Tonight: First Garwood Council Meeting Since Clerk's Lawsuit, Increased Security

Though there are no ordinances on tonight's agenda (read it in PDF form in our gallery, right), tonight's meeting will be the first council meeting since two developments in Garwood last week.

against the borough and its officials, alleging harassment, intimidation and illegal salary cuts. The suit, filed with NJ Superior Court on Jan. 31, specifically targets Councilman Jim Mathieu. The suit states Mathieu led an effort to "get rid of" Ariemma, and “prompted” and “promoted” borough salary changes that would affect her. Mathieu says the majority of these allegations are not true. Read our full story on the suit, .

Also, those attending the meetings will be subject to increased security. Garwood is upgrading security measures at Garwood Borough Hall in part due to a January security incident, according to a release from Garwood Police Chief Bruce Underhill. The completed upgrades will include new cameras and metal detectors, but until a vender is contracted, Underhill says precautions will include an officer posted in the hallway with a metal detection wand. Anyone entering a court session or council meeting will be subject to this security check.

Underhill says the decision comes in part because of an incident that took place during the Jan. 24 council meeting where a posted copy of an ordinance on that night's agenda was slashed by an unknown person with a sharp object. The vandalism was discovered on the morning of Jan. 25.

The slashed document was a copy of Quattrocchi proposed the ordinance as an alternative to ordinance 12-02, which would eliminate the automatic pay raises for current employees as well as new hires. Quattrocchi's ordinance would eliminate the benefit only for new hires.

Though Underhill says these upgrades have been planned for some time and that they have nothing to do with Ariemma's suit, the suit contains allegations about a specific fight that happened in the hallway outside of her office in Borough Hall.

The repeal of longevity pay is also part of Ariemma's suit, which claims the repeal is a violation of a state statute prohibiting municipalities from reducing the salary of the borough clerk, tax assessor, tax collector and Chief Financial Officer.

The meeting begins at 7 p.m. at Borough Hall. The public is welcome to attend.