Administrator Mary Howell at Monday’s council meeting, where her hours were cut and some of her duties were handed off to Clerk Allyson Cinquegrana, in background. (Photo by Dustin Racioppi)
By DUSTIN RACIOPPI
[EDITOR'S NOTE: See update below]
Less than a year after giving a three-year contract with sweet annual raises to borough Administrator Mary Howell, Fair Haven officials have shaken things up at borough hall with what they call a cost-saving “experiment.”
The council yesterday cut Howell’s hours and salary in half.
The action, taken after an hour-long executive session, was taken to reflect “a number of things both personally and financially,” Mayor Michael Halfacre said at an unusual Monday morning council meeting.
Howell, who recently returned in an informal part-time role to her administrator duties after giving birth to a boy in October, was hired in 2007 at $80,000 per year. Last April, the council voted to give her a raise to $99,000 in a contract that would boost her base pay to $105,000 this year and $111,000 next year.
With this latest move, though, Halfacre said the borough will save $50,000 in 2010 by chopping Howell’s salary from $105,000 down to $52,500. The deal was mutually agreed upon at Monday’s executive session, he said..
Halfacre said the move made sense so Howell can take care of her son and Fair Haven can save a little cash in a difficult budget year.
“It was a coming together of a couple different things,” he said. Given that her family circumstances have prevented Howell from returning to full-time status, Halfacre added, “We’re kind of formalizing what’s been going.”
Howell, who will now be in the office on Mondays and Tuesdays and available only by phone and e-mail the rest of the week, said she felt uncomfortable discussing the matter with redbankgreen, saying only that it’s what’s best for the town right now and she’ll be able to be with her son more.
With Howell’s limited presence at borough hall, that means borough Clerk Allyson Cinquegrana will fill the gap. She’ll get a raise, from $57,222 to $60,655, to take on the title of assistant borough administrator along with her responsibilities as clerk. [UPDATE: Cinquegrana's pay raise is for her position as borough clerk. The assistant borough administrator title must be created through an ordinance and passed by the council, Cinquegrana said. Her pay for that position will be decided at Fair Haven's next council meeting on February 22.]
This move is one Halfacre stressed is an experiment, which may or may not stick for the long term. If Howell or the council is unsatisfied with the arrangement, the contract can be terminated within 60 days, he said.
About time these local towns start getting creative.
A town the size of FH does not need a full time administrator in the first place. Creative? Take a look at some of these small towns, most DO NOT have an administrator. More government wasteful spending. $50k for 2 days a week work? Available only by phone/email? Sweet deal & not for FH.
Hey Pasqule…take note!
Cutting Stanley’s bus. adm. time back would only bring his salary hours down to a little over full time.
I would like to know why the governing body did not see this coming. Why did they give Howell this contract in the first place? Did she willingly agree to this change before they went behind closed doors? Do they realistically expect the clerk to”fill the gap” by tossing her a mere $3400?!?
Good move. At least Alysson returns phone calls, Mary’s standard was 3 days and I’m talking long before she was out on maternity leave.
$50K for 2 days a week?! What am I doing wrong that I work more than full time and just make that? Gotta find me one of these government jobs!
If she gets a bump in pay and a few less hours we can call her a school teacher. She stunk at 40 hours. Halfacre admit your mistake and hire someone new. Make her drive that police scooter till she quits if need be. Do the right thing. She will never return a call now!
Seriously, can’t you people in Fair Haven vote for someone better than Mike Halfacre? I know that we can’t vote for better people here in Red Bank, but I was hoping that maybe someone out there in the Two River area had a clue. I guess we are all dopes.
Have we still not figured out that we need to get ‘creative’ with Stanley?
It’s just amazing that we see within the last year or so the awarding of contracts like this. I remember at the time commenting on this blog about how ridiculous that contract was to Howell, given the economic times. I remember at the time being attacked on this blog by govt contractors and workers, saying, I am way out of line. ‘How dare I’.
And now, here we are, well folks the gravy train has stopped, and the scrambling begins.
And to some moron on here making a comment about school teachers…school teachers make on average only $65k a year, yet work much more than 2 days a week.
This woman on the other hand…2 days a week, and $50k…can you say ‘no show’ job!
Give Allyson the money she deserves…She’s running this town.I have never dealt with such a professional and dedicated employee as Allyson is. “Wake up Council and do the right thing”
It is critical that townspeople attend the Feb. 22 meeting regarding this issue. It is my understanding that the council may be trying to push out one of the best employees they have had in years, namely Allyson Cinquegrana. If she has been competently doing the work of the borough administrator throughout that person’s maternity leave, and now can do it 3 days a week, why not have her do it 5 days a week? Help her get the proper credentials if needed, give her the appropriate REASONABLE salary, and wish Ms. Howell well in her motherhood. It would be an even greater cost savings, not to mention morale booster, in addition to keeping and encouraging the good works of a top-notch employee. When Ms. Howell knowingly and willingly asked for less hours, didn’t she basically declare the previous contract null and void?
I think Red Bank needs to consider the same concept, but straight across the board for all senior management. Basically everyone with an income over 99000
Do the math she just got an $8.oo per hour pay raise for working less hours. To bad for all us shleps who drop our kids at one of the many child care available in Fair Haven. Paying lots of money just to hang on to our benefits and grocery money when all is said and done. Then again this is not the real world. Teachers make 65K for 1/2 a years work = $130000.00 pay scale by my calculations. I’m just sayin. Union job 4 watch 1 works. They are just missing a hole in the road to stand around and a cop watching at $55.oo an hour.
Has anybody seen an creature that is 7′ tall with giant eyes and a pendant holding a universe on her jacket?
The teacher calculations aren’t quite right. I think teachers work 185 days/year. A typical salaried worker gets two weeks vacation, 10 federal holidays, and weekends off, so that’s 240 working days/year. So instead of doubling the teachers salary, we should multiply by 1.3, which brings us to $84,500.
It looks like a teacher in the Red Bank school district needs about 20 years experience, or 15 years with a Master’s, to make $65,000.
So we’re talking a college degree plus 20 years experience to get the equivalent of $84,500. Plus really good benefits, or course.
I agree Dan with your Math. Many teachers also have masters degrees too.
The health benefits are very good. On the subject of pensions, they do pay into this. My Wife pays about $3500 a year into her pension. So it’s not a total free be as often misunderstood out there. No one is claiming teachers dont get paid decently, they do….What is disturbing though is the gathering sentiment in NJ against teachers and what seems like a gathering witch hunt to target them. Starting with our new Governor’s plan to target them.
My point is, there are many other truly ‘no show’ worthless positions at all levels of govt that should be given the microscope long before they go targeting teachers.
Remember, teachers ‘only’ teach our kids and therefore shape the future of this country. We should remember that. Whereas someone in muni govt getting paid for 4 jobs, but not doing one of them well…what level of importance do they hold?
P.S. If they start taking benefits away from teachers, my Wife and me and I am sure many others are leaving this state…what’s the point of staying here…making $65k a year, and paying $15k a year for family health benefits? We thought about relocating some years ago, but stayed given the seniority she has and the pension/health benefits…that’s what compelled us to stay here in NJ. But now, if they take all of this away, how can one survive on that in this State?
Well said, Simply a Citizen. I would rather deal with Allyson any day of the week, rather than Ms. Howell who I’ve found to be stiff, often condescending, and largely unresponsive anyway. Do you really think that Ms. Howell will be available by “phone and e-mail” Wednesday/Thursday/Friday ? Working at home with a baby is a contradiction for the most part.
Just trying to figure this imbalance out… Boro Administrator goes part-time, working 2 days a week, available by phone and e-mail the rest of the week, and will earn $52,500. Boro Clerk works in office 5 full days a week, attends Council meetings, etc., is professional, proficient and courteous, has filled in for the Boro Administrator whenever necessary and will earn $60,655 with a one-year modified contract? Fair Haven should compensate loyal employees with the extra money from Ms. Howell’s cut in salary. Surely Council can add a comparable amount to a competent Boro Clerk’s annual salary. Assistant Boro Administrator is a totally separate matter. Where is the fair in Fair Haven?
Doop & Dan, once again we see that the rank and file, in this case the boro clerk, get the shaft, while the management overlords walk on cream puff jobs. It’s the same for the police departments, for the education communities, for the public works departments, and likely for towns with paid firemen. The point being, cuts need to come on the management side of the public employee trough, not the rank and file. And so long as the teachers’ unions (in particular the union leadership) remain obstinate impediments to changes, they deserve the witch hunt.
Nemo,
There are no managers in the teachers’ unions, so they can’t be blamed for excessive management costs. But obviously the unions exist to create impediments to any change that would hurt their members’ bottom line.
In the many years I have lived in Fair Haven I have never found any employee at Borough Hall who has acted as competently and courteously as Ms. Cinquegrana in carrying out her responsibilities. This has to be a real challenge in a town run by a single political party.
Captain Nemo, indeed, bingo it’s the management side of it that’s the problem,not the rank and file. With the schools, it’s not so much just what the administrators get paid (like superintendents, etc.). It’s the overlapping ridiculous redundancies across all these towns. I’ve gone through my little excercise in other blogs, simplistic as it is, demonstrating that if these functions were regionalized, that would equate to alot of teacher salaries and teaching positions that could be saved at an average teacher salary of $65k.
Why on Earth does it take a superintendent and all the assistants and support staff that comes with it for each little town in our area? One office/position could not handle running the school systems for lets say for example…Little Silver, Rumson, Fair Haven, and Oceanport????
And the same concept goes for the Police Chiefs. A chief in each of these towns with salaries well North of 100k, some cases approaching $200k?
But instead they will witch hunt the rank and file. The easy target. And the victims ultimately will be our kids stuffed into more crowded classes. Or less patrol men to protect the citizens. That simply is a crime if that’s the solution this Governor is seeking.
Management costs are not “the problem” with school budgets. Administrator salaries just aren’t that big a piece of the pie.
In the 2009-2010 budget (http://rbb.k12.nj.us/board_office/budget-09/User%20Friendly%20Budget.htm), the Red Bank school district’s per pupil cost is $14,316 (don’t ask me how they come up with the number). Of that amount, the costs for salaries and benefits:
Teachers: $8,334
Support services: $2,302
(I think that’s cafeteria aides, etc., but I’m not sure)
Administration: $1,101
(I think that includes secretaries, but I’m not sure)
Buildings & grounds: $770
So if the district had zero administrators, the savings would be maybe 7%. Obviously, we can’t fire all the administrators, so cutting administrators is not going to drastically lower the total cost.
Which is not to say that we shouldn’t look at cutting administrators before cutting teachers. I’m just saying it’s not going to be a big savings.
dooper and Captain numbnuts are the same person so watch their postings
yes, that and watchingyou is an independent deep thinker…
watchingyou, that is a good one.
Watchingyou is so wrong. I think he needs to get his ‘crystal ball ip address reader’ he is so proud of flaunting on past blogs recalibrated.
Dan,
I will give you this example, which is simple and straight forward. I’ve done it on other blogs, but will do once more:
Take 4 towns….LS, FH, Oceanport, and Rumson. Each has a superintendent, and at minimum an executive assistant. There are other staff, but lets keep it simple and conservative. Assume an average superintendent salary is $150k, which is being conservative. At my wife’s school, the exec assistant makes $90k a year. So that’s $240k a year for these 2 positions. If you consolidated these 4 towns, which I think is feasible given their size and likeness of demographics, that would be $720k of cost freed up. OR, approx 11 teaching positions at an avg of 65k a year….More Indians and less Chiefs.
That’s pretty compelling if you ask me.
fyi…remember who publishes these budgets, and that sugar coated acctg is not an unheard of practice.
Herein is a search engine to validate the salaries of public school employees:
http://php.courierpostonline.com/data_public/datauniverse/edstaff/
Bear in mind that this is for last year, so the amounts will probably be even higher now.
Dooper,
My point is that cuts to administrators will not result in substantial tax savings.
The annual budgets for those districts:
LS: $12,398,957
FH: $13,266,114
Oceanport: $9,502,959
Rumson: $13,778,655
Total: $48,946,685
So your savings of $720,000 is about 1.5%, which is not the kind of chopping that outraged taxpayers are looking for.
Even adding the benefits for those employees, we’re not going to get to a 2% savings.
And you assume that no Asst. Supts. would be hired, which is not a good assumption. I pointed out the layers of administration in large districts:
http://www.redbankgreen.com/2009/03/fair-haven-school-tax-may-rise.html#comment-25659
Again, I’m not saying that admin cuts should not be considered, and I’m not against consolidating districts. I’m saying that if you want to cut school budgets by more than a few percentage points, you’re talking about firing teachers or cutting teacher pay. Cutting administrators won’t do it, combining districts won’t do it.
I don’t think teachers are overpaid, and I don’t want larger class sizes, so I don’t advocate cutting school budgets.
Well, what I propose would do a heck of alot more than for example the hair brain proposal they came up with in Fair Haven, to take ‘early’ tax payments and invest them to make interest on it. Uh, well, first of all, only a very small percent of the tax payment goes to Fair Haven. Rest is County, etc. Then on top of it, most homeowners have mortgage companies making the tax payments from escrow…mortgage companies wont release tax payments early…they make interest off the escrow for themselves,…..that’s part of how they make money. This scheme was a window dressing attempt to make it look like the local govt is attempting to do something to save tax money. How much would it really save in real life? NOt much.
And what about the redundant Police chiefs, making upwards of $200k in some cases, and retiring in their 40’s on a bankrupt pension system?
You cannot begin to tell me that attacking the admin levels first wont make a dent. I agree with you, will it solve all the budget problems? Of course not…rank and file cuts (such as teachers), may also have to follow as well. But to me, it’s hard to justify going after rank and file first, before addressing the redundancies on the admin levels. Of course the rank and file is much easier to target, and carry much less legislative pull on the politicians in Trenton.
I also am not entirely against cutting rank and file teachers either. It would be a good way to cut the dead wood. Problem is, once you get beyond untenured cuts (which can be picked and chosen based on performance), the Unions then require tenured cuts to be done on Seniority alone. Which means good teachers may get the axe, while other poor performing teachers who have been there a long time, stay on. And often the problem teachers are the ones who are older, and no longer in touch, and should retire.
That needs to change.
Dooper,
I actually think the NJEA has more pull in Trenton than the administrators, but cuts are all made at the local level, where teachers have much less pull.
Last time Red Bank had to cut teachers, they offered a retirement incentive so the cuts would come from the older teachers. Unfortunately, some really good older teachers took the package.
Dan,
My Wife is a teacher, and in her district, they cannot force older teachers to retire. That is against the Union rules. Even the slightest suggestion of it sets off ripples. Example: The principal asked anyone planning to retire this June, to let them know now, rather than waiting to the last week of school as often they do. Idea being, if they know this, maybe when the cuts have to be in the books by April, they can save the position knowing another one is leaving via retirement. A reasonable and thoughtful request mind you, yet it was interpreted by many as forcing retirements. Made my Wife and many others mad that the rank and file jeered this so badly.
Clearly not all contracts bar forced retirement, but clearly some do like my Wife’s district.
As far as pull in Trenton, the Unions are running scared with Christie in charge now. So no, there is not a lot of pull.
Again, the chopping needs to start at the top. Reality is, the real work is done by those in the classroom. Not the high priced decision makers. Cut from there FIRST. Then work your way down.
Overall, I like many others are getting more and more disgusted and discouraged to call this State home. I look at payouts like that Keansburg superintendent got as severance at retirement, on top of her normal retirement beneifts. BTW, that’s another cost too, just retiring these people wont save money either, many have sweet severance contracts.
They seem to have invoked a witch hunt on this woman. I cant find fault with her. If you can negotiate that, power to you. We ought to be faulting the legislators and politicians in charge who allow for a system to be such dumbies to offer such a deal in the first place.
Besides, Mary Howell is sour lookin’ lass
Are you kidding me! $52,500.00 for two days a week. And what do we plan on giving Mrs. Cinquegrana (The Shaft)Another perfect example of the “Higher Ups” taking care of their own.
As for a comment made by Ms. Blaser in the Asbury Press. You need to get a life, stop comming to council meetings and wasting everybodys time with your stupid antics
Yes!
Several years ago, Fair Haven refused to give an employee a raise in salary and allowed her to retire. The councile then hired a person to fill this position at the salary the former, now retired employee, had requested. Does that make sense?
Halfacre and his buddies must go! If they allow this to happen during this economy they must be shown the door. This is a slap in the face of all the hard working people of this town. This is a slap in the face of all taxpayers in this town. Some of whom have no jobs and are losing their homes. Shame on all of you mayer and council.
Halfacre….more like Eightacre.