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Published in the Herald News, Thursday, September 7, 2006
Cops' off-duty work at risk
By CRISTIAN SALAZAR
HERALD NEWS
PATERSON -- When not on duty, Paterson police officers can be seen in uniform working security at McDonald's or local banks, patrolling the halls of public schools or manning gates at housing developments.
For some of the lowest-paid police officers, these off-duty jobs can help them to pay for mortgages, rent, groceries or gas, according to the city's police unions.
But police officers may lose some of this off-duty work, the unions said Wednesday, now that the city has taken over administration of the jobs. Beginning Sept. 1, the city began charging $5 per hour to cover administrative expenses. Officers will no longer be paid directly by businesses – instead, the city will pay them from money collected from employers before the work is done and held in escrow accounts.
The fees and escrow account requirements were established by city ordinance in late May.
Employers of off-duty police officers, such as Paterson's public schools, expressed concern that they would not be able to pay money into the escrow accounts by Sept. 1 or could not afford the increased fees.
The district used to hire 26 police officers, with one working part time. Now, it has cut back to 22 full-time officers and one part-timer, said James Smith, a retired Paterson Police captain who is now executive director for school safety.
"It was a result of the city raising the rate by $5," he said Wednesday. Instead, the district will be using increased video surveillance and redeploying police officers throughout the schools to make up for the cuts, he said.
The city has waived the escrow account requirement for the district, Smith said. "If they had gone with the escrow account, the money would have been too much for us."
The Paterson Parking Authority, which sometimes hires off-duty police officers to guard its lots, has not yet decided whether to continue the practice.
"We are aware of the ordinance," said Robert Rosenberg, general counsel for the authority. "And we have not had the opportunity to discuss it."
Steve Olimpio, president of the Paterson chapter of the Patrolmen's Benevolent Association, said that last week the police unions took their concerns about the escrow accounts to Mayor Jose "Joey" Torres, who agreed to waive them until Oct. 1.
"I had to go and meet with every person who has a contract with us and tell them to get on board," Olimpio said. "I can't blame them, because this was shoved down their throat."
He said that most of the 30 to 35 businesses that hire off-duty officers came back on after his efforts.
Torres said the city had no choice but to take over administration of the off-duty jobs because of a directive from the state Attorney General's Office in the late 1990s that made it a requirement.
"We're probably the only police department of our size that has not adhered to the ruling," he said Wednesday in a phone interview.
The $5 administrative fee is necessary to cover the costs of payroll, bookkeeping and insurance, he said. "If they get sued for moonlighting, the city is responsible," he said.
The escrow account is also needed to assure that the money is in the city's coffers when payroll issues checks, Torres said. He compared it to a renter putting down a security deposit on an apartment. "They got to ensure that the money is in the bank when they are paying the officer," he said. "And that is the issue."
Torres said he didn't think the increased fees or escrow accounts would deter businesses substantially from hiring off-duty police officers.
"(The police unions) just don't like that they have to be accountable to somebody now," he said.
Olimpio agreed that the process of how off-duty work was paid has not always been transparent – even to him. "Some guys got extra," he said. "The way it worked before – a lot of stuff was grandfathered in."
Second Ward Councilman Aslon Goow, who is also on the public safety committee and voted for the ordinance that established the escrow accounts, said they were a concern.
"I don't think the vendors that they will be doing business with will pony up for an escrow account," he said.
Reach Cristian Salazar at 973-569-7165 or salazarc@northjersey.com
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Thursday, September 07, 2006
House tour - Courier - Tour Sunday, September 10
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Published in the Courier News, Thursday, September 7, 2006
(Photo, Courier News)
Nothing plain about it
A self-guided tour visits 11 historic homes in Plainfield this Sunday
By LIZA JAIPAUL
Correspondent
You can't travel back in time -- but you can come close this weekend in Plainfield. The first Plainfield Open House Tour is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The self-guided tour features 11 homes -- in all six of the city's residential historic districts -- plus the Society of Friends Meeting House.
"It's like walking through the centuries as you tour these houses," said Victor Quinn, Plainfield House Tour committeeman.
The idea for the tour came to Quinn after attending a house tour in Paterson last year.
"I'd like people to understand how beautiful Plainfield is, and how historic it is," Quinn said. "I believe we have more historic structures than any city in New Jersey, even Cape May. I want people to come away thinking, 'Wow, this is Plainfield.' "
Apparently, many people agree with Quinn. Although he wasn't sure how willing people would be to participate in the tour -- much less offer their houses for display -- he had an overwhelmingly positive response.
"We are showcasing the architectural heritage of our city and the commitment of all of our citizens to putting their best foot forward, thereby improving the quality of all of our lives," said Rashid Burney, a Plainfield city councilman who owns one of the houses on the tour.
This is the first time since Plainfield's first historic district was formed in the late 1970s that there will be a house tour featuring homes from all of the residential historic districts.
The criteria for a house to be included is that it is tour-ready, will show well, be of the age of the district and have some architectural significance. To get ready for the tour, homeowners did "all those little things that you ignore, and suddenly you say, 'I have to do these things,' " Quinn said. For example, people painted and put wallpaper up, plus other finishing touches, he said.
Cedar Brook Farm, the oldest home on the tour, and the oldest home in Plainfield, was built in 1717 by William Webster. The beamed ceilings in the room, the wide-open fireplace hearth and beehive oven take you back to yesteryear.
The house was expanded in 1750 from a farmhouse to a Georgian-style home with a more formal Colonial floor plan. Like many older homes, it has been expanded over the years, with various rooms added.
Other homes on the tour represent a variety of architecture and time periods, to include a 1929 Norman French Revival home, a 1927 Tudor-style home, two Colonial Revival mansions, a 1925 English Tudor, a 1913 Tudor Revival home, an early 20th-century Edwardian home, an English Arts and Crafts-style home from 1906 and two Victorian-style homes built in the 1800s.
Of particular interest on the tour is the Quaker Meeting House at 225 Watchung Ave. It was built in 1788 and has been used as a religious facility continuously since then. It features a clapboard exterior and has the original woodwork. The original pews are still intact as well, with each one slightly different, as they were built to the proportions of the various members.
"This is truly a monument to the care and craftsmanship of a bygone era and appropriately completes this tour of the rich heritage of the most historic city in New Jersey," said Quinn of the Meeting House, the last stop on the tour.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in the Courier News, Thursday, September 7, 2006
(Photo, Courier News)
Nothing plain about it
A self-guided tour visits 11 historic homes in Plainfield this Sunday
By LIZA JAIPAUL
Correspondent
You can't travel back in time -- but you can come close this weekend in Plainfield. The first Plainfield Open House Tour is 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday. The self-guided tour features 11 homes -- in all six of the city's residential historic districts -- plus the Society of Friends Meeting House.
"It's like walking through the centuries as you tour these houses," said Victor Quinn, Plainfield House Tour committeeman.
The idea for the tour came to Quinn after attending a house tour in Paterson last year.
"I'd like people to understand how beautiful Plainfield is, and how historic it is," Quinn said. "I believe we have more historic structures than any city in New Jersey, even Cape May. I want people to come away thinking, 'Wow, this is Plainfield.' "
Apparently, many people agree with Quinn. Although he wasn't sure how willing people would be to participate in the tour -- much less offer their houses for display -- he had an overwhelmingly positive response.
"We are showcasing the architectural heritage of our city and the commitment of all of our citizens to putting their best foot forward, thereby improving the quality of all of our lives," said Rashid Burney, a Plainfield city councilman who owns one of the houses on the tour.
This is the first time since Plainfield's first historic district was formed in the late 1970s that there will be a house tour featuring homes from all of the residential historic districts.
The criteria for a house to be included is that it is tour-ready, will show well, be of the age of the district and have some architectural significance. To get ready for the tour, homeowners did "all those little things that you ignore, and suddenly you say, 'I have to do these things,' " Quinn said. For example, people painted and put wallpaper up, plus other finishing touches, he said.
Cedar Brook Farm, the oldest home on the tour, and the oldest home in Plainfield, was built in 1717 by William Webster. The beamed ceilings in the room, the wide-open fireplace hearth and beehive oven take you back to yesteryear.
The house was expanded in 1750 from a farmhouse to a Georgian-style home with a more formal Colonial floor plan. Like many older homes, it has been expanded over the years, with various rooms added.
Other homes on the tour represent a variety of architecture and time periods, to include a 1929 Norman French Revival home, a 1927 Tudor-style home, two Colonial Revival mansions, a 1925 English Tudor, a 1913 Tudor Revival home, an early 20th-century Edwardian home, an English Arts and Crafts-style home from 1906 and two Victorian-style homes built in the 1800s.
Of particular interest on the tour is the Quaker Meeting House at 225 Watchung Ave. It was built in 1788 and has been used as a religious facility continuously since then. It features a clapboard exterior and has the original woodwork. The original pews are still intact as well, with each one slightly different, as they were built to the proportions of the various members.
"This is truly a monument to the care and craftsmanship of a bygone era and appropriately completes this tour of the rich heritage of the most historic city in New Jersey," said Quinn of the Meeting House, the last stop on the tour.
IF YOU WANT TO GO
- WHAT: Plainfield Open House Tour (self-guided)
- WHERE: 11 homes in Plainfield's historic residential districts, plus the Society of Friends Meeting House
- WHEN: 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday
- HOW MUCH: Advance tickets are $20 at Swains Gallery, Watchung Avenue, Plainfield; Queen City Diner, South Avenue, Plainfield; Meeker's Florist, Westfield; Century 21, Park Avenue, Scotch Plains. Tickets sold Sunday are $25 at Netherwood Train Station, South Avenue, Plainfield, 10:30 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Wednesday, September 06, 2006
Union County Dems - Ledger - PAC treasurer admits theft
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Published in the Star Ledger, Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Ex-PAC treasurer admits he stole funds
Plea deal to net him probation, restitution
BY JIM O'NEILL
Star-Ledger Staff
The former treasurer of a political action committee supporting Democrats admitted yesterday he stole more than $53,000 from the organization to pay personal bills for his brother and himself.
Charles Betancourt, 29, of Garwood, said he took the funds from the Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Committee during a four-month period after the organization collected $130,000 in a fund-raising campaign in February 2005.
Betancourt admitted misappropriating the money, totaling $53,238, by writing checks and authorizing electronic transfers. He also said he falsified reports submitted to the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission to cover up the diversion of funds for his personal use.
Betancourt, who was facing up to eight years in prison if he had been convicted at trial, agreed to plead guilty during a hearing in the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.
In exchange, he will repay the stolen funds and will face a probationary term of up to five years when he is sentenced Nov. 3 in New Brunswick by Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa.
Executive Assistant Prosecutor Ronald Abramowitz said Betancourt pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception, misrepresentation of political contributions and filing false reports.
Abramowitz said Betancourt used the money to pay off a $25,000 car loan; paid $11,567 in personal loans from a bank and federal credit union, and paid $1,075 in delinquent credit card accounts from Macy's and HSBC Bank.
The prosecuting attorney said Betancourt also paid his brother's debts. Abramowitz said the brother was unaware the money had been stolen. He declined to identify the brother.
Authorities, who began investigating the political action committee last December, determined committee chairman James Devine had removed Betancourt as treasurer last October after reviewing committee bank records. Betancourt had been treasurer of the committee since its inception in 2001.
Devine is the owner of Devine Media, which publishes a chain of weekly newspapers circulating in Middlesex and Union counties.
Jim O'Neill covers the Middlesex County Courthouse. He may be reached at joneill@starledger.com or (732) 249-5670
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Star Ledger, Wednesday, September 6, 2006
Ex-PAC treasurer admits he stole funds
Plea deal to net him probation, restitution
BY JIM O'NEILL
Star-Ledger Staff
The former treasurer of a political action committee supporting Democrats admitted yesterday he stole more than $53,000 from the organization to pay personal bills for his brother and himself.
Charles Betancourt, 29, of Garwood, said he took the funds from the Central Jersey Democratic Leadership Committee during a four-month period after the organization collected $130,000 in a fund-raising campaign in February 2005.
Betancourt admitted misappropriating the money, totaling $53,238, by writing checks and authorizing electronic transfers. He also said he falsified reports submitted to the state's Election Law Enforcement Commission to cover up the diversion of funds for his personal use.
Betancourt, who was facing up to eight years in prison if he had been convicted at trial, agreed to plead guilty during a hearing in the Middlesex County Courthouse in New Brunswick.
In exchange, he will repay the stolen funds and will face a probationary term of up to five years when he is sentenced Nov. 3 in New Brunswick by Superior Court Judge Frederick DeVesa.
Executive Assistant Prosecutor Ronald Abramowitz said Betancourt pleaded guilty to charges of theft by deception, misrepresentation of political contributions and filing false reports.
Abramowitz said Betancourt used the money to pay off a $25,000 car loan; paid $11,567 in personal loans from a bank and federal credit union, and paid $1,075 in delinquent credit card accounts from Macy's and HSBC Bank.
The prosecuting attorney said Betancourt also paid his brother's debts. Abramowitz said the brother was unaware the money had been stolen. He declined to identify the brother.
Authorities, who began investigating the political action committee last December, determined committee chairman James Devine had removed Betancourt as treasurer last October after reviewing committee bank records. Betancourt had been treasurer of the committee since its inception in 2001.
Devine is the owner of Devine Media, which publishes a chain of weekly newspapers circulating in Middlesex and Union counties.
Jim O'Neill covers the Middlesex County Courthouse. He may be reached at joneill@starledger.com or (732) 249-5670
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Saturday, September 02, 2006
Media - Presstime Mag - Newspaper Inks
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Published in Presstime, August 2006
Ink: Oil or Soy?
By John Bryan
MOST PEOPLE IN the newspaper industry don’t think much about ink—other than when they get some on their shoes walking through the pressroom.
Back in the day, ink companies mixed a little lampblack in with kerosene, and pressroom foremen bought the concoction and threw it into the press. Today, however, the world of newspaper ink is increasingly complex—and expensive.
inkNewspapers want the blacker blacks they’re used to getting, but they also now have to contend with air quality, thinner newsprint, the gyrations of the global oil market, and the continuing demand from readers for ink that stays on the page, not on their hands.
As a result, the new trend favors soy. To understand why, you need to understand the manufacture of newspaper ink itself.
Oil-based ink—particularly black ink—is still king in the newspaper industry, but it’s made with a special kind of oil called naphthenic. In global oil terms, it’s a niche product, and niche products tend to come with their own sets of supply fluctuations.
“Most of our naphthenic comes from the North Sea,” says Norman Harbin, vice president for business and technical development of Flint Ink’s news ink division (www.flintgrp.com). “There used to be some coming out of Texas and California—there still is some in California—but the rest of it comes from either the North Sea or Venezuela.”
Beyond the relatively limited supply lies a larger problem: facilities to process it. Only three U.S. refineries—in Louisiana, Texas and Bakersfield, Calif.—are processing naphthenic oil, Harbin says, and the Louisiana site is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina last year. “We’re normally able to build up inventories to allow for shutdowns, but there aren’t any more refineries coming on line, and if anything goes wrong we have
a supply disruption.”
Refining shortfalls make that already-expensive naphthenic oil even more so. Those blacker blacks from oil-based inks are now getting pricey.
Worse yet, oil-based inks are rich in volatile organic compounds, or VOC. They love to take to the air and settle all over the place, including inside people. Many states have recently tightened their VOC requirements, creating a regulatory headache for many newspapers.
“Because of the things going on in Los Angeles with regard to air quality emissions, we needed to do something,” recalls Russ Christensen, operations project manager at the Los Angeles Times.
The Times switched from oil-based ink, which has a VOC content of about 14 percent, to soy-based ink, with a VOC content of 1 percent, in 1991. The paper has been 100 percent soy ink ever since, and it’s a good thing: The Times’ newsprint stock has gotten thinner—too thin to use oil-based inks without print-through or set-off problems, Christensen says.
“With soy, you can run a thinner film,” he adds, “and when you do that, you don’t have as much absorption into the paper. Any paper going to thinner newsprint is going to have to go to soy ink if you want to avoid quality problems.”
But soy ink is somewhat more expensive to make than its oil-based counterpart. Soy must be processed and thickened to work with black pigment, and that process costs money, says John R. Whalen, vice president of Kerley Ink (www.kerleyink.com).
Then, to keep the ink from rubbing off, resin must be added to make the pigment-laden soy stick to the paper and get absorbed by the fibers. Some ink manufacturers, Whalen observes, substitute clay, a cheaper additive, for resin.
However it’s done, the ink manufacturers agree that soy is the greasy wave of the future. What they don’t agree on is whether it’s ever going to be cheaper than oil-based inks, even if the soy-based black ink can be made to look as good.
“Soy oil prices remain higher than petroleum-based oils,” says Todd Wheeler, marketing manager for US Ink Corp. (www.usink.com). “Vegetable oils can and have been used as fuels, providing a floor for their pricing. Therefore, US Ink does not view soy oil as a way to insulate them from petroleum oil prices.”
But Flint’s Harbin, whose company is heavily invested in soy-based inks, says it’s not that cut and dry. “The United States is the Saudi Arabia of soy oil,” he says. “It’s used in the food industry and it’s in abundant supply.”
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in Presstime, August 2006
Ink: Oil or Soy?
By John Bryan
MOST PEOPLE IN the newspaper industry don’t think much about ink—other than when they get some on their shoes walking through the pressroom.
Back in the day, ink companies mixed a little lampblack in with kerosene, and pressroom foremen bought the concoction and threw it into the press. Today, however, the world of newspaper ink is increasingly complex—and expensive.
inkNewspapers want the blacker blacks they’re used to getting, but they also now have to contend with air quality, thinner newsprint, the gyrations of the global oil market, and the continuing demand from readers for ink that stays on the page, not on their hands.
As a result, the new trend favors soy. To understand why, you need to understand the manufacture of newspaper ink itself.
Oil-based ink—particularly black ink—is still king in the newspaper industry, but it’s made with a special kind of oil called naphthenic. In global oil terms, it’s a niche product, and niche products tend to come with their own sets of supply fluctuations.
“Most of our naphthenic comes from the North Sea,” says Norman Harbin, vice president for business and technical development of Flint Ink’s news ink division (www.flintgrp.com). “There used to be some coming out of Texas and California—there still is some in California—but the rest of it comes from either the North Sea or Venezuela.”
Beyond the relatively limited supply lies a larger problem: facilities to process it. Only three U.S. refineries—in Louisiana, Texas and Bakersfield, Calif.—are processing naphthenic oil, Harbin says, and the Louisiana site is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina last year. “We’re normally able to build up inventories to allow for shutdowns, but there aren’t any more refineries coming on line, and if anything goes wrong we have
a supply disruption.”
Refining shortfalls make that already-expensive naphthenic oil even more so. Those blacker blacks from oil-based inks are now getting pricey.
Worse yet, oil-based inks are rich in volatile organic compounds, or VOC. They love to take to the air and settle all over the place, including inside people. Many states have recently tightened their VOC requirements, creating a regulatory headache for many newspapers.
“Because of the things going on in Los Angeles with regard to air quality emissions, we needed to do something,” recalls Russ Christensen, operations project manager at the Los Angeles Times.
The Times switched from oil-based ink, which has a VOC content of about 14 percent, to soy-based ink, with a VOC content of 1 percent, in 1991. The paper has been 100 percent soy ink ever since, and it’s a good thing: The Times’ newsprint stock has gotten thinner—too thin to use oil-based inks without print-through or set-off problems, Christensen says.
“With soy, you can run a thinner film,” he adds, “and when you do that, you don’t have as much absorption into the paper. Any paper going to thinner newsprint is going to have to go to soy ink if you want to avoid quality problems.”
But soy ink is somewhat more expensive to make than its oil-based counterpart. Soy must be processed and thickened to work with black pigment, and that process costs money, says John R. Whalen, vice president of Kerley Ink (www.kerleyink.com).
Then, to keep the ink from rubbing off, resin must be added to make the pigment-laden soy stick to the paper and get absorbed by the fibers. Some ink manufacturers, Whalen observes, substitute clay, a cheaper additive, for resin.
However it’s done, the ink manufacturers agree that soy is the greasy wave of the future. What they don’t agree on is whether it’s ever going to be cheaper than oil-based inks, even if the soy-based black ink can be made to look as good.
“Soy oil prices remain higher than petroleum-based oils,” says Todd Wheeler, marketing manager for US Ink Corp. (www.usink.com). “Vegetable oils can and have been used as fuels, providing a floor for their pricing. Therefore, US Ink does not view soy oil as a way to insulate them from petroleum oil prices.”
But Flint’s Harbin, whose company is heavily invested in soy-based inks, says it’s not that cut and dry. “The United States is the Saudi Arabia of soy oil,” he says. “It’s used in the food industry and it’s in abundant supply.”
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Media - Presstime Mag - Ethnic outreach
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Published in Presstime, August 2006
Shared Interests
by A.S. Berman | Illustration by Dave Cutler
On June 2, as residents of San Antonio geared up for the quadrennial madness that is the World Cup soccer tournament, a new tabloid hit the area’s Latino grocery stores, restaurants and barber shops.
With 48 pages of predominantly sports-related news coverage in Spanish, the first issue of Cancha put the city’s Hispanic community—nearly 60 percent of San Antonio’s population—on notice that they had a new source for all the upcoming soccer action. It also offered the newspaper industry a new way to look at the foreign-language publication playing field.
While several papers throughout the country are producing their own Hispanic publications, Cancha is the result of a rare partnership between a U.S. newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, and a Mexican media company, Grupo Reforma.
Though unique in its reach across the border, the Cancha collaboration is only the most recent example of a partnership between a mainstream English-language newspaper and an ethnic publication. Whether it’s to enhance content, expand readership, or boost the bottom line through ad-revenue sharing or distribution agreements, such partnerships are slowly catching on at U.S. newspaper companies looking to make cost-effective inroads into new markets.
Borderline Success
In January, representatives of Grupo Reforma, Mexico’s largest newspaper company, approached the management of the San Antonio Express-News with the idea of repurposing content through a partnership. For years, the Mexican media company had been seeking a way to break into the United States’ growing Hispanic marketplace, much the way Univision and other Spanish-language media groups had managed to do with television.
The conglomerate couldn’t have made its pitch at a better time.
The Express-News, owned by The Hearst Corp. in New York City, started a bilingual weekly called Conexión in May 2004 with the idea of attracting advertising from the small ethnic stores in San Antonio’s Latino community, says Sergio Salinas, executive vice president and general manager of the Express-News. However, because Conexión is aimed at second-, third- and fourth-generation Latinos, it ended up attracting mostly high-end retailers such as Macy’s and Best Buy.
What was needed, the Texas newspaper company realized, was a Spanish-language publication that appealed to first-generation Mexican immigrants in search of news from their native land.
The Express-News quickly signed a deal with Grupo Reforma, whereby the Mexican company would provide all editorial content—Grupo Reforma already published a sports section called Cancha, which means “playing field,” in its Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalajara newspapers—and the Express-News would sell ads and pay the production costs. Financial details have not been disclosed.
With a 25,000-copy print run, Cancha is distributed free every Friday and Monday through hundreds of Hispanic businesses, including barber shops and restaurants. About 60 percent of the paper covers sports, with 20 percent spot news from Mexico, and the rest news features.
“If we’re trying to appeal to a Spanish-only audience, chances are they have very close ties to Mexico and want to read about Mexico,” says Dino Chiecchi, the Express-News’ editor of Hispanic publications. “You can’t beat a product like Grupo Reforma’s—[readers] know the name. Why not give it to them?”
From Partnership to Acquisition
Over the last several years, U.S. newspapers have scrambled to find ways to serve their increasingly diverse markets.
When the Houston Chronicle started looking for a product to address its Hispanic community—hovering around the 40-percent mark—it looked at several options before realizing it already had access to a strong vehicle to reach that market.
In the early 1990s, Olga Ordóñez approached the Chronicle about a partnership with her weekly Spanish-language newspaper, La Voz (“The Voice”). The Chronicle soon began printing the paper, which was founded in 1979, and engaged in some limited cross-selling of advertising under a revenue-sharing arrangement, says Associate Editor Susan Bischoff.
La Voz also was inserted into certain copies of the Chronicle, and some Chronicle stories made it into La Voz after being translated into Spanish.
But in December 2004, after Ordóñez and her husband realized their children were not interested in taking the reins of La Voz, they sold it to the Chronicle.
“When it became clear that we needed to do something [in the Hispanic market], we looked at startups,” says Bischoff, who directs editorial content for the Chronicle’s Spanish-language publications, and helped create its Spanish-language news department in 2004.
However, realizing that they already had a long-standing relationship with a well-respected Hispanic newspaper, those at the Chronicle decided instead to acquire La Voz. “The brand was recognized in the community, and the founders were Latinos,” Bischoff says. “They were established in the community.”
The paper was relaunched last August with a new design that features a single magazine-style feature and some smaller news stories inside. Today, 100,000 copies of La Voz are distributed free throughout the Chronicle’s coverage area, with almost 30,000 of those inserted in copies of the Chronicle.
Prior to purchasing La Voz, the Chronicle formed an agreement with La Opinión, a Spanish-language newspaper published in Los Angeles, to publish a Houston edition of its weekly entertainment magazine, La Vibra (“The Pulse”). The Chronicle receives editorial content and design from La Opinión for a fee. The two newspapers also maintain an advertising sales partnership.
La Vibra, which also includes original Spanish content written by Chronicle staffers about the local entertainment scene, is free and aimed at readers ages 14 to 30, Bischoff says. It has a print run of 100,000 copies, with 70,000 racked in video stores and movie theaters, among other places. The remaining 30,000 are inserted in copies of the Chronicle that are delivered to predominantly Hispanic areas.
Eight full-time employees handle editorial content for both La Voz and La Vibra, with most of their time spent on the former because of its larger demand for local content. Six of the Chronicle’s 200-plus sales reps focus on selling advertising for its Spanish-language products. Because La Voz has had 25 years to build a large stable of steady advertisers, most of the reps’ time is spent selling advertising for La Vibra, Bischoff says.
“It’s been a good business for us in adding to the bottom line.”
Interplanetary Alliance
Last summer, Phoenix Media/Communications Group, publisher of the alternative weekly The Boston Phoenix, bought a 35 percent stake in the free Spanish-language weekly El Planeta (“The Planet”). Though neither side disclosed financial details of the arrangement, Phoenix Executive Vice President Brad M. Mindich makes no bones about why his company was interested in El Planeta and its audience.
“You see a lot of daily newspapers declining as Spanish-language papers grow,” he says. “You can see how quickly it’s growing along with population changes.”
The deal was the result of talks that went on for several years between the two companies; El Planeta is printed by Mass Web Printing Co., which is owned by Phoenix Media. Serious talks began in November 2004, with a final agreement signed in June 2005, says Javier J. Marin, editor of El Planeta and co-founder of its publishing company, Hispanic News Press in Brookline, Mass.
“Citizens Bank, Amtrak, those accounts will look at us as a media outlet for the Hispanic community,” Marin says. “But, because we’re [partially] owned by a long-traditional Anglo media company, they look at us more than at our competitors.”
With Phoenix Media’s investment, the paper went from 15,000 copies a week to 60,000 copies. El Planeta also grew from a single edition to four, covering greater Boston, Lawrence/Lowell and Worcester, Mass., as well as Providence.
Once Phoenix Media decided to enter the Hispanic market, it considered all the possibilities for doing so, Mindich says. It could have started its own product from scratch, or even purchased El Planeta outright, he admits. “Do we like having a controlling interest in things? Of course we do. But while we know how to run newspapers...they know the Hispanic market.”
A partnership made the most sense, he adds, because “if you both have skin in the game, it makes you both work harder. We didn’t want to be just a rep firm for a newspaper. And if you just have [an ad] cross-selling relationship, it sort of barely skims the surface in terms of potential growth.”
Some of the 12 employees who make up the Hispanic News Press team have spent some time at Phoenix Media to see what they could learn about distribution; both papers are free. One of the most important distribution points for El Planeta, it turned out, are small stores where those in Hispanic communities go to buy food, telephone calling cards and other products. The rest of El Planeta is distributed via racks, as well as by hawkers outside 13 subway stations.
Phoenix Media also has helped El Planeta land some regional ads for alcohol products, among others, Mindich says. However, over the last six months, “our biggest push has been presenting to agencies so we can make sure we’re part of the buy, as they’re all looking to reach this particular market. I expect very big things to happen toward the end of this year.”
The Phoenix Media partnership was only the beginning for the paper, though. In June, El Planeta signed a joint ad-sales agreement with the Metro Boston newspaper—in which The New York Times Co. has a 49 percent ownership stake—for a Spanish-language edition of Metro’s Campus Guide, a quarterly supplement covering the area’s colleges and universities.
Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts
Perhaps one of the most interesting types of partnerships today is taking place in a handful of newsrooms around the country.
In September 2005, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami provided a $75,000 grant to the Pacific News Service, founder and now a part of New America Media (www.newamericamedia.org)—an alliance of 700 ethnic media organizations—to unite ethnic publications with mainstream U.S. newspapers. The pilot program, organized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Reston, Va., led to journalists at ethnic newspapers collaborating on stories with reporters at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oakland Tribune and The Sacramento Bee.
“Since many ethnic papers have small staffs, the grant provides money for expenses—especially travel, if necessary,” says Jeanne Fox-Alston, NAA vice president of talent management and diversity.
The first story to be published under the initiative was a February two-part series about the growth of Vietnamese-owned nail salons in South Florida. The stories were written by Macollvie Jean-Francois, a reporter with the Sun-Sentinel, and Dzung Do at the Nguoi Viet Daily News in Westminster, Calif.
“He certainly helped [Jean-Francois] with her approaches in Vietnamese nail salons where they didn’t speak English or feel very comfortable speaking English,” says Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of the Sun-Sentinel. As the 2005-2006 chairwoman of ASNE’s diversity committee, Rosenhause worked closely with then-President Rick Rodriguez to craft the program.
“The idea was just to see if we could learn from [ethnic newspaper reporters], people who are closer to the communities, and if they could learn from us,” explains Rodriguez, executive editor of The Sacramento Bee.
At presstime, the Bee was gearing up to collaborate with a Sacramento-area reporter from Pacific News Service, a nonprofit daily news syndicate, on an in-depth story about the experiences of several Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia since relocating to California a few years ago. The article will be a follow-up to “Orphans of War,” an award-winning series written by Staff Writer Stephen Magagnini in 2000.
Under the same initiative, the San Francisco Chronicle commissioned a freelance story from Suzanne Bohan, a staff writer for ANG Newspapers in Hayward, Calif., about some of the herbs used in Chinese medicine. The piece examined recently released Federal Drug Administration botanical-testing guidelines.
Bohan co-wrote the story, published in June, with New America Media Reporter Eugenia Chien, who, for this project, was freelancing for the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, with U.S. news bureaus in San Francisco and New York City.
For their story, The Oakland Tribune and The Afro American Newspaper teamed up to reveal the challenges New Orleans’ African American funeral directors faced immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The collaboration proved so successful that the Tribune is now working on a story with two area Korean-language newspapers—Korea Daily and Korean Times—to shed new light on a controversial police shooting that took place in Dublin, Calif., last summer.
“With the heft of The Oakland Tribune and the accessibility of the Korean community through Korean media, we are able to bring forth a story that was stalled,” says Sandy Close, founder and executive director of New America Media, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
Close says this type of mainstream-ethnic media collaboration will become increasingly important to good journalism as the country becomes more diverse. Ethnic newspaper reporters “know the culture, know the history,” she says. “One reporter can’t do it on his or her own anymore.”
Adds Fox-Alston, “I also think it is the hope of some of the mainstream papers that they will identify some good reporters in the process—some they can hire. A lot of young people who in the past may have considered more of a mainstream career are going to ethnic papers because it’s more closely in line with their interests.”
For his part, Rodriguez hopes media collaborations will grow into a regular practice, both at the Bee and at newspapers around the country. But, he admits, it is an idea that “really has to have a champion.
“I think there could be a commitment here, but how do you get it to go to other newspapers?” he says. “It’s the same question we’ve asked about newsroom diversity.”
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in Presstime, August 2006
Shared Interests
by A.S. Berman | Illustration by Dave Cutler
On June 2, as residents of San Antonio geared up for the quadrennial madness that is the World Cup soccer tournament, a new tabloid hit the area’s Latino grocery stores, restaurants and barber shops.
With 48 pages of predominantly sports-related news coverage in Spanish, the first issue of Cancha put the city’s Hispanic community—nearly 60 percent of San Antonio’s population—on notice that they had a new source for all the upcoming soccer action. It also offered the newspaper industry a new way to look at the foreign-language publication playing field.
While several papers throughout the country are producing their own Hispanic publications, Cancha is the result of a rare partnership between a U.S. newspaper, the San Antonio Express-News, and a Mexican media company, Grupo Reforma.
Though unique in its reach across the border, the Cancha collaboration is only the most recent example of a partnership between a mainstream English-language newspaper and an ethnic publication. Whether it’s to enhance content, expand readership, or boost the bottom line through ad-revenue sharing or distribution agreements, such partnerships are slowly catching on at U.S. newspaper companies looking to make cost-effective inroads into new markets.
Borderline Success
In January, representatives of Grupo Reforma, Mexico’s largest newspaper company, approached the management of the San Antonio Express-News with the idea of repurposing content through a partnership. For years, the Mexican media company had been seeking a way to break into the United States’ growing Hispanic marketplace, much the way Univision and other Spanish-language media groups had managed to do with television.
Sergio Salinas of the San Antonio Express-News says partnering with Grupo Reforma to create the sports tabloid Cancha was a smart way to reach local Latino advertisers.
In January, representatives of Grupo Reforma, Mexico’s largest newspaper company, approached the management of the San Antonio Express-News with the idea of repurposing content through a partnership. For years, the Mexican media company had been seeking a way to break into the United States’ growing Hispanic marketplace, much the way Univision and other Spanish-language media groups had managed to do with television.
The conglomerate couldn’t have made its pitch at a better time.
The Express-News, owned by The Hearst Corp. in New York City, started a bilingual weekly called Conexión in May 2004 with the idea of attracting advertising from the small ethnic stores in San Antonio’s Latino community, says Sergio Salinas, executive vice president and general manager of the Express-News. However, because Conexión is aimed at second-, third- and fourth-generation Latinos, it ended up attracting mostly high-end retailers such as Macy’s and Best Buy.
What was needed, the Texas newspaper company realized, was a Spanish-language publication that appealed to first-generation Mexican immigrants in search of news from their native land.
The Express-News quickly signed a deal with Grupo Reforma, whereby the Mexican company would provide all editorial content—Grupo Reforma already published a sports section called Cancha, which means “playing field,” in its Monterrey, Mexico City and Guadalajara newspapers—and the Express-News would sell ads and pay the production costs. Financial details have not been disclosed.
The Houston Chronicle used a partnership to build its own Spanish-language news department, led by, left, Associate Editor Susan Bischoff and Aurora Losada, editor of La Voz.
Originally budgeted for 32 pages, with 16 pages of ads, Cancha debuted as a 48-page tabloid with 24 advertising pages thanks to the tremendous response from the long-coveted “mom-and-pop” businesses. Many of these advertisers—including meat markets, small bakeries and even a truck-driving school—had never advertised before in the pages of the Express-News or Conexión, says Salinas, who’s also the general manager of Cancha. Some ads are sold as a package with Conexión.
With a 25,000-copy print run, Cancha is distributed free every Friday and Monday through hundreds of Hispanic businesses, including barber shops and restaurants. About 60 percent of the paper covers sports, with 20 percent spot news from Mexico, and the rest news features.
“If we’re trying to appeal to a Spanish-only audience, chances are they have very close ties to Mexico and want to read about Mexico,” says Dino Chiecchi, the Express-News’ editor of Hispanic publications. “You can’t beat a product like Grupo Reforma’s—[readers] know the name. Why not give it to them?”
From Partnership to Acquisition
Over the last several years, U.S. newspapers have scrambled to find ways to serve their increasingly diverse markets.
When the Houston Chronicle started looking for a product to address its Hispanic community—hovering around the 40-percent mark—it looked at several options before realizing it already had access to a strong vehicle to reach that market.
In the early 1990s, Olga Ordóñez approached the Chronicle about a partnership with her weekly Spanish-language newspaper, La Voz (“The Voice”). The Chronicle soon began printing the paper, which was founded in 1979, and engaged in some limited cross-selling of advertising under a revenue-sharing arrangement, says Associate Editor Susan Bischoff.
La Voz also was inserted into certain copies of the Chronicle, and some Chronicle stories made it into La Voz after being translated into Spanish.
But in December 2004, after Ordóñez and her husband realized their children were not interested in taking the reins of La Voz, they sold it to the Chronicle.
“When it became clear that we needed to do something [in the Hispanic market], we looked at startups,” says Bischoff, who directs editorial content for the Chronicle’s Spanish-language publications, and helped create its Spanish-language news department in 2004.
However, realizing that they already had a long-standing relationship with a well-respected Hispanic newspaper, those at the Chronicle decided instead to acquire La Voz. “The brand was recognized in the community, and the founders were Latinos,” Bischoff says. “They were established in the community.”
The paper was relaunched last August with a new design that features a single magazine-style feature and some smaller news stories inside. Today, 100,000 copies of La Voz are distributed free throughout the Chronicle’s coverage area, with almost 30,000 of those inserted in copies of the Chronicle.
Prior to purchasing La Voz, the Chronicle formed an agreement with La Opinión, a Spanish-language newspaper published in Los Angeles, to publish a Houston edition of its weekly entertainment magazine, La Vibra (“The Pulse”). The Chronicle receives editorial content and design from La Opinión for a fee. The two newspapers also maintain an advertising sales partnership.
La Vibra, which also includes original Spanish content written by Chronicle staffers about the local entertainment scene, is free and aimed at readers ages 14 to 30, Bischoff says. It has a print run of 100,000 copies, with 70,000 racked in video stores and movie theaters, among other places. The remaining 30,000 are inserted in copies of the Chronicle that are delivered to predominantly Hispanic areas.
Eight full-time employees handle editorial content for both La Voz and La Vibra, with most of their time spent on the former because of its larger demand for local content. Six of the Chronicle’s 200-plus sales reps focus on selling advertising for its Spanish-language products. Because La Voz has had 25 years to build a large stable of steady advertisers, most of the reps’ time is spent selling advertising for La Vibra, Bischoff says.
“It’s been a good business for us in adding to the bottom line.”
Partnering to Spread the Word
WHEN THE CHINA Press in New York City signed a distribution deal with The New York Times Co. in late 2001, both companies stood to gain on the circulation front.
The Times Co. purchases papers wholesale from The China Press, a Chinese-language daily, and sells them for a small profit to some 1,700 retailers and newsstands in the New York tristate area with which it has a relationship. City & Suburban Delivery Systems Inc., a subsidiary of the Times Co. that distributes The New York Times in New York, New Jersey and southern Connecticut, manages all deliveries.
While The China Press, which has an unaudited circulation of approximately 50,000 in New York and 30,000 in both Los Angeles and San Francisco, was able to increase its single-copy sales, the Times Co. has used the popularity of the paper to craft promotions aimed at boosting sales of the Times. The Times Co. often sells its namesake newspaper and one of the ethnic titles it distributes—the Spanish-language paper El Diario, the Russian-language paper Slovo, the Italian-language paper America Oggi or the Greek National Herald, for example—to a retailer at a discounted rate in exchange for the two papers to be sold together, also at a discount.
“While results for the Times varied by publication, our ethnic publication clients enjoyed sales increases throughout the duration of the promotion,” says a Times Co. spokesperson.
— By Jeff Lemberg
Interplanetary Alliance
Last summer, Phoenix Media/Communications Group, publisher of the alternative weekly The Boston Phoenix, bought a 35 percent stake in the free Spanish-language weekly El Planeta (“The Planet”). Though neither side disclosed financial details of the arrangement, Phoenix Executive Vice President Brad M. Mindich makes no bones about why his company was interested in El Planeta and its audience.
“You see a lot of daily newspapers declining as Spanish-language papers grow,” he says. “You can see how quickly it’s growing along with population changes.”
The deal was the result of talks that went on for several years between the two companies; El Planeta is printed by Mass Web Printing Co., which is owned by Phoenix Media. Serious talks began in November 2004, with a final agreement signed in June 2005, says Javier J. Marin, editor of El Planeta and co-founder of its publishing company, Hispanic News Press in Brookline, Mass.
“Citizens Bank, Amtrak, those accounts will look at us as a media outlet for the Hispanic community,” Marin says. “But, because we’re [partially] owned by a long-traditional Anglo media company, they look at us more than at our competitors.”
With Phoenix Media’s investment, the paper went from 15,000 copies a week to 60,000 copies. El Planeta also grew from a single edition to four, covering greater Boston, Lawrence/Lowell and Worcester, Mass., as well as Providence.
Once Phoenix Media decided to enter the Hispanic market, it considered all the possibilities for doing so, Mindich says. It could have started its own product from scratch, or even purchased El Planeta outright, he admits. “Do we like having a controlling interest in things? Of course we do. But while we know how to run newspapers...they know the Hispanic market.”
A partnership made the most sense, he adds, because “if you both have skin in the game, it makes you both work harder. We didn’t want to be just a rep firm for a newspaper. And if you just have [an ad] cross-selling relationship, it sort of barely skims the surface in terms of potential growth.”
Some of the 12 employees who make up the Hispanic News Press team have spent some time at Phoenix Media to see what they could learn about distribution; both papers are free. One of the most important distribution points for El Planeta, it turned out, are small stores where those in Hispanic communities go to buy food, telephone calling cards and other products. The rest of El Planeta is distributed via racks, as well as by hawkers outside 13 subway stations.
Phoenix Media also has helped El Planeta land some regional ads for alcohol products, among others, Mindich says. However, over the last six months, “our biggest push has been presenting to agencies so we can make sure we’re part of the buy, as they’re all looking to reach this particular market. I expect very big things to happen toward the end of this year.”
The Phoenix Media partnership was only the beginning for the paper, though. In June, El Planeta signed a joint ad-sales agreement with the Metro Boston newspaper—in which The New York Times Co. has a 49 percent ownership stake—for a Spanish-language edition of Metro’s Campus Guide, a quarterly supplement covering the area’s colleges and universities.
Greater Than the Sum of Their Parts
Perhaps one of the most interesting types of partnerships today is taking place in a handful of newsrooms around the country.
In September 2005, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation in Miami provided a $75,000 grant to the Pacific News Service, founder and now a part of New America Media (www.newamericamedia.org)—an alliance of 700 ethnic media organizations—to unite ethnic publications with mainstream U.S. newspapers. The pilot program, organized by the American Society of Newspaper Editors in Reston, Va., led to journalists at ethnic newspapers collaborating on stories with reporters at the South Florida Sun-Sentinel in Fort Lauderdale, the San Francisco Chronicle, The Oakland Tribune and The Sacramento Bee.
“Since many ethnic papers have small staffs, the grant provides money for expenses—especially travel, if necessary,” says Jeanne Fox-Alston, NAA vice president of talent management and diversity.
The first story to be published under the initiative was a February two-part series about the growth of Vietnamese-owned nail salons in South Florida. The stories were written by Macollvie Jean-Francois, a reporter with the Sun-Sentinel, and Dzung Do at the Nguoi Viet Daily News in Westminster, Calif.
“He certainly helped [Jean-Francois] with her approaches in Vietnamese nail salons where they didn’t speak English or feel very comfortable speaking English,” says Sharon Rosenhause, managing editor of the Sun-Sentinel. As the 2005-2006 chairwoman of ASNE’s diversity committee, Rosenhause worked closely with then-President Rick Rodriguez to craft the program.
“The idea was just to see if we could learn from [ethnic newspaper reporters], people who are closer to the communities, and if they could learn from us,” explains Rodriguez, executive editor of The Sacramento Bee.
At presstime, the Bee was gearing up to collaborate with a Sacramento-area reporter from Pacific News Service, a nonprofit daily news syndicate, on an in-depth story about the experiences of several Hmong refugees from Southeast Asia since relocating to California a few years ago. The article will be a follow-up to “Orphans of War,” an award-winning series written by Staff Writer Stephen Magagnini in 2000.
Under the same initiative, the San Francisco Chronicle commissioned a freelance story from Suzanne Bohan, a staff writer for ANG Newspapers in Hayward, Calif., about some of the herbs used in Chinese medicine. The piece examined recently released Federal Drug Administration botanical-testing guidelines.
Bohan co-wrote the story, published in June, with New America Media Reporter Eugenia Chien, who, for this project, was freelancing for the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, with U.S. news bureaus in San Francisco and New York City.
For their story, The Oakland Tribune and The Afro American Newspaper teamed up to reveal the challenges New Orleans’ African American funeral directors faced immediately following Hurricane Katrina. The collaboration proved so successful that the Tribune is now working on a story with two area Korean-language newspapers—Korea Daily and Korean Times—to shed new light on a controversial police shooting that took place in Dublin, Calif., last summer.
For nine months, tempers in the San Francisco East Bay region’s Korean community simmered. At presstime, New America Media, The Oakland Tribune, Korea Daily and Korean Times have joined forces to fully investigate the shootings. The results will be published in all of the participating newspapers.Southern California Synergy
IN SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA, The Orange County Register has long served an audience it could not reach on its own.
Three years after fleeing the fall of Saigon in 1975, Vietnamese journalist Yen Ngoc Do started the Nguoi Viet Daily News in Westminster, Calif., to keep his fellow émigrés informed about how to deal with life in their new homeland. Since that time, the Nguoi Viet has grown to a circulation of 17,000, serving Orange County’s more than 135,000 Vietnamese immigrants—the largest concentration of Vietnamese outside of Vietnam.
Over the last 10 years, the Register has worked with the newspaper in many ways, from sponsoring a radio show hosted by Do’s daughter, Anh, to engaging in cross-training workshops with the Nguoi Viet staff. Recently, Marcia Joy Prouse, the Register’s director of photography, and Staff Photographer Cindy Yamanaka spent several hours at the Nguoi Viet newsroom teaching staffers there about the art, and legalities, of photojournalism.
“It’s a relationship that allows us to understand the community and the culture a little bit better,” says Ken Brusic, the Register’s editor and senior vice president. “Our organization didn’t feel like it had the resources to be able to begin our own [Vietnamese] publication, and we certainly didn’t want to exclude a significant number of readers.”
Much of the newspapers’ relationship has centered on the efforts of Anh B. Do, who edits Nguoi Viet 2, a weekly English-language section in her father’s paper. Once a Register reporter, Do now writes a biweekly column for her former employer called Asian Perspectives.
In the last five years, arrangements also have been made to run Register articles—in Vietnamese—in Nguoi Viet. In exchange, Do’s newspaper helps Register reporters find the right people to talk to when they’re working on a story about the Vietnamese community.
Brusic says he hopes that some of his staffers can one day switch places with those at Nguoi Viet for a day or two to “get a better sense of what some of the customs and cultures are in that community. And also, from Nguoi Viet’s standpoint, they could see some different ways to cover the Vietnamese community, and benefit a little bit from how we think and how we operate.” A.S.B.
“With the heft of The Oakland Tribune and the accessibility of the Korean community through Korean media, we are able to bring forth a story that was stalled,” says Sandy Close, founder and executive director of New America Media, which is headquartered in San Francisco.
Close says this type of mainstream-ethnic media collaboration will become increasingly important to good journalism as the country becomes more diverse. Ethnic newspaper reporters “know the culture, know the history,” she says. “One reporter can’t do it on his or her own anymore.”
Adds Fox-Alston, “I also think it is the hope of some of the mainstream papers that they will identify some good reporters in the process—some they can hire. A lot of young people who in the past may have considered more of a mainstream career are going to ethnic papers because it’s more closely in line with their interests.”
For his part, Rodriguez hopes media collaborations will grow into a regular practice, both at the Bee and at newspapers around the country. But, he admits, it is an idea that “really has to have a champion.
“I think there could be a commitment here, but how do you get it to go to other newspapers?” he says. “It’s the same question we’ve asked about newsroom diversity.”
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Media - Presstime Mag - Yellow journalism's good points
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Published in Presstime Magazine, October 2001
What's Good About Yellow Journalism
by W. Joseph Campbell
A journalism professor at American University in Washington, D.C., Campbell is author of Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies (Praeger: 2001).
A little more than 100 years ago, New York City was home to a fierce, if little-remembered newspaper boycott. Its objective was nothing less than the ruin of the leading practitioners of a flamboyant brand of journalism. The struggle was short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful, but its outcome offers timeless lessons for American publishers.
The boycott took shape in winter 1897 as public and university libraries, reading rooms, and social clubs in and near New York City banned two battling competitors: William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. They were together derided as vile, shameless, frivolous and morally bankrupt by more conservative rivals including the New York Press, the New York Sun, The New York Times and the New York Tribune. The Press seized an evocative term to disparage the Journal and World—a phrase swiftly adopted as the boycott’s rhetorical centerpiece.
That phrase was “yellow journalism.”
Then, as now, yellow journalism was shorthand for journalistic misdeeds, especially the lurid, sensational treatment of news. But as practiced in the late 1890s, yellow journalism was more complex than merely sensational. A careful, dispassionate study reveals that it was a distinctive and imaginative genre, less malevolent than commonly understood.
Yellow journalism was characterized by:
• Frequent use of multicolumn headlines, including Page One banners.
• Front-page treatment for a variety of topics, including the local and national politics, war, international diplomacy, sports, and society.
• Generous use of illustrations, photographs, graphics and maps.
• Willingness to experiment with layouts. Sometimes, the front page of the Journal was dominated by a single article and outsized illustration.
• The tendency to rely on anonymous sources, notably in dispatches of leading reporters.
• Eager indulgence in self-promotion, particularly calling attention to reporting accomplishments. Self-promotion also was evident in crusades against monopolies and municipal corruption.
Yellow journalism had its faults. It was impenitent, reluctant to acknowledge lapses in reporting. It indulged in oddball material such as one article titled, “Is the Sun Preparing to Give Birth to a New World?”
But in appearance and, to some extent, in content, the yellow press represented a provocative departure for mainstream American journalism. The Journal and the World were the most popular of New York City’s newspapers, claiming daily sales well into six figures. Conservative counterparts were alarmed and appalled by their looks, content and popularity. Those reactions help explain their robust support for the boycott.
The Sun and Press cheered efforts by “decent institutions” to ban yellow journals. While amorphous in leadership, the boycott for a time projected a sense of momentum. By May 1897, nearly 90 facilities in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York had, the Press reported, “quarantined their members and patrons” from the menace of yellow journalism.
In the end, however, the boycott dissolved in quiet failure. It was a self-limiting protest—there was no next step after imposing the ban. The protest also had an unintended effect: Readers began buying their own copies of the Journal and the World, providing a small stimulus to sales. But in large measure, yellow newspapers overwhelmed the boycott because they were more energetic, more enterprising and more interesting to read than were the practitioners of what the Journal called “old fogy journalism.”
The success of the yellow press against the boycott offers intriguing insights for U.S. dailies of the early 21st century. Some of the practices of late-19th-century yellow journalism evoke suggestions for enhancing readership made to publishers this year by the Impact Study conducted by the Readership Institute of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Those similarities include offering a variety of local, national and international reporting; recognizing the importance of customer service; and not hesitating to promote content.
The yellow press was eager to extend its appeal to readers across the socio-economic spectrum. Journal editors recognized that great newspapers had to be “broad and catholic in character,” offering readers “the world in miniature.” The Journal and the World publishers spent heavily gathering news, sending correspondents across the country and around the world. The Journal figured it spent the equivalent of $15 million covering the Spanish-American War. It is difficult to read the yellow journals of New York City and not be impressed by their enterprising spirit.
The yellow journals also were conscientious about reader service. They timed press runs to meet trains leaving New York City. Journal managers made sure that readers vacationing in New England during summer 1897 had same-day access to Sunday editions. They sent Valentine’s greetings to would-be female readers, recognizing that women were making most household purchases.
The yellow press also tapped eagerly into emergent technologies, investing, for example, in presses that printed multiple colors. Those presses gave rise to color comics, an immediate and lasting success. The Journal, moreover, reportedly was the first New York City newspaper to use the automobile for circulation.
Nor were yellow journals reluctant to promote themselves. They were relentless, sometimes over the top, in calling attention to their reporting achievements.
Yellow journalism scarcely could be called boring, uninspired or predictable—the sort of criticism that sometimes rises about contemporary U.S. newspapers. While the yellow press faced harsh critics, its techniques were widely emulated. By 1900, yellow journalism had spread to newspapers in Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco.
Some features characteristic of the genre live on, notably colorful layouts and multicolumn headlines. Newspapers of the early 21st century resemble in appearance the yellow press of 100 years ago more than they do the era’s gray, conservative rivals.
Although the boycott of 1897 failed, detractors of yellow journalism did succeed in maligning and marginalizing the genre. Their most unshakeable indictment of yellow journalism was that overheated reporting forced the United States into an unwanted war with Spain in 1898. But such a view is myth: The war had far more to do with Spain’s repressive colonial policies in Cuba than it did with the contents of the yellow press. But the myth endures, defaming yellow journalism while offering a convenient if entirely misleading parable about the power of the news media.
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in Presstime Magazine, October 2001
What's Good About Yellow Journalism
by W. Joseph Campbell
A journalism professor at American University in Washington, D.C., Campbell is author of Yellow Journalism: Puncturing the Myths, Defining the Legacies (Praeger: 2001).
A little more than 100 years ago, New York City was home to a fierce, if little-remembered newspaper boycott. Its objective was nothing less than the ruin of the leading practitioners of a flamboyant brand of journalism. The struggle was short-lived and ultimately unsuccessful, but its outcome offers timeless lessons for American publishers.
The boycott took shape in winter 1897 as public and university libraries, reading rooms, and social clubs in and near New York City banned two battling competitors: William Randolph Hearst’s New York Journal and Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. They were together derided as vile, shameless, frivolous and morally bankrupt by more conservative rivals including the New York Press, the New York Sun, The New York Times and the New York Tribune. The Press seized an evocative term to disparage the Journal and World—a phrase swiftly adopted as the boycott’s rhetorical centerpiece.
That phrase was “yellow journalism.”
Then, as now, yellow journalism was shorthand for journalistic misdeeds, especially the lurid, sensational treatment of news. But as practiced in the late 1890s, yellow journalism was more complex than merely sensational. A careful, dispassionate study reveals that it was a distinctive and imaginative genre, less malevolent than commonly understood.
Yellow journalism was characterized by:
• Frequent use of multicolumn headlines, including Page One banners.
• Front-page treatment for a variety of topics, including the local and national politics, war, international diplomacy, sports, and society.
• Generous use of illustrations, photographs, graphics and maps.
• Willingness to experiment with layouts. Sometimes, the front page of the Journal was dominated by a single article and outsized illustration.
• The tendency to rely on anonymous sources, notably in dispatches of leading reporters.
• Eager indulgence in self-promotion, particularly calling attention to reporting accomplishments. Self-promotion also was evident in crusades against monopolies and municipal corruption.
Yellow journalism had its faults. It was impenitent, reluctant to acknowledge lapses in reporting. It indulged in oddball material such as one article titled, “Is the Sun Preparing to Give Birth to a New World?”
But in appearance and, to some extent, in content, the yellow press represented a provocative departure for mainstream American journalism. The Journal and the World were the most popular of New York City’s newspapers, claiming daily sales well into six figures. Conservative counterparts were alarmed and appalled by their looks, content and popularity. Those reactions help explain their robust support for the boycott.
The Sun and Press cheered efforts by “decent institutions” to ban yellow journals. While amorphous in leadership, the boycott for a time projected a sense of momentum. By May 1897, nearly 90 facilities in Connecticut, New Jersey and New York had, the Press reported, “quarantined their members and patrons” from the menace of yellow journalism.
In the end, however, the boycott dissolved in quiet failure. It was a self-limiting protest—there was no next step after imposing the ban. The protest also had an unintended effect: Readers began buying their own copies of the Journal and the World, providing a small stimulus to sales. But in large measure, yellow newspapers overwhelmed the boycott because they were more energetic, more enterprising and more interesting to read than were the practitioners of what the Journal called “old fogy journalism.”
The success of the yellow press against the boycott offers intriguing insights for U.S. dailies of the early 21st century. Some of the practices of late-19th-century yellow journalism evoke suggestions for enhancing readership made to publishers this year by the Impact Study conducted by the Readership Institute of the Media Management Center at Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. Those similarities include offering a variety of local, national and international reporting; recognizing the importance of customer service; and not hesitating to promote content.
The yellow press was eager to extend its appeal to readers across the socio-economic spectrum. Journal editors recognized that great newspapers had to be “broad and catholic in character,” offering readers “the world in miniature.” The Journal and the World publishers spent heavily gathering news, sending correspondents across the country and around the world. The Journal figured it spent the equivalent of $15 million covering the Spanish-American War. It is difficult to read the yellow journals of New York City and not be impressed by their enterprising spirit.
The yellow journals also were conscientious about reader service. They timed press runs to meet trains leaving New York City. Journal managers made sure that readers vacationing in New England during summer 1897 had same-day access to Sunday editions. They sent Valentine’s greetings to would-be female readers, recognizing that women were making most household purchases.
The yellow press also tapped eagerly into emergent technologies, investing, for example, in presses that printed multiple colors. Those presses gave rise to color comics, an immediate and lasting success. The Journal, moreover, reportedly was the first New York City newspaper to use the automobile for circulation.
Nor were yellow journals reluctant to promote themselves. They were relentless, sometimes over the top, in calling attention to their reporting achievements.
Yellow journalism scarcely could be called boring, uninspired or predictable—the sort of criticism that sometimes rises about contemporary U.S. newspapers. While the yellow press faced harsh critics, its techniques were widely emulated. By 1900, yellow journalism had spread to newspapers in Boston, Cincinnati, Chicago, Denver and San Francisco.
Some features characteristic of the genre live on, notably colorful layouts and multicolumn headlines. Newspapers of the early 21st century resemble in appearance the yellow press of 100 years ago more than they do the era’s gray, conservative rivals.
Although the boycott of 1897 failed, detractors of yellow journalism did succeed in maligning and marginalizing the genre. Their most unshakeable indictment of yellow journalism was that overheated reporting forced the United States into an unwanted war with Spain in 1898. But such a view is myth: The war had far more to do with Spain’s repressive colonial policies in Cuba than it did with the contents of the yellow press. But the myth endures, defaming yellow journalism while offering a convenient if entirely misleading parable about the power of the news media.
[ Presstime Magazine ]
© 2006, Newspaper Association of America. All rights reserved.
Presstime articles may be transmitted or redistributed provided that the article and this notice remain intact. Presstime articles may not under any circumstances be resold, transmitted or redistributed for compensation of any kind without prior written permission from the Newspaper Association of America. If you have any questions about these terms, or would like information about licensing materials from Presstime, please contact us."
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Friday, September 01, 2006
Immigrants - Newsday - Suffolk County - Levy legislation
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SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY - LEVY IMMIGRANT BILL - NEWSDAY - AUG 2006 COVERAGE
Pols ponder immigrant law
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 24, 2006
Suffolk's ability to curb illegal immigration through County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill is now being questioned by lawmakers, after more than a month of discussion by advocates and the public.
Though the formal debate is weeks away, county legislators who support Levy's resolution joined with opponents Tuesday night in expressing skepticism about enforcement. They also questioned whether the county has jurisdiction over immigration, which has been the domain of the U.S. government. Lawmakers fired questions at the labor commissioner and county attorney, who will enforce the bill should it be adopted.
The lawmakers wondered if more employees would be needed to monitor compliance with the measure, which requires thousands of county contractors to sign an affidavit stating their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Fourteen of the 18 legislators have told Newsday they support the resolution.
"I have no problem voting for this, but the county executive wants to pass a law with no enforcement," said Legis. Edward P. Romaine (R-Center Moriches), pointing to a report from Levy that states his bill would have no impact on the county budget.
Levy, a Democrat, said yesterday that "any additional resources needed would be nominal at best." He also said he was committed to full enforcement through "spot checks," which "create a chilling effect on the entire industry."
Legis. Thomas F. Barraga (R-West Islip), who said he supports Levy's bill, questioned whether contractors would make "a good faith" effort to verify their workers are legal given past abuses. "Where are the teeth to this thing?"
Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), who is undecided, agreed, adding that he is concerned Suffolk will be pre-empted by federal officials, who have authority over immigration. "I am not of a mind to support something that will fall with the first [legal] challenge," Kennedy said.
Opponents of the measure, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, predicted Levy's resolution would be voided by a federal judge.
County attorney Christine Malafi said Suffolk was on firm legal ground because the bill's provisions are limited to businesses and others doing work for the county. "I will take on a lawsuit," she added.
In other business Tuesday, the legislature unanimously overrode Levy's veto of a 4 percent increase in the 2007 budget for Suffolk County Community College.
Levy yesterday expressed disappointment at the override, saying the legislature had missed an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to containing education costs. Two legislative commissions currently are studying how to rein in school property taxes.
The legislature will reconvene at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 in Hauppauge to take up the many bills still on its agenda and hearings that were extended because public notices were missing from a Smithtown weekly newspaper.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi244862924aug24,0,7812801,print.story
Taking it to the streets
Both immigrant advocates and those against undocumented workers
debate merits of Levy's verification bill
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 23, 2006
More than 200 union members, immigrant advocates and people opposed to undocumented workers rallied last night outside the Suffolk Legislature's building in Hauppauge to debate the merits of County Executive Steve Levy's immigrant workers bill.
Some people waved American flags. Others held up homemade signs urging the undocumented to go home. And one man dressed up as Uncle Sam.
The crowd remained orderly as police stood nearby and watched as speakers hotly debated whether Suffolk should require businesses and other entities with government contracts to sign affidavits stating their employees are eligible to work in the United States.
Later, inside, nearly 50 people testified before the legislature, in which 14 of the 18 members have told Newsday they support Levy's resolution. During the three-hour hearing, supporters of the bill outnumbered opponents 2 to 1.
Susan Steinmann of Mastic Beach complained about the chants of "Go home" that she heard outside the building. "I want our county to stand up for what is fine, good and decent. . . . Many of the problems [with undocumented workers] are real, but we should solve them in a way that doesn't demonize people."
Robert DiCarlo, a former state senator from Brooklyn who now lives in Stony Brook, urged Suffolk lawmakers to adopt Levy's bill, which seeks to strengthen enforcement of a 20-year-old federal law. He and others called for even tougher penalties than what are included in Levy's resolution.
Speakers from the Greater Farmingville Civic Association and the Suffolk County Minuteman Civil Defense Corps described illegal immigration as "an invasion" that is undermining the quality of life. "These [government contracted] jobs must be kept open for people who belong here," said Ronald Lewandowski of the Minuteman group.
Immigrant advocates countered that such statements, combined with Levy's bill, would increase discrimination. "Every time there is a problem in Suffolk County - it's the illegals who are blamed," said Luis Valenzuela of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance. "Veterans are being asked to 'go home,'" he said, referring to naturalized citizens who have served in the U.S. military.
Legis. Joseph T. Caracappa (R-Selden), who is co-sponsoring Levy's measure, emphasized the importance of all governments enforcing the law. But Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket), an opponent, questioned its necessity. "We should be enforcing the prevailing wage law that we have. Why do we need another law?" she said.
Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) announced that the public hearing would be adjourned to Sept. 5 - because of a mishap with a Smithtown weekly newspaper that failed to publish the hearing notice.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi234861720aug23,0,734904,print.story
Biz group criticizes bill
Long Island Assn. says Levy worker bill's penalties too stiff,
doesn't do enough to protect businesses
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 22, 2006
The Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, has come out against Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill.
Citing a lack of protections for businesses that act in "good faith" and overly harsh penalties, Long Island Association president Matthew T. Crosson yesterday urged Levy to amend his resolution, which was introduced into the county legislature recently. A hearing on the bill is set for 5:30 p.m. today in Hauppauge.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Levy, Crosson said: "It is our position that if the county is going to enforce Simpson-Mazzoli, then all of the protections carefully built into that law by Congress should be applied at the county level."
Levy's bill seeks to toughen enforcement of the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act, which requires employers to verify that workers came here legally. Federal officials aren't monitoring the law, he said. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return a call seeking comment.
Levy's measure, which appears to have the backing of 14 of the 18 legislators, would require businesses and others with Suffolk contracts to file a sworn affidavit each year stating their workforce doesn't include undocumented workers. Penalties for a false affidavit include fines of up to $2,000 or 6 months in jail.
Such measures are far stricter than the federal law, Crosson said yesterday. He also was troubled that no accommodation was made for the "good-faith" efforts of employers to determine that their workers are legal.
However, Crosson stressed the LIA is not opposed to worker verification or Suffolk's enforcement attempts.
Levy responded by saying the Long Island Association "should be more proactive in protecting its legitimate businesses that are being hurt by the cheaters" who use undocumented workers. He said his bill's penalties are no different from those in federal law.
"But we will be open-minded to implement some of their more reasonable suggestions," Levy added, echoing a statement he made after Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union criticized the bill's anti-discrimination clause.
SEIU, immigrant advocates and the Long Island Council of Churches have predicted Levy's bill will spur racial discrimination. Unions representing construction workers, however, have argued that their jobs and wages are being undermined by undocumented workers.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi224860632aug22,0,7620784,print.story
No detour for Levy bill
Despite push to have immigration measure tabled,
public hearing is set for Tuesday, even as county exec considers some new amendments
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 18, 2006
An attempt to derail Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's latest proposal to curb illegal immigration by bottling up the bill in a legislative committee failed yesterday, but opponents vowed to try again.
Eleven of the 19 people who spoke before the county legislature's ways and means committee criticized Levy's plan requiring government contractors to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Several speakers called for the bill to be "tabled, subject to call," which the legislature's top lawyer George M. Nolan said later was the equivalent of burying the resolution.
"Table this bill so that we can get together to come up with a new and better solution" to the problems of illegal immigration, said Brother Clark Berge of the Episcopal church's Society of St. Francis. He said the undocumented workers he helps are here to earn money to feed their families back home.
Berge, of Mount Sinai, and others see the committee as the best arena for stopping the bill from Levy, a Democrat.
Of the six members, Legis. Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip) opposes the measure; Edward P. Romaine (R-Center Moriches) supports the underlying concept, but is a political foe of Levy; Elie Mystal (D-Amityville), a naturalized citizen originally from Haiti, voted against immigration bills in the past, but told Newsday he supports this one; Steven H. Stern (D-Dix Hills) declared his support, but is being lobbied by union opponents; and John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset) is undecided.
Committee chairman Louis D'Amaro (D-North Babylon), a co-sponsor of Levy's measure, said a formal public hearing - set for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Hauppauge - must take place before the committee can vote.
Later, Levy vowed to prevent his resolution from dying. He will consider further amendments to strengthen the anti-discrimination clause, which opponents have demanded.
"This is a red herring from organizations that really cannot come up with a good argument against this bill. Nevertheless, we will modify it to incorporate their concerns," he said.
Leaders of unions representing electrical workers and insulators urged adoption of the bill, saying wages and benefits are being reduced because contractors evade industry practices by hiring the undocumented.
"This has nothing to do with black versus white," said Mario Mattera of the Plumbers Union, Local 200. "This has everything to do with greed and money. These contractors are exploiting these workers," he said.
Matthew Chartrand of the Iron Workers Union, Local 361, agreed, saying immigrants often don't pay taxes because they are paid in cash.
Such statements angered Blanca Calderon of Brentwood, who immigrated to the United States in 1980 to escape a civil war in El Salvador. "I've paid taxes and experienced discrimination."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi184855771aug18,0,6235344,print.story
Levy's alliance on immigration
King, a Republican, endorses Suffolk exec's plan
to require contractors to verify workers' eligibility
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 17, 2006
Flanked by construction union leaders and Rep. Peter King, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy yesterday called on municipalities across the country to replicate his controversial proposal requiring government contractors to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the United States.
"This type of legislation not only has an impact on us here in Suffolk County, but if the model is followed throughout the nation it can have a major impact from California to Maine," Levy said. "We would ... help stem the flow of illegal immigration across our borders."
Levy's declaration came only a day after advocates for immigrants filed lawsuits against Hazleton, Pa., and Riverside, N.J., to block ordinances that target undocumented workers by penalizing employers and landlords. The Hazleton suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which also has threatened to sue Suffolk if Levy's bill passes the county legislature, where 14 of 18 members told Newsday they support the measure.
Late yesterday, Levy amended his resolution to include anti-discrimination clauses for workers and job applicants of county contractors. The Central American Refugee Center and other groups had criticized him for omitting such language from the original bill, the first of its kind in the state.
Lawmakers will hear today from immigrant-rights groups, ministers and leaders of construction unions as the ways and means committee takes up the resolution.
King (R-Seaford) endorsed the plan by Levy, a Democrat, saying the Bush administration had failed to enforce a 20-year-old law requiring employers to vouch for their workers' legal status.
King is facing a challenge for re-election from Legis. David Mejias (D-North Massapequa), the first Latino elected to the Nassau Legislature. Levy hasn't yet made an endorsement but won't back King, despite their agreement on this and several other issues, a spokesman said.
Union leaders representing construction workers said their jobs and wages are being threatened because contractors are hiring the undocumented to avoid paying prevailing wages and benefits.
Levy lashed out at what he called "opponents" of his bill, including the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group. "We just believe there has been tremendous hypocrisy here," he said, pointing to what he claimed were contradictory statements.
LIA vice president Mitchell Pally responded that Levy had mistaken for opposition the group's concerns about harsh penalties for businesses and no accommodation for the "good faith" efforts of employers to determine that their workers are legal. Pally said the LIA hadn't yet taken a position on Levy's measure but supports the concept of "requiring employers to ascertain the legal status of their employees."
The Service Employees International Union, one of the state's most powerful, opposes Levy's proposal. Shirley Aldebol of SEIU Local 32BJ said the bill was "bad for Long Island because it is costly for business and taxpayers, does not ensure that workers will be treated with dignity or paid fair wages."
In a letter to lawmakers, the Puerto Rican defense fund called Levy's measure "unlawful" because it "infringes on the exclusive federal power over immigration policy." A spokesman for Levy said he would be "undeterred" by the group's threatened lawsuit.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi174854308aug17,0,7878338,print.story
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
SUFFOLK COUNTY, NY - LEVY IMMIGRANT BILL - NEWSDAY - AUG 2006 COVERAGE
Pols ponder immigrant law
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 24, 2006
Suffolk's ability to curb illegal immigration through County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill is now being questioned by lawmakers, after more than a month of discussion by advocates and the public.
Though the formal debate is weeks away, county legislators who support Levy's resolution joined with opponents Tuesday night in expressing skepticism about enforcement. They also questioned whether the county has jurisdiction over immigration, which has been the domain of the U.S. government. Lawmakers fired questions at the labor commissioner and county attorney, who will enforce the bill should it be adopted.
The lawmakers wondered if more employees would be needed to monitor compliance with the measure, which requires thousands of county contractors to sign an affidavit stating their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Fourteen of the 18 legislators have told Newsday they support the resolution.
"I have no problem voting for this, but the county executive wants to pass a law with no enforcement," said Legis. Edward P. Romaine (R-Center Moriches), pointing to a report from Levy that states his bill would have no impact on the county budget.
Levy, a Democrat, said yesterday that "any additional resources needed would be nominal at best." He also said he was committed to full enforcement through "spot checks," which "create a chilling effect on the entire industry."
Legis. Thomas F. Barraga (R-West Islip), who said he supports Levy's bill, questioned whether contractors would make "a good faith" effort to verify their workers are legal given past abuses. "Where are the teeth to this thing?"
Legis. John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset), who is undecided, agreed, adding that he is concerned Suffolk will be pre-empted by federal officials, who have authority over immigration. "I am not of a mind to support something that will fall with the first [legal] challenge," Kennedy said.
Opponents of the measure, including the New York Civil Liberties Union, predicted Levy's resolution would be voided by a federal judge.
County attorney Christine Malafi said Suffolk was on firm legal ground because the bill's provisions are limited to businesses and others doing work for the county. "I will take on a lawsuit," she added.
In other business Tuesday, the legislature unanimously overrode Levy's veto of a 4 percent increase in the 2007 budget for Suffolk County Community College.
Levy yesterday expressed disappointment at the override, saying the legislature had missed an opportunity to demonstrate its commitment to containing education costs. Two legislative commissions currently are studying how to rein in school property taxes.
The legislature will reconvene at 9:30 a.m. on Sept. 5 in Hauppauge to take up the many bills still on its agenda and hearings that were extended because public notices were missing from a Smithtown weekly newspaper.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi244862924aug24,0,7812801,print.story
Taking it to the streets
Both immigrant advocates and those against undocumented workers
debate merits of Levy's verification bill
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 23, 2006
More than 200 union members, immigrant advocates and people opposed to undocumented workers rallied last night outside the Suffolk Legislature's building in Hauppauge to debate the merits of County Executive Steve Levy's immigrant workers bill.
Some people waved American flags. Others held up homemade signs urging the undocumented to go home. And one man dressed up as Uncle Sam.
The crowd remained orderly as police stood nearby and watched as speakers hotly debated whether Suffolk should require businesses and other entities with government contracts to sign affidavits stating their employees are eligible to work in the United States.
Later, inside, nearly 50 people testified before the legislature, in which 14 of the 18 members have told Newsday they support Levy's resolution. During the three-hour hearing, supporters of the bill outnumbered opponents 2 to 1.
Susan Steinmann of Mastic Beach complained about the chants of "Go home" that she heard outside the building. "I want our county to stand up for what is fine, good and decent. . . . Many of the problems [with undocumented workers] are real, but we should solve them in a way that doesn't demonize people."
Robert DiCarlo, a former state senator from Brooklyn who now lives in Stony Brook, urged Suffolk lawmakers to adopt Levy's bill, which seeks to strengthen enforcement of a 20-year-old federal law. He and others called for even tougher penalties than what are included in Levy's resolution.
Speakers from the Greater Farmingville Civic Association and the Suffolk County Minuteman Civil Defense Corps described illegal immigration as "an invasion" that is undermining the quality of life. "These [government contracted] jobs must be kept open for people who belong here," said Ronald Lewandowski of the Minuteman group.
Immigrant advocates countered that such statements, combined with Levy's bill, would increase discrimination. "Every time there is a problem in Suffolk County - it's the illegals who are blamed," said Luis Valenzuela of the Long Island Immigrant Alliance. "Veterans are being asked to 'go home,'" he said, referring to naturalized citizens who have served in the U.S. military.
Legis. Joseph T. Caracappa (R-Selden), who is co-sponsoring Levy's measure, emphasized the importance of all governments enforcing the law. But Legis. Vivian Viloria-Fisher (D-Setauket), an opponent, questioned its necessity. "We should be enforcing the prevailing wage law that we have. Why do we need another law?" she said.
Presiding Officer William Lindsay (D-Holbrook) announced that the public hearing would be adjourned to Sept. 5 - because of a mishap with a Smithtown weekly newspaper that failed to publish the hearing notice.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi234861720aug23,0,734904,print.story
Biz group criticizes bill
Long Island Assn. says Levy worker bill's penalties too stiff,
doesn't do enough to protect businesses
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 22, 2006
The Long Island Association, the region's largest business group, has come out against Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's controversial immigrant workers bill.
Citing a lack of protections for businesses that act in "good faith" and overly harsh penalties, Long Island Association president Matthew T. Crosson yesterday urged Levy to amend his resolution, which was introduced into the county legislature recently. A hearing on the bill is set for 5:30 p.m. today in Hauppauge.
In an Aug. 18 letter to Levy, Crosson said: "It is our position that if the county is going to enforce Simpson-Mazzoli, then all of the protections carefully built into that law by Congress should be applied at the county level."
Levy's bill seeks to toughen enforcement of the 1986 Simpson-Mazzoli Act, which requires employers to verify that workers came here legally. Federal officials aren't monitoring the law, he said. A spokesman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement did not return a call seeking comment.
Levy's measure, which appears to have the backing of 14 of the 18 legislators, would require businesses and others with Suffolk contracts to file a sworn affidavit each year stating their workforce doesn't include undocumented workers. Penalties for a false affidavit include fines of up to $2,000 or 6 months in jail.
Such measures are far stricter than the federal law, Crosson said yesterday. He also was troubled that no accommodation was made for the "good-faith" efforts of employers to determine that their workers are legal.
However, Crosson stressed the LIA is not opposed to worker verification or Suffolk's enforcement attempts.
Levy responded by saying the Long Island Association "should be more proactive in protecting its legitimate businesses that are being hurt by the cheaters" who use undocumented workers. He said his bill's penalties are no different from those in federal law.
"But we will be open-minded to implement some of their more reasonable suggestions," Levy added, echoing a statement he made after Local 1199 of the Service Employees International Union criticized the bill's anti-discrimination clause.
SEIU, immigrant advocates and the Long Island Council of Churches have predicted Levy's bill will spur racial discrimination. Unions representing construction workers, however, have argued that their jobs and wages are being undermined by undocumented workers.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi224860632aug22,0,7620784,print.story
No detour for Levy bill
Despite push to have immigration measure tabled,
public hearing is set for Tuesday, even as county exec considers some new amendments
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 18, 2006
An attempt to derail Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy's latest proposal to curb illegal immigration by bottling up the bill in a legislative committee failed yesterday, but opponents vowed to try again.
Eleven of the 19 people who spoke before the county legislature's ways and means committee criticized Levy's plan requiring government contractors to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the United States. Several speakers called for the bill to be "tabled, subject to call," which the legislature's top lawyer George M. Nolan said later was the equivalent of burying the resolution.
"Table this bill so that we can get together to come up with a new and better solution" to the problems of illegal immigration, said Brother Clark Berge of the Episcopal church's Society of St. Francis. He said the undocumented workers he helps are here to earn money to feed their families back home.
Berge, of Mount Sinai, and others see the committee as the best arena for stopping the bill from Levy, a Democrat.
Of the six members, Legis. Ricardo Montano (D-Central Islip) opposes the measure; Edward P. Romaine (R-Center Moriches) supports the underlying concept, but is a political foe of Levy; Elie Mystal (D-Amityville), a naturalized citizen originally from Haiti, voted against immigration bills in the past, but told Newsday he supports this one; Steven H. Stern (D-Dix Hills) declared his support, but is being lobbied by union opponents; and John M. Kennedy Jr. (R-Nesconset) is undecided.
Committee chairman Louis D'Amaro (D-North Babylon), a co-sponsor of Levy's measure, said a formal public hearing - set for Tuesday at 5:30 p.m. in Hauppauge - must take place before the committee can vote.
Later, Levy vowed to prevent his resolution from dying. He will consider further amendments to strengthen the anti-discrimination clause, which opponents have demanded.
"This is a red herring from organizations that really cannot come up with a good argument against this bill. Nevertheless, we will modify it to incorporate their concerns," he said.
Leaders of unions representing electrical workers and insulators urged adoption of the bill, saying wages and benefits are being reduced because contractors evade industry practices by hiring the undocumented.
"This has nothing to do with black versus white," said Mario Mattera of the Plumbers Union, Local 200. "This has everything to do with greed and money. These contractors are exploiting these workers," he said.
Matthew Chartrand of the Iron Workers Union, Local 361, agreed, saying immigrants often don't pay taxes because they are paid in cash.
Such statements angered Blanca Calderon of Brentwood, who immigrated to the United States in 1980 to escape a civil war in El Salvador. "I've paid taxes and experienced discrimination."
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi184855771aug18,0,6235344,print.story
Levy's alliance on immigration
King, a Republican, endorses Suffolk exec's plan
to require contractors to verify workers' eligibility
BY JAMES T. MADORE
Newsday Staff Writer
August 17, 2006
Flanked by construction union leaders and Rep. Peter King, Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy yesterday called on municipalities across the country to replicate his controversial proposal requiring government contractors to verify that their employees are eligible to work in the United States.
"This type of legislation not only has an impact on us here in Suffolk County, but if the model is followed throughout the nation it can have a major impact from California to Maine," Levy said. "We would ... help stem the flow of illegal immigration across our borders."
Levy's declaration came only a day after advocates for immigrants filed lawsuits against Hazleton, Pa., and Riverside, N.J., to block ordinances that target undocumented workers by penalizing employers and landlords. The Hazleton suit was brought by the Puerto Rican Legal Defense and Education Fund, which also has threatened to sue Suffolk if Levy's bill passes the county legislature, where 14 of 18 members told Newsday they support the measure.
Late yesterday, Levy amended his resolution to include anti-discrimination clauses for workers and job applicants of county contractors. The Central American Refugee Center and other groups had criticized him for omitting such language from the original bill, the first of its kind in the state.
Lawmakers will hear today from immigrant-rights groups, ministers and leaders of construction unions as the ways and means committee takes up the resolution.
King (R-Seaford) endorsed the plan by Levy, a Democrat, saying the Bush administration had failed to enforce a 20-year-old law requiring employers to vouch for their workers' legal status.
King is facing a challenge for re-election from Legis. David Mejias (D-North Massapequa), the first Latino elected to the Nassau Legislature. Levy hasn't yet made an endorsement but won't back King, despite their agreement on this and several other issues, a spokesman said.
Union leaders representing construction workers said their jobs and wages are being threatened because contractors are hiring the undocumented to avoid paying prevailing wages and benefits.
Levy lashed out at what he called "opponents" of his bill, including the Long Island Association, the region's largest business group. "We just believe there has been tremendous hypocrisy here," he said, pointing to what he claimed were contradictory statements.
LIA vice president Mitchell Pally responded that Levy had mistaken for opposition the group's concerns about harsh penalties for businesses and no accommodation for the "good faith" efforts of employers to determine that their workers are legal. Pally said the LIA hadn't yet taken a position on Levy's measure but supports the concept of "requiring employers to ascertain the legal status of their employees."
The Service Employees International Union, one of the state's most powerful, opposes Levy's proposal. Shirley Aldebol of SEIU Local 32BJ said the bill was "bad for Long Island because it is costly for business and taxpayers, does not ensure that workers will be treated with dignity or paid fair wages."
In a letter to lawmakers, the Puerto Rican defense fund called Levy's measure "unlawful" because it "infringes on the exclusive federal power over immigration policy." A spokesman for Levy said he would be "undeterred" by the group's threatened lawsuit.
http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liimmi174854308aug17,0,7878338,print.story
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Schools - Asbury Park Press - State intervenes in firing of Antonio Lewis
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Published in the Asbury Park Press, Friday, September 1, 2006
INTERVENTION:
N.J. wants to advise school board on superintendent's likely departure
State halts Asbury meeting
BY NANCY SHIELDS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
ASBURY PARK — It was day one of the state Department of Education's intervention in the city schools, and it was the state that had its way.
In a gymnasium crowded mostly with teachers and staff, Board of Education President Robert DiSanto read a statement shortly after 6 p.m. canceling the meeting in which the board had been expected to accept a resignation from Schools Superintendent Antonio Lewis or else suspend him.
The state, over several hours Thursday, tried to persuade DiSanto to cancel the meeting, and then directed him to do so, most likely until Thursday, so state officials could advise the board on what is expected to be Lewis' departure.
The board had decided to buy Lewis out at a total amount of between $400,000 and $500,000, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The state, which described its intervention Wednesday as a plan to improve Asbury Park stu-dents' education and bring accountability to the millions in state dollars spent there, did not let the meeting go forward.
"The purpose of the cancellation is to allow the state to assist in analyzing and solving problems that have prevented the district from achieving its full potential," DiSanto read in a statement. "We will honor that request in the hope that a brief delay now will save much time in moving forward in a positive fashion.
"In the meantime, school will open next week as scheduled and all scheduled events will take place," DiSanto said. "You can see that board members are ready to discharge their duties, but again, the state's request will be honored."
The state had similarly intervened in the Camden school district. Superintendent Annette Knox was forced out amid a state probe into her allegedly receiving performance bonuses without board approval.
Kathryn Forsyth, spokeswoman for the state education department, said Thursday night that "the state did suggest that we needed more time to review the situation with Dr. Lewis and what they (the board) were looking to do with Dr. Lewis, and the board agreed to cancel."
Seven of the nine board members want Lewis out after a deep break in trust with the superintendent that by August immobilized decision making. Thursday night's meeting was the fourth to be canceled in two weeks.
Sources close to the negotiations for an agreement with Lewis said the money he was to receive included $150,000 that had been authorized by the board months ago, a settlement Lewis won against a previous city school board that removed him in the winter of 2003-2004. The state reinstated him.
The potential settlement also includes one year's salary, about $182,000, of the three remaining years on Lewis' four-year contract, and sick days and vacation days, sources said.
Lewis' lawyer, Michael Inzelbuch, declined to comment Thursday afternoon as the state and DiSanto were working through their first afternoon of making decisions. But the lawyer, who also is the attorney for the Lakewood School District, expressed displeasure that the meeting might be canceled.
DiSanto said he believed the board will meet again next Thursday.
"I was not happy about calling off the meeting at all," DiSanto said. "We were here to do business tonight. For us to postpone or cancel this meeting without giving a clear reason to the community upset me that this is the situation we are in. The directive was from the commissioner and the governor."
Acting state Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy announced Wednesday that she was sending in an intervention team led by her chief of staff, Penelope Lattimer, to review the board's agendas, examine administrative and personnel decisions, provide guidance on curriculum teaching materials, professional development and budget expenditures.
The state is concerned with the large amount of money spent on the Asbury Park district and the failure of several schools to make adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years, Davy said in her letter to DiSanto and board members which was dated and released to the public Wednesday.
Battle over staff
The break between Lewis and his board became public over the summer when Lewis could not get his recommendations for three district jobs approved. They included Joe Stinson as the high school football coach, Kelly Gayle as the middle school principal and Dorothy Dallah as curriculum director.
All three positions are waiting to be filled.
Aiman Mahmoud, the district's business administrator, who has earned praise from both sides in the fight over Lewis, gave his own 60-day notice in recent weeks after getting a job offer for the same position in the Camden School District. Mahmoud's decision led to more in-fighting over whether it was Lewis or the board that had driven him away.
"It's all about an intervention," said Phyllis Ling, a parent and school staff member who is a parent community liaison. "I think we need a little help and the state will come in and help us get on the right track."
Last week, John Napolitani, the president of the Asbury Park Education Association, released a statement saying Lewis had failed to resolve "a host of problems at the Asbury Park Middle School."
The middle school has failed to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act for six consecutive years, Davy pointed out in her intervention letter. The district must implement a restructuring plan but has not been able to realize — or reject — a desire by several board members to change over to a K-8 school building structure.
Lewis, 57, was principal of the middle school in 1999 when, with the help of Vito A. Gagliardi, then a special assistant to the state education commissioner, former Asbury Park Superintendent Robert Mann was removed by the board. Lewis got the job.
Gagliardi was on hand Thursday night as DiSanto announced the latest school board meeting was canceled. Gagliardi said Lewis has hired him as his consultant.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the Asbury Park Press, Friday, September 1, 2006
INTERVENTION:
N.J. wants to advise school board on superintendent's likely departure
State halts Asbury meeting
BY NANCY SHIELDS
COASTAL MONMOUTH BUREAU
ASBURY PARK — It was day one of the state Department of Education's intervention in the city schools, and it was the state that had its way.
In a gymnasium crowded mostly with teachers and staff, Board of Education President Robert DiSanto read a statement shortly after 6 p.m. canceling the meeting in which the board had been expected to accept a resignation from Schools Superintendent Antonio Lewis or else suspend him.
The state, over several hours Thursday, tried to persuade DiSanto to cancel the meeting, and then directed him to do so, most likely until Thursday, so state officials could advise the board on what is expected to be Lewis' departure.
The board had decided to buy Lewis out at a total amount of between $400,000 and $500,000, sources close to the matter said Thursday.
The state, which described its intervention Wednesday as a plan to improve Asbury Park stu-dents' education and bring accountability to the millions in state dollars spent there, did not let the meeting go forward.
"The purpose of the cancellation is to allow the state to assist in analyzing and solving problems that have prevented the district from achieving its full potential," DiSanto read in a statement. "We will honor that request in the hope that a brief delay now will save much time in moving forward in a positive fashion.
"In the meantime, school will open next week as scheduled and all scheduled events will take place," DiSanto said. "You can see that board members are ready to discharge their duties, but again, the state's request will be honored."
The state had similarly intervened in the Camden school district. Superintendent Annette Knox was forced out amid a state probe into her allegedly receiving performance bonuses without board approval.
Kathryn Forsyth, spokeswoman for the state education department, said Thursday night that "the state did suggest that we needed more time to review the situation with Dr. Lewis and what they (the board) were looking to do with Dr. Lewis, and the board agreed to cancel."
Seven of the nine board members want Lewis out after a deep break in trust with the superintendent that by August immobilized decision making. Thursday night's meeting was the fourth to be canceled in two weeks.
Sources close to the negotiations for an agreement with Lewis said the money he was to receive included $150,000 that had been authorized by the board months ago, a settlement Lewis won against a previous city school board that removed him in the winter of 2003-2004. The state reinstated him.
The potential settlement also includes one year's salary, about $182,000, of the three remaining years on Lewis' four-year contract, and sick days and vacation days, sources said.
Lewis' lawyer, Michael Inzelbuch, declined to comment Thursday afternoon as the state and DiSanto were working through their first afternoon of making decisions. But the lawyer, who also is the attorney for the Lakewood School District, expressed displeasure that the meeting might be canceled.
DiSanto said he believed the board will meet again next Thursday.
"I was not happy about calling off the meeting at all," DiSanto said. "We were here to do business tonight. For us to postpone or cancel this meeting without giving a clear reason to the community upset me that this is the situation we are in. The directive was from the commissioner and the governor."
Acting state Education Commissioner Lucille E. Davy announced Wednesday that she was sending in an intervention team led by her chief of staff, Penelope Lattimer, to review the board's agendas, examine administrative and personnel decisions, provide guidance on curriculum teaching materials, professional development and budget expenditures.
The state is concerned with the large amount of money spent on the Asbury Park district and the failure of several schools to make adequate yearly progress for three consecutive years, Davy said in her letter to DiSanto and board members which was dated and released to the public Wednesday.
Battle over staff
The break between Lewis and his board became public over the summer when Lewis could not get his recommendations for three district jobs approved. They included Joe Stinson as the high school football coach, Kelly Gayle as the middle school principal and Dorothy Dallah as curriculum director.
All three positions are waiting to be filled.
Aiman Mahmoud, the district's business administrator, who has earned praise from both sides in the fight over Lewis, gave his own 60-day notice in recent weeks after getting a job offer for the same position in the Camden School District. Mahmoud's decision led to more in-fighting over whether it was Lewis or the board that had driven him away.
"It's all about an intervention," said Phyllis Ling, a parent and school staff member who is a parent community liaison. "I think we need a little help and the state will come in and help us get on the right track."
Last week, John Napolitani, the president of the Asbury Park Education Association, released a statement saying Lewis had failed to resolve "a host of problems at the Asbury Park Middle School."
The middle school has failed to make adequate yearly progress under the federal No Child Left Behind Act for six consecutive years, Davy pointed out in her intervention letter. The district must implement a restructuring plan but has not been able to realize — or reject — a desire by several board members to change over to a K-8 school building structure.
Lewis, 57, was principal of the middle school in 1999 when, with the help of Vito A. Gagliardi, then a special assistant to the state education commissioner, former Asbury Park Superintendent Robert Mann was removed by the board. Lewis got the job.
Gagliardi was on hand Thursday night as DiSanto announced the latest school board meeting was canceled. Gagliardi said Lewis has hired him as his consultant.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Published in the New York Times, Friday, September 1, 2006
Multiple Jobs by Public Workers Strain Pension Plan
By RICHARD G. JONES
TRENTON, Aug. 31 — New Jersey officials on Thursday released the salary records of the highest-paid public employees who have multiple public jobs. State lawmakers, who are struggling to curb soaring property taxes and cut state expenditures, say that the practice of holding multiple positions — and earning more pension credits as a result — has added a huge burden to the state’s troubled pension system.
In some cases, the multiple jobs entitled employees to annual pensions worth more than $130,000.
In one instance, a lawyer in southern New Jersey earned about $186,000 a year and pension credit from 11 towns where he works as a municipal court judge.
In another case, a lawyer from the Jersey Shore earned about $287,000 annually — he is the top earner among the roughly 5,000 state employees with multiple positions — while working as a judge in eight towns.
One lawyer from Secaucus, Herbert Klitzner, earned about $227,000 as the general counsel for both North Bergen Township and the Union City school district. Mr. Klitzner, who has been a public employee for 25 years, would qualify for an annual pension of about $103,000 if he retired now.
“I didn’t create this system,” Mr. Klitzner said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “It’s part of the deal when you take this position.”
The disclosures about employees earning multiple pension credits, reported by The Star-Ledger on Thursday, came as the State Legislature pushes forward in a special session to develop strategies for reducing property taxes.
The state is examining ways to streamline expenses, health care costs, pensions and other benefits that collectively cost the state more than $8.4 billion a year.
Although the cost of paying benefits does not directly affect local property tax rates, it does affect the state’s operating budget, which last spring had a $4 billion deficit heading into the fiscal year beginning July 1, which triggered the weeklong shutdown of New Jersey’s government in July and an increase in the state sales tax.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine and some lawmakers have called for sweeping changes to the pension system, including an end to the practice in which workers — often professionals like lawyers, judges and accountants — are allowed to earn pension credit for doing part-time work for several municipalities or public agencies at one time.
In New Jersey, public employees must meet requirements that include 10 years of service to become vested members of the pension system.
In many other states, those who provide professional services are often treated like independent contractors and do not qualify for pension benefits.
Many on the list of the top 50 earners released by the state treasurer’s office on Thursday earned pension credit while working as judges, lawyers and tax assessors. One is a licensed master plumber.
They averaged about 22 years of service, qualifying them for annual pensions ranging from about $40,000 to more than $135,000.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Corzine said that the publication of the list strengthened his belief that part-time professional workers should not be afforded the same pension benefits as rank-and-file state workers.
“Eliminating loopholes that grant professional service providers and political appointees the same benefits enjoyed by career public employees is a no-brainer,” said the spokesman, Brendan Gilfillan, who added that Mr. Corzine “believes this reform is an essential part of the property tax discussion.”
Besides the cost of the plan, lawmakers said that the information about individuals holding multiple public jobs opened a window on how New Jersey politics works.
“I think it is invaluable to the public that they get this information, not just because of the money — which is very important — but you’re going to see what political networking is all about now,” said Senator William L. Gormley, a Republican from Atlantic County.
Mr. Gormley, who last week asked state officials to assemble the list of top earners with multiple pension credits, cautioned against characterizing all part-time municipal work as a means of pension abuse.
“Not to say everybody’s tacking here, but I think you’re going to see certain political scenarios that are going to cause permanent change in the state of New Jersey,” he said.
One analyst, Ernest C. Reock Jr., a retired professor at Rutgers University and a specialist in property tax issues, said the list highlighted holes in the state’s benefits system.
“There are some weak spots where people can take advantage,” said Mr. Reock, the former director of the Center for Government Services at Rutgers.
Mr. Reock said that although the salaries that are being paid for professional services might seem excessive, they could well be in line with market prices.
“It’s hard to tell: $300,000 sounds like a lot, $100,000 is not that much,” Mr. Reock said. “When you put all the pieces together, it may be justified.”
According to Mr. Klitzner, the general counsel for North Bergen and the Union City schools, professional help is worth the cost. “You don’t get there” — the level of his pension — “unless you’ve been around a long time,” said Mr. Klitzner, who has worked with North Bergen for 25 years and has advised the school district for 21 years.
Mr. Klitzner, 62, said the pension credit was an important inducement for public service work. “It’s an incentive for everybody who goes into municipal work,” he said. “You can get more money as a lawyer in private practice but you make it up with the benefits.”
And, Mr. Klitzner said, he would oppose any effort to exclude part-time professional workers from membership in the state’s pension plan.
“A deal is a deal,” Mr. Klitzner said. “You can’t change it retroactively. You can’t change it for people who’ve been relying on it.”
As for his pension, Mr. Klitzner said his goal was simple. “I’m hoping to live to enjoy it,” he said, though he was quick to add, “I have absolutely no immediate plans to retire.”
Jo Craven McGinty and Margot Williams contributed reporting for this article. Research was contributed by Jack Begg, Happy Blitt, Alain Delaquérière, Barbara Oliver and Carolyn Wilder.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
*
Published in the New York Times, Friday, September 1, 2006
Multiple Jobs by Public Workers Strain Pension Plan
By RICHARD G. JONES
TRENTON, Aug. 31 — New Jersey officials on Thursday released the salary records of the highest-paid public employees who have multiple public jobs. State lawmakers, who are struggling to curb soaring property taxes and cut state expenditures, say that the practice of holding multiple positions — and earning more pension credits as a result — has added a huge burden to the state’s troubled pension system.
In some cases, the multiple jobs entitled employees to annual pensions worth more than $130,000.
In one instance, a lawyer in southern New Jersey earned about $186,000 a year and pension credit from 11 towns where he works as a municipal court judge.
In another case, a lawyer from the Jersey Shore earned about $287,000 annually — he is the top earner among the roughly 5,000 state employees with multiple positions — while working as a judge in eight towns.
One lawyer from Secaucus, Herbert Klitzner, earned about $227,000 as the general counsel for both North Bergen Township and the Union City school district. Mr. Klitzner, who has been a public employee for 25 years, would qualify for an annual pension of about $103,000 if he retired now.
“I didn’t create this system,” Mr. Klitzner said in a telephone interview on Thursday. “It’s part of the deal when you take this position.”
The disclosures about employees earning multiple pension credits, reported by The Star-Ledger on Thursday, came as the State Legislature pushes forward in a special session to develop strategies for reducing property taxes.
The state is examining ways to streamline expenses, health care costs, pensions and other benefits that collectively cost the state more than $8.4 billion a year.
Although the cost of paying benefits does not directly affect local property tax rates, it does affect the state’s operating budget, which last spring had a $4 billion deficit heading into the fiscal year beginning July 1, which triggered the weeklong shutdown of New Jersey’s government in July and an increase in the state sales tax.
Gov. Jon S. Corzine and some lawmakers have called for sweeping changes to the pension system, including an end to the practice in which workers — often professionals like lawyers, judges and accountants — are allowed to earn pension credit for doing part-time work for several municipalities or public agencies at one time.
In New Jersey, public employees must meet requirements that include 10 years of service to become vested members of the pension system.
In many other states, those who provide professional services are often treated like independent contractors and do not qualify for pension benefits.
Many on the list of the top 50 earners released by the state treasurer’s office on Thursday earned pension credit while working as judges, lawyers and tax assessors. One is a licensed master plumber.
They averaged about 22 years of service, qualifying them for annual pensions ranging from about $40,000 to more than $135,000.
Through a spokesman, Mr. Corzine said that the publication of the list strengthened his belief that part-time professional workers should not be afforded the same pension benefits as rank-and-file state workers.
“Eliminating loopholes that grant professional service providers and political appointees the same benefits enjoyed by career public employees is a no-brainer,” said the spokesman, Brendan Gilfillan, who added that Mr. Corzine “believes this reform is an essential part of the property tax discussion.”
Besides the cost of the plan, lawmakers said that the information about individuals holding multiple public jobs opened a window on how New Jersey politics works.
“I think it is invaluable to the public that they get this information, not just because of the money — which is very important — but you’re going to see what political networking is all about now,” said Senator William L. Gormley, a Republican from Atlantic County.
Mr. Gormley, who last week asked state officials to assemble the list of top earners with multiple pension credits, cautioned against characterizing all part-time municipal work as a means of pension abuse.
“Not to say everybody’s tacking here, but I think you’re going to see certain political scenarios that are going to cause permanent change in the state of New Jersey,” he said.
One analyst, Ernest C. Reock Jr., a retired professor at Rutgers University and a specialist in property tax issues, said the list highlighted holes in the state’s benefits system.
“There are some weak spots where people can take advantage,” said Mr. Reock, the former director of the Center for Government Services at Rutgers.
Mr. Reock said that although the salaries that are being paid for professional services might seem excessive, they could well be in line with market prices.
“It’s hard to tell: $300,000 sounds like a lot, $100,000 is not that much,” Mr. Reock said. “When you put all the pieces together, it may be justified.”
According to Mr. Klitzner, the general counsel for North Bergen and the Union City schools, professional help is worth the cost. “You don’t get there” — the level of his pension — “unless you’ve been around a long time,” said Mr. Klitzner, who has worked with North Bergen for 25 years and has advised the school district for 21 years.
Mr. Klitzner, 62, said the pension credit was an important inducement for public service work. “It’s an incentive for everybody who goes into municipal work,” he said. “You can get more money as a lawyer in private practice but you make it up with the benefits.”
And, Mr. Klitzner said, he would oppose any effort to exclude part-time professional workers from membership in the state’s pension plan.
“A deal is a deal,” Mr. Klitzner said. “You can’t change it retroactively. You can’t change it for people who’ve been relying on it.”
As for his pension, Mr. Klitzner said his goal was simple. “I’m hoping to live to enjoy it,” he said, though he was quick to add, “I have absolutely no immediate plans to retire.”
Jo Craven McGinty and Margot Williams contributed reporting for this article. Research was contributed by Jack Begg, Happy Blitt, Alain Delaquérière, Barbara Oliver and Carolyn Wilder.
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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Bruno Associates - Ledger - Sued by Springfield for $75,000
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Friday, September 1, 2006
Town sues company for failure to win grants
Springfield wants $75,000 it spent with Bruno Associates
BY JUDITH LUCAS
Star-Ledger Staff
The budget was tight, and Springfield Township officials decided in 2004 to hire a reputable grant-writing company to find them some cash.
According to the municipal at torney, Bruce Bergen, $75,000 was spent in expectation of thousands of dollars in state and federal grants.
The township paid Bruno Associates of Clifton, but Bergen said Springfield has not reaped the money it was promised.
A lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Union County last week by the township against Bruno Associates for $75,000.
"It's been several years," said Bergen yesterday. "They have not gotten us anything substantial."
John Bruno, who heads the consulting company, said he tried to get money for Springfield with nine applications amounting to $982,443. The company won the township a grant for $3,450 in January 2006.
"Springfield had many internal problems and it was impossible to get the township to agree on anything," Bruno said. "This is totally unfair and uncalled for. We received no cooperation whatsoever.
"We have a contract. If we don't get what they paid, we will stay until such time as we do. We will live up to the contract."
Bruno worried the lawsuit would smear his company's 37-year record of grant writing for public bodies, including municipal governments and boards of education.
"The whole problem lies with Springfield," Bruno said. We cannot help it if state and county agencies deny applications. That is why we said we will stay there until they receive the amount of the money they paid us. They are sick. They have political battles there."
Bruno said his company's record is unassailable.
"We have gotten over $400 million for our clients," Bruno said. "Linden has received at least $5 million."
Bergen said poor results caused the relationship with Bruno and his company to go sour.
"It was his fault, not the township's fault," Bergen said. "Other than this one grant, there is noth ing. This could go on forever.
"I don't care how much money he has gotten for somebody else. Springfield is what I care about."
Judith Lucas covers Union County Courthouse. She may be reached at jlucas@starledger.com or (908) 527-4011
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
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Published in the Star-Ledger, Friday, September 1, 2006
Town sues company for failure to win grants
Springfield wants $75,000 it spent with Bruno Associates
BY JUDITH LUCAS
Star-Ledger Staff
The budget was tight, and Springfield Township officials decided in 2004 to hire a reputable grant-writing company to find them some cash.
According to the municipal at torney, Bruce Bergen, $75,000 was spent in expectation of thousands of dollars in state and federal grants.
The township paid Bruno Associates of Clifton, but Bergen said Springfield has not reaped the money it was promised.
A lawsuit was filed in Superior Court in Union County last week by the township against Bruno Associates for $75,000.
"It's been several years," said Bergen yesterday. "They have not gotten us anything substantial."
John Bruno, who heads the consulting company, said he tried to get money for Springfield with nine applications amounting to $982,443. The company won the township a grant for $3,450 in January 2006.
"Springfield had many internal problems and it was impossible to get the township to agree on anything," Bruno said. "This is totally unfair and uncalled for. We received no cooperation whatsoever.
"We have a contract. If we don't get what they paid, we will stay until such time as we do. We will live up to the contract."
Bruno worried the lawsuit would smear his company's 37-year record of grant writing for public bodies, including municipal governments and boards of education.
"The whole problem lies with Springfield," Bruno said. We cannot help it if state and county agencies deny applications. That is why we said we will stay there until they receive the amount of the money they paid us. They are sick. They have political battles there."
Bruno said his company's record is unassailable.
"We have gotten over $400 million for our clients," Bruno said. "Linden has received at least $5 million."
Bergen said poor results caused the relationship with Bruno and his company to go sour.
"It was his fault, not the township's fault," Bergen said. "Other than this one grant, there is noth ing. This could go on forever.
"I don't care how much money he has gotten for somebody else. Springfield is what I care about."
Judith Lucas covers Union County Courthouse. She may be reached at jlucas@starledger.com or (908) 527-4011
Link to online story.
(Note: Online stories may be taken down by their publisher after a period of time or made available for a fee. Links posted here is from the original online publication of this piece.)
(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff and Clippings have no affiliation whatsoever with the originator of these articles nor are Plainfield Today, Plainfield Stuff or Clippings endorsed or sponsored by the originator.)
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