PRINCETON: Relative hiring policy reviewed

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
   Princeton officials are working on a policy that would not allow the municipal administrator to formally approve hiring a relative.
   They want to avoid a repeat of what happened last year when then-acting-Township Administrator Kathy Monzo had to sign off on hiring her daughter as a secretary in the Municipal Building Department. Mayor Liz Lempert said Friday that Ms. Monzo had followed the procedure in place at the time.
   ”There was no other provision for anybody else to be able to sign off on that,” the mayor said.
   Going forward, Councilwoman Jo S. Butler, a member of the council’s Personnel Committee that has taken up the issue, said Friday that the “tentative plan” for those kinds of circumstances is for the Personnel Committee to approve the hiring. The full council will need to support that idea, however.
   Ms. Lempert said Friday that officials would have an anti-nepotism policy as part of its personnel manual.
   ”It will follow the outlines of the township policy, which means not directly supervising and not directly hiring someone who’s related to you,” the mayor said in a phone interview.
   Officials have said there are relatives of other municipal employees who work in different branches of the government.
   In Ms. Monzo’s case, she was the top civilian employee of the former township when her daughter, Jacqueline Shaddow, was hired in December as a full-time secretary at a starting salary of $38,471, albeit during a hiring freeze when the job was advertised only internally. Earlier last year, Ms. Shaddow worked for the town on a part-time basis.
   ”That’s one of things that Bob (Bruschi) is going to be working on, to clarify what happens when you’re in that situation for the administrator,” Ms.Lempert said in reference to the current town administrator. Ms. Monzo is assistant administrator and director of finance in the consolidated municipality.
   Last week, Ms. Lempert deferred to Mr. Bruschi when asked whether Ms. Shaddow was hired during a hiring freeze at a time when the Borough Council and the Township Committee were supposed to, jointly, approve full-time hires.
   ”I don’t want to get into details of this. This is more personnel territory, and it’s really for Bob to address.”
   ”Yes there was a general hiring freeze. However, in her defense the construction office was never a consolidation issue as it recommended retaining all of the staff from the two departments and it runs completely outside the realm of the municipal budget,” Mr. Bruschi said in an email Monday.
   ”Since there was a vacancy and a need she moved to post it and fill it. So technically yes the freeze continued to be in place. However, knowing what I know about the needs in the Construction Office it is highly likely I would have moved to fill the position also. Bottom line, there were some procedural details that might have been handled differently. That being said I wish I could sit here and say that I’ve never had any oversights. It is all part of a learning experience. As far as I’m concerned the issue is over.”
   Ms. Monzo had no comment Monday.
   Two other daughters worked for the township last year, both in part-time capacities. One still is in the Building Department.
   ”As far as the temp positions, they are normally left to the department head to handle in conjunction with whatever the budget allows,” Mr. Bruschi said. “Future policy changes will clarify all of this going forward and allow for less opportunity for conflict appearance.”