In what can only be called a remarkable show of brotherhood and concern, Brick Township’s largest labor union, Transport Workers Union 225, Branch 4, elected to forego their scheduled salary and step increases in an attempt to avoid layoffs, save jobs, and maintain an acceptable level of services. We applaud the members, and especially to the leadership who initially proposed this remarkable step. One of the marks of true leadership is taking steps and making decisions that you know in your heart to be in the best interests of your membership, even if that decision is an unpopular one and could possibly mean your removal from the leadership position. In this case the courageous thing to do was the right thing to do, and the leadership was both courageous and correct.
What I, and others, find so ironic about this is the comments attributed to Brick Mayor Steven Acropolis after the union vote was announced. In typical grandstanding fashion the Mayor praised the decision and complemented the leadership, but was also quick to point out that despite the action, layoffs might be unavoidable. “It’s all up to the referendum” Acropolis noted. The referendum in question is of course the question being put to the people of Brick as to whether or not the governing body should be permitted to exceed the 2% Property Tax CAP imposed by law. In other words, we might not have layoffs if you people out there let us raise your taxes more than the law allows. Support the referendum and pay more taxes and then maybe we can save some jobs. However, it seems from this vantage point that the Mayor’s “concern” is grossly hypocritical.
It is true that we are suffering through extremely difficult economic times. We have seen Acropolis in statement after statement speaks about the need for shared sacrifice when it comes to the Townships budget. But this shared sacrifice doctrine did not stop Mayor Acropolis from rewarding Juan Bellu with a $50,000 salary increase shortly after laying off over 40 municipal workers. This is same Juan Bellu who is the Assistant Administrator in Brick, a position that was resurrected under Acropolis and now costs the taxpayers almost $200,000 a year when you take into consideration salary and benefits. This is the same Juan Bellu who is a commissioner with the Toms River MUA who recently “rewarded” Acropolis with a tax payer funded $92,000 full time job on top of his $50,000 full time mayor’s job. Acropolis took the job because, in his own words, he “needed the money”!!!This is the local Republican version of shared sacrifice, “We have ours, but yours I’m not so sure about.” Unless the people of Brick let the Mayor raise our taxes more than the 2% CAP, the fine people of the TWU will be looking for work.
This is a position that the TWU and the citizens of Brick Township should never have be put in. The Mayor’s greed, cronyism and unwillingness to fairly manage town finances combined with the Councils inability or refusal to question the Mayor’s actions have become an ever increasing burden on the Brick Township taxpayers. Governor Christie, a Republican, first asked for shared sacrifice but when I publicly pointed this out to the current administration a member of the Brick Council, another Republican of course, said the Governor talks out of both sides of his mouth. Mayor Acropolis, when asked by this writer what he thought of this replied, “I agree with the Councilman.” Really Mayor? Who speaks out of both sides of his mouth? Certainly not you Mayor after your raises to Bellu and others while asking Public Workers to tighten their belts. Certainly not you Mayor after your greedy MUA money grab. After all, you need the money. Certainly not the all Republican Council who blindly agrees with and supports every single one of your actions. We can do better.
Tony Lazroe, Chairman
Brick Township Democrats
No comments:
Post a Comment