Politics & Government

Quattrocchi Objects to Garwood Council Ban on Longevity Pay

Mayor says she will fight plan to eliminate automatic pay raises for longtime non-union employees.

Garwood council passed a plan Tuesday night to eliminate automatic pay raises for any non-union municipal employee who's worked for the town for at least five years. The decision, reached by a 4-2 vote, affects the salaries of eight borough employees – four police dispatchers and four borough office employees.

The council voted 4-2 to abandon the practice that gives automatic raises to non-union municipal employees after their fifth year of employment by the borough. Mayor Patricia Quattrocchi, however, vowed not to support the decision at the meeting, setting up another council vote in January.

At the last council meeting, borough administrator Christina Ariemma said the benefit currently costs Garwood around $7,000 a year. The eight employees who currently receive longevity pay will not lose any raises they've earned to date (the pay will be folded into their salaries at the current level they receive it), but will not get any more longevity bumps in pay. Borough employees who have yet to reach their five-year anniversary as a municipal employee will not be eligible for the perk.

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The ordinance drew complaints from residents 

Tuesday night, councilmen Keith Sluka and Jim Mathieu, who both served on the Laws and Licenses committee, voiced their support for eliminating longevity pay. They responded to comments from residents and said that the 2 percent cap on municipal tax hikes instituted by Governor Chris Christie forces every local government to make hard decisions when it comes to cutting costs.

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"I have to comment about how offensive it is that we’re crying about raises when we have taxpayers out there losing their jobs, losing their homes, looking at their home values go down while their taxes go up," Mathieu said. "'I don't know what my raise will be.' Guess what? Welcome to America. None of us do. You know what your raise is going to be if you’re a non-union employee in Garwood if this passes? Your raise is going to be what we can afford. What the taxpayers can afford."

Some residents voiced opposition to the ordinance, claiming that it violates promises made to employees. Others suggested that there is no system in place to deal with raises without longevity pay in place, a concern echoed by Mayor Quattrocchi and Councilwoman Sara Todisco.

Resident Fred McCarrick said he worries that the raise system will become a political issue if council members can determine who gets salary hikes.

"It seems like this was rushed through," said McCarrick. "It seems like you didn't take time to think about how you're going to compensate people in the future. ... It was this way to take politics out of it and you just put politics back in it again."

Sluka said that the ordinance and pay raises are two different issues.

"It’s an awful decision and none of us here feel great about it," he said. "But we have to know that it’s the right decision. It’s better that everybody’s affected than some people get laid off because we gave someone else longevity. ... The message is 2 percent. If we go above that, people get laid off. And you know what people love in this town? They love service. And so we’re not going to cut service, we’re going to have to cut people. And so it becomes a municipality that has a big payroll but no employees."

Minutes before the vote on the ordinance, Mayor Patricia Quattrocchi was asked her opinion on longevity pay by Debbie McCarthy, wife of former mayor Dennis McCarthy. Mayor Quattrocchi stated that she was opposed to the ordinance and that even if it were adopted by council she would not sign it.

"Having worked in the field of employment for over 25 years, I'm very sensitive to what people have agreed to when they're hired," said Mayor Quattrocchi. "I do not believe in taking away things from employees that they have agreed to. if the ordinance is passed I can tell you I do not intend to sign it."

Councilman Mathieu then questioned Mayor Quattrocchi for changing her opinion on the matter. Mathieu read from a June 8 email the mayor had written to the Laws and Licenses committee, in which she wrote, "I would certainly want to rid ourselves of longevity as it is not acceptable to me."

"I feel that Councilman Sluka and the Laws and Licenses committee got hung out to dry on this. You met opposition and your position evolved," said Mathieu.

Quattrocchi disputed that claim, saying, "I had instructed Laws and Licenses to take a look at the codes. ... I did inform Councilman Sluka at that time that what came out of your committee was not really what I quite had in mind. I don't think what is in that email really thoroughly expresses my full feelings on the situation."

New Jersey statue dictates that when a mayor receives an ordinance to be signed that he or she, within 10 days of receiving the ordinance from the clerk, must either sign it or deliver it back to council with a letter stating his or her objections to it. If Mayor Quattrocchi objects and returns the ordinance to council with her statements, the council will then vote on the ordinance again and must pass it by a two-thirds majority.

Councilwoman Sara Todisco and Councilman Victor DeFillipo voted against the ordinance, while Councilmen Mathieu, Sluka, Timothy Hak and Louis Petruzzelli voted in favor of eliminating longevity pay. If no councilmember changes his or her vote, the ordinance will be approved and override the mayor's veto. The next council meeting is scheduled for Jan. 8, 2012.


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