazur

Vineland

It is rare that I agree with his past letters, and he could have left out the part where he waxed maudlin – “I could see the concerned look on Freeholder Director Louis Magazzu’s face” – If Lou Magazzu was concerned about the budget shortfall, he would have made it public prior to his reelection campaign, allowing the county much more time to attack it efficiently.

However – the four-day workweek does make sense. Time Magazine ran an article last year about Utah’s experiment with a four-day workweek.

After 12 months, Utah’s experiment has been deemed so successful that a new acronym could catch on: TGIT (thank God it’s Thursday). The state found that its compressed workweek resulted in a 13% reduction in energy use and estimated that employees saved as much as $6 million in gasoline costs. Altogether, the initiative will cut the state’s greenhouse-gas emissions by more than 12,000 metric tons a year. And perhaps not surprisingly, 82% of state workers say they want to keep the new schedule. “It’s beneficial for the environment and beneficial for workers,” says Lori Wadsworth, a professor at Brigham Young University who helped survey state employees. “People loved it.” Those who didn’t tended to have young children and difficulty finding extended day care.

Furloughing employees will not result in any appreciable savings. The workforce is not one of the biggest line-items, and decreasing people’s take-home pay will have a negative impact on the economy. Layoffs also do not make sense, with 14.2% unemployment (as of December), a wise Freeholder does not even entertain the idea of adding to that load. However, a four-day workweek for non-essential employees does payoff in more ways than one.And to address the concerns that the fewer days of operation would result in making government less accessible to the public, the Time article reports exactly the opposite:

The advantages of a so-called 4-10 schedule are clear: less commuting, lower utility bills. But there have been unexpected benefits as well, even for people who aren’t state employees. By staying open for more hours most days of the week, Utah’s government offices have become accessible to people who in the past had to miss work to get there in time. With the new 4-10 policy, lines at the department of motor vehicles actually got shorter. Plus, fears that working 10-hour days would lead to burnout turned out to be unfounded — Wadsworth says workers took fewer sick days and reported exercising more on Fridays.

It is time that our Freeholder board begin thinking outside the box. To continue doing the same thing that you have always done and expect different results, to misquote Einstein, is insanity.  And Mr. Mazur’s letter is an indication of the sort of forward thinking that we need in this county, despite his misguided allegiance to Magazzu. Hopefully the fact that I endorse such a plan doesn’t cause Lou to disregard it out of hand!

Jack Hummel makes a lot of sense

In today’s Ben Column, Jack ended the column with this gem:

You want to know what we’re sick of?
The $100,000 and $150,000 grants where half of the money is always used to pay for swollen implementation salaries.
It stinks.

I could not agree more. Lou Magazzu does not agree. In December of 2008, shortly after Lou violated the Rice Act and publicly castigated Ethan Aronoff in what was a planned public ambush at a Freeholder Meeting, the Freeholders voted to dump $225,000 to Tri-County for after-school programs.

The Freeholders, with the exception of Jane Christy, voted in unison with Lou to approve this no-bid giveaway.  This was despite the fact that there were other proposals coming in at much less money, with all of the money going towards programs (no salaries). The Tri-County proposal had $120,000 earmarked solely for salaries.

When this was challenged by Linda Forbes, Lou Magazzu and Joe Riley tagged teamed each other in a public display, attempting to castigate and humiliate her. How dare a private citizen ask questions at a Freeholder meeting? Especially when that question makes sense?

How can this expenditure be justified when the single largest category was in wages rather than the programs the taxpayers were led to believe they were supporting?

We were promised that day that this program would be closely watched, and that the Freeholders would keep us updated on the progress.  More than a year has passed, and we have heard nothing. Once again, a Lou Magazzu lie.

Circling the wagons defending Rainear

They are circling the wagons, defending Don Rainear.

Donald Rainear is going to do a great job getting the Cumberland County Improvement Authority back on firmer footing.
If you haven’t talked to him about it, you don’t know anything about it.
Nobody is blaming anybody at this point.
Nothing is ever as good as it seems or as bad as it seems.
And we can tell you, things were good for the CCIA.
Then, things beyond its control happened.
Things outside of Cumberland County.
It will never be the cash cow it once was.
There are some things Rainear still needs to find out before he can even begin to make recommendations.
And he will find them out.
Donald Rainear doesn’t speak before he knows what he’s talking about.
That’s why he’s the right man for this job right now.
Wish him luck.
There are some hard decisions that have to be made on a process the county already has over $3 million invested in.
Donald Rainear is nobody’s lackey and never has been.
If you were around when he was mayor of Bridgeton, you’d know that.
He’s been places people in Cumberland County government have not only never been, but never will be.
Put away your barbs before you wind up looking like a fool.
There are already enough people to pick on.
Don’t add Rainear to your list.
He’s the one who’s going to be making the big recommendation.
To the CCIA board.
They’re going to have to take his word for it, although he’ll be able to back it all up.
Somebody picked the right man for the job.
That he doesn’t want to stick around for more than a year in this capacity tells you he’s got bigger things to do.

Wow, Jack – that is some piece of prose.  You are defending a man that is taking a very greedy $130,000 a year salary (a salary that was made up out of thin air with absolutely no legal mandate, Lou Magazzu could have insisted on a “sane $75,000 a year” which is more than enough for someone in Cumberland County, in Lou’s words) but will disparage sheriff candidates, surrogate candidates, clerk candidates for taking the legally mandated salary that is much less than $130,000 a year. Utter hypocrisy – if $75,000 is the magic number – then EVERY new employee should be held to that threshold, not just opponents in an election.

Has Don Rainear ever had a job where he wasn’t feeding from the public trough?  Why hasn’t he ever lasted more than a few years at any single job if he is as qualified and shining a star as you would have us believe?

True, I have never met the man, and he may be eminently qualified. He might be the ticket – but anyone that comes up through Magazzu’s ranks comes tinged with suspicion.  I can’t help but notice others that Lou has appointed: the slumlord Joe Veight as shared services coordinator who has cost the county more than he has saved; Todd Edwards at the CCUA getting paid and reaping benefits for a no-show position… need I continue? Lou has a less than exemplary record of endorsing qualified and diligent individuals, so excuse me if I reserve judgment on Rainear.

Oh – and it is alright to blame receding revenues f the CCUA on a waning economy – just be sure to credit the rebounding economy when those revenues pick up again.

County Freeholder Meeting Schedule Posted

This was in the News of Cumberland County today. I didn’t see any footnotes, but I guess I will add for your edification, the meetings dates are tentative. Make sure to read the fine print buried in the back of some local newspaper two to three-days prior to every scheduled meeting to ensure that Lou didn’t have some prior engagement that conflicted with the scheduled, and so decided to have the meeting date and time moved. This happens more than you would think, and more than it should.

This is one of my big problems with Lou. He acts as if the world revolves around him, and has this schedule changed at his whim on a regular basis. It is not as if he had no warning, the schedule is posted a year in advance – certainly more than enough warning for him to pencil in the dates on his pocket calendar (or more likely his Blackberry). His refusal or inability to arrange his own personal schedule around this schedule that involves a dozen other people shows his utter contempt for others.

Cumberland County freeholders have released their schedule of meetings for 2010.

Agenda work sessions will take place the third Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Cumberland County Administration Building on Route 49.

Regular freeholder board meetings will be on the fourth Thursday of every month at 7 p.m. at the Cumberland County Court House on Broad and Fayette streets.

The following dates are for work sessions:

* February 18, March 18, April 15, May 20, June 17, July 15, August 19, September 16, October 21, November 18 and December 16.

The following dates are for regular meetings:

* February 25, March 25, April 22, May 27, June 24, July 22, August 26, September 23, October 28, November 29 and December 23.

The public is invited and is given the opportunity to speak at all work sessions and regular meetings.

County Budget Meetings posted

Make a note, if your Monday’s are free, you might want to attend this circus sideshow. It would be nice if the public meetings were televised. How about streaming the meetings on the county’s $40,000 website? A $500 laptop with built in webcam would be sufficient to begin.

Cumberland County freeholders will begin holding a series of public meetings to discuss the county’s 2010 budget this month.

The meetings to be held in the board room of the county administration building on Route 49 will take place every Monday beginning February 15 through March 22 from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.

The purpose is for the county finance committee to review and make an assessment of each department’s budgetary needs as it finalizes the county budget.

The budget hearing schedule is as follow:

* February 15 – Planning and Development, Veterans Affairs, Board of Elections and Superintendent of Schools

* February 22 – County Clerk and Adjuster, Engineering, Public Works and Board of Taxation

* March 1 – Corrections and Juvenile Detention Center, Data Processing, Surrogate’s Office and Maintenance

* March 8 – Prosecutor’s Office, Sheriff’s Office, Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services Office and Human Services

* March 15 – Office of Emergency Management, Cumberland Manor and County Library

Rainear is temporary

In today’s The News of Cumberland County:

Last night I faced accusations that this sight was pure fiction. I suspect that the coverage and conjectures concerning the CCIA play a part in creating that person’s impression.

However – was it fiction when we reported – along with several notable news sources – that Lou wanted to opt his long-time loyalist Brendan Kavanaugh into the state PERS pension system? If it was fiction, then Lou himself was the propagator of that fairytale.

Is it fiction that the state pension system is rife for abuse, as is the consensus of most intelligent New Jersey taxpayers? I would have to say that this website has a very good record of being on point. I suppose what I am asking for, is that someone that has not benefited from King Lou’s largess step up to the plate and make the same declarations – of his beneficence and kind-heartedness.

But I digress. This is about Don Rainear – another recipient of the kindness of the D-machine – and the story in today’s paper:

Donald Rainear does not want to be a permanent replacement for former Cumberland County Improvement Authority Executive Director Steve Wymbs.

That’s according to his contract with the CCIA, which was obtained Tuesday from Rainear.

The contract specifies the type of work that Rainear would be doing for the CCIA as a consultant being paid a maximum amount of $130,000 for taking over administrative duties of the CCIA in light of Wymbs resignation last year.

WAIT A MINUTE! One Hundred and Thirty GREEDY Thousand Dollars?  That is three times the household median income in Cumberland County! And Don does not even live in the county! Once again, our money floating out of the county! Why couldn’t this UNELECTED recipient of government funds have worked for a reasonable and not greedy $75,000?

Lou is making sure that the fact that Don is not availing himself of the health plan – could it be that he is already covered under another health plan? – but has downplayed this obscene salary that even Gloria Noto would never ask for! If Gloria is Greedy for asking merely to receive the state mandated minimum salary that every male counterpart in the state earns, how can Don Rainear not be greedy for asking for, an receiving $23,000 MORE?  I know of many families in this county that earn $23,000 or less.  Guess what, they do not get a reduction in the property taxes the county expects.  They pay the same share towards tipping fees for their trash to be hauled. And Don Rainear laughs in their face with this exorbitant salary courtesy of King Lou.

Anyway – back to the fantasy that this website is known for – the reason Rainear is temporary is that Lou will once again make the move to absorb the CCIA as a county department, removing the semi-autonomy it enjoyed as a quasi-governmental agency. I wouldn’t be surprised to see a move to make the board positions  provide compensation for attending meetings (or not attending meetings if you are Todd Edwards – yeah – I suppose we made that story up, too) and pension benefits unless Chris Christie follows through with his promise to derail that gravy train.

At the very least, Lou is working to increase his ability to tap into the resources of the CCIA and use or misuse the reserves to funnel more money to his friends and compatriots. Only time will tell if this is fact or fable.

The pension gravy train

As much as the Daily Journal, a Gannett publication, protects Magazzu from undue public scrutiny – Bob Ingle does what a reporter should, digging the dirt and exposing corruption. If you missed this article in yesterday’s DJ, it is an excellent primer on how political bosses use boards and misuse the pension program for the sole purpose of rewarding insiders. Here are a few excerpts:

The dirty little secret about the hundreds of state boards, commissions and authorities is that the so-called “public members” aren’t public members in the sense that anyone in the state can get in on it.

You and I can get appointed to a seat on the honorary Board of Turducken Stuffers, but the agencies that offer state money to attend meetings are a special breed, a way to plant former political trough-swillers in a job that keeps them in the pension system long enough to get a payout. It takes a minimum 10 years of getting a state check.

I love that – “Board of Turducken Stuffers”! Anyone that has served on a local board such as the zoning board, the planning board, the shade tree commission, etc. might miss the implications of what it means to be appointed to some other boards (for instance, the CCUA).

Most boards come with no compensation, other than the warm, fuzzy feeling that comes from serving your community. However, there are many boards that come with perks, that were created for the sole purpose of allowing people to scam the state pension system and retire on your dime.

I am not referring to people that worked their entire life, paid into the pension system, and are now collecting a pension that they paid into fair and square. Well, let Bob Ingle tell it…

New state employees have to earn at least $7,500 a year to stay in the pension system, and that is way too low. Part-timers should be excluded. Political hangers-on from times past can stay in for as little as $1,500 a year. When they raised the minimum to $7,500, the ones already at the public trough were grandfathered in.

Many of them are greedy. A source told me he got a call from a member of one of these boards who was panicking because it was close to the end of the year and he wasn’t close to having his $1,500. The guy wanted two more meetings before the end of the year.

Since the pension system payout is based on the top three years of pay, the $1,500 is all it takes to stay qualified for whatever time is needed, then draw a lifetime pension and health benefits based on three years of, say $100,000 a year. That’s outrageous.

And guess who pays, folks? You do. New Jersey’s pension system is presently a mess. In Millville, we saw a property tax increase this year. So did Vineland. The county didn’t see a tax increase because Lou Magazzu was running for reelection, and so now we are facing a $4-8 Million budget shortfall.

What do you think the biggest expenses are in the budgets? Insurance, and pension obligations. I doubt that you will find a single line item that outweighs these two. And still politicians play games, appointing cronies into positions so that they can pad their state pensions working part-time jobs, biding their time until they are rewarded for years of loyal partisan political service with a taxpayer subsidized income for the rest of their lives.

But there is hope. Chris Christie is saying that he is taking a serious look at this frivolity and waste. He is seriously looking at what needs to be done to eliminate silliness such as “a board that uses paperwork to figure out how to reduce paperwork.”

“Let’s call it exactly what it is. These nominations of some of these folks at the end were pure pension plays. That’s all they were. You know it. I know it. It’s the stuff we all whisper about around here. We’ve got to stop whispering. We’ve got to start speaking out loud. These were pension plays, gifts to people who lost the election to keep them in the pension system that you and I and our children are going to pay for.”

Chris, I hope you are paying special attention to Cumberland County.

The CCIA Woes…

In Today’s Ben Column - some back and forth on the CCIA

“Last year, and before election day, Cumberland County freeholders claimed that the county was ‘fiscally sound’ with a comfortable surplus.
“Now, Lou & Co. are claiming a deficit of $4-$8 million.
“Last year, the Cumberland County Improvement Authority was ‘one of the most financially secure authorities in the state.’
“Now, (Donald) Rainear (appointed by Lou & Co.) is claiming that the authority is in bad shape financially.
“Both Magazzu and Rainear offer pretty lame explanations when asked, ‘Where has all the money gone in such a short time?’
“Could it be that Lou & Co. want to work a deal which would allow Lou to get his hands on that unspent bonded money so that he can build the prosecutor’s office, veterans chapel and announce that he has once again ‘saved the day’?
“This ‘deal’ would probably result in him announcing that there would be no layoffs or furloughs for the county workers and no tax increase for the taxpayers of this county.
“One thing for sure, something is brewing.
“Keep your eyes open, Freeholder Thompson.’’
— we’ll be watching

—

Lame?
How are the explanations lame?
It is what it is.
In the separation agreement with Steve Wymbs, it was stated there would be no blame cast by either side.
That didn’t sound like the story at the last freeholder meeting.
It sounded like Wymbs was blamed.
It sounded like bond counsel was blamed.
It all started with Wymbs having a contract as executive director of the CCIA that all the king’s men couldn’t break.
The CCIA board said, “Whoa!’’
The contract didn’t come from Pep Boys.
Then it escalated to why are we bonding for more landfill space when everybody knows we’re losing tonnage?
The approval to expand the landfill didn’t come down on stone tablets.
Who knew we would lose tonnage?
The cry back then was, “What is the world going to do with all this trash?!’’
The Cumberland County landfill was going to the World’s Fair as an example of how garbage should be handled at a time when other counties were stinking to high heaven.
Today, everything stinks.
And one of the ways to help get out of it is to unbond expansion.

Gems Buried in Comments

Occasionally there are gems buried in the comments of our posts.  This one is too good not to offer its own posting.  It’s a new spin on what’s going on with the CCIA.  Now let’s see if this prediction materializes.  It’s almost beyond belief, but then again, Lou never ceases to amaze.  Thanks, Deep Throat.

Magazzu claimed the CCIA was losing money some years ago. He wanted to sell it to a group of investors.The county CFO went and reviewed the numbers. The report proved the CCIA was in good financial shape.
Magazzu was furious and threw the report at the CFO.
He was ordered to never go to the CCIA without his express permission.
The CFO resigned.
Magazzu is now setting up the sale to his investor friends that he could not accomplish some years ago.
Should be very profitable to Magazzu & Rainear.

Interesting theory – but wrong!

RD Owens has an amusing, if incorrect – theory on the current CCIA fiasco.

With the ouster of Steve Wymbs from the Cumberland County Improvement Authority, we are now hearing the “true” story of the CCIA. It will be spun in Freeholder Director Lou Magazzu’s favor.

Bob is very conservative, he comes by this trait honestly, and this philosophy tends to color his arguments. I won’t argue political philosophy here, or touch on his statements such as:

But this is Magazzu’s government. A dump should not be a multi-million dollar grant-issuing machine. It should be a location that collects trash. When government gets involved and has a dump floating debt to fund political favors, that is when a dump leaves its mission.

In New Jersey, the way to get around the public having any say in public debt is to authorize authorities and agencies to have bond writing abilities.

Owens is overly simplistic in his description and analysis – he sees black and white, with no shades of gray, let alone any room for color. We could discuss the benefits versus the drawbacks to using the surplus of the CCIA – a surplus gained from charging the lowest tipping fees in the region thus saving our own residents money as well as the profit from taking trash from other counties and bringing their money into our county – to benefit worthy projects, including giving money back to the county to offset our tax rate. But that is best left to political pundits arguing tenets rather than pure facts.

Bob’s mistake is in believing that once a person is associated with Magazzu, that Magazzu is loyal to them. Magazzu will use people for his own purpose and then stab them in the back, or discard them after his purpose has been served. To Magazzu, people are worth only the services they can provide to him. Once their usefulness has been exceeded, they will be cast aside. Just ask Robert O’Donnell.

The connection drawn by Owens between Magazzu and the Levoy is off base. It is an easy error if you are an outsider looking in, but utterly incorrect. In fact, Magazzu would like nothing better than for the Levoy to fail. Barring that, he will work to ensure that his own Vineland Landis Theater opens first. Remember – Lou’s NACo slush fund was the recipient of a donation from the non-profit Landis Theater. If you have nothing to give to Lou, it is apparent that he has nothing to give you in return.