Friday, February 1, 2008

Is Jim Fazzone, Mayor Burlington City Working for Edgewater Park Schools?

According to sources in Burlington City Hall, Mayor Jim Fazzone is in the Burlington City Hall all day, every day. My question is, if Jim is in the Burlington City Hall all day, are the Edgewater Park Taxpayers paying Dr. James Fazzone a salary as Director Tuition Program for Edgewater Park Schools?

Could a deal have been made for Jim Fazzone to hire John Alexander (member of the Edgewater Park School Bd.) as his Director of Public Affairs (see link above for story). Didn't Jim and John go to school together? Wasn't John Alexander a School Bd Member when the School Bd hired Jim Fazzone as the Director Tuition Program for Edgewater park Schools?

Inquiring minds want to know.
I have a correction to make and it is good news for EP taxpayers. 
I received an E-mail from a person who wishes to remain anonymous because they work for the School District, that Jim no longer works for the EP School District. This information will be updated with the date that Jim left the district, when confirmed. 

This still doesn't erase the fact that Jim worked for our school district and was hired by the School Bd with the following members, John Alexander (Democratic District 1 Committeeman & hired by Jim Fazzone), Karen Daly (Committeeman Daly's wife), Susan Strasser (Democratic District 2 Committeewoman), Lester Holley (Democratic District 5 Committeeman) and Matt Coyle (Democratic District 6 Committeeman). I may be wrong about Karen Daly being a School Bd Member when Jim was hired, and if so, Karen Daly replaced Donna Atzert on the School Bd when Donna was elected to Township Committee. Donna Atzert (Democratic District 2 Committeewoman) brother Darren, was on Township Committee at the time of Jim Fazzone's hiring. 

Please comment if you have any additional information on this subject.

The Edgewater Park Reporter

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow, no wonder my taxes are so high!

Director of Tuition what???
More like director of paycheck shell games... must be nice to be well connected with the democrats here in Edgewater Park.

Too bad this taxpayer foots the bill. Throw these wheeler dealers out!

Anonymous said...

Seems Dr. Fazzone has so many government jobs he even teaches college courses for Central Michigan University. This guy is everywhere! Where might he take Jim next?

http://www.cel.cmich.edu/sisprint/fcprint/syllabusviewer.aspx?crn=22033178&term=20081&page1=webdit

averagejoe said...

Does Edgewater Park schools have a tuition program? Hmmmm!

Anonymous said...

I am really enjoying this blog. I especially like the question concerning Ms. Dougherty. I would love to know why she needs such a large office staff knowing that the township isn't any larger than it was ten years ago. Perhaps she needs all those people to do a large portion of her work. I wish someone would get a handle on this.
Hopefully through this blog people will start asking questions and we will get some answers! I will stay tuned.

Anonymous said...

More to the story:

After reading Dr. Fazzone’s Academic Bio on his course page he left out the fact that he was employed by Edgewater Park BOE in 2007. Why would he leave such a detail out?


Academic Biography:
Dr. James A. Fazzone retired as an elementary school principal from the Hamilton Township (New Jersey) School
District on August 1, 2004. He served in Hamilton as a teacher and administrator for 27 years. He was a member
of the Burlington City Board of Education for 16 years where he served as president for 4 years. He recently served
as an elementary principal in the Burlington City School District in an interim basis, for a perieod of 2 years. He is
currently an Adjunct Professor for Holy Family University where he has served for the past 4 years. Dr. Fazzone
has served as a councilman in the City of Burlington for the past 3 years and is currently Mayor Elect of the City of
Burlington. He will take office on January 1, 2008. James Fazzone recieved a Doctor of Education from Nova
Southeastern University in August of 2000.



Could there be another connection between Burlington and CMU? You figure it out look at the last names carefully.



http://www.cel.cmich.edu/mcguire/default.html?site=MGUIR

http://www.burlingtonnj.us/Finance.html

Anonymous said...

Edgewater Park has a real three ring circus going on.

Anonymous said...

In response to EP Resident maybe our township administrator needs such a large staff to do her work while she is busy out of the office running her other family business in Burlington.

Anonymous said...

Interested in knowing why some board members were not listed.

Is it because they are republican?

Mr. Geres, Mr. Nottigan, Mr. Jacobs they are missing.

How did they vote on Mr. Fazzone?

Hat's off to republican effort here!

Problem though, once everyone see's it for what it is, the creditability is lost.............

It's all about creditability.....

keep it going, makes for a great source of rebuttle (literature) in the up-coming election!

Please say hi to Carol,Bob and Mr. R for me.

Anonymous said...

truthangle,
Dr. Geres, Mr. Notigan and Mr. Jacobs are not active in Edgewater Park politics.
Nice try, but they nor their family members are part of the small clique of people running this town. In fact the small clique have removed from the Planning Bd, Environmental Committee, Sewerage Authority, Recreation Committee and Mayor's Advisory Committee any Democrats that opposed the plans being pushed by the Administrator and Township Committee. Some of the people that were replaced were even appointed by the Clique to those Boards and Committees. Just check the record of appointments for the last several years, but of course you know this.
I hope the Edgewater Park Reporter does a story on this small group of people that have been running the town since 2003.
The only time the Clique lost control, was when two of their fellow Democrats and Township Committee members, Carol and Maureen (elected 2000) were so upset about being told how to vote and to be good girls and go along with Tom's, Jim's and Darren's decisions.

Carol and Maureen knew that if they went along and were good girls, their campaign issues would be ignored by the Boys (tom, Jim & Darren).

Carol and Maureen were shunned by the Democratic Party Clique when they wouldn't go along and support items they felt would adversely effect EP.

Carol and Maureen were left with no alternative but to switch parties and become Republicans. They felt that this was the only way that they could do the job that the voters elected them to do. The campaign issues they ran on were, opening up local government to include a more diverse make-up of residents on the Township Boards, To do a better job of growth planning for EP, and better job controlling the Municipal Budget and taxes.

This is an example of why the present Democratic Clique and Administrator tolerate no one disagreeing with them and replace anyone who does.

Anonymous said...

I have a poll idea,
Check the persons name you think is truthangle.
Judy Hall
Donna Atzert
Jim Daly
Tom Pullion
Linda Dougherty
Bonnie Phillips
John Alexander

Anonymous said...

Check on the EP website and see how many of the same names appear on all the different committees. Also, the spouses and/or relatives (even neighbors)on such committees that have been appointed by Twp. Committee. Our town is being controlled almost as if "Dictated" should be the correct word. And how is it that as a first year appointee, you become the chairperson of that committee?

Anonymous said...

Here is a good question for the Edgewater Park Reporter:

Why is it that Edgewater Park seems to be one of the only towns along the Route 130 corridor that is not taking advantage of the Route 130 revitalization? Could it be our current administrator and town council holding us back or are there other reasons? I drive down 130 everyday and see all the improvements and change taking place from as far south as Cinnaminson to as far North as Hamilton. It's amazing what has come into Willingboro and what has been done with Delran and Cinnaminson.

Instead of our administrator worrying about upgrading the township building maybe they should be worrying about how to improve the quality of life in Edgewater Park. Edgewater Park needs to focus on getting more businesses into town along the 130 corridor to help with the tax rateables.

Anonymous said...

After reading this blog, I sent a blog link to the people that have attended the Edgewater Park Republican Club meetings over the past three years.
I hope that you will pass this link on to your friends and neighbors for them to read.
For the past 8 years, I have been very disappointed with the Burlington County Times and other local papers in the way they have been reporting our local news. You hardly ever see a reporter at meetings and the stories that do appear, seem to be press releases from the township government. I am not aware of a reporter that calls the opposition to get their point of view, and place that point into a story. I can see the need for this type of communication that allows voters all information they need when voting for a public official.
I was fortunate too have served on township committees that were controlled by republicans and democrats. I never recall such a small group of people controlling all aspects of our local government, nor do I recall such secrecy with closed meetings. While I differed many times, with my fellow democratic/republican committee members and they with me, we always tried to keep the public included and informed.
The way you make good decisions in government, is by having open and engaging discussions with all points of view being expressed. How else can you know that you considered all sides of an issue. Having a debate on subjects is good and no one I know has all of the right answerers.
I wish I had the time and thought of this, but my congratulations to the edgewater park reporter and hope you keep it real.

R. Dovey
Edgewater Park Republican Chairman

alberts322 said...

FOR THE RECORD:
Dr. Fazzone was hired as the Interim, per diem, Administrator for the Edgewater Park School District Tuition Program, a self-supporting Special Education Program that serves many school districts within Burlington County.

Proceeds from this program are used to reduce local school taxes, pay for capital projects at the schools (i.e. replacing windows, doors and roofs) and provide excellent services to many children from Edgewater Park who would otherwise have to be transported out of town for their educational needs. The staff and services costs are not part of the tax levy residents vote on each April.

Chronology of Dr. Fazzone's employment in Edgewater Park:

April, 2007: Previous Interim Administrator for Tuition Program, John Bailey, informs the Superintendent he will not be returning in September, 2007.

April 2007: Search then begins for another Interim Administrator (Interim Administrators are retired School Administrators who are permitted to work in a school district for no more than two years. Their compensation for services is significantly less that that of an active administrator; no benefits are paid, and their experience is vast).

May 1, 2007: Dr. Fazzone applies for the position, and interview is conducted with Superintendent.

May 22, 2007, 5:45 PM: Superintendent makes recommendation to Personnel Committee. Interview conducted by personnel committee members with Dr. Fazzone and Mr. Matthew (who applied for the Interim position available at Ridgway Middle School, also effective for Sept, 2007).

May 22, 2007, 7:00 PM: Personnel Committee chairman, Mr. Jeff Jacobs, recommends Dr. Fazzone and Mr. Matthew for their respective positions. The entire Board of Education votes 9-0 in favor of hiring the two gentlemen. This recommendation and approval took place at the regular BOE meeting.

September 4, 2007: Dr. Fazzone assumes his responsibilities.

November 15, 2007: Dr. Fazzone informs the Superintendent he does not think it fair to either the school district or the city of Burlington to continue his employment with the Edgewater Park School District given his recent election as mayor of Burlington. The time requirements of both obligations would be too great. Dr. Fazzone resigns effective immediately.

I hope that this clarifies any misconceptions regarding Dr. Fazzone's employment in Edgewater Park.

Susan Strasser, President Edgewater Park BOE

Anonymous said...

Isn't Susan Strasser a member of the Edgewater Park Democratic Committee. I saw her name on the EP Dems web site.

And I love when they say the progrem pays for itself. Who paid for the building, heat, lights, supplies, staff.

I still want to know how he can be in the Burlington City Hall during the time he was to have been working for Edgewater Park.

Did his good budy John Alexander vote or abstain to hire Dr. Fazzone? Dr. Fazzone did hire his friend, John Alexander to a new position in Burlington City. Are the taxes increasing in Burlington at the same rate as Edgewater Park?