(Editor's note: We received an email from Deborah Milardo today. She recalculated her estimate to be in the range of $60,000.)
In a side discussion of expenditures from the Personnel Department budget, Personnel Director Deborah Milardo estimated that the costs to the city for legal fees in the court battle between the City of Middletown and the Middletown Board of Education could be $60,000 on the city side.
Those estimated costs do not include the costs on the Board of Education side.
8 comments:
What? This is outrageous! The mayor picked all these useless fights and caused this expenses....How could anyone in their right mind vote for this loon again
Who are the lawyers?
$90,000.00 of taxpayer dollars to pay for a decision on who has the power to hire a number of employees at the BOE? This is lunacy! If anything, this is a union issue, and the unions have their own measures and procedures in place to settle grievances on any type of hiring violation. Isn’t that what their union dues are for?
Since when is it right for a Mayor to decide that the tax dollars that belong to all of us, go to fight what is in essence, a union fight? Let me remind the Mayor that the majority of the people who pay taxes in Middletown do NOT belong to municipal unions. Let me also remind the Mayor that many of us feel that the unions already get more than their fair share of our tax dollars for salary and benefits, without us having to pay for their legal battles, too.
This is just plain wrong!
Ed. Correction. We are at 30K with another 30K possible. 60K is a better estimate. Deb milardo
Before you start blaming the Mayor...what about the Superintendent moving his office from the front of the BOE building to the back at a ridiculous amount of $80,000 when schools were at a greater need last year. Funds are being finagled all over the BOEs books. It's about time someone took a stand.
With the Mayor's favorite response to any conflict being "take me to court" it is no wonder the City is spending money in court. Perhaps he wishes to keep his fellow lawyers employed.
With the lack of leadership it is sad to see the unions taking the negative comments when they are the organizations who have given this country a minimum wage, 40 hour work week, safety regulations and much more that union and non-union workers alike enjoy as they work to make this nation what it is.
When things go wrong in DC, we blame the president. I would suggest that a this should be laid at the foot of the Mayor and people remember the lack of leadership next November.
Get your facts straight! This fighteas to stop the superintendent from continuing to create positions at whim for his friends and famiy and whom ever at the taxpayers expense! This was not a union issue only madepublic by the unionsand mayor! Unions donor get taxpayer money or untold perks you are just jealous. Unions make many concessions as far as healthcare and wages for temporary job security. If your whining about a union yiu are either a union member who doesnt bother going to meetings or a naive citizen who chooses not to be informed. The grass always seems greener in the other side to those outsiders. If the citizens keep voting for Frechette it proved the public doesn't care abouthis nepotism or creative ways of abusing the budget and moving funds and taking from the kids.
Facts? Where have you been? The hiring of friends and family has never been practiced more than the generations of it at City Hall. Judging by your comment, my guess would be that you’d prefer it be a friend or family member of the Mayor, rather than the Superintendent.
As far as the “union” issue, please, not the old “you must be jealous” comment. I hate to be the one to break it to you, but workers who do not belong to municipal unions actually value their own professions, education, qualifications and positions every bit as much as anyone else. If the majority of the taxpaying workforce isn’t getting job security, raises and benefits, they are certainly not going to believe that municipal union workers are more deserving of it than they are. No “ jealousy or whining” about it, it’s just that simple. And paying extra tax dollars to fight a union battle is not an expense that the majority of the taxpayers should have to pay for. Truly, this is nothing that the Mayor shouldn’t have considered before he foolishly decided to enter into legal battles that were without merit and totally unnecessary; which is why none of it held up in court.
Lastly, seeing you like to “get your facts straight” ….the office of the Superintendent is not an elected position, therefore; the “citizens” do not keep voting for Frechette . The job is his until the Board Of Education says otherwise.
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