Ordinance recommends more raises for County bigwigs
TRENTON » The rich get richer, and the poor [Republicans] are left complaining.
An ordinance was introduced at Thursday’s meeting that would give salary bumps to a dozen of the county’s top officials, including Mercer County Executive Brian Hughes.
The ordinance would bump up Hughes’ salary to $174,133 from $170,719.
Also, the 2 percent pay increases for department heads, if passed, would be retroactive to the start of the year, according to a copy of the proposed ordinance obtained by The Trentonian.
A draft of the proposal also had freeholders getting raises, but that was apparently nixed prior to introduction at the meeting. The introduction of the pay raise ordinance didn’t generate any discussion.
Freeholders reminded the sparse crowd in an attendance a second reading and public hearing would take place at the next meeting Sept. 13.
In an interview before the meeting, Lisa Richford, chairwoman of the Mercer County Republican Committee, called the proposed raises “déjà vu” for Mercer County.
“I’m not surprised they’re doing it again before the election with the county executive,” she said.
She called the proposed raises an “annual rite of passage” for bigwigs who continue to pad their pockets while “80 percent of Mercer County employees are working without contracts.”
“They’re all gonna vote for it. They all gonna rubberstamp it and bless it. There’s no transparency,” Richford said.
The original proposal included increases for county freeholders, up from $29,763 to $30,358, and a flat $2,000 bump for the freeholder chair Lucylle Walter, according to a June 14 memorandum sent by personnel director Raissa Walker.
But freeholder raises didn’t appear as part of the proposed ordinance reflected in Thursday’s agenda.
Under the proposed ordinance change, Walker’s annual pay would jump from $144,696 to $147,590, recommended to keep in line with county employees’ collective bargaining agreements, she stated in the memo.
Raises doled out like candy would also go to Administrator Andrew Mair, Deputy County Administrator and Parks Director Aaron Watson, who also oversees the transportation and infrastructure department, Mercer County Warden Charles Ellis, Human Services Director Marygrace Billek, Planning Director Leslie Floyd, Economic Development and Sustainability Director Anthony Carabelli Jr., Clerk Paula Sollami-Covello, Sheriff Jack Kemler and Surrogate Diane Gerofsky.
Walker, chairwoman of the Trenton Democratic Committee, is the former girlfriend of fired airport boss Stanley Patterson, whose alleged sexual misconduct was described in a flurry of lawsuits targeting the county.
Patterson was fired once allegations became public that he propositioned women on the job for sexual favors. He has denied those claims and threatened to take legal action against the women for allegedly defaming him.
Although Warden Ellis was investigated, and eventually cleared, by Mercer County prosecutors when lawsuits raised similar allegations of sexual misconduct and retaliation against jail workers that got the airport boss dismissed from his post, he had been lauded by Hughes as one of the county’s “finest” employees. And his already-handsome annual salary would get boosted to $147,590 if the ordinance passes, like it has in the past despite Republicans raising hell about it.
County officials have been so bold about handing out pay raises to bigwigs, they actually did so illegally when numerous department heads twice received bumps in 2016.
Freeholders voted to add the six department heads to the list of those covered by the adopted raise ordinance, part of a 17-month period in which a combined 8-percent in raises were approved for top officials.
“Who do you take this to?” Richford said. “The state Attorney General? The FBI? That’s the culture that is down there.”