People across the country should be OPTING OUT of National Night Out! Nothing like building a sense of community out of your neighbors pockets to line your own, eh? It is so embarassing that Matt Peskin is not only this greedy, but from the Main Line! (However being greedy and being from the Main Line go hand in hand sometimes, right?)

Check this out:

Get out there
Lebanon Daily News

So it turns out National Night Out is essentially a Montgomery County man’s golden goose. There’s something sickening about that, but we hope the organizers of the nine Night Out events in Lebanon County don’t kill their programs in a knee-jerk reaction that would be understandable but a shame. We believe the Night Out events have value whatever they are called, and we’d hate to see them go away.
The Philadelphia Inquirer uncovered the National Night Out fiasco and reported it last year. (It’s always a newspaper, isn’t it?) It seems the “nonprofit” National Association of Town Watch pays its executive director, Matthew Peskin, an annual salary of $300,000, exorbitant in the extreme for a corporation with only two employees. In fact, Peskin’s compensation accounts for about one-third of the organization’s annual budget.

Want more?

• At the time the Inquirer did its story last year, the National Association of Town Watch had a six-member board of directors: Peskin, his brother, his father-in-law and three family friends. Peskin told the Inquirer recently that the board no longer comprises his friends and family, but he was cagey when asked who is on it.

• The approximately 1,000 members each pay $25 to Peskin’s organization for the privilege. That’s not where the bulk of the money comes from, however; in 2006, the nonprofit organization sold $1.2 million of National Night Out merchandise — caps, T-shirts etc. — with a profit of $523,000. ...Sen. Arlen Specter used to sponsor a federal subsidy of $296,000 (taxpayer money). But when he found out about Peskin’s exorbitant salary, Specter withdrew his support.

“It makes no sense that I make so much less than he,” said Specter, whose salary as a U.S. senator is $162,500.

National Night Out is next Tuesday, Aug. 5.