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An audit report released Wednesday by the Office of the State Comptroller found the Borough of Keansburg gave what it described as excessive benefits to its employees, including 11 weeks of vacation to the police chief in 2018.
“Keansburg’s police chief was granted vacation leave on the taxpayer’s dime for more than 20% of the work year,” acting State Comptroller Kevin D. Walsh said. “Eleven weeks of vacation is unreasonable and wasteful. Most New Jerseyans are lucky to get a few weeks of vacation each year.
Walsh added, Giving a public employee who is paid $208,000 per year 11 weeks of vacation in addition to paid holidays, sick leave and compensatory time isn’t illegal, but it should be. The Legislature possesses the power to stop this sort of waste and abuse and has used it in the past to protect taxpayers. In the absence of legislative changes, these sorts of outrageous abuses will continue.”
Police chief got 11 weeks vacation, other cops, employees got ‘excessive’ payouts, audit says
Updated May 06, 2021;
Posted May 05, 2021
Keansburg Borough Hall, once a bank building that was given to the municipality.Steve Strunsky | NJ Advance Media
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Keansburg, a small, blue-collar Monmouth County town on Raritan Bay, came under sharp criticism by the state comptroller Wednesday for paying out hundreds of thousands of dollars in “excessive benefits” to its employees.
Those benefits included 11 weeks of vacation time to a former police chief, who was not named in the report.
Some employees were provided with compensatory time that could be sold back, while the borough paid out a total of $451,000 in so-called longevity payments in 2017 and 2018 essentially a yearly bonus for length of service the comptroller found in its 20-page audit.
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Leslie Anderson
Anderson is the president and chief executive officer of the New Jersey Redevelopment Authority the first and only African-American woman in the nation to lead an independent redevelopment financing agency, and thanks to her effectiveness she has been reappointed to this position by four consecutive governors. Since Anderson took over more than a decade ago, the authority has leveraged nearly $4 billion in new investments – including about $500 million in direct investments – in some of the state’s most economically distressed communities. That funding has been vital to redevelopment efforts around New Jersey, with the authority claiming credit for 15,000 new housing units and more than 10 million square feet of commercial and retail space. And the authority is now poised to play a significant role in the Opportunity Zone program. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, NJRA created the Small Business Lease-Emergency Assistance Grant Program
A new law in N.J. put an end to surprise medical bills for patients, but doctors win in most cases, study says
Updated Jan 10, 2021;
A landmark state law aimed at preventing thousands of patients from receiving surprise medical bills from out-of-network doctors and hospitals is a consumer success but does not save insurance companies as much money as they had hoped, according to a new study.
The 2018 law created an arbitration system for medical providers and insurance carriers fighting over who should pay for out-of-network treatment. An independent arbitrator may consider the work of the physician, the seriousness of the procedure and other factors, but ultimately must choose between either the bill from the medical provider or the amount the insurance carrier is offering to pay.