By carolyn o’connell
Staff Writer
LONG BRANCH — Instead of losing a 14-month employee, the city has switched his job title.
Michael F. Muscillo was hired in May of 2001 as an assistant business administrator, but is now working under the title of confidential aide to Mayor Adam Schneider.
Despite the change in title, he is basically doing the same work, according to city Business Administrator Howard H. "Chubby" Woolley Jr.
According to both Schneider and Woolley, Muscillo has done a great job in fulfilling his duties as a city employee.
The need for a change in Muscillo’s title came about as a result of the state finding that he did not meet the required qualifications for the assistant business administrator post.
In May of 2002, shortly after he began working for the city, the state’s Department of Personnel Merit System Board found Muscillo did not meet the minimum requirements in experience for the open-competitive examination for assistant business administrator.
Muscillo, represented by the city’s labor attorney, James J. Plosia Jr., an attorney with Apruzzese, McDermott, Mastro & Murphy, Warren, appealed that decision.
That appeal was denied by the board in October of 2002.
"We were not going to let him go over bureaucracy," Schneider said, in explaining the change in Muscillo’s title.
According to Muscillo, the change in his job title came at the beginning of the year.
Muscillo’s salary of $46,913 was not adjusted after the change in position.
Instead, he was given a raise of $1,994, because of the time and service he had given the city, according to Woolley.
State regulation requires an assistant business administrator to possess four years of management experience within four functions
Those functions include setting program or organizational goals and objectives, establishing organizational structure, setting policy, and developing and operating procedural guidelines.
An assistant business administrator must also be able to direct the work of the organization through subordinate levels of supervision.
The candidate must also possess a bachelor’s degree in an appropriate discipline or be able to substitute work experience that relates to the field.
In Muscillo’s application to the board, he indicated that he possessed a bachelor’s degree and listed experience as a provisional assistant business administrator, an associate quality control technician and a customer account representative.
Muscillo also is attending Monmouth University working toward a master’s degree in business administration.
He is projected to graduate in 2005.
The state ruled that Muscillo’s experience as an associate quality control technician and a customer account representative did not count as experience related to the assistant business administrator’s duties.
Plosia argued the counts of education and experience that did apply, and that Muscillo should get credit for the work he has completed toward earning his master’s degree.
Plosia noted that when Muscillo was hired on a provisional appointment pending an examination, the NJDOP did not challenge his experience.
Plosia suggested that, in order to get away from the "one size fits all" evaluation of education and experience, the NJDOP should administer a formal examination for the title to allow Muscillo to compete for the position he has held.