By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Municipal offices in Princeton were closed on Black Friday, as government officials stood by their decision to give employees a paid day off.
“It’s typically a day people are hoping to spend with their families,” Mayor Liz Lempert said Monday at her press conference when asked about it. “And so it’s to have people come in but then have it be a day when there’s nobody’s answering their calls or they’re not able to get their work done because everyone else is off, it just doesn’t seem like a good use of resources in that way.”
The town was unable to say how much the paid day off cost taxpayers this year. The mayor noted that police officers and “others” worked Friday, so not everyone was off.
“I don’t think there’s a real direct cost,” Council President Jenny Crumiller said at the mayor’s press conference.
Other towns have the same policy as Princeton when it comes to Black Friday. West Windsor, Plainsboro and Montgomery municipal offices were closed, for example. The Princeton Public Library was open Friday, but Mayor Lempert saw a difference.
“Going to the library, I think, is different than coming into the municipal building,” she said.
“I think a lot more members of the public use the library than come into our building for services, especially on that day,” Crumiller said. “You could look it as … good (and) efficient to let them have a day off that not much is going to get done anyway.”
Mayor Lempert said she thought Black Friday is a federal holiday, which it is not. Back in 2010, Gov. Chris Christie opted not to give state workers Black Friday off, only to lose the case before the Public Employment Relations Commission. But the state imposed the no-black Friday off the following year.
