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[In the News] Cleaning Up the Corruption
Posted By: The Resident
Date: Friday, 29 June 2007, at 11:40 a.m.
School board targets bloated pay
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
By ERIC HSU
STAFF WRITERCLIFFSIDE PARK -- The school board plans to cut the salary of its treasurer to $7,000 from $28,500 due to a salary comparison that members say showed the pay has been drastically inflated.
Questions about the part-time accounting post known as the treasurer of school monies were first raised in April when The Record found Cliffside's pay has outpaced comparable districts for years. Twelve districts with enrollments close to Cliffside's 2,600-student enrollment pay an average of $6,265 per year for the job.
School board President Frank Tortora said the board -- which is expected to approve the change today -- decided to adjust the salary after conducting its own salary study, though he said he didn't know exactly why the salary had managed to balloon so much through the years.
"These were the numbers that more or less were there when I came on the board. I can't speak to what they were before. Once it came to our attention that these numbers were higher, we dealt with it," he said.
The treasurer, a job mandated by state law, is responsible for signing off on monthly cash-flow statements and duplicating some of the books kept by the district's business office. While the position was conceived as a check and balance, some education officials, including the head of the New Jersey Association of School Business Officials, say current accounting and audit practices have rendered the job largely a formality.
The job will continue to be held by Frank Berardo, the tax collector and chief financial officer for the borough, albeit at the reduced rate, said Superintendent Michael Romagnino.
Berardo, who could not be reached for comment, has held the job since 1986, when he was paid $5,500 per year. Over the next 20 years Berardo received regular raises of between $500 and $3,000 to reach his current level. He has been paid at least $25,000 each of the past five years.
Former board President Martin Murtagh has said that the board had typically approved raises on the recommendation of the superintendent, and that board members had assumed the raises were routine cost-of-living increases.
The adjustment is one of a number of changes the district has made after the discovery of financial malfeasance involving ex-Superintendent Robert Paladino.
In April, Paladino was sentenced to three years' probation and forced to resign after pleading guilty to funneling more than $110,000 to two borough clerks, as well as taking more than $26,000 in unapproved business meals at two eateries.
Since the scandal broke, the district has hired a separate a business administrator, a post formerly combined with the superintendent's job. The district has also reined in the number and cost of special student award dinners, which used to include tens of thousands of dollars in free meals for district employees and parents.
Tortora said the board has been tightening accounting measures and scrutinizing other salaries. He said he does not believe there are any other salaries that are out of line.
"As part of an overall review we've been looking at everything we can look at. Most salaries are dictated by salary guides. There is only so much you can look at. But we are looking where we can look," he said.
Making the cut - Editorial
Thursday, June 28, 2007
THE RECORD EDITORIALIT'S ONE small step for Cliffside Park and one large step toward fiscal accountability. The school board is reducing its part-time treasurer's salary by 75 percent.
Frank Berardo, who also is chief financial officer and tax collector for the borough, will see his salary as treasurer drop from $28,500 to $7,000. The salary cut is a result of The Record's reporting this spring that 12 districts with comparable student enrollments pay an average of $6,265 annually for the same job.
The cut in salary also comes in the wake of ex-Superintendent Robert Paladino's criminal conviction for channeling $110,000 to two borough clerks, and by spending more than $26,000 on unapproved meals. Paladino resigned and was sentenced to three years' probation.
Following the Paladino scandal, the school district is looking to rein in expenses and is committed to running a tighter, more accountable ship. That's all to the benefit of Cliffside Park taxpayers. Berardo's salary creep occurred over a 20-year period. A part-time employee should be eligible for increases when justified, but those increases cannot transform a $7,000 job into a nearly $30,000 job.
The salary cut is not a reflection on Berardo's performance; it is simply a reality check. It should not take The Record or a criminal indictment of a school superintendent to get school boards to take hard looks at salaries and expenditures.
School board President Frank Tortora told The Record that most salaries are set by salary guides. "But we are looking where we can look," he said. That's a start. More New Jersey school districts should begin the same search.
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