All but one member of the Harrison Township Committee approved an ordinance during their Nov. 4 meeting that establishes new maximums for the salaries, compensation and wages of township employees.
The measure amends a previous ordinance and specifies factors in the new maximums for positions at the township’s wastewater treatment facility. The maximums were raised by 2%, according to Mayor Louis Manzo, the township’s average.
“We had conversations with our wastewater treatment facility department to slot in a little bit higher rate so we could attract in some more applicants,” said Township Administrator Dennis Chambers.
“Basically,” said Manzo, “it’s a procedure that we have to go through sometimes when you have to push up the maximum because people fall within that range.”
A public hearing on the new measure prompted one resident to raise concerns about how much some employees would be paid. At a meeting on Oct. 21, the township provided a list of the salary ranges for different positions.
“When we have these maxes set,” said Manzo, “we could make the case to raise every max to an unforeseen number. If it gets to $50,000, lets make that max $80,000 or something like that. You incrementally move these up as needed.
“It’s usually in relation to A, if it’s cops, because they have a separate collective bargaining agreement,” he added. “Their percentage increase ends up being the average of almost what we do anyway, 2%, and then for regular employees, (they) have the normal 2% increase, which could take several years. But eventually we hit close to the max.”
Maximums for municipal employees are compared with those of workers in similar roles at the county level. Not everyone will receive an increase at once, since they are already at the maximum currently allowed.
“The mins and maxes don’t really dictate what anybody is making,” Chambers explained. “We are set in a way so that we may go through several budget cycles to allow for that cost-of-living increase that we typically get a couple percent every year. It doesn’t mean that we have to, that just means it’s our history. The max just means that, by statute, somebody can’t be in a job classification and make more than the max.
“If we see that they’re going to go over, as it was in these last two ordinances that we’re passing, if we see we’re going to go over that max, we need to adjust it because of a job increase due to extra duties or, more than likely, the cost-of-living increase,” Chambers added. “We don’t go over that max because we can’t go outside that.”
Deputy Mayor Lawrence Moore, who was late to the meeting, missed the vote on the ordinance. The next committee meeting is scheduled for 7 p.m. Monday at the township municipal building.
