>N.J. private sector adds 4,000 jobs in Oct. as unemployment drops
New Jersey’s private sector added 4,000 jobs in October, while the unemployment rate dropped 0.1 percentage points, to 9.1 percent, according to state officials.
Total employment rose by 2,500, as the public sector lost 1,500 jobs. The state’s private sector has added 38,600 in the nine months since January.
The state’s employment numbers also benefited from a revision in September’s jobs report. According to the revision, New Jersey lost 5,000 jobs, rather than the preliminary estimate of 11,100.
“That’s a significant improvement, certainly over 2010, and an indication that the state is making progress in the private sector,” said Joseph J. Seneca, an economist at Rutgers University’s Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. “Now public-sector jobs have declined, but that’s by design.” (Kitchenman, NJBIZ)
>Christie seeks help of mayors and municipal officials in forcing legislative action to reduce property taxes
Gov. Christie asked hundreds of mayors and municipal officials Thursday for help in forcing legislative action on three policy proposals he said would reduce property taxes.
With Democratic leaders sitting on the dais next to his lectern, and with Democratic politicians scattered throughout crowd at the New Jersey State League of Municipalities convention, the Republican governor toned down the rhetoric he has recently employed against them.
But he said the Democrats who control the Legislature won’t move on his money-saving ideas unless local officials cajole them.
“It will not happen without your gentle encouragement,” Christie said. “And so we need your gentle encouragement in the next 60 days and beyond.”
In a flurry of statements issued minutes after Christie’s speech, Democrats returned fire on the issue of property taxes, faulting the governor for cutting state aid to municipalities instead of hiking income taxes on the rich. (Katz, The Philadelphia Inquirer)
>Reader Reminds Residents to report all solicitors
There is an important article in the Bergen Record today about burglaries. MOST occcur when someone knocks on the door, and when nobody answers, they kick it in. I always call the Police to report a solicitors, and many of the officers act as though its not a big deal. Well it IS a big deal because these are the tactics used by burglars! I once had to explain this to an officer who was clearly upset that he had to respond to this type of call for service. I told him ‘don’t expect to make detective rank’ since he was so CLUELESS. Whether its some restauranter, landscaper, house cleaner or whatever putting flyers on your door or mailbox..CALL the police and report them. THANKS
I don’t know half of it, I know all of it. I was on the inside, I worked at Cottage Place, for DeSimone. They know who I am, and most of the district knows who I am. I will, and would gladly show my contract, and how they put spins on things to force you out, but since I am involved in a law suit with the BOE, i cannot. Not, only would I be happy to show it to the Blog, I fully intend to show it the Record, so all of Bergen County can see what they truly are, and what they are capable of. And the other thing you don’t know what you are talking about the re-organization, you justify firing an African American man that worked there for 18 years, and a man with Special Needs?
And the re-organization, as you call it, as all the people in the district, and especially Cottage place know, was just a way for DeSimone to get rid of staff members that he couldn’t control, and hire all his friends. Lorenz got stuck with them, thats probably why he was arguing with them. And you proved my point, there is no disagreeing with the BOE. So don’t tell me I don’t know half of it, I know ALL of it, and lots more. They probably tortured poor Lorenz until he had enough.
And DeSimone is the boss at Cottage, and everyone knows it, so unless you actually worked there, and witnessed what really happened, I suggest you tell your “insiders” that they don’t know of what they speak of. Oh, and BTW, please show me those minutes, me and lots of others would be happy to see them.
Teachers and principals’ own report cards are getting a lot more attention.
The way educators are evaluated is changing across the country, with a switch from routine “satisfactory” ratings to actual proof that students are learning.
President Barack Obama’s recent use of executive authority to revise the No Child Left Behind education law is one of several factors driving a trend toward using student test scores, classroom observation and potentially even input from students, among other measures, to determine just how effective educators are. A growing number of states are using these evaluations to decide critical issues such as pay, tenure, firings and the awarding of teaching licenses. (Hefling, Associated Press)
>Disgruntled top talent deserts AOL By David Gelles in New York
High quality global journalism requires investment.
AOL is facing an exodus of top executive and editorial talent even as the owner of the Huffington Post and TechCrunch says it is betting on premium content to resurrect the fading internet brand.
At least three top names from the company have departed this month, including Brad Garlinghouse, head of the company’s Silicon Valley office, who quit last week. Mr Garlinghouse’s departure came on the same day that Sarah Lacy, a senior writer at TechCrunch, said she was leaving, and just days after Saul Hansell, a former New York Times reporter who was a senior editor at the Huffington Post, quit his job.
>Democratic Pollsters: Obama Should Abandon Run for Second Term By Michael Catalini Updated: November 20, 2011 | 8:34 p.m. November 20, 2011 | 7:58 p.m.
President Obama should abandon his run for a second term and turn over the reins of the Democratic Party to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, two one-time Democratic pollsters wrote in Monday’s Wall Street Journal, which appeared online Sunday.
Patrick H. Caddell and Douglas E. Schoen argued that just as Harry Truman and Lyndon Johnson decided not to pursue additional runs though they could have, Obama should do the same.
“He should abandon his candidacy for re-election in favor of a clear alternative, one capable not only of saving the Democratic Party, but more important, of governing effectively and in a way that preserves the most important of the president’s accomplishments. He should step aside for the one candidate who would become, by acclamation, the nominee of the Democratic Party: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,”Caddell and Schoen wrote.
>Supercommittee Expectations Wane on Tax Divide By Kathleen Hunter and Laura Litvan – Nov 20, 2011 6:07 PM ET
The deficit-cutting congressional supercommittee is expected to announce tomorrow that it has failed to reach agreement on at least $1.2 trillion in federal budget savings, a Democratic aide said.
The aide, who wasn’t authorized to discuss internal matters publicly and requested anonymity, said in an e-mail this afternoon that it was highly unlikely that the talks could be salvaged. Tomorrow is the deadline for the Congressional Budget Office to receive a plan that it can analyze before the committee’s Nov. 23 target date for reaching an agreement.
>BREAKING: Terror bomb plotter arrested in NYC By POST STAFF
The NYPD and Manhattan DA’s office have arrested a terror suspect who was planning to bomb city police facilities and US military sites, where he plotted to target returning war personnel and the families who gathered to welcome them home, The Post has learned.
The suspect, who lives in Manhattan, was arrested after he actually purchased bomb-making materials, sources said. He’d been on the authorities’ radar for about a year, the sources said.
It wasn’t immediately clear exactly where he planned to attack.Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly will host a press conference tonight about the alleged bomb plot.
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie issued a conditional veto on a measure that would have imposed a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing — a/k/a “fracking” — in the Garden State. Instead, Christie has suggested a year-long moratorium on the practice.
The debate over fracking in New Jersey is mostly symbolic. New Jersey has exactly zero oil and gas wells. It is, however, the nation’s #7 natural gas consuming state (5% of the nation’s total consumption), ranking ahead of Texas. Since 90% of gas wells are completed with a frac treatment, an anti-fracking New Jersey is a little like an obstetrician who promotes total celibacy among his patients.
Village Council Special Public Meetings Concerning Proposed Valley Expansion
The Ridgewood Village Council will be holding Special Public Meetings concerning the proposed Valley Hospital expansion in the Ridgewood High School Campus Center, 627 East Ridgewood Avenue, on the following dates: November 22, and November 29, 2011.
The meetings will begin at 8:00 p.m. The doors will open at 7:45 p.m. and seating will be on a first come, first served basis. The meetings will also be televised on Cablevision Channel 77 and through computer video streaming (limited viewers due to bandwith limitations). Agendas for each meeting will be posted on the Village’s website prior to the meeting.
At www.cato-at-liberty.org, Wally Olson sums up the accomplishments of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Helping the disabled feels so right and necessary that it is hard for the public to understand why we libertarians view the ADA:
“as a coercive and fabulously expensive government venture into what ought to be private decision-making.” But Olson lays out some good reasons:
“in recent months a New Jersey jury ordered a rheumatologist [3] to pay $400,000 for not providing a deaf patient with a sign language interpreter at his own expense… a federal appeals court ruled that [5] the nation’s paper currency unfairly discriminates against the disabled and must be redesigned (thus taking a different view from the National Federation of the Blind, which doesn’t think there’s a problem); a police dispatcher won a settlement [6] in her lawsuit saying she was unfairly discriminated against because of her narcolepsy (tendency to fall asleep at inappropriate times…”
Few public officials dare fight back. It is political suicide.
You have no idea what Jack may have went through, or what they are capable of. What, did Jack dare to speak out or disagree with them , and all their friends and relatives they hire? They hire friends and relatives at enormous salaries, while they cut program after program for our kids. One example, they made the Board Secretary the Boss over the receptionist (another BS job DeSimone invented) why? because she’s a friend, and when administrators get a raise, she gets a raise. Instead of 10 vacation days a year, she now gets 22 a year. My other favorite is when DeSimone invented a job for a man to take job descriptions for HIS staff at 600/day. Paid out over 30,000. It was rumored he was Desimone’s son’s father in law. Keep paying all those taxes, they know a lot of people, and the Board Members go along with everything, and Fishbein owes DeSimone because he hired him. Governor Christie are you listening?
>Other towns nearby – even with larger populations – pay less for the same functions we pay more for here
I don’t know much about Aronsohn, many on this blog say he has another agenda, but I don’t know about that.
What I do know is that mistakes of the past aren’t nearly as impt as not making them over and over again. At least he objects – often the only one– and is “put down” by the others – for what reasons I have no idea.
Many of the top VH officials are paid much higher than their counterparts in other nearby towns of similar size. That can be shown by lookups using public databases.
Other towns nearby – even with larger populations – pay less for the same functions we pay more for here.
Whether similar mistakes were made in the past doesn’t mean nearly as much as stopping this practice going forward.
Is the job of Clerk (as one example) here really so much more challenging than the same job in Mahwah or Paramus that it justifies paying $110,640 while Mahwah paid $67,940 and Paramus paid $62,000 for that same position?
Same question re Tax Collector, who here was paid $103,344 – while Mahwah paid $67,436 and Paramus paid $82,420. Is that job really so much more complex here to justify the big diff in pay?
Those are just 2 examples – many more can be found easily.
If you analyze more top positions and compare them, you wind up with a very large savings to taxpayers that other towns are able to achieve for providing the same services and functions– because they pay the top officials less than we do here.
So, why can’t we do that too? With the money saved, you could have funds to hire more people to get out and do all the needed work, couldn’t you?
Population of both Mahwah and Paramus per 2010 census data is just slightly higher then Ridgewood’s population. Mahwah:25,890 Paramus: 26,342 Ridgewood: 24,958.
Note: numbers from 2010 and sourced from: https://php.app.com/NJpublicemployees11/search.php Numbers do not include perks, pensions, bonuses, overtime and any other benefits, per that link.
Interesting quote from Dec 8 2010 Village Council meeting where officials from other towns were objecting to Ridgewood Water rate increase is below. Perhaps this is just an error in the minutes, but they ARE the “official” minutes. Supposedly the Clerk reviews them and the Council approves them prior to being published. (link for full minutes:) https://www.ridgewoodnj.net/minutes/PUBLIC12.810.htm
QUOTE FROM MINUTES: Councilman Riche thanked everyone for their comments and emphasized that he understands the hardships facing all residents, not only in Ridgewood but in neighboring towns as well. He stated that everyone is doing less with more. END QUOTE
Yeah, over at VH that last sentence seems to be all too true. At least Riche seems to have recognized it – IF the minutes are right. Now, why not do something to change it?
