This change is just ridiculous

by: Thurman Hart

Fri Nov 28, 2008 at 12:16:17 PM EST

I don't have a dog in this fight at all, so the Freeholders can hire whoever they want.  But it seems odd that the two Freeholders who are talking about the personnel move just aren't making sense.  Bruce James says their team works so well together that they must move in a different direction - which doesn't make sense, but public statements via truisms usually don't.  Meanwhile, Terry Duffy claims he doesn't know why anyone would vote against Gerald Volpe, but then says he did so in order to go along with his friends.

I don't have a dog in Union City, either, where Mayor/State Senator Brian Stack fired Paul Sarames (deputy director of revenue) only a month before he was set to retire.  The timing makes it almost sure a court case will ensue - and whatever money Stack thought he was saving in the pay dispute is going out the window anyway.  

In both cases, I think there is more to the story than is being reported.  Given the problem of patronage in New Jersey, though, I think it would behoove us all to call for greater clarity and openness on hiring and firing - especially when the jobs are six-figures high.