The council meets twice monthly at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

By JOHN T. WARD

Salaries for Red Bank’s mayor and council, which haven’t risen in at least 15 years, will remain unchanged at least through the remainder of 2023, under an resolution up for a vote Thursday night.

But whomever the governing body selects to fill the new borough manager post will have the latitude to give them specified raises under a related ordinance that’s also up for a vote.

Here’s a quick look at the agenda:

 This year’s Halloween Parade, the borough’s 75th, will be renamed “Boo Bank: A Tale of Fright from Broad to White,” following a naming contest. (Photo by John T. Ward. Click to enlarge.)

• Salaries for the mayor ($7,301 per year) and other council members ($3,650) would remain unchanged this year, even as the governing body may give itself the leeway for future increases (up to $8,000 and $4,000, respectively) under an ordinance up for adoption.

Ordinance NP2023-15 would establish new pay ranges for the elected officials, replacing flat salaries, while resolution NP23-74 would maintain their salaries at current levels.

At the council’s September 14 meeting, interim borough Manager Darren McConnell said he and CFO Thomas Seaman had recommended the new ranges. And under the new, council-manager form of government, the borough manager has the authority to give out raises, as long as they fall within the range, without the need for a council hearing, as in the past, according to borough Attorney Greg Cannon.

“So the manager could theoretically give the council a raise,” Cannon said.

In response to questions by Sue Viscomi, who has run unsuccessfully for council four times, Cannon acknowledged that such raises, whether to elected officials or appointed ones, would not have be approved in public.

Viscomi said such a process was “not transparent,” and would require the public to file Open Public Records Act requests to unearth raises. She pressed Mayor Billy Portman and the council to agree, in the form of a resolution, that they would not accept raises without public discussion, “just to be truly transparent, which is what you guys ran on.”

“However it can be done, I’m fine with having it made public before we vote on it,” Portman said.

Councilwoman Kate Triggiano said she had been unaware of a proposed change in the salary range for elected officials.

“Just to be clear, we as council people never had a conversation about wanting a raise,” she said. “The first thing I said when I saw this was, ‘how did this happen?'”

The main thrust of the changes in salary ranges, Portman said, was to keep Red Bank “competitive” as the council searches for a permanent replacement for McConnell.

As previously reported, the ordinance would allow for significant pay increases for the top three administrative jobs: borough manager, police chief and chief financial officer.

The top of the range for the manager – formerly known as the administrator – would jump 40 percent, to $210,000 per year, from the current maximum of $170,000, and the chief’s would also top out at $210,000, up from the current maximum of $200,000.

McConnell now holds both posts. He has announced plans to retire following the conclusion of a New Jersey Attorney General’s office investigation into complaints about him by the local police union. Captain Mike Frazee is slated to succeed McConnell as chief; the council is conducting a search for a new borough manager.

The council will meet behind closed doors Friday morning to interview candidates for the new position of borough manager, according to an announcement earlier this week. No formal action on the matter will be taken, it said.

The executive session is the second in eight days related to the search for a manager.

The CFO’s pay range, currently set at $105,000 to $135,000, would have a new maximum of $195,000, a 44-percent boost.

Also on the agenda, the council is expected to:

• Introduce proposed changes to the municipal code reflecting the change in the form of government, from a “borough” structure to a “council-manager” form, that took place July 1.

• Renanme this year’s Halloween Parade, the borough’s 75th, to “Boo Bank: A Tale of Fright from Broad to White,” following a naming contest.

The parade is slated for October 22, with a rain date of October 29. Details are here.

Here’s the full agenda. The meeting is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m. at borough hall, 90 Monmouth Street, with remote participation available via Zoom.

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