Joseph Zarra- Paid big bucks to NOT do his job
I often read newspaper articles where Bergen
County Superintendent Joseph Zarra doesn’t respond to reporters for
comment regarding very serious education matters. Another example can be found in today’s Record
about Lyndhurst.
Long before Zarra was doing this in Bergen County, he
was doing the same in Essex County.
Below is one example from 2014. Joseph Zarra hired DiVincenzo’s son to a
$92,528 DOE position without posting the position (advertising the position is
a requirement under the union contract).
Link to article:
From the 2014 article:
“DiVincenzo
and Interim Essex County Superintendent Joseph Zarra did not return a phone
call seeking comment, while Christie spokesman Michael Drewniak declined to
comment.”
And,
“There is this sort of overarching constitutional requirement that all positions be filled based on merit and fitness by exam to the extent possible. The way they deal with that is they say ‘we do fill positions that way to the extent possible,'” Weissman said. “If you’re going to fill a position with merit and fitness how do you do that without having a competitive pool of candidates? I don’t know how you don’t advertise positions.”
And,
“There is this sort of overarching constitutional requirement that all positions be filled based on merit and fitness by exam to the extent possible. The way they deal with that is they say ‘we do fill positions that way to the extent possible,'” Weissman said. “If you’re going to fill a position with merit and fitness how do you do that without having a competitive pool of candidates? I don’t know how you don’t advertise positions.”
Joseph Zarra, from Nutley, has close ties to Essex County Executive
Joseph DiVincenzo. DiVincenzo, a
Democrat, was a big ally to former Republican Governor Chris Christie and was rewarded
accordingly. Chris Christie protected
DiVincenzo for years from an ELEC complaint.
Chris Christie also appointed Joseph Zarra.
After Joseph Zarra signed Frank Quatrone’s contract,
he clearly stated that he never reviewed the contract to see if the proposed
payout for sick and vacation days was compliant with the law. Mr. Zarra did not seem at all familiar with
the contract or state statutes.
Joseph
Zarra clearly is not doing his job. Yet he is collecting a big public pension and
a big public salary.
From a 2016 story:
“•
Joseph Zarra, $209,735 – $114,800 as interim county superintendent in Essex
County; $92,849 as retired Nutley schools superintendent.”
