Donohue Proposes Plan to Fund Salary Increases for Town Hall Employees

The following is a release from Middle Township Committeeman Timothy Donohue:
COURT HOUSE – The pending exit of Middle Township’s Chief Financial Officer is a sharp reminder that Middle Township lags well behind other municipalities in our area when it comes to compensation for our key Town Hall employees.  If we don’t confront this reality and take prudent steps to address this problem (without raising taxes) we will continue to lose our most highly trained and valuable Department Heads.
Middle Township has great employees. They work hard running the largest town (by area) in Cape May County and second largest (by population). We invest a lot in their training and certifications. They are experts in a complicated field with ever-changing laws and regulations. They are custodians of public records dating back to the 1700’s. They process nearly 90 million dollars a year in municipal, school, fire, county and library taxes. They track and update the assessment of nearly twelve thousand property lines on our tax rolls. They manage a budget of over twenty millions dollars, bond issues, short-term and long-term debt, capital projects and more. They are very good at what they do and other towns are trying to lure them away from us.
An important part of the challenge in successfully managing any large organization is controlling labor costs, while attracting and retaining key employees. In Middle Township, we compete with both the private and public sectors for our key professionals. Each municipality is required by statute to employ a Municipal Clerk, Certified Financial Officer, Tax Assessor and Tax Collector. These statutory employees and their deputies are the backbone of the essential services provided by New Jersey towns. These statutory positions require arduous certification processes and continuing education on an annual basis. The demand for these skills is high and the number of folks who have them is shrinking, due to retirements and public employees being attracted to the private sector.
It’s the law of supply and demand. In order to retain these key employees (and attract other qualified professionals) we must accept the realization that we have to be able to compete with both our nearby neighbors and towns around the state when it comes to the salaries and benefits we provide.
In a country with a still stagnant economy, a state with a 2% budget cap and a town that has had flat tax rate for five straight years, increases in any salaries are hard to come by. But Middle Township needs to find a way to compete for the best employees or lose them. These key employees bought into our plans for a zero tax increase in 2012. They continue to come up with cost cutting measures and innovative devices that have helped us extend that string of flat taxes to five years. In return we promised to find the dollars to reward them if they increased their value to the taxpayers. That time has come.
So, where will the money come from?
The total amount needed to close the gap between our current salaries and the average full time salaries for these statutory employees in Cape May County is around $70,000 annually. This is to get our employees to the AVERAGE salary, not into the upper echelon.
My proposal is to try to reach this goal over a two year period. That would require a total $35,000 increase per year. I believe we can find these funds, without raising taxes, by taking steps to reduce our costs for professional services (lawyers, engineers, consultants, etc.) From 2012 to 2015 Middle Township reduced professional costs by over $300,000, compared to the previous four years, 2008 to 2011. We did this by reducing the number of paid professionals, hiring a highly competent Business Administrator and keeping a close eye on our professionals’ bills for services.
We can continue to put sensible measures in place to rein in legal fees, reduce our need to rely on paid consultants and value engineer infrastructure projects to reduce engineering and inspection fees. A well run town has less need for expensive lawyers. But to keep our town running well we need to attract and retain excellent employees. The time to act is now. If we don’t pay these folks what they are worth, other towns will be more than happy to welcome them on board.