Choi can’t win

Edison Township Council-man Peter J. Barnes III must think residents in his town just fell off the communal turnip truck.

Barnes would have them believe that an ordinance he presented to the Township Council recently had nothing to do with Mayor Jun Choi’s recent firings of five employees.

The ordinance, which the council voted to unanimously introduce at a recent meeting, would put active fire and police department members, who have been laid off or demoted for financial reasons, first in line to be rehired, if township finances improve within a three-year period.

That sounds fine, on face value.

But the original measure had a provision that would have possibly included non-union employees in the departments.

It was withdrawn at the request of Township Attorney Jeffrey Lehrer, who thought it needed a tad more research.

And that provision would have possibly helped Alexandra Vignola, who was former Mayor George A. Spadoro’s executive assistant for six years. Vignola was one of the five employees Choi fired a few weeks ago. Choi said the positions were non-union jobs that could be terminated at the will of the mayor. Vignola has since filed suit against the township, claiming she was canned because of her political support of her former boss.

That provision in the newly introduced ordinance could still resurface at a later date.

And the brouhaha over the firings is the latest in a series of attempts by some council members to undermine the new mayor.

Choi came into office determined to upset the status quo, and rightly so. Some of the council members have fought him at almost every turn.

When he tried to hire a redevelopment attorney at fair market rates, Barnes huffed and puffed about the proposed $195-an-hour fee.

But John Leubsdorf, a professor with Rutgers University Law School of Newark, said the proposed fee wasn’t high, considering that most attorney fees in the New Jersey-New York metropolitan area are much higher, to the tune of $300 to $500 an hour.

In the end, Barnes and the council agreed to a face-saving $10 reduction in the hourly fee for the redevelopment attorney, which now stands at $185 an hour.

Barnes has said the council is “trying to get the best deal for Edison.”

If that’s so, some council members need to let go of the old ways of doing business and heed the new mayor’s warnings.

Whether Edison has a semantic $10 million budget deficit or budget gap, the fact remains that the town is in financial trouble with a meager $700,000 left in surplus.

And residents can expect another hefty hike in the municipal purposes tax rate in next year’s budget while they are still reeling from this year’s.

The election is over. The council should focus on the future, not the past.