IRVINGTON, NJ — The plan to furlough municipal employees that Mayor Tony Vauss announced Thursday, April 4, began last week and came to a head Friday, April 28, when some town workers and Irvington Municipal Council members who thought that was a regular pay day found out that they wouldn’t going be paid until Monday, May 1, thanks to the modified deferment furlough plan the mayor said most Irvington employees had agreed to accept.
“We have six unions in Irvington; five out of the six unions took the deferred payments or furloughs,” said Vauss on Monday, May 1. “Most of the employees agreed to take the deferred salary payments, instead of actually taking furlough days off, and the ones that didn’t was because they didn’t have enough union members to hold a vote, once we announced the new plan, so they had to go with the old one that included days out of work. All the directors, the mayor and the council are all on deferred payments.”
The “deferred payments” Vauss referred to are a new twist on the furlough and layoff plan he announced. With the new plan, municipal employees who are usually paid 26 times per year had the option of voting to defer their pay by accepting 24 bi-monthly regular salary payments on the first and 15th of each month.
Being paid twice per month is equal to 24 full-salary paychecks instead of 26 reduced paychecks, due to mandatory no-work days without pay.
The goal was to lessen the impact of the furloughs Vauss and Finance Director Faheem Ra’Oof said were necessary to plug the $3.25 million hole in Irvington’s finances revealed by a 2015 audit. That’s not even counting the Calendar Year 2016 township budget or the Calendar Year 2017 budget process supposedly under way.
“As for the pay deferment, it was the idea that was brought to the township in lieu of the furloughs,” Irvington Police Division PBA Local 29 President Maurice Gattison said Tuesday, May 2. His union members voted to accept the administration’s original furlough plan that had called on them to simply give back an hour a day from their regular work shifts for as long as a year to allow the town to save money. “Whoever told you they didn’t know when they were getting paid couldn’t have been from the police department. And if so, they’re not telling the truth.”
According to Vauss, the Irvington Police Department PBA Local 29 members originally had the option of either starting their shifts an hour later or leaving the job an hour earlier during their normal work hours. That same deal was offered to the Irvington Fire Department and the members of IAFF Local 1035, but the firefighters voted not to accept it.
According to township officials, the firefighters also voted not to accept the deferment plan. IAFF Local 1035 President Mike Scott could not be reached for comment regarding the furlough plans by press time this week.
“We didn’t get paid on April 30, like we normally do,” said Irvington Municipal Council President David Lyons on Monday, May 1.
Lyons acknowledged the new deferred paycheck schedule might have come as a surprise to those in town unaware that the terms of the original furlough deal had changed. But now, he said, everyone knows how the new municipal pay schedule works.
“The new pay dates are the first and the 15th,” said Lyons on Tuesday, May 2. “The uniformed employees accepted deferred compensation. That means 24 pay periods, instead of 26 for the uniformed employees and the township council. Some of the non-uniformed employees had to take the furloughs, so they didn’t come to work for one day. The police department accepted the deferment deal. The fire department did not accept it.”
Lyons said the administration also laid off some non-union municipal employees that didn’t have “bumping rights” over any of their coworkers, which refers to union members with seniority facing layoffs having the right to “bump” other union members with less seniority. That means the Irvington municipal employees that Vauss laid off leading up to April 28 were not covered by the state Civil Service Commission, meaning the administration did not have to get permission from Trenton to lay them off.
“The people that were laid off were the people from public works that were hired to work off the shared service agreement with the Irvington Housing Authority,” said Lyons. “We did a resolution to end the relationship with the Irvington Housing Authority. The administration has given the state a layoff plan, but that’s only for the IHA hires. There’s no bumping right issues, because the people getting laid off haven’t been here long enough to bump anybody.”
According to Lyons, “The furlough system is going to be in place about a year — two days in 2017 and one day in 2018.” The employees being furloughed are different from the employees who agreed to the deferment.
“Even with the furloughs, it’s not going to offset the deficit,” said Lyons. “People are (angry) about the situation, but it’s better to have a job with furloughs than no job at all. I’m not happy about it either. I think things could have been done differently.”
According to a memo Tuesday, April 4, from Ra’Oof addressed to Musa Malik, the Irvington business administrator, and Wally Riglicki, who was hired to audit the township’s financial records, there are two reasons for the furloughs and layoffs: an unanticipated increase in expenses and the rising cost of health care.
“As per my discussion with the auditor, as of Dec. 31, 2015, the township audit will reflect the following: Unanticipated increases for joint sewer charges, municipal debt service, deferred charges and pension costs that the township has no control over,” Ra’Oof said in the memo. “These increases are the result of state statute, regulatory control or debt service before the Vauss administration; and an over-expenditure noted in the 2015 audit, which was recently completed.”
Ra’Oof went on to state, “The township of Irvington Audit Report will show that we have the following: total current fund deferred charge of $5,163,924.44 and a total current fund surplus (fund balance) is: $4,518,742.80 and excess of deferred charges over surplus $645,181.64.
“However, the township has a fund surplus that we are legally prohibited from accessing to cover the above two items,” said Ra’Oof. “State of New Jersey Statutory Law does not allow surplus to be appropriated, when deferred charges exceed surplus. In addition to the surplus identified above, the township also has a general capital surplus (fund balance) $3,785,000.56. If the township were allowed to appropriate our surplus, it would result in no furloughs for 2017.”
Ra’Oof also stated that the “over-expenditure noted in the 2015 audit” was due to health care costs, not any actual overspending by the administration.
Thanks to their contracts and the nature of their jobs, members of the Irvington Fire and Police departments can’t be laid off or forced to take furlough days, unless they agree to it by a union vote. So technically, the township couldn’t make them take the layoffs or furloughs.
On Monday, April 10, Gattison said of the Ra’Oof’s memo, “That’s the same explanation my union was given about the situation” before a majority of his members voted to agree to take the original furlough deal. After Vauss came up with the deferment option, however, the PBA Local 39 members held another vote and opted to accept the deferments instead.
Furloughs begin to help plug Irvington’s $3.25M budget deficit added by Chris Sykes on
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