Council's school budget cuts amount to little

When is a conflict of interest not a conflict of interest? When you live and pay taxes in Edison. Interesting how things are so connected, intertwined and commingled. I refer specifically to the $182.8 million Edison school district's 2006-07 budget.

You remember that spending monster put together by that 900-pound gorilla called the Edison Board of Education. The budget that increases spending by $9.8 million or 5.7 percent over last year and raises the tax rate 10 cents from $2.08 to $2.18 per hundred of assessed value.

A budget that includes the effect of the board's huge three-year taxpayer commitment with the teacher's union, where the board had so many conflicts of interest with the union that they couldn't muster a quorum to vote. Where those conflicts had to do with the single largest expenditure in this budget, which is payroll and which represents approximately 80 percent of this entire budget. With such conflicts so pervasive during the union negotiations this year, is it any wonder that the board employees continue to enjoy premium-free health insurance coverage at the expense of the taxpayers to the tune of $17,000 per employee per year? But I digress, so let's move on.

Next, the voters step in and vote the budget down on April 18. Uh oh. That's not good for the board, their Rah! Rah! Squad called the Budget and Bond Committee or the Township Council.

The board packs up their 961 pages of support for the budget and sends it over to the council. A special meeting of the Council/BOE is called on April 26. The board and their entourage pack the council chambers to make their case for the budget before Council President Diehl and the rest of the council members. Details spared out of courtesy and summarized by saying it was the "It's for the kids" rhetoric.

Diehl, at his discretion, decides to let the budget be reviewed by the council as a whole and bypasses the finance committee.

After the April 26 meeting, a question is raised about a possible conflict of interest with Diehl, as well as Council members Ricigliano and Kapitan. Seems all three have family members on the BOE payroll. Uh oh, conflict of interest.

So, how is it that Diehl, as council president, was allowed to participate in the April 26 meeting and worse, make the decision that prevented the school budget from being reviewed by the finance committee? Didn't he remember he had a family member on the board's payroll or was he just following Mayor Choi's orders?

Not a problem. The Council/BOE call a special meeting on May 2. Council President Diehl and Ricigliano and Kapitan disclose they have a possible conflict of interest and step off the dais before the council votes on the $182.8 million school budget.

Wouldn't you know? The council already struck a closed-door deal with the board to cut $1.5 million from the budget. An amount on $182.8 million that's so insignificant that it gets lost in the rounding.

Interesting how one hand washes the other and both hands clean out the pockets of the residents.

Ralph Bucci

Edison