Mayor Pasquale Menna at a council meeting in May.
Red Bank borough employees would be forced to take three unpaid days off by the end of the year under a proposal that’s expected to be discussed at next Monday night’s bimonthly council meeting.
It’s just one in a series of austerity measures being reviewed by officials, says Mayor Pasquale Menna. And it comes just two weeks into a summer program under which most borough employees are being required to work their 40-hour shifts in four days, with Fridays off, in order to save on the costs of cooling borough hall.
“They’re steps that are going to have to be taken,” Menna tells redbankgreen. “Things are not easy.”
The furloughs are expected to affect all borough workers, though Menna was not immediately sure of the effect on the police department. We have a call in to the department for clarification.
Menna says he’s already eliminated borough coverage of hotel stays for officials who travel to the annual New Jersey League of Municipalities conference in Atlantic City in November, meaning that attendees would have to drive down and back or make their own accommodations. Now, he’s thinking of yanking the registration fees themselves.
Menna says he’s not holding his breath that the state government will come through with anything close to the $350,000 in extra aid it ponied up last year, if any amount, when those sums are announced next month.
“Where are they going to get it?” he asks.
