Democrats on the Sayreville Borough Council voted Monday to do away with paid medical benefits for elected officials in the municipality.
In response, Republican Mayor Kennedy O’Brien suggested that council members abolish their salaries, and that they stop using taxpayer money to attend annual conventions.
The issues came about after council President Thomas Pollando proposed the elimination of health benefits in order to save money. The council members agreed unanimously, and come Jan. 1, no elected official in the borough will receive taxpayer-supplemented health-care coverage.
As a result, the borough will save about $118,000 per year, according to Borough Chief Financial Officer Wayne Kronowski. That amount is equal to half a cent on the property tax rate.
“I am proud that my colleagues are willing to eliminate these benefits in order to reduce the cost of local government in the borough of Sayreville,” Pollando said in a press release. “In light of ever-rising costs and the difficult budget constraints municipalities are forced to work under, it is important for the Borough Council to get out in front of the issue of rising property taxes and find ways to save taxpayers money now.”
After the council adopted the measure, O’Brien suggested they take it one step further and eliminate their salaries, along with his own. He noted that the state will start imposing a 4-percent spending cap on all municipalities next year. With 75 percent of the budget devoted to fixed costs, officials need to take a hard look at borough expenses.
The six members of the council each earn about $5,000 per year, according to Pollando.
O’Brien described an “inequity” between the governing body and the Board of Education, whose members do not receive any compensation.
The council did not place a measure eliminating salaries on the agenda for next week’s regular meeting, but the mayor’s recommendation will be discussed by the administration and finance committee, according to Councilman Rory Zach.
“I see no reason to rush this through,” Zach said.
O’Brien also recommended that the council eliminate expenses for elected officials making the trip to the annual League of Municipalities convention in Atlantic City. He added that the trip is necessary only for department heads, professionals, and certain volunteers.
“The taxpayers pick up the hotel bills,” O’Brien said. “I haven’t gone to it in years. I send people [from various departments] there.”
O’Brien said courses provided by Rutgers University are enough for elected officials to learn about finance, ethics, building and other specialties, at no cost to the municipality.
“Atlantic City is setting a bad example as elected officials,” he said. Officials are “wined and dined” and offered dessert bars at the convention, he added. “As elected officials, we need to present ourselves in a better light. I ask that we eliminate the taxpayer expense of sending us down to Atlantic City.
“It sends a bad message to the taxpayers that, [while] we are here as guardians of their tax dollars, we’re at a party in Atlantic City on their dime,” O’Brien said.
Zach disagreed with the mayor, saying that O’Brien missed a “networking opportunity” by not attending the annual conference in Atlantic City. He added that elected officials are responsible for municipal departments and therefore should attend.
“The administration and finance committee will take your suggestions under advisement,” Zach told O’Brien.
Pollando said elected officials could pay for their own trips to Atlantic City, rather than doing it with taxpayers’ money, and O’Brien said that an ordinance or resolution stating that would be fine with him.
Zach said the committee will take its time with the matter and make an “educated decision,” but he questioned O’Brien’s motives in calling for these changes now, describing the mayor’s actions as “grandstanding.”
O’Brien made no attempt to reach out to him in advance, Zach said, adding that the mayor would instead prefer to address his concerns in a public forum.
“All of a sudden, after being on the governing body for 11 years, you are talking about doing away with our salaries,” Zach said.
O’Brien said the Board of Education “handles three and a half times as much money as we do, without the perks.”
Zach challenged O’Brien’s reference to the convention in Atlantic City as a festival. Zach characterized the conference as an opportunity for municipal officials to learn.
“Maybe if you would go, you’d have a little bit more leadership skills,” Zach told O’Brien.
Pollando told Greater Media Newspapers that borough officials make less than $100 per week.
“People have to realize the amount of driving we do and the amount of meetings and functions we attend,” Pollando said. “No, it doesn’t make anybody rich, but it’s the cost of having that position. Your dry cleaning bills, the amount of time going to all of these functions.”
Pollando said he would not oppose the elimination of the governing body’s salaries if the administration and finance committee recommend that action.
“If that is what the finance committee decides, I can live with it,” Pollando said.
Pollando said he has paid for himself when he went to past conferences in Atlantic City. He added that he went there for three of the five days of the convention.
“I paid for it myself,” Pollando said. “… I meet different people from different municipalities. We get to see their ideas, talk to different people, see what kind of equipment they use, see how they save money.”
Officials pay for their own mileage, gas and food for the convention, Pollando said.
“[The borough] pays for the night or two in the hotel,” Pollando said, “so if he is making an issue of that, to me, that’s fine.”
“If Kennedy O’Brien goes down there just for the party, that’s his call,” Pollando added. “I’m still going to go down. If I have to pay for myself, that is no problem. That is not why I’m going there. I’m not going to have fun.”
Karen Surratt, the mayor’s volunteer assistant, told Greater Media Newspapers that “the mayor fervently believes that it is a drain on taxpayer money.”
Pollando said he would oppose the elimination of health benefits for professionals such as the municipal prosecutor, judges and some part-time employees.
“[O’Brien] brought that up without even bringing that up to the professionals,” Pollando said.
Surratt said O’Brien was taken out of context in the matter involving the benefits of employees who work under 30 hours a week, such as judges and the prosecutor. According to Surratt, O’Brien called for the elimination of the health benefits of only one of the five employees who work under 30 hours a week, the recycling coordinator. She said O’Brien told all union presidents that he never intended to take away full-time benefits from borough employees.
Surratt said the Democrats did not say whether the savings from the elimination of health benefits for members of the governing body would be used for tax relief, rather than a project or another expense.
“Not one of the people on the council actually uses their benefits,” Surratt said.