Dan Cirucci: Bateman: Approve NJ Civil Service Reform Now

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Bateman: Approve NJ Civil Service Reform Now

In response to today's rally by police and firefighters outside the New Jersey State House in Trenton, Senator Christopher "Kip" Bateman (R-Somerset/Morris) renewed his push for civil service reforms that will produce the savings needed to keep those vital public servants at their jobs.
"Today's rally should be a wake-up call to Democrats to stop stonewalling and pass comprehensive civil service reform," stated Bateman. "In these tough economic times, towns and cities throughout New Jersey are struggling with the inflexibility of the current civil service bureaucracy that makes it impossible to cut costs and balance budgets without laying off employees, including police and firefighters. Civil Service reform is not a cure-all, but it certainly would help towns lower their costs and allow many of these men and women to continue serving their communities."
Bateman noted that the civil service system was instituted early in the last century as a way to prevent politicians from packing government offices with incompetent friends and allies, or from firing good public servants without cause. This happened before modern labor and discrimination laws were passed, or before public workers formed unions.
"The civil service system was an important form of protection for public workers before modern labor laws were enacted, but now it's just another redundant layer of bureaucracy that hurts both public employees and taxpayers," Bateman continued. "Local government officials have little control over their workforces and lack the flexibility to manage their personnel in a way that cuts costs and protects jobs."
Senator Bateman is the sponsor of comprehensive civil service reform legislation (S-2039) that would allow local governments to opt out of the civil service system entirely and give town and county officials more power to reduce personnel costs and streamline operations. This bill is part of the Governor’s “toolkit” of bills designed to assist municipalities, counties and State agencies in managing their budgets.
"The Democrat majority passed a watered down version of civil service reform, but it was correctly rejected by the Governor for being ineffective and meaningless," concluded Bateman. "New Jersey taxpayers, and the thousands of police and firemen who serve them, deserve real change and real civil service reform now."

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About Dan Cirucci

He's been cited by the late Rush Limbaugh, quoted in the New York Times, featured at Real Clear Politics and Lucianne.com and interviewed across all media.

He's Dan Cirucci, the founder and editor-in chief of the Dan Cirucci Blog, a Save Jersey blog columnist, frequent guest on the Matt Rooney radio show and one of the most widely honored public relations professionals in his field. He's also been a public relations consultant to numerous organizations and individuals and hosted The Advocates on RVN-TV.

Inducted into the Philadelphia Public Relations Hall of Fame, for many years he served as a Lecturer in Corporate Communication at Penn State University. A former President of the Philadelphia Public Relations Association (PPRA) he has lectured at Rowan University, Temple University, The College of New Jersey and Arcadia University. He has conducted workshops on public relations for thousands of participants throughout the nation and has taught countless others the art of public speaking. He has also advised numerous lawyers, judges, public officials and political candidates.

Cirucci is a prolific writer and his op-ed pieces have appeared in the Philadelphia Daily News, Philadelphia Inquirer, Courier-Post, Broad and Liberty and other print and online platforms.

A native of Camden NJ, Cirucci is a former President of the Philadelphia chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators. Cirucci served as Associate Executive Director of the Philadelphia Bar Association for nearly 30 years. He served as Chair of Penn State University's Professional Advisory Board for the Corporate Communication major at Penn State Abington and on the Pennsylvania Bar Association's Judicial Selection Commission.

He received his MA degree from Rowan University and his BA from Villanova University. He has been named a Distinguished Alumnus of Rowan's public relations program and received the E. A. "Wally" Richter Leadership Award, the highest honor from the National Association of Bar Executives' Communications Section. He has also been honored by numerous other local, state and national groups.

In his hometown of Camden, Cirucci taught fifth grade at the Ulysses Wiggins Elementary School named for the founder of the Camden NAACP. There he was one of the first teachers in the country to teach African-American history to inner city students. He later served as editor of a local weekly newspaper, as Assistant to the Township Manager of Cherry Hill Township and as Associate Director of Communications at the New Jersey State Bar Association.

Cirucci's passions include all things Italian, politics, the popular culture, books and authors, art, communication, music, theatre, movies, dining and travel.

He and his wife Carole have two grown children and seven grandchildren.

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