By Greg Forester, Staff Writer
WEST WINDSOR — A controversial ordinance giving Township Council members a 50 percent raise in 2009 appears headed for a May 19 vote, after three members voted for its introduction Monday night.
The measure is opposed by one of the council’s five members, Linda Geevers, and by Mayor Shing-Fu Hsueh, whose salary it would also increase.
The ordinance proposes to replace portions of an expense voucher and reimbursement system, which council members have described as confusing.
The mayor, in opposing the raises, argued that the expense reimbursements they would replace have so far not exceeded $100 in reimbursements a year for any council member. The ordinance would raise council salaries from their current $4,941 to $7,500 annually and Mayor Hsueh’s salary from $17,685 to $25,000. The mayor’s vehicle allowance would remain.
Voting to introduce the measure on Monday were council members Charles Morgan, Council President Will Anklowitz, Councilman Charles Morgan and Councilwoman Heidi Kleinman. Councilman George Borek, who has endorsed the raises, was not present at the meeting.
Mr. Morgan defended the salary increases as “a move toward more open government,” saying they would end what he called a confusing and unfair process of reimbursements.
”It gets rid of politics and brings transparency,” Mr. Morgan said before the meeting on Monday. He accused Mayor Hsueh’s administration of unfairness and favoritism in the handling of expense submissions, claiming that administration officials delayed reimbursement of his expenses because of disagreements and political differences.
”I have payments pending from last year,” Mr. Morgan said.
Mayor Hsueh denied any favoritism and attributed the delays to the Township Council’s failure to create a proper policy for reimbursing costs associated with a proposed redevelopment program after enacting a resolution requiring all such costs to be submitted for council approval. The so-called “threshold resolution” was supported by Mr. Morgan and opposed by the mayor.
”We have never played favoritism,” Mayor Hsueh said. “It just happened to be redevelopment-related, and Mr. Morgan submitted the vouchers the day after passing that resolution. The business administrator did not know what to do with that,” he said.
Mayor Hsueh handed out a packet of information on the cause of the delays cited by Mr. Morgan at Monday’s meeting, which included two reimbursement submissions from Mr. Morgan. One was a $38.58 lunch date with Planning Board Chairman Marvin Gardner that included a redevelopment discussion, and another was a $57.14 conference call among officials about redevelopment finance meetings.
Also in the packet were two memos requesting council members put into place an improved reimbursement system. The memos called for the new system to better instruct administration officials on how reimbursements could be approved when the costs were associated with redevelopment.
At Monday’s meeting, Councilwoman Geevers once again spoke out against the salary proposals, citing the economic downturn and state and municipal fiscal woes. She argued for the continuation of an expense reimbursement system without the raises and disputed Mr. Morgan’ s “open government” argument.
”Openness in government is having a salary and legitimate reimbursement for expenses,” Ms. Geevers said.
As an alternative to the raises, Ms. Geevers on Monday began discussions to better organize and clarify expense reimbursement procedures for council members. The members eventually decided to continue those discussions to a later date.
According to Mr. Anklowitz, the Jan. 1, 2009 effective date of the raises is designed to delay them until after the November elections. While none of the five council seats is on the ballot this year, he said that voters who disagree with the salary increase can organize a petition drive to add a referendum on the pay raises to the November ballot. “If the voters feel this is an important issue, then they have an opportunity to do that (a referendum),” Mr. Anklowitz said.
Ms. Geevers described the referendum argument as offensive and said it would also be viewed that way by the public. “That’s one of the most arrogant moves I have seen on council in the last three years,” she said. “It shows such disrespect for the residents. It says, ‘if the residents care enough, let them go through all of the effort of a referendum.’”
During Monday’s meeting Mr. Morgan said that current pay for the part-time council positions amounts to less than minimum wage; he said that his calculations put it at around $4.75 per hour. The proposed raises would increase that to $7.21 per hour, while the New Jersey minimum wage is scheduled to increase from $7.15 to $7.25 in 2009, Mr. Anklowitz added.
Mayor Hsueh, who could veto the increases, said he would not accept a raise. A override of any veto would require four votes on the five-member council and the raise proposal already has the support of four members. The mayor said that the additional $2,500 being given to council members starting next year would also mean an additional $400 a year out of township coffers, to pay for pension, health care, and associated costs.