Choi: Edison facing major ‘fiscal crisis’
New mayor calls for hiring freeze, looks for ways to close budget gap
BY ROCHELLE GERSZBERG & PATRICIA A. MILLER
Staff Writers

Mayor Jun Choi said that he holds the prior administration responsible for the multimillion-dollar Edison Township deficit that he “inherited.”

“There is no honeymoon for me,” Choi said at a recent press conference. “Let me be clear — I inherited a fiscal mess.”

Choi also instituted a hiring freeze and said there will be no new hires except for essential personnel until further notice.

“These are not easy decisions, but decisions that need to be made,” said the new mayor, who was sworn in to office on Jan. 1. “This is just the first step in a list of many things that need to be done to improve the fiscal health of the township.”

Choi blamed his predecessor, former Mayor George Spadoro, for leaving the township in “financial dire straits.”

Spadoro said on Friday he was busy at work and could not comment.

The township needs to close a $6.1 million deficit in six months and an additional $4 million by 2007, Choi said.

Taxpayers could face a minimum 20-cent increase in the municipal-purposes tax rate in fiscal year 2007, he said.

Choi based his remarks on the findings of his financial consultants, Marvin Corwick and Gregory Fehrenbach, who were paid $12,500 each for the last two weeks of December to assess the township’s finances.

Corwick said that Edison was “by far, the worst township I’ve ever seen.”

“I wonder why this was done,” Corwick said. “Who is Spadoro trying to hurt, the new mayor, by making it impossible to finish the year in the black?”

The two consultants cited a number of reasons for the deficit in an executive summary, including:

• The previous administration and council approved fiscal year 2005 and 2006 budgets that decreased the surplus account from more than $10 million to a deficit of $8 million.

• Heavy expenditures for police and paid firefighters in very generous salary and benefit labor contracts, especially for senior officers.

• Professional service contractors received lucrative awards.

• The municipal-purposes tax rate rose from 28 cents for each $100 of assessed valuation in 1994 to 84 cents in 2006.

The township could face “bitter pill solutions,” which could include a tax hike, cuts in services and job layoffs, the mayor said.

“I do not relish having to make these decisions, which may be painful for both residents and township employees,” he said.

Choi compared Edison’s financial dilemma to a family budget situation where the husband spends all of the family’s savings and increases expenditures.

“By June 2006, this family will not have the money to make ends meet,” Choi said.

Other options to close the deficit include refinancing the debt payment schedule and pursuing emergency state aid, he said.

Corwick congratulated Spadoro for leaving a clean office.

“He shredded every piece of paper that he could,” Corwick said.

But Corwick later said that Spadoro’s administration had provided every document they requested.

Corwick said there is no money to pay for the promotions of police officers.

“The governor’s cabinet doesn’t make salaries like these officers do,” Corwick said.

Police captains are paid an average of $142,585 per year. Lieutenants average $128,782 per year. Sergeants are paid an average of $113,780 according to Corwick and Fehrenbach’s report.

Salaries for patrolmen and patrolwomen (including off-duty jobs) ranged from a high of $129,424 to a low of $87,518, with an average of $101,624, they said.

Fire captains are paid an average of $147,291 per year. Lieutenants average $119,177. Salaries for top-of-the-range firefighters run from $89,809 to $116,866, with an average of $110,200, according to the report.

Police Chief George Mieczkowski and Fire Chief Robert Campbell later said their officers were not overpaid, and that the salaries were agreed upon in labor negotiations.

Corwick also said Councilman Peter J. Barnes III was an “obstructionist or purposely trying to give the new mayor a hard time.”

Barnes voted against the $25,000-a-month contract for Corwick and Fehrenbach at a council meeting in December.

Council members Salvatore Pizzi, Charles Tomaro, Joan Kapitan, and Anthony Massaro attended the press conference.

Barnes, Councilman Robert Diehl and Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano did not attend.

Barnes later questioned Choi’s “courage and integrity.”

“I’m offended by our new mayor’s lack of a backbone in having a paid consultant attack me rather Choi doing it himself,” he said. “This exposes how Mr. Choi plans to do business.”

Corwick’s attack on Barnes was “uncalled for,” Tomaro said.