New PfH Retail Recruiter Makes 14k Less Than Predecessor

The annual salary for the new retail recruiter for the Partnership for Haddonfield, the borough's tax-funded business improvement district, is $14,000 less than her predecessor.

Remi Fortunato is scheduled to make $30,000 annually for 21 hours of work per week. Her job is to recruit new businesses to Haddonfield and to help retain existing businesses. , who was the retail coordinator for the PfH, made $44,257 for 28 hours of work per week.

Fortunato's salary is even less than the $32,500 listed for the position on the PfH budget on April 4, the day she was hired. A request for an explanation for why her salary is less than the amount listed on the budget was not immediately provided by a PfH media representative.

Fortunato is scheduled to make $27 per hour, nearly $3 per hour less than her predecessor, even after factoring in the reduced amount of hours she is scheduled to work.

"I don't want to say it was slim pickings but it didn't seem to me like there were six great candidates," Jeff Kasko, a PfH board member and one of three borough commissioners, said last month. "That's not the feedback I got from everyone after the first round of interviews. The bigger issue was to get someone who lived closer, was from this area and had knowledge of Haddonfield and doing business here, with real-estate experience. It's kind of a hard mix."

Fortunato is a Haddonfield resident who formerly owned Remi's Cafe in a space that is now occupied by restaurant. She operated the cafe from 1991 to 2001 and sold if for a profit, she said last week. She understands the needs of businesses in Haddonfield, she said.

Kasko endorsed Fortunato on April 4 when the PfH board unanimously approved her hire. She starts work on April 15.

The PfH budget was be reduced from $355,046 to $300,000 this year. The surplus, the amount carried over from year to year, dropped to $18,000 this year, down from $67,346 last year.

PfH officials said the surplus has been shrinking for several years because expenses continue to rise and they have not increased the tax rate used to fund the district. The two-tier, tax rate is based on the value of a business.