JACKSON — An ordinance that establishes the salary range for more than 160 municipal positions, including five new title creations for existing personnel and a handful of new part-time openings, was recently introduced by the Jackson Township Council.
A public hearing on the ordinance is scheduled for Feb. 26, after which the council may vote to adopt the ordinance, which establishes the minimum and maximum pay for all employees in the township.
According to the ordinance, the three highest-paid individuals in Town Hall will remain at the top of the list: business administrator (salary range of $95,000 to $132,994), municipal engineer ($85,000 to $113,615) and chief financial officer ($54,500 to $98,822).
Other prominent positions listed in the ordinance include the tax assessor ($54,500 to $100,799) and township clerk ($54,500 to $95,674).
Although municipal employees saw a slight decrease in their maximum pay in 2012, every one of those previously mentioned positions saw an incremental increase this year. Minimum pay levels stayed the same.
For example, the business administrator’s salary cap in 2012 was $119,600 and this year it is $132,994.
In the Jackson Police Department, salaries also saw an overall up-tick in pay after a year of remaining largely unchanged. As per the ordinance, the chief of police is the highest-paid law enforcement official with a salary range of $95,500 to $179,758.
Police captains and lieutenants are paid between $152,456 and $163,182, and $136,121 and $143,142, respectively. Police sergeants are paid between $121,537 and $125,563. Officers below the rank of sergeant are paid between $45,143 and $110,143.
Police salaries are generally determined through collective bargaining agreements between the municipality and the unions that represent police officers.
As for the township’s part-time positions, the salary ranges for the mayor ($8,000 to $54,000) and members of Township Council ($8,000 to $10,000) stayed the same as in 2012.
Although the salary ranges are defined in the ordinance, the ordinance does not denote how much each employee actually makes.
Included in the ordinance are five new full-time positions: engineering aide ($32,564 to $53,470), municipal recycling coordinator ($52,693 to $64,964), purchasing assistant ($32,564 to $53,470), senior computer service technician ($30,500 to $59,050), and supervisor of public works ($57,823 to $64,100).
Three new part-time positions were also listed: affirmative action compliance officer ($1,250 to $2,000), assistant recycling coordinator ($2,500 to $5,000) and public information officer ($2,500 to $5,000).
According to Business Administrator Jose Torres, the new positions represent an increase “no greater than $29,000 to $30,000” in funds that are “within the budget.”
Torres pointed out that the 2013 salary ordinance removed classifications that were no longer needed.
Some of the full-time positions, including the engineering aide (which came about through collective bargaining), the purchasing assistant and the public works supervisor, are classification changes for existing personnel, according to Torres.
“The senior computer service technician is a title change with a salary adjustment,” he said.
Torres said the municipal recycling coordinator represents a consolidation of the assistant administrative clerk and recycling coordinator positions.
“The consolidation of these titles will allow the township to draw down 100 percent of the salary from the recycling tonnage grant, so we will actually be moving that salary wage item from the treasury to the tonnage grant,” he said.
As for the three part-time positions, Torres said they were created to “fall in line with the township and other government entities,” referencing the affirmative action compliance officer’s responsibility to assist the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Although the salary ordinance outlines these new positions and classifications, some of them are not filled, nor are there any plans to fill some of them at the moment.
“If they were to be filled, the dollars will be drawn down from the community grant as well,” Torres said.