Letter To The Editor: Law Should Allow Unpaid Suspensions

To the Editor:

On May 7th Walter Uszenski, Superintendent for Brick schools, was arrested. He faces charges of theft by deception and official misconduct for improperly arranging daycare and transportation for his granddaughter bilking taxpayers for more than $40,000.

That evening an emergency Board Of Education (BOE) meeting was called to discuss the disposition of Uzenski. I attended the BOE meeting and was shocked to find out because of current law, Uzenski will continue to receive his full salary and benefits while he is suspended. BOE members Mike Conti and Frank Pannucci were extremely vocal about not paying him a dime. When it was time to cast a vote to suspend Uzenski, Conti and Pannucci voted on the measure with prejudice, contending that he should have been suspended without pay.

Public officials, especially ones in charge of our children, should be held to a higher standard. In the private sector, many enterprises utilize “a,t-will employment agreements,” which provide management greater flexibility when dealing with conduct or performance issues. School boards need to have something similar in place so they have the ability to remove officials without pay and without benefits.

I’m part of the Republican Team of Pannucci, Toth, Conti, & Bacon running for council and we’re not waiting for the adjudication of the charges against Uszenski. We have already contacted our state officials to introduce new legislation to address this egregious issue.

Within the next few weeks Pannucci and Conti will be initiating additional steps through the school board to make sure something like this never happens again in our town.

Respectively yours,

Charlie Bacon
Concerned Brick citizen