People who live in towns like ours don't like "surprise decisions." You need a manager in place to run a town with a $61 million budget. Yet Teaneck just fired its manager without good cause ("her management style") and will hire consultants to find a new one BY JULY 1 - SIX MONTHS FROM NOW!. But wait, maybe they first should hire consulting consultants to find the right consultants.
Consultants? Is that one of the council's "new Ideas"?
Ever heard of classified ads? Craigs' List?
Teaneck fires township manager
BY JOSEPH AX
TEANECK — The town will begin its budget process tonight, less than 48 hours after a split council voted to fire Township Manager Helene Fall in a surprise decision.
Mayor Kevie Feit said the council will be able to handle the budget without its architect, Fall, and would work hard to reduce its size. Fall's proposed $61.9 million budget includes a 6.2 percent increase in spending.
Meanwhile, Feit said he hopes to select a new manager no later than July 1. Officials may hire an outside consultant to help conduct a search for qualified candidates.
Fall was dismissed late on Tuesday night after a lengthy closed-door discussion...
The resolution to fire Fall focused on her management style, calling her "unwilling" to try new ideas.
She will be suspended with pay for 30 days until her official date of dismissal and then paid three months of her $170,976 salary...
The lawsuits were part of Tuesday's talks, Feit acknowledged...
"What I've been most impressed with is her level of integrity and knowledge that the town will be hard-pressed to replace," Gussen said Tuesday...
You are way off base on this. She should have been fired years ago. She was the most backward looking person I ever dealt with. She never listened to anyone. She hated computers and always pointed to the picture of her predecessor on the wall and said, "If it was good enough for him to do it that way [in the last century] it is good enough for me."
ReplyDeleteShe was told by the Council two and a half years ago to bring in a zero tax increase budget to work from and she brought in an 8 % budget. Same thing last year. This year she proposed a 6% budget
increase.
She gave the Fire Department a multi-year contract with 4% per annum increases as the Recession was taking hold.
Numerous suits were brought by uniformed workers and lost on her watch and none of the guilty perpetrators were fired.
There are lots of very qualified people out on the street looking for work (and having trouble paying their high Teaneck taxes as well as other expenses). She will be easily replaced and improved upon.
Her hubristic chutzpah led to her downfall.