N.J. says it can't halt schools chief's $600,000 deal Hoboken case failed to spark uproar that greeted Keansburg superintendent Thursday, June 12, 2008 • BY DUNSTAN McNICHOL • The Express-Times State education officials, who are in court opposing portions of a Keansburg superintendent's $740,000 retirement package, chose in January to stay out of a dispute over a retirement deal that promises Hoboken's former superintendent almost $600,000 on his way out the door. The deal with Hoboken superintendent Patrick Gagliardi, 66, included about $495,000 in payments for unused sick and vacation days and the promise of another $100,000 in post-retirement consulting fees. Those payments come on top of a standard pension of $128,400 per year that Gagliardi earned after 44 years in Hoboken. Last December, Hoboken's board of education petitioned state Education Commissioner Lucille Davy to void the consulting fees portion of the deal. In January, Davy denied their request, saying she had no legal authority to intercede in the dispute. Gagliardi since has filed suit in state Superior Court in Hudson County, seeking to force the board to honor the contract provision that requires Hoboken to pay him $996 per day as a "consulting administrator" for up to 100 days. Davy's response to Hoboken's petition stands in sharp contrast to the state's reaction last month to word that Keansburg's longtime superintendent, Barbara Trzesz kowski, was scheduled to collect $740,000 in severance benefits upon her retirement June 30. Under the deal, arranged in 2003, Trzeszkowski was to receive $184,586 for 235.5 unused sick days and 20 vacation days, plus a $556,290 severance bonus calcu lated by multiplying her current monthly salary by the number of years she has worked in Keans burg. "At that point we couldn't disapprove it, we couldn't do anything about it," Davy said yesterday, citing the procedural rules at the time. A phone message to the law firm of Buceri and Pincus, which is representing Gagliardi in his lawsuit against the board, was not re turned. Attorney General Anne Milgram last month filed suit in Superior Court seeking to void the sever ance bonus, calling it "unreasonable" and "unconscionable." State lawmakers today are scheduled to consider a bill (A2975) that would prohibit such severance bonuses in the future. The bill, which was still being drafted yesterday, has already been included on the list of measures scheduled for consideration by the full Assembly on Monday. Hoboken, like Keansburg, is one of 31 so-called special-needs districts entitled to extra state aid under the Abbott vs. Burke school funding lawsuit. It gets about half its school funding from the state, according to the state Department of Education. "I don't know the facts and circumstances enough to really comment," said Gov. Jon Corzine, who lives in Hoboken. Hoboken, he said, is not much of an Abbott district in terms of state money it receives. "It doesn't excuse it at all," Cor zine said. "It sounds out of the realm of what we would like, the extreme end of where we would be." The severance benefits were approved in 2005, just 10 months after Gagliardi had signed a contract that was scheduled to keep him in Hoboken through June 30, 2009. The original five-year deal Gagli ardi had signed in October 2004 allowed him to collect only $150 per day for unused sick and vacation time. But the 2005 retirement agreement changed that to let Gagliardi quit two years early and collect more than six times that amount -- $996.27 -- for each unused sick and vacation day. With 497 sick and vacation days on the books when he stepped down last June, the change meant Gagliardi was owed $495,146, rather than the $74,550 he would have received under the terms of his original deal. Sen. Tom Kean Jr. (R-Union), sponsor of a bill that would cap payouts for sick and vacation time at $15,000, called Gagliardi's contract "offensive." "It diminishes the faith in government over something the Legislature could have done something about," he said. Staff writer John Mooney contributed to this report. Dunstan McNi chol may be reached at dmcni chol@starledger.com or (609) 989-0341. © 2008 The Star-Ledger. Used by NJ.com with permission.