By Joanne Degnan, Managing Editor
ROBBINSVILLE — The Township Council voted 3-1 to approve the 2012 municipal salary ordinance June 28 after a sometimes raucous public comment period that saw residents and former council members clash with the mayor.
Mayor Dave Fried said that people in his administration were being “compensated appropriately” and produced a chart that he said showed he was spending less money in the township administrator’s office and engineer’s office than in 2009.
The crowd apparently had its doubts.
”Dave, you know I was all for you, but you’ve taken the wrong road,” Edinburg-Windsor Road resident Rich Cruser told Mayor Fried. “You’ve lost control of the salaries in this township.”
Mr. Cruser singled-out the $159,681 salary for the Tim McGough, the former township administrator/engineer, who now serves as both the township engineer/director of community and economic development.
He also took issue with the $20,000 raise for Police Chief Marty Masseroni that is retroactive to the May 1 retirement of Fire Director John Archer. The ordinance says the police chief’s $126,955 salary will be $146,955 for as long as he concurrently serves as fire director.
”I don’t think that Marty should be running both the Fire Department and the Police Department,” Mr. Cruser said. “He’s got enough to do with the Police Department.”
Patriot Drive resident Sonja Walter asked then-Council President Chris Ciaccio if the positions of police chief and fire director were part-time or full-time jobs.
”Full-time,” responded Ms. Ciaccio.
”How does one person do two full-time jobs?” Ms. Walter asked.
”He’s been doing it,” Ms. Ciaccio replied.
”So for three years we paid a full-time fire director $74,000 to do the job? Why were we doing that?”
Ms. Walter, a former council member who often clashes with Mayor Fried at council meetings, said that if the mayor wants to raise the chief’s salary because he is one of the lowest paid chiefs in the region, then he should do that without resorting to “games.” She predicted the police chief’s salary would remain at the $146,955 level even if a fire director was hired in the future.
”It’s just a way to get people into a position … and then a year or so later on we change back, give them the one job, and leave the salary where it is,” Ms. Walter said.
Later on in the meeting Mayor Fried addressed the issues the residents had raised and strenuously defended the raise for the police chief.
”We have the lowest paid police chief,” Mayor Fried said. “Yes, we had a (fire) director and yes we had some challenges when the director was there, but who uncovered those challenges? The police chief,” he said.
”We have a police chief that makes less money than our lieutenants and a police chief that makes less money than our sergeants,” Mayor Fried added. “It is unfair and it is inappropriate.”
The mayor pointed to charts showing that municipal taxes were the smallest component of the property tax bill and asked why the people who complain week after week about municipal spending didn’t go to school board meetings to complain about a school tax increase that was significantly larger. (The municipal tax increase for a home assessed at the township average is $54 for 2012, compared to a $177 school tax increase for the same average assessed home).
The vote to approve the salary ordinance was 3-1 Councilman Rich Levesque voted no and Councilwoman Sheree McGowan was absent.

