State Lawmakers and municipalities responsible:

All of them, for not making the practice of holding more than one position illegal.


Constituents responsible:

All of them, for not demanding change.


Blame all the people you want, but don't forget to leave enough blame for the participants (and NONparticipants) in the political process. That is how we, the people, speak our (collective) voice.

School board members responsible:

William DeRosa, Chairperson
Franklin L. Williams, Vice Chairperson
Ed Cheatam
Anthony Cruz
Anthony R. Cucci
Dr. Peter J. Donnelly
Jeffrey Dublin
Suzanne T. Mack
Angel L. Valentin

Second salary reform bill needs a lot of reforming

BY TOM MORAN -- Star-Ledger -- Dec 20

Listen up, all you working parents who think you know how to juggle a schedule.

You're not even in Nick Sacco's league.

Sacco is a state senator from North Bergen. He is also the local mayor. And the assistant superintendent of schools.

He earns just over $250,000 a year when all three salaries are bundled, and he'll get a mega-pension to match when his day comes.

What's remarkable is that Sacco genuinely seems to believe the good people of North Bergen are lucky to have him in these jobs, even if each job gets only a piece of him. He's that good.

"A lot of my work can be done on the phone," he says. "I can call in to see what's going on, and make decisions. I'm fine."

New Jersey politics is ridiculous in many ways, but this is surely one of the most glaring. Our legislators rank first in the nation when it comes to earning second salaries from other government jobs, according to the Center for Public Integrity. No other state is even close.

So it's not surprising that with all the bloviating about reform these days in Trenton, this item made it onto the agenda.

But it hasn't gotten far. Legislators have swarmed around this reform like a school of piranhas, each pulling a small piece off the carcass. What has survived is barely recognizable. And there's a good chance even that won't pass.

To begin, legislators considered limits only on elective offices, not on all government jobs.

Second salary reform bill needs a lot of reforming
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Too bad. Many states ban second jobs in government altogether. They understand that letting legislators send their resumes around town creates automatic conflicts of interest.

Take Assemblyman Charles T. Epps Jr., who also is superintendent of schools in Jersey City.

One problem is that the district is run by the state. So as a legislator, Epps is supposed to oversee the same people who are supposed to oversee him.

The Legislature, in its wisdom, has decided to do nothing about Epps or the dozens of legislators like him who hold second government jobs.

That neglect is disheartening. But if you want see something worse - some real hypocrisy - then hang on. The next chapter in this story is a Jersey gem.

Legislative leaders did agree, at least, to ban the practice of holding two elective offices at once - only they included a lifetime exemption for sitting members of the legislature.

So Sacco, it seems, is safe. And so is Epps. Nothing in this reform will come close to touching them.

Which tells you that this reform is no reform at all. It is a triumph of the status quo, plain and simple.

Tom Moran, a columnist for the Star-Ledger, can be reached at tmoran@starledger.com.

Wow, this guy makes $270k and he needs to have another $1000 a month for his housing expenses, come one that is ridiculous. I understand you need to throw some money to get quality people into a crummy school district but at some point it becomes excessive. And what results has this guy produced? I need a job like that.

I am glad they upped our property taxes to pay for this guys salary.

Epps' pay hike irks Sussex pol
Saturday, October 21, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Assemblywoman Alison Littell McHose, R-Sussex, expressed outrage yesterday over the nearly $10,000 pay hike that Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. was recently given.

"Every taxpayer in New Jersey should be offended that a man who has abused tax dollars for personal pleasure and who has demonstrated poor judgment on a number of occasions is being rewarded with a pay raise," McHose said in a written statement. "How many of our state's residents would get a $10,000 pay hike from their employer for making bad decisions?"

The Jersey Journal reported Wednesday that acting Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy signed off on a 41/2 percent pay hike, worth $9,473 retroactive to July 1, for Epps, having concluded he had performed his job "satisfactorily."

The raise brings Epps' superintendent's salary to $219,993. He also receives a $1,000-a-month housing allowance and earns $49,000 a year as a state assemblyman representing Bayonne and Jersey City.

Earlier this year, Epps, who was appointed by the state, reimbursed the school district roughly $5,000 after it was revealed he and an associate had lived high on the hog in England at taxpayers' expense for a few days prior to a school-related conference.

Other questions were raised when it was learned that Epps had contributed to the campaign account of Jeff Dublin, a Hudson County freeholder who also sits on the Jersey City School Board. As a school board member, Dublin filled out an anonymous, written performance evaluation of Epps that was sent to the state Department of Education.

http://www.nj.com/news/jjournal/index ... 61153391279850.xml&coll=3

IT ADDS UP
'Satisfactory' job gets schools boss a $9G raise
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
By KEN THORBOURNE
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charles T. Epps Jr. will have to make do on just $9,473 more a year.

Epps received a 4.5 percent pay boost to $219,993, retroactive to July 1, school officials confirmed this week. That's a $9,473 raise for Epps, who had been earning $210,520 annually as the district's state-appointed superintendent.

Epps, who lives in Society Hill, also receives a $1,000-a-month housing allowance for a total superintendent income of $231,993 - plus the $49,000 a year he earns in his part-time job as an assemblyman.

The school raise was "based on satisfactory performance as determined by the commissioner of Education," the contract states.

As generous as the pay hike might sound, it's a pittance compared to what it could have been.

Epps' contract - which runs from July 1, 2005, to June 30, 2008 - makes provisions for an additional pay hike of up to 12 percent, which would have meant a $25,262.40 raise on top of the $9,473, based on district performance in three areas.

Two of markers have to do with increasing the number of special ed students in regular education classes, while the third concerns raising the test performances of students learning English - each goal worth $8,420.80. Epps missed on all counts.

The first bonus hike called for increasing the number of special ed students in general education classrooms by 10 percentage points. The second called for reducing the number of special ed students who spend less than 40 percent of their school day in general education classes by 5 percent.

"The vast majority of special education students are already in inclusion classes," explained Roxanne Johnson, special assistant to the associate superintendent of special education. "Between December 2001 and December 2005 - those were the years with the most change."

The third bonus incentive called for a 10 percent or more increase in the number of students in the "English Language Learners" category passing the standardized language tests.

According to Director of Testing Michael Littlejohn, passing rates for English Language Learners sank 18 and 14 percentage points on the Grade 3 and Grade 4 tests, respectively. On the Grade 8 and high school test, passing rates increased 6.1 and a 1.2 percentage points, he said.

The 62-year-old superintendent didn't return calls to comment.

In August, the district's nine elected school board members submitted a mixed review of Epps's job performance to Acting Commissioner of Education Lucille Davy - most of the negatives having to do with Epps splitting his time between his two posts as superintendent and assemblyman.

At her confirmation hearings last week, Davy said she found Epps's dual roles "problematic" and that his performance as superintendent was still under review. Epps ran for Assembly last year with the permission of then-Commissioner of Education William Librera.

Quote:

I certainly hope so. I certainly do.

JUST TWO MUCH?
State ed boss may put kibosh on Epps' double-duty
Saturday, October 14, 2006
NEWHOUSE NEWS SERVICE

The state education commissioner has called Charles T. Epps Jr.'s controversial dual role as Jersey City school superintendent and a state assemblyman "problematic," and indicated she may put a halt to him serving in one of those jobs.

In her confirmation hearing Thursday before the Senate Judiciary Committee, acting Commissioner Lucille Davy stressed Epps' job performance as the state-appointed superintendent remained under review, and she had yet to make a determination.

But answering a legislator's question, Davy conceded it would be difficult for any superintendent to serve in both capacities, and cited her own power to disallow the state-appointed officer to also be a legislator - even in the middle of his term.

It was her predecessor, former Commissioner William Librera, who permitted Epps to run for Assembly last year.

"If I had been in this position then," Davy said in her first public comments on the issue, "it might have come out differently from the outset."

"Certainly in the case of someone who is running a state-operated district, the idea of a dual employment in another position is problematic for me," Davy said at another point.

Epps said yesterday that he was "taken aback" when he learned of Davy's comments.

"I really haven't had a chance to speak with her about this, and I hope to," he said. "I have talked to her about lots of things, the district, how we're moving, the Broad Prize, almost on a daily basis."

Epps' dual role has been contested since he ran for the 31st District seat as a Democrat, with even some of his own board members saying his work as chief of the state's second largest school district has since suffered.

Epps has maintained he can do both jobs. He cited recent attention to dual office holding as a possible reason the issue was brought up.

"I think they are taking a look at everybody, and maybe I sparked something," he said.

Jersey City School Board Chairman William DeRosa offered conflicting assesments of Epps performance. He first said he did not find Epps' dual roles problematic, only to say later in the interview yesterday that Epps should consider leaving his legislative post.

DeRosa also said Epps is doing a great job as superintendent, but he supports Davy's fresh look at the situation, especially in light of the recent board evaluations that accused Epps of losing grip on the district.

Davy's comments were one piece in a lengthy and wide-ranging hearing that moved from private school vouchers to state monitoring of districts, with a heavy focus on how the state will crack down on wayward school spending.

The full Senate is expected to confirm Davy's appointment when it meets on Monday.

Davy has been commissioner for more than a year, but mostly in an acting or interim capacity. After a national search, Gov. Jon Corzine in July appointed Davy to stay on in the $141,000-a-year post.

Journal staff writer Jarrett Renshaw contributed to this report