MILLSTONE – A typo on an ordinance has caused some confusion over the mayor’s salary.
The Township Committee introduced an ordinance pertaining to the salaries of township officials and employees at its Jan. 2 meeting. The committee voted 4-1 to introduce the ordinance, with Committeeman Elias Abilheira casting the dissenting vote.
The ordinance listed the mayor’s salary as $7,821 and each committee member’s salary as $7,112. However, Mayor Nancy Grbelja said last week that when she double-checked the resolution, the mayor’s salary was listed incorrectly. According to Grbelja, the mayor’s salary should read $7,321, not $7,821.
Grbelja said that the mayor’s salary has been $7,321 for the past three years and that it would not change in 2008.
Abilheira said that he voted against the salary ordinance because he feels that there is no longer justification for having Township Committee salaries “so much higher than those of similar towns.”
Noting that the cost of administration in Millstone “is still too high,” Abilheira said the township needs to adjust its salaries because it now employs an administrator, an in-house chief financial officer, a Department of Public Works superintendent and “more support staff than at any time in history.”
Abilheira said that when he was mayor in 2005, he reduced the mayor’s salary from $7,821 to $7,321 and also eliminated longevity pay for elected officials. He said the other members of the governing body at that time refused his request to reduce their salaries to be more in step with similar towns.
While Abilheira claimed that Grbelja bumped her salary back up to $7,821 in 2006, she said he is incorrect and noted that the Township Committee had agreed in 2005 to reduce the mayor’s salary by $500 and to eliminate longevity for all.
“As mayor, I was paid $7,321 for years 2006 and 2007,” Grbelja said. “There is no increase for 2008, and [I] will be paid the same amount as in the other years.
According to Township Clerk Maria Dellasala, the mayor received a salary of $7,321 in 2005, 2006 and 2007, and Township Committee members received $7,112 each in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Dellasala also noted that in 2005 the committee voted to decrease the mayor’s salary from $7,821 to $7,321.
“However, if you look at our salary resolution from 2006 and 2007, it states that the mayor’s salary was $7,821,” Dellasala said. “That is a typo error.”
Dellasala said that she checked the mayor’s W-2 forms to confirm that the township paid the mayor a $7,321 salary in 2005, 2006 and 2007.
Grbelja said that Abilheira has not communicated with committee members or township employees regarding the salary ordinance. She said that if he had he would have known that there was no intention to increase the mayor’s salary for 2008 and that the committee would have caught the mistake on the ordinance.
Grbelja said her research has indicated that Millstone’s salaries are not out of line with salaries in other municipalities of similar size.
“In fact, many of our salaries are lower,” she said.
Grbelja continued, “Over the past three years, we have been able to attract employees with higher skill levels by offering a fair wage. As personnel liaison, I am comfortable with the wages we pay our employees and am pleased with their productivity and competence.”
The committee will hold a second reading and public hearing on the salary ordinance at its Feb. 6 meeting.
Neighboring Upper Freehold Township, which has a population of approximately 6,500, pays its mayor a $5,460 annual salary and each committee member a $4,956 annual salary, according to TownshipAdministrator Barbara Bascom.
In Roosevelt, which has a population of approximately 1,000, the mayor and council members receive no compensation.
According to Dellasala, theMonmouth County Planning Board estimated that Millstone had a population of approximately 13,152 in 2005.