In their zeal to clean house in Freehold and sell papers the Asbury Park Press has once again gone too far. Their treatment of Acting Deputy Administrator Terri O'Connor's rapid rise up the ladder and pay scale is just off base.
O'Connor's assent was caused by the retirement of County Administrator and the untimely death of the Deputy Administrator. She is now doing two jobs, and doing them for a lot less money than Lou and Kate were. She shouldn't be compensated at the same level she was before taking on her new responsibilities. She would be foolish if she did.
I'm a fan of the Asbury Park Press. I think overall they do a great job holding the county's feet to the fire and exposing excesses. When they go overboard, as they did last year with their stories on county legal fees, i.e. using pre-reform numbers to criticize reforms, and with the O'Connor stories, they damage there own credibility as well as the important service they provide to their customers.
The Legacy of Thomas Lifson
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I didn't think this would happen...but I have to agree with you on this issue. She has gone above and beyond with her ability to tackle 2 difficult positions, and you are absolutely correct that she should be compensated for her work. The one place I don't agree is with your comment on the county legal fees. Carton has done a disservice to the taxpayers of Monmouth County for years and years by charging exhorbitant rates for work performed by junior staff, and by freelancers. Even Amy Handlin, when she was a Freeholder, tried to implement an investigation into his billing practices. And the so-called reform of fees has shown to be nothing more than lip service. You should look into it more...
ambrosiajr,
I've been a big critic of Carton and unless he "finds Jesus" I will continue to be.
My comments are not supportive of Malcolm but rather a critique of the APP's coverage of the issue last year when they took the Freeholder Board to task for legals fees using numbers that were generating before the reforms took place. The APP did the same thing when reporting on the county fleet: (http://moremonmouthmusings.blogspot.com/2006/12/paparozzi-clarifies-fleet-mess.html). Every now and then their agenda get's the better of them and the quality and fairness of their reporting suffers.
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