Christie: “Let me help you pack”
Posted by Richard on November 16, 2010
The Parsippany-Troy Hills (NJ) Board of Education recently voted to renew Superintendent LeRoy Seitz's contract well ahead of its expiration next summer. The board and Seitz negotiated the deal now so that Seitz, whose base salary is $212,000 ($242,000 total last year), would be exempt for the next five years from the Christie administration's salary cap plan (most local school district funding comes from the state, including chief administrators' pay).
In addition to a base salary far above the $175,000 cap, an immediate $4,220 raise, and 2% increases each year for five years, Seitz's contract provides for a $5,000 "stipend," a 15% bonus, travel expenses, 24 vacation days, 15 sick days, 3 personal leave days, paid membership in two professional organizations, expenses paid for two conferences per year, a cell phone, and a laptop computer.
The story of the board meeting and local citizens' angry protestations is a fascinating read. But the money quote, as usual lately in New Jersey stories, came from Gov. Chris Christie (emphasis added):
The day before the meeting Seitz is quoted in the Daily Record as saying, "Because of the proposed salary caps, I have to look at my future and the financial welfare of my family. I certainly would have options if I didn't feel the compensation in this district, or New Jersey, is appropriate."
The governor reacted to Seitz's veiled threats to leave New Jersey and go to a nearby state where there is no state salary. "I will say in response to Mr. Seitz, 'Let me help you pack.' We have real problems in our state that we have to fix and we don't have the time, nor the money, nor the patience any longer for people who put themselves before our citizens," Christie railed.
(Half a HT to Veronique de Rugy , who quoted the story without linking to it, so I had to track it down myself.)
Here's a must-see video of Gov. Christie addressing a town hall meeting and calling out Seitz by name, demonstrating that he's learned Saul Alinsky's 12th rule for radicals (it must really stick in the craw of leftists to see people like Christie turn their own tactics against them):
Leave a Comment