HIRING DURING A HIRING FREEZE
The cops fume that there is a hiring freeze and no promotions, and Mayor Robinson-Briggs hires yet another 'communications' person?
That would be Jazz Johson, just this week hired away from the Plainfield Municipal Utilities Authority. Word has it at a salary of around $65K.
And the budget the Council adopted was explained to us as having its savings over the Administration's proposed budget come to us by way of a hiring freeze. Hmmm...
Would be nice to know the exact tab for all these communications types, wouldn't it?
There's Tony Grey, who's supposed to be running PCTV-74, the cable station. And Cynthia Crawford, president of the Municipal Employees Union and wife of PBA president Andre Crawford, who is in charge of producing a newsletter (Have you seen it?). AJ, who was supposed to be minding the website is now in the Clerk's office (hovering around $70K). So, who's watching the website? No one, it seems -- but we're paying for having it anyway. Let's not forget Laurence Rice, who continues to publish his Tri-County News even though he's on the city payroll.
Should we include the Mayor's confidential aide Barbara James? If you want to communicate with the Mayor, you go through her, so I guess that counts. And what about Dr. Gerard Lee's outreach to the nonprofit community on behalf of the Mayor? There's a salary involved there, too.
Let's not leave out the erstwhile crew at the 'information counter' in the City Hall lobby -- including Piscataway resident Carmen Salavarrietta, who performed such a useful communications function for the Mayor during her campaign.
There's a whole lot of communicatin' going on here, but most of it seems to be involved in communicatin' your tax dollars away from the City treasury. How much, a quarter of a mill? Chump change, unless you're the chump, chump.
(Would it be immodest to point out that PT was the ONLY communications person at City Hall in his day, TOPPING OUT AFTER EIGHT YEARS at $65K, and that he was a City employee for three years BEFORE going over to City Hall? Of course, there is the possibility that all these people are doing a better job. Of course.)
Did I forget to mention MISSING TOYS at City Hall?
Word is that an EXPENSIVE COMPUTER (would $5,000 for a computer today be expensive? you betcha!) intended for PCTV-74 has gone missing. Or was never received? Surely someone is looking into it? And then there's an EXPENSIVE CAMERA. What's become of it?
Now mind you, these are the Mayor's handpicked people.
MAYORAL MODEL: JAMES OR BOOKER?
City Hall is awash with talk about the invites and the pressure applied to get tickets sold. Word is they were produced in the Mayor's office, so that 'in-house labor' tag may be unintendedly and amusingly correct. (Hey! This is Joisey, not a Sunday School class!)
Where it gets James-like is PT is told that employees received calls from the Mayor's office, telling them to be sure and stop by to pick up their tickets -- quantities pre-prescribed.
Cory Booker, on the other hand, has eschewed this kind of old-school, political-machine fundraising.
PT will leave it to you, dear reader, to figure out the fundraising model being employed here.
Meanwhile, the cops are in complete turmoil. But that will have to be another post.
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1 comments:
PT I think you might have missed a few new City Hall employees. Including so of the "Clergy" . They know who I am talking about. Well as the say you have to pay the Pipper sometime and that would be by City employment
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