“Let me help you pack.” That’s what Gov. Chris Christie told one of the state’s top administrators when that administrator commented publicly that he could leave New Jersey and go to another state if his $242,000 total compensation were to be capped under the governor’s proposed rule.
Earlier in the day Christie discussed the Parsippany Board and Seitz at a town hall meeting in Toms River. “Let me tell you about the new poster boy for all that’s wrong with the public school system that is being dictated by greed,” the governor told the audience. “This contract is the definition of greed and arrogance. I’m going to be speaking out loudly and clearly every day I can about Lee Seitz. If Lee Seitz wants to try to put his greed and his arrogance ahead of the taxpayers of New Jersey, you elected me to stand up to people like Lee Seitz and others across the state and I will.”
The day before the meeting Seitz is quoted in the Daily Record as saying, “Because of the proposed salary caps, I have to look at my future and the financial welfare of my family. I certainly would have options if I didn’t feel the compensation in this district, or New Jersey, is appropriate.”
The governor reacted to Seitz’s veiled threats to leave New Jersey and go to a nearby state where there is no state salary. “I will say in response to Mr. Seitz, ‘Let me help you pack.’ We have real problems in our state that we have to fix and we don’t have the time, nor the money, nor the patience any longer for people who put themselves before our citizens,” Christie railed.
Watch video of the governor here.
Amen. Mr. Seitz probably thinks he will have the people on his side. In fact, I bet most of the folks in Parsippany didn't even know the guy makes $242,000 a year. And now that they do, they probably think that is more than enough and he could certainly use to have his salary capped.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSo far, Christie has shown no new ideas, no deep insight into problems, proposed no new methods, and generally said and done only what thousands would do if given the office (and Woodrow Wilson, specifically).
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseHe has yet to accomplish anything of substance by these rather obvious tactics; he may yet be successful.
He has, however, revealed something of his nature that will become more obvious and more important as his career progresses: he's a bully.
In my experience, large, loud men with money and political power tend to behave in just this fashion: when flanked by State Troopers and his staff, he boldly confronts middle-aged women - not quite John Wayne at the Alamo.
lee seitz is NOT a state administrator. he is the superintendent of a school district. gov. christie is reaching on this one. as conservatives we should not be supporting the state dictating to local school boards what they can pay their employees. that is certainly no better than the feds doing the same to the state. the governor has been right about a lot of things but the state should let the local citizens decide what to pay their officials.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseCan't wait to hear what he comes up with as he's cutting a check for 270+ million taypayer dollars to the Fed to pay for his grandstanding.
What a funny guy.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNow, I happen to think that my fellow conservatives have been going a bit overboard lately attacking public employees themselves rather than just the unnecessary and bloated public programs themselves. I've worked for state government most of my career and have known many excellent, highly qualified, and frankly underpaid government employees (I also know, of course, a lot of idiotic and incompetent ones, who would be overpaid even at 5 cents an hour). So I think that on the one hand, Seitz is correct as a matter of principle; cutting or capping salaries could well reduce the quality of applicants attracted to such jobs and could cause the state to lose its best employees.
BUT those claims are regularly made in ANY workplace, public or private. It is entirely appropriate for the boss to test those claims periodically, by inviting arrogant employees who think the grass would be much greener in some other pasture to not let the door hit them where the good Lord split them.
We have the same problem with CEOs in the country. Nobody on the boards of directors is putting any serious downward pressure on executive salaries, because they have no real interest in doing so. The amount paid to top executives in any large organization, while large to an individual, is normally a very, very small percentage of the overall budget. Cutting salaries at that level back by 10%, say, may find enough money to save $100 per employee per year, a relatively insignificant amount. And the CEOs and such are quite willing to threaten to leave, causing turmoil in the corporation. So the boards, not having their own money at stake, never push the confrontation, and salaries spiral ever upwards.
So, while I agree with Seitz in principle, I'm all in favor of Christie, as a good boss, pushing back on his claims as they apply to him personally.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI'm sure there's a drawback to Christie for President but I have yet to see any...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI generally like Christie, but his attack on this guy is out of bounds. The fact is, Christie doesn't know this guy, or how hard he works, or how much he's improved the schools under his direction. Christie is just looking at this guy's salary and concluding that it's too high. He's free to draw that conclusion (arbitrary though it is), but the gleeful pleasure he's taking in publicly running this guy out of town is totally inappropriate.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseWhat the heck is wrong with the posters here? Christie and New Jersey are facing a very serious problem (the rest of us are, too). Keeping it impersonal has not worked in the past because the unions have no problem in making it personal. I applaud Christie for using any means necessary to make New Jersey work for the taxpayers, not vice versa. Mr. Seitz thinks he's fairly paid. Maybe so, but the next guy in line would probably like a crack at that job for 20% less money. Why shouldn't his employer, the New Jersey taxpayer, consider that option? In the real world, you constantly have to look over your shoulder for people who can price you out of your job. Why should government employees be immune from the same pressures the rest of us face, especially since their results are so lousy?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseLocal school boards are free to pay their administrators whatever they like, and Christie would have nothing to say about it if the boards of education didn't expect-- make that demand--handouts from the state and the feds.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseJust to be clear, Seitz received a large raise as part of a contract extension designed to dodge the cap rules. This is going on across the state, as boards are trying to direct as much money as possible to administrators in an effort to undermine the governor.
That sort of behavior is completely and utterly indefensible.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis is not bullying. Bullying is telling 8 year-olds that they won't have recess anymore if Mommy and Daddy don't vote for the proposed school budget.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"I'm sure there's a drawback to Christie for President but I have yet to see any..."
You mean you don't know that he is pro-Obamacare, pro-Cap & Trade and soft on illegal immigration?
Try asking conservatives in Nj what they think of Christie. Or just read here, for example:
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Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseI couldn't find the NJ Sec Ed's salary, but it's probably $141,000 or thereabouts judging from the listed salaries of fine top NJ officeholders.
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Seitz shouldn't be making 100K more than his boss.
I have a pickup truck. If I lived in Trenton, I'd help him move after he packs.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt bothers me, just a little, that Christie is getting personal but, geez, nothing else seems to work. No matter how dire the situation (NY, CA), the bureaucracy wants more, more, more.
If Mr. Seitz can earn more somewhere else then he should go for it. If the school board wants independence setting salaries then it has to stop relying on state funds with attached strings.
Government workers are, at some point, going to have to rejoin the reality the rest of us live. (Yes, yes, there useful, necessary, and hard-working government employees.)
The salary scheme the governor describes sounds like the wage inflation the precedes a government worker's retirement that further increases the unsustainable pension entitlement.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservative New Jersey? An organization started by 4 guys in a bar in Morristown less than 3 months ago.
Not saying they're not legitimate, but I'll withhold judgment for now.
I'll wait and see what Christie actually does...the jury's still out, but so far I like what I hear.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseConservative New Jersey? An organization started by 4 guys in a bar in Morristown less than 3 months ago.
Not saying they're not legitimate, but I'll withhold judgment for now.
I'll wait and see what Christie actually does...the jury's still out, but so far I like what I hear.
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