Committee Members Will Get Paid in 2012

Committee members, with the exception of Mayor Mark Dykoff, opted to take a salary this year, Dykoff said.

Each of the members will be getting paid $135 a week, or $7,020 a year, for serving on the committee.

“We’ve been getting criticism over the last six to eight months [for waiving the salaries in the past],” committeeman Gary Quinn said. “Some were getting concerned.”

The decision was ultimately up to each individual committee member, Dykoff said. Dykoff chose not to take the salary since he is a state employee.

“At the end of last year, I spoke to each committeeperson about reinstituting salaries,” said Quinn who was mayor in 2011. “It made sense to do it only if it was a unified thing…Everyone was agreeable that we would go back on the books.”

The salaries were waived in 2010 (partially) and 2011 when the committee had been considering a furlough plan to makeup for its budget shortfall, he said.

“Our position was that we couldn’t take a salary and expect our staff to give up money,” Quinn said. “We thought we had to lead by example.”

The turning point for Quinn was when a resident in mid-December approached him, he said. Quinn was told that the committee was actually underpaid and the resident was concerned that if the members continued to waive the salary, there would be less everyday people as candidates in the future.

“The everyday person wouldn’t have the incentive to take a position anymore,” Quinn said. The individual was also concerned that public employees or people who are “well-off” who cannot relate to the workingman would run the committee.

Committeeman Sean Sharkey said the ordinance for the salary was already on the books for 2012.

“Last year we made the active effort not to take [the salary],” he said. “No extra effort was taken this year.”

Sharkey had a similar experience to Quinn where concerned citizens had approached him, he said.

“Throughout the course of the year, a lot of people from both sides of the aisle came up saying that I was crazy to take the job without a paycheck,” Sharkey said. “I do work an hourly rate at my job at Shoprite. When I do take off for meetings, I unfortunately do lose part of my paycheck. It’s nice to have a supplement.”

But where will the $28K in committee salaries come from?

"We don't know yet until we look at the budget," Dykoff said. "We start every year with a new budget."

When the committee began making cuts in the budget two years ago, they then determined to waive the salaries, he said.

"The budget hasn't been worked on yet," Dykoff said. "Nothing's set in stone. We can still turn it around."

The township's chief financial officer is currently working on a temporary budget, which includes committee salaries, he said. Once all the figures are in place and it is determined that services can be maintained or need to be cut, the committee will make a decision regarding salaries.

"As we get deeper into the budget process, we'll determine what we need to do," he said.