It’s not that a connected politician will get an extra $1 million in pension benefits for working five years in his new job as county counsel for Union County but that Union County will only have to pay $122,500 to ‘fund’ that extra benefit. Here are the details:
20 May
2020 Union County Budget To Be Passed
Again unanimously and the 1.9% increase in the ‘Amount to Be Raised by Taxes’ proposed in the 2020 Executive Budget (from $367,295,299.43 to $374,273,910.12) has been cut to 0%.
Here is how they did it (hint: all about the surplus) and how you can comment on the 2020 Budget to be Passed.
23 Apr
Fighting to the Death for Florio, Et Alia
Apparently the federal government wants to put strings on payments under the Cares Act to states and counties and Governor Murphy takes exception:
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Union County at this hour is spending the first of that Cares Act money.
On whom?
According to their meeting agenda:
5 Mar
UCCF 3/5/20: Musicfest Back
Back in 2012 we had:
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Apparently enough time has elapsed to bring back the political event right before an election with a lot of loose cash floating around. At tonight’s freeholder meeting we had:
4 Mar
Feds Investigating Scutari
Last October Linden Mayor Derek Armstead sent a letter to U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito, asking for an investigation into state Senator Nicholas Scutari (D-22), going back to when Scutari worked as the municipal attorney.
“Based on the severity of Nicholas Scutari’s improprieties, it was absolutely necessary to take swift action and call on the authorities to immediately investigate the abuse of public trust that I have outlined in my correspondence. In 2017, Scutari missed 64 out of 115 Court Sessions and in 2018, he missed 57 out of 111 Court Sessions; all while earning $85,000 a year. His ‘absences’ cost the taxpayers of Linden $147,493.97.”
Yesterday it was reported that the U.S. Attorney took some action:
2 Mar
Scutari Marshalling Board Against Armstead
Apparently there is a power struggle going on for control of Union County between Linden Mayor (and former county employee) Derek Armstead and State Senator (and current Union County Democrat Chairman and former Linden Prosecutor) Nicholas Scutari with Armstead using the resources of the state which seem to have borne some fruit per stories that just broke:
State Sen. Scutari under investigation
While Scutari looks to his handpicked minions to carry his load:
29 Feb
Check Registry Update – December, 2019
Since 2004 Union County has paid out over $4 billion (that we know about) based on check registry data. Some of the familiar names are in additional worksheets in the file. Among them:
23 Feb
UCCF 2/20/20: Ex-Freeholder Cashes In
2020-191: Authorizing County Manager to enter into a professional services contract with Live Life Virtually (LLV), LLC, Linden, New Jersey for the period of March 1, 2020 through December 31, 2020, in an amount not to exceed $26,905, to provide online access to curriculum, training materials, data collection, and the full customization of a version of LLV “Your Practice Life” program optimized for low to moderate income youth in Union County.
Explained this way at Agenda meeting:
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Real Reason:
21 Feb
Union County Tax Hikes and Tax Thefts
The thefts continues as money raised by the Open Space tax is diverted to the county budget. Since 2001 regular taxes have risen by 134%:
Add to that another year of stealing almost all of the Open Space tax:
