TOWNSHIP COMMITTEE VOTES ITSELF A RAISE - THE FIRST IN TWO DECADES

The Township Committee quietly gave itself a raise at Tuesday night's meeting.

But it was the first in 20 years.

As part of its consent agenda, passed 5-0, was a long list of salary adjustments for Township employees.

Among them was a raise, from $3,858 per year to $4,000, for each of the TC members.

TC member Jerry Ryan said this marks the first such stipend increase since 1995.

Mayor Vic Deluca said via email the TC, "just decided to minimally increase the amount to reflect the increased cost associate with serving, primarily tickets and contributions to civic events."

Deluca first proposed the raise at a January budget meeting, in which he stated, "I suggest that we try to bring this up to a flat $4,000 a piece. I don't think people run for office to make any money here, but I think our costs are going up for various activities ... I think there is some value to what we do."

The TC voted, 4-1, in January to include the raise in the budget plan, but had to formally approve the individual stipends and salaries in a separate item approved Tuesday.

TC member Marlon Brownlee voted against the raise in January.

He told us this week via email that, "I felt that if we were going to ask the various departments of the township to limit their increases so we could stay within an overall 2% increase despite their rising costs, then we (the TC) should do the same even though the total amount of our salaries was only a small amount in the total budget."

But he said he voted for the resolution on Tuesday because he did not want to vote against the other salaries on the resolution.