Garwood Council Votes Tonight on Longevity Pay

On tonight's Garwood council meeting agenda are two competing ordinances regarding longevity pay. Councilmembers will have to decide which of the two ordinances they support (if either), as both cannot be adopted.

Ordinance 12-02 is the ordinance originally passed in December that would eliminate the system completely but would fold the longevity pay into the base salary of the current recipients, ensuring that no employee's income would be reduced. New hires and current hires who had yet to receive longevity pay would not be entitled to the benefit.

Thewould eliminate longevity pay for new hires but would allow those receiving longevity pay (and current employees in line to receive it after five years of service) to be grandfathered into the benefit. Under the new ordinance, only new hires would be denied longevity pay.

Longevity pay begins after five years and increases annually. Currently, eight borough employees – four police dispatchers and four office employees – receive the benefit.

The debate over repealing longevity has been long and acrimonious, beginning this summer. The mayor's veto would have set up the council for another vote to possibly override her, but because the ordinance was passed at the last meeting of the year, the council was forced to again introduce the ordinance to the newly reorganized council.

At the Councilman Jim Mathieu took issue with how the longevity repeal ordinance was handled, suggesting foul play regarding the delays in introducing and voting on the ordinance. Mayor Quattrocchi took exception to Mathieu's accusations.

Tonight's meeting is open to the public and begins at 7 p.m. in Borough Hall.