PETERSBURG – Upper Township’s deputy tax assessor, an 18-year employee of the township, said she was being paid the salary of a keyboarding clerk for 15 years despite being certified under her current title.
Michelle Johnson, CTA, who is listed on the township website as the deputy tax assessor, credited Business Administrator Gary DeMarzo with rectifying the matter, but asked that the governing body take a close look at new salary ordinances. DeMarzo serves as personnel director for the township.
“I ask, respectfully, for a fair and equitable study of the salaries, and I would recommend that a desk audit be conducted for every department,” Johnson told the Township Committee.
Johnson said the township has recently had about 14 employees leave their jobs, and she linked that to low morale.
“Morale has not been good in the recent years,” she said.
Johnson asked the governing body, in studying salaries, to identify disparities for long-term employees.
“There are a handful of employees in the township that I feel their salary is not commensurate – my salary being one of the those,” she said.
Johnson asked if it were not proper to have the committee member who represents a department sit in on meetings where employees are evaluated for advancement. She said there was no committee member present in several meetings related to her position or advancement within the tax assessor’s office.
Committeeman Curtis Corson said evaluations and raises normally fall to the personnel director, with the guidance and overall review by the committee. Corson, speaking by telephone, said Johnson’s review “probably wasn’t done in timely matter.” He said that when they are, the employee being evaluated isn’t always happy.
Johnson said she is still proud to be a public servant for Upper Township, and will promote the professional and personal benefits of living there, but found “the procedural process that we all have experienced has been very strange and unprofessional and literally uncomfortable, to say the least.”
Regarding employees who have left employment with Upper Township, DeMarzo was not available for comment, but Corson said he was not aware how many employees had left recently. He said employees leave for various reasons, including higher pay, retirement or disciplinary issues.
Contact the reporter, Christopher South, at csouth@cmcherald.com or 609-886-8600, ext. 128.
