How Much Are These Commissions Costing Monmouth County?

Are they all necesarry?  What can be privatized?

The thing that I found most disturbing about the Middletown Library story is that Randall Gabrielan, in addition  to being president of the Middletown Library, is a employee of Monmouth County.

In his role as Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, Gabrielan is paid almost $36,000 per year and earns pension credits.  I wonder if Executive Director of the Historical Commission is one of the jobs that you can retire from, start collecting a pension, and go back to work the next day.

I don’t mean to minimize the seriousness of the Middletown Library situation.  It is serious.   It’s bad enough that Gabrielan sold his own books and signed his own purchase orders.  Even though the sales did not amount to a great deal of money, what stinks about what he did in Middletown in addition to the obvious, is that the library could have gotten Gabrielan’s books cheaper from Barnes and Noble or really cheap from Abebooks, Middletown Mike’s  favorite book seller, for the library’s shelves. 

I suppose we should be grateful that Mayor Fiore and the Township Committee got wind of Gabrielan’s practice, that has been going on for many years, before he bought Middletown Mike’s newsletter, beautifully bound in brown cloth with gold lettering for $59.00 per copy from Abebooks.

I wonder if the Monmouth County Historical Commission has also been buying Gabrielan’s books.

But I digress.

Why does the Monmouth County Historical Commission have a paid executive director?  How many of the other 25 volunteer county commissions have paid staff? 

The Monmouth County Board of Freeholders are taking their budget meetings on the road this month.  Let’s ask them if there are savings to be had in these 26 commissions.

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Fiore Playing Hardball With Middletown Library President

Randall Gabrielan. Photo Credit: visitmonmouth.com

Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore has asked for the resignation of Middletown Library Board President Randall Gabrielan because Gabrielan has been selling books to the library personally and signing the purchase orders for those books himself as president of the board, according to a report on Middletown Patch.

Gabrielan, a former insurance broker, is also the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Historical Commission, a pensionable position for which he earned $35,391 in 2010, according to APP.com’s Data Universe.

Middletown’s Vendor History report on Gabrielan reveals that he has sold the library $778.45 worth of books since 2007.

Gabrielan told Patch that he considered Fiore’s move to be “political retribution” for his opposition to the Library turning over $500,000 of its surplus to the Township in last year’s budget.

Fiore said that it is a matter of ethics and fiscal accountability.  The mayor has turned the matter over to the state’s Department of Community Affairs’ Division of Local Government Local Government Services.

Library Board Trustee Sherry Miloscia also signed Gabrielan’s purchase orders.  Yesterday, Library Director Susan O’Neal informed Fiore that Miloscia resigned effective January 20.

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That Special Gift, Just In Time For Valentine’s Day

The perfect gift for MiddletownMike lovers

What says “I love you” more than than a hardcover reprint, beautifully bound in in brown cloth featuring titles stamped in gold of back issues of Middletown Mike’s newsletter, It’s Your Town?

For only $59.99, plus shipping of $3.99, you can give that special someone a gift he or she will never forget, and never re-gift.

I’m not kidding.

Can’t decide which issue to get your beloved?  Get all 56 for only $3,359.44 and save on shipping.  Shipping drops to $1.75 for additional books.

But hurry and order now to get them in time for Valentine’s Day.  Shipping takes 5-14 business days, or pay extra, $8.99 for the first book and $4.00 per additonal book, delivered in 3-6 business days.

Published by Repressed Publishing, LLC and available through Abebooks.com, show your love to that special someone with It’s Your Town.

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Fiore Will Remain Mayor

Tony Fiore will be elected to serve another year as mayor of Middletown when the township reorganizes on Sunday, January 1.

Committeeman Steve Massell will be Deputy Mayor.

Stephanie Murray will take the oath of office for her first term on the committee.   Murray replaces Deputy Mayor Pam Brightbill who is stepping down after two terms.

Fiore said that his top priority in 2012 is to continue to find cost savings and to keep the township’s property taxes stable.

Additionally, Fiore wants to implement the lessons learned in 2011 to improve real time communications with Middletown’s residents.  “We learned a lot as a result of the December 2010 blizzard and the aftermath of Hurricane Irene.  We will be improving our communications in the coming year.”

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Middletown Dems Funded By Erotic Bookseller

By Art Gallagher

Well, suddenly election season is not so boring.

Earlier this week the Middletown Democratic Executive Committee reported to the New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission that they received a $2600 contribution from Bookazine Inc, a Bayone based book wholesaler.

Bookazine specializes in the wholesale distribution of homo-erotica.  Their catolog includes such titles and Handjobs Anthology, Volune 22, Tug Harder 2, and Bustin’ a Nut.   I’m not going to write the sub-titles.

Reached for comment, Middletown Democratic Chairman Joe Caliendo said, “What’s your problem?”  Asked if knows what Bookazine sells, Caliendo said, “No comment on anything,” and hung up.

Democratic Township Committee Candidate Carol Fowler said, “I wouldn’t know about that,” when informed that Bookazine had contributed to the campaign.  When informed about what Bookazine sells, Fowler said, “That’s too shocking to even process.”

Fowler’s running mate, Jim Grenefage, could not be reached for comment.

Mayor Tony Fiore, who is being challenged by Grenafege and Fowler said, “The Middletown Democrats should return that donation.  If they have any sense of decency and what is right, they will return the money.”

Fiore’s running mate, Stephanie Murray, a book seller herself, said “The Democrats should know where their money is coming from.  This contribution shows a lack of judgement and insight.”

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Fiore: “JCP&L’s communication to the public is terrible”

“Government Affairs Representative Roberta Sheridan’s communication is fantastic”

“People think I am making this crap up!” exclaimed Middletown Mayor Tony Fiore in frustration over JCP&L personnel giving the public information that contradicts what he has been told by JCP&L’s government affairs representative Roberta Sheridan.

“Sheridan is doing a great job,” said Fiore, “she told me at 10:30 this morning that there were still 1518 customers in the township without power and that 1264 of them would be restored today and 254 tomorrow. Linemen are telling people they won’t have power anytime soon. On the phone they’re telling people they will have power next week.”

Fiore asked that MMM post Sheridan’s email so that Middletown residents would have accurate information and would not think that he is a sewer truck:

From: rsheridan

Date: Fri, 2 Sep 2011 10:31:02 -0400

To: <[email protected]>

Subject: update

we are working all over the township today……….waiting for the areas to be identified……..total of 1,518 customers out in all of the Township, today we are scheduled to bring 1, 264 back in power the remaining 254 tomorrow………..r

Roberta Sheridan
JCP&L

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Mandatory Evacuation For Parts Of Middletown

Middletown Mayor Anthony P. Fiore and the Office of Emergency Management have declared a mandatory evacuation as a result of impending Hurricane Irene. Areas subject to mandatory evacuation are:

All areas located between Route 36 and the Raritan/Sandy Hook Bay from the Keansburg border to the Atlantic Highlands Border.

ALSO

The following streets South of Route 36: Texas Avenue, Briarcliff Avenue, Montana Avenue, from Illinois Avenue to Pews Creek.

ALSO

Hartshorne Road in Navesink including Washington Lane, Clay Court, Tan Vat Road, Grand Tour, Indian Terrace, Wigwam Road

Mandatory evacuation is effective immediately. All residents must be out of these areas by noon on Saturday, August 27. No one will be permitted to return to these areas until they are deemed safe by local authorities.

For all other areas of Middletown, it is strongly recommended that you consider relocating to a safer location.

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Kyrillos: Shadow Lake Cleanup Legislation Signed into Law

Middletown– Senator Joe Kyrillos, co-prime sponsor of the original legislation establishing New Jersey’s landmark Environmental Infrastructure Trust (EIT), is pleased to announce that special financing for the cleanup of Middletown’s Shadow Lake has been signed into law by Governor Christie this afternoon:

“The Environmental Infrastructure trust was created to help communities finance costly remediation projects just like Shadow Lake in order to improve and preserve our state’s natural treasures,” said Kyrillos. “The remediation of Shadow Lake is a project has been in the making for more than a decade. Thanks to the bill signed today authorizing the latest round of EIT financing, the residents in and around Shadow Lake and Middletown will secure the necessary resources to begin its cleanup. Middletown Township will use $2.7 million in low-interest loans to dredge the lake and deposit the spoil in a licensed facility approved by the DEP. I look forward to working together to ensure that this project is completed.”

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Unemployment Compensation Abuse, Taxpayer Abuse

By Art Gallagher

This is one of those stories I thought twice about writing because I don’t want to give “the bad guys” any smart ideas.  I’ve always thought journalists who reported a crime, particularly a financial crime, and then described in detail how the crime was committed were being irresponsible.  I decided to run with it in order to faciliate the end of the abuse.

Two Middletown former employees who retired in the spring of this year have applied for unemployment compensation and been granted the weekly checks by the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, in addition to their pensions, over the objections of Middletown Township, according to Administrator Anthony Mercantante.  A third retiree who retired in late 2010 has been collecting unemployment compensation for most of this year.

Unlike private sector unemployment compensation whereby the employers pay a percentage of their payroll as an “insurance premium”  to the Department of Labor, Middletown in being billed by DOL for the entire amount that the “unemployed retirees” are collecting, according to Mercantante.  Thus Middletown taxpayers are paying these former employees not to work and paying their pensions.

This is an offensive new twist on double dipping. 

Mercantante said that the Department of Labor informed the township that the unemployment compensation was granted to the retirees because they claimed they would not have retired had the township not announced a layoff plan.

No one from the Department of Labor and Workforce Development was available to comment when I called this afternoon.  I will follow up with them on Monday. 

In the meantime, officials from other municipalities that have confronted the same situation are encouraged to use the comments section of this post to report the abuse.  Readers who are members of the Christie administration, legislators and members of the media, please take note.

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Middletown Dems Have A Candidate For Township Committee

By Art Gallagher

The Middletown Democrats have selected a replacement for Alex Desevo on their Township Committee slate, according to Middletown Mike and RedBankGreen.

Now that the news has made it to MMM, the APP will probably get around to reporting it.

Middletown Mike said the candidate was not even known to him prior to her introduction to the Middletown Democratic Committee, so MMM is not about to boost her name recognition at this point.

She seems like a nice lady who has no clue about how municipal government works.  Mike says she spoke about how upset she is with Middletown’s bonding.  Excuse my skepticism, but I highly doubt bonding has been keeping her up at night.   Sounds to me like she was tutored on the Middletown Dems talking points before she addressed the committee.

MMM will eventually report the candidate’s name and background.  For now we’ll refer to the Middletown Democratic slate as What’shername and What’shisname.

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