Residents, pols criticize mayor for recent vacation time
BY COLLEEN LUTOLF
Staff Writer
Can you ever have too much vacation time?If you’re a Laurelton Mobile Home Park resident talking about the mayor of Brick, the answer is yes, you can.
The amount of vacation time Mayor Joseph C. Scarpelli has taken recently seems to have bothered the mobile home park residents so much that they decided to hand out at a recent Township Council meeting cartoons depicting Scarpelli relaxing in swim trunks near the Florida seaside.
The drawing depicts Scarpelli relaxing on a chaise lounge in Florida, a martini glass close at hand, while residents at the mobile home park walk around with gas masks on.
Words like “poison” and “cancer” surround the residents while Scarpelli basks in the sun; a yacht sits on the horizon with the word “Morris” – the last name of the mobile home park’s owner and well-known developer, Jack Morris, etched on its side.
The mobile home park is one of several sites throughout the state where Morris dumped recycled concrete fill he received for free from the demolished Ford Motor Co.’s Edison plant. The material is suspected to contain unsafe levels of PCBs (polychlorinated biphenyls).
“We wanted to let people know the mayor’s always on vacation,” said mobile home park resident Bonnye Spino last week. “We can’t get any help in this town, and we’re sitting back here with the poison while he’s sitting on the beach enjoying himself.”
Although copies of the Scarpelli caricature didn’t make it far at the council meeting – a Scarpelli supporter threw them in the trash before the March council meeting began – the mobile home park residents are not the only Brick residents who have noticed Scarpelli’s recent absences.
If Scarpelli misses a council meeting, Republican council members are quick to point it out, addressing Township Business Administrator Scott MacFadden as the township’s “acting mayor,” which he is when Scarpelli is absent.
“If [Scarpelli] feels Scott MacFadden can run the town when he’s not around, that’s fine,” said Council Vice President Stephen C. Acropolis. “If Joe Scarpelli wants to spend time in Florida, he should resign his mayoralship and appoint someone else and go to Florida.”
Scarpelli estimated he has taken three weeks of vacation since he was re-elected to a fourth term in November.
“I make my own schedule,” he said. “I’m not on a clock. It may seem like a lot [of time] to them because I might miss a public meeting. I think I’m here enough. Things are moving, the budget’s been done. My staff and department heads know their jobs. I am in constant communication wherever I am, either using the cell phone, computer or fax machine.”
When asked how much vacation time Scarpelli has taken since he was re-elected in November, MacFadden said he didn’t know.
“We don’t keep track of that,” he said.
The mayor of Brick earns $52,000 annually, as set by a 2000 ordinance.
Brick Township code empowers the mayor to appoint and remove individuals to boards, offices and positions; assign space in public buildings and places for township or township employee use; and transfer those assets as he sees fit. Nothing in the law outlining the mayor’s salary or duties pertains to vacation time.
“I don’t have a contract,” Scarpelli said.
Scarpelli takes vacation whenever he “feels like it,” he said. “In two, three weeks, I’ll be taking more time.”
Questioning his vacation time is another political tactic employed by the local GOP, Scarpelli said.
“Don’t make an issue where there’s nothing,” he said. “It’s just more political rhetoric trying to embarrass me. Basically, the Republicans are very good at trying to get me to take my eye off the ball.”
Newly elected Councilman Joseph Sangiovanni has also taken time off from his public duties since he took office in January, the mayor said.
Scarpelli said he ran into Sangiovanni in a Florida airport, yet no one is questioning Sangiovanni about his vacation time.
“He’s only been a councilman since Jan. 1 and he’s already been away,” Scarpelli said. “He went away two weeks.”
“I had a vacation planned before I was elected, so I took it,” Sangiovanni said. “I’ve not been away as much as the mayor. The mayor is a full-time salary. We’re not full-time. I don’t know any employees who get the amount of vacation time he’s got.”
Township Council members earn $8,000 annually plus health benefits; the council president earns $8,500 annually, according to a township ordinance.
Sangiovanni said he’s missed one caucus meeting and one public meeting since he’s taken office.
“I just figure people are entitled to vacation time,” said lone Democratic Councilwoman Kathy Russell. “It helps refresh people. I don’t have any criticism right now. [Scarpelli] has to use his own discretion as to how much time he takes. I’m not going to sit in judgment of him.”
Scarpelli has a cell phone and “he’s reachable today with computers, faxes and telephones,” she said. “He can be contacted if there’s an emergency. He’s only as far away as the phone.”
Russell said she sees nothing wrong with Sangiovanni taking vacation either.
“I’m not going to criticize a council member,” she said. “I think we all have to use our own judgments. Although I’m probably not a person who goes on vacation a lot. I’m more of a homebody who has worldly experience.”
Scarpelli said his job entails nights and weekends.
“It’s not just during the day,” he said. “Just because I’m not at my desk doesn’t mean the job’s not getting done.”
He used as an example his attendance and stated comments during a public hearing in Lacey opposing the relicensing of the Oyster Creek nuclear generator.
“I think it’s important to note that I more than put in my time on this job,” he said.