A name in the news in Hillside reminded Plaintalker of an odd saga here at City Hall.
The news article tells how a construction official who retired then came back to do the same job, displacing his successor apparently at the mayor's insistence. The move has sparked a fight between the Hillside mayor and council that may be headed for court, reporter Ryan Hutchins relates.
Hutchins gets the spelling wrong, but the official at the center of the dispute is none other than one who served Plainfield during the first term of Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs. The mayor replaced the former director of Public Works & Urban Development, a Plainfielder who had served the city for decades, with a councilwoman from Rahway. The former director then took the title of assistant director of the department, but the mayor brought in another assistant director, Nagy Sileem, at a similar salary, apparently hoping the Plainfielder would yield the title.
This took place during a time when nearly all top officials came from outside the city and all got residency waivers, a strange turn of events for a city that had been fiercely insistent on having Plainfielders in charge.
Sileem meanwhile was listed in state records as having a job in another municipality while holding the Plainfield post. He eventually left Plainfield without displacing the the incumbent assistant director. Plaintalker commented on the Sileem saga in the context of a 2008 Star-Ledger article on Hillside politics.
After Sileem left the city, the person still holding the assistant director post was the target of a layoff plan that included only one person - herself - and resulted in savings of $10,000 or less. The title of assistant director was vacated and the individual took a lesser title that she held until her retirement, though not without stress.
In contrast to the pressure placed on this Plainfielder to move aside for a politically-favored outsider, Sileem seems to be positioned to be rewarded even after retirement by being given a job while receiving a pension. And we wonder how Bob Ingle and Sandy McClure came up with a book titled "The Soprano State."
--Bernice
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
If you haven't read it, you should. It's an incredible book...although, the people who mindlessly vote by party won't see what the book exposes. I am sure it didn't sell that many copies in Plainfield.
ReplyDeleteBy page 20 in the "Soprano State" you come across the name of former McGreevey chief-of-staff Gary Taffet, who was forced from his position after a billboard scandal came to light. He resurfaced as a principle with Reliance Insurance, one of the city and BOE's insurance broker consultants. He and his wife are regular contributors to local politicians with RDO support.
ReplyDeleteRetirement from the city or state should be exactly that. If you are lucky enough to retire so young, and most of us will work into our 70s, the get a job with some other entity, not a government or education job. Many people wish they could retire with free life-time health benefits and an excellent retirement check, so for government and education retirees, be satisfied and stop taking from the taxpayers.
ReplyDeleteI've never voted by party, but for the best person and at times, against the worst person. Not all Democrats or Republicans are good for us and in this area many or our Democrats have made Plainfield worse, not better, so voters need to keep that in mind. We can only pray that people in Plainfield realize what control they have and they shouldn't give it to our often worthless politicians.
ReplyDeleteTo Bob, that is the intelligent way to vote. It is obvious that Plainfield voters do not have that kind of intelligence.
ReplyDeleteMaybe its time for private workers to start taking control of their companies, from their extremely overpaid executives, that keep taking their benefits from them.
ReplyDeleteEmployees should form a group and put money towards taking over 51 percent of their company stock and turn the tide on the executives that fly around in a company helicopter that is paid for on the back of employees and consumers.
About 30-35 years ago Hillside was in a period of political party turmoil so they decided to have no partisan elections for mauor and council. The only problem was still conflict between mayor and council. After awhile they went back to partisan elections and established a city manager type government. It seems that nothing changes.
ReplyDeleteTo Bob: not all government workers get free lifetime health benefits. I and many other local government retirees pay the full cost of our health benefits. The automatic recipients are police, fire, teachers and state workers. Local governments choose whether to grant health coverage to other retirees. Some do, some don't, and none should, including police, fire, teachers, and others. Everyone should pay their fair share.
ReplyDelete