Charlie Epps 
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Fri Aug 28, 2009 at 09:32:57 AM EDT
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Since 2004, four men have served the 31st district in the State Assembly. Three of them—Lou Manzo, Anthony Chiappone, and L. Harvey Smith—have been arrested on corruption-related charges this summer. The fourth? Charlie Epps, the slimy superintendent of Jersey City schools who has been criticized for pension-padding, shady hiring practices, and taking an expensive junket to London on the taxpayer's dime.
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Thu Sep 20, 2007 at 12:59:52 AM EDT
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It seems like only yesterday that the state wrested control of the Jersey City schools away from a corrupt school board more interested in personal enrichment and patronage than in running a school. In reality, it was 1988 when Dr. Saul Cooperman said, "Taken overall, the Jersey City school district can be characterized as a public enterprise that has reached a state of managerial bankruptcy." To whit:''Political patronage, union pressure and cronyism is a consistent motivation, at all levels, in the hiring, firing, promoting and deployment of staff,'' Dr. Cooperman's staff said in a report. ''The hiring, firing and transferring of school district personnel is conducted without regard to the significance such decisions will have upon the education of the children.''
Well, as I've previously written, not even the names have been changed. So what does the school board do to prove it is ready to take back control from the state? Re-new Prince Charlie's contract!
Go throw up and then join me below the fold.
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Fri Mar 02, 2007 at 11:45:24 AM EST
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Assemblyman Charlie Epps is also Jersey City Superintendent of Schools Charlie Epps, and many people think that there's a little more work in those two jobs than one person can do. Oh, and then there's accusations of corruption.
Either way, in January 2008 we won't have to worry about it anymore, because Charlie ain't running for reelection.
Before and after his election, Epps has been widely criticized for dividing his time between Trenton and running the 32,000-student district.
Scandals -- which included an expensive taxpayer-financed trip to London, overtime payments to custodians and painters, and a recent state audit that unearthed $553,000 worth of "questionable" expenditures -- didn't help his reputation.
Epps repaid $5,000 for the London trip, pledged to do what he could to reduce overtime to unionized maintenance workers, and said the "questionable" expenditures could all be explained.
Given the negative publicity, Hudson County Democratic Organization chieftains have signaled for months that they had no intention of inviting Epps back on the ticket.
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Sat Oct 14, 2006 at 11:24:58 PM EDT
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The Jersey Journal relays the Newhouse News Service story:
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.
Epps should be helped with his decision and be told to step down from the School Board before he is thrown tits-over-teakettle through the back door. He's done a lousy job and he's proven that he's willing to go to any length to extend to himself any perk imaginable at any cost unimaginable or defensable.
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Fri Aug 25, 2006 at 08:01:16 AM EDT
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The Jersey Journal's Ken Thorbourne writes:
Dozens of schools in Hudson County, most notably Jersey City, again failed to meet education standards in the past year, the state Department of Education reported yesterday.
Overall, 643 schools statewide, or 26.5 percent, did not meet standards in 2006, compared to 822, or 34 percent, last year, the department said. Some schools have closed or merged over the years.
In Jersey City - the state's second-largest school district - 27 out of 33 schools failed to pass muster, according to the department's preliminary results from the standardized tests administered in May, officials said.
Yes, ladies and gentlement, only six schools in Jersey City are worth sending your children to. And for accomplishing that asshattery, Charlie Epps is paid well over $200,000. Since JC is an Abbott District, that means that YOU paid him $200,000 to make sure 82% of the schools he supervises FAILED.
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Mon Aug 21, 2006 at 10:27:36 AM EDT
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Still fresh from the scandal over his extravagance in Oxford on the tax-payer's dime, Charlie Epps is now finding his way onto the pages of the Jersey Journal for another scandal. Earl Morgan and Ken Thorbourne report on the Superintendant/Assemblyman's hiring practices:
Jersey City's schools chief Charles T. Epps Jr., who doubles as a state assemblyman for Jersey City and Bayonne, has hired four school district employees to part-time jobs on his state assembly staff - further blurring the lines between his two public roles.
Ellen Zadroga, Epps' $129,508-a-year executive assistant and Charles Trefurt, a $129,508-a-year special assistant to the superintendent, have both been hired as $12,000-a-year legislative aides, according to state records obtained by The Jersey Journal.
Epps has also hired Linda Zupko, an analyst with the board, and part-time Board of Education security guard Robert Marshall as legislative aides. Zupko is paid $67,000 annually for her day job and earns another $5,000 a year for her Assembly work.
It seems that Prince Charlie just can't keep his jobs straight.
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