Gary Kuehnapfel Jr. writes that Mayor Donald Guardian and North Jersey interests are blocking a solution.
To the Editor:
It seems like the (municipal financial distress) in Atlantic City just keeps dragging on. When is there going to be a final consensus among our leaders that something must be done?
Mayor Donald Guardian knew that his city was a mess when he took office and, two years later, nothing has been fixed. Now, (in supporting rescue legislation backed by Assembly Speaker Vicent Prieto), Guardian wants another two years to give some things a try? More time is not a solution, and taxpayers outside of Atlantic City shouldn't pay for his failures.
I believe we need to support Senate President Stephen Sweeney's competing Atlantic City rescue legislation. We must fix Atlantic City's government once and for all and move on. The people of Atlantic City deserve better than political games from people in the northern part of the state who seem more interested in pushing a political agenda than solving the problem.
Sweeney has been the only one looking to fix Atlantic City from the beginning, and I think his state-takeover proposal is the best one, and should be advanced. Taxpayers throughout New Jersey just cannot afford to subsidize Atlantic City's government.
Gary Kuehnapfel Jr.
West Deptford Township
Editor's note: Recent reports indicate that state Assembly and Senate leaders have reached a tentative compromise on Atlantic City legislation, but no deal has been announced.
At DRPA, it's who you know
To the Editor:
The Delaware River Port Authority has finally approved so-called raises for its unionized workers, amounting to 1.9 percent a year, after several years of working without contracts.
The DRPA board also voted to "adjust upward" CEO John Hanson's compensation by 20 percent over his salary when he took the job two years ago. But the board doesn't want to call it a "raise"; it's just a $40,000 "atta boy." (Board members claim the just-approved $219,000 salary goes with the CEO title, and that Hanson did not get an increase when promoted in 2014.)
Going along to get along is a financially advantageous strategy in the DRPA boardroom. It provided the previous CEO, John Matheussen, with a New Jersey Superior Court judgeship, even though he hadn't practiced law in a decade.
Who you know is still much more important than what you know -- especially if you've demonstrated a willingness to accommodate the power brokers.
Carol Rhodes
Barnsboro
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