Gov.'s Office: Budget Matter 'Resolved' After Slight Reduction in Seitz Salary

After t Gov. Chris Christie's office said Friday that the matter was "resolved' after the Parsipany Board of Education reduced Superintendent LeRoy Seitz's salary by $2,462.

"We consider the matter resolved with the board in the interests of Parsippany taxpayers," Christie's spokesman, Michael Drewniak, wrote in an e-mailed statement. "The school board’s budget is now in compliance with the governor’s salary cap regulations.''

Morris County Superintendent Kathleen Serafino approved the district's budget on Thursday with Seitz's salary at $175,000—the limit for school administrators in districts the size of Parsippany—along with an additional $2,500 for overseeing a second high school and a 15 percent merit increase for the 2011-12 school year.

However, in a letter also dated Thursday to Board President Anthony Mancuso, Serafino revised the district's budget, reducing the superintendent's salary line item by $2,462 for the additional amount paid to Seitz since December under the unapproved contract of $216,240.

"While the Board of Education has amended the proposed FY12 budget to reduce the Superintendent salary line item to conform to the regulations cited, the Board has failed to conform the contract as directed and, in fact, has been paying the Superintendent pursuant to an unapproved contract since December 2010," Serafino wrote. "Therefore, I am reducing the Superintendent Salary line item for FY12 by $2,462, which reflects the difference between the amount paid to the Superintendent during FY11 and the amount authorized under the earlier, previously approved, contract.

"Specifically, I am reducing your FY12 budget by the difference between the Superintendent’s unapproved salary of $216,240 and the previously approved salary of $212,020, prorated from December 1, 2010 to June 30, 2011," Serafino continued. "With this reduction of $2,462, your FY12 budget is now approved."

On Thursday, for Seitz. The $16,000 difference between Seitz's $220,000 salary for next school year and his line item salary was put in a reserve account, pending the result of litigation but the board attorney Mark Tabakin said they still planned to pay him under his new contract, approved in November.

Serafino also wrote in her letter that  a 15 percent merit increase was also subject to county approval.

"Finally, you are reminded that the 15% merit bonus included in the Superintendent Salary line item of the proposed FY12 budget can only be paid upon the approval of the Superintendent’s performance against specific factors that must first be approved by the Executive County Superintendent,'' Serafino wrote.

News of the letter came after Christie's spokesman told the Star-Ledger Thursday night that the budget wouldn't be approved unless it met the $175,000 cap requirement for administrators in districts the size of Parsippany. 

Previously, he had threatened to withhold state funding from the township unless it rescinded the Seitz contract.

Board of Education member Andrew Choffo said that because the overall amount of the $128.5 million budget was unchanged, and public notice was given Thursday, the public will still be able to vote on the budget on April 27.

But Board of Education member Robert Crawford expressed frustration over the mixed signals from the county and the state. He was also irked by the fact that the line item for Seitz still differs from the $220,000 the board intends to pay Seitz.

"In the real world or the budget world?" he asked.