Mayor takes a job with the Hillside DPW, despite 2014 salary increase and stipends

IRVINGTON, NJ — Mayor Tony Vauss has a new job working for the Hillside Department of Public Works in Mayor Angela Garretson’s administration, but he insists he won’t be shirking his responsibilities in Irvington.

“I’m not the DPW director. The position is general supervisor of DPW. I started on Sept. 5. This is not a 90-day job thing. Directors are advise and consent for 90 days. This is not that,” said Vauss on Monday, Sept. 11. “All the mayors’ jobs are part-time jobs in Essex County, except for Ras Baraka in Newark. In most counties, they are part-time positions.”

Vauss earns $115,000 as mayor of Irvington, thanks to the salary increase the Irvington Municipal Council voted to give him in July 2014. On Wednesday, Nov. 25, 2014, the members of the council majority, led by Council President Charnette Frederic, voted to increase Vauss’ salary as well as their own.

According to township clerk Harold Wiener, the last salary increase for elected officials came in 2006, when council, led by Council President John Sowell, voted to approve a $40,000 raise for former Mayor Wayne Smith that took him from $40,000 to $80,000 annually. In 2014, Frederic’s council voted for a $20,000 across-the-board increase.

“It was for all the council members and the mayor as well, all the elected officials,” said Wiener on Nov. 18, 2014, after the first reading of Ordinance MC-3319, that increased the salaries prior to the second and final reading on Nov. 25, 2014. “The seven council members and the mayor; just the people that were on that ordinance. The last salary ordinance involving elected officials was effective Aug. 10, 2006. They haven’t changed in over eight years. The previous salary was council member, $20,000; council first and second vice president, $21,000; and council president, $22,000. And the mayor’s salary was $80,000. In the current proposed salary ordinance, council members would make $40,000; council first and second vice president would make $41,000; and council president, $42,000. And the mayor’s salary would be $116,400.”

Earlier this year, Elouise McDaniel, the president of both the Irvington Joint Block Association Coalition president and Nesbitt Terrace Block Association, put in an Open Public Records Act request for the municipal payroll from 2015-2017 to Wiener’s office. On Wednesday, July 5, she received records revealing that Vauss and a number of employees, including some of his department heads, have been receiving stipends for varying amounts of money, in addition to regular salaries, during the same period of time that, according to council President David Lyons on July 10, the administration was running up millions in deficits.

And now Vauss has a job working in Hillside.

“The mayor’s job is part-time, even though we do full-time work. And I wanted to make sure that working in Hillside was not going to affect the job I do in Irvington, making my hometown cleaner and safer,” Vauss said. “The mayor of Montclair works for the county full-time. The mayor of Bloomfield for the county full time. The mayor for Plainfield works in Orange. Dwayne Warren worked in Hillside and a few other places. It’s kind of easy for him, because he’s a lawyer and he can always get prosecutor’s gigs in other municipalities.”

Vauss said the list of other municipal leaders and elected officials that have full-time, regular jobs is long and they do not necessarily neglect their responsibilities to their constituents. According to the Irvington Board of Education’s records, even Baraka had a job in the district, providing leadership training to Irvington public school administrators, taking advantage of his years of education leadership and experience as a teacher and principal in the Newark public school system.

“Remember, the ex-mayor of Roselle, Jamel Holley, worked here in Irvington,” said Vauss in reference to his current DPW director, who also serves as the 20th District assemblyman. “The mayor of East Orange, Lester Taylor, still works for his law firm with ex-Gov. Jim Florio; 2017 New Jersey Democratic Party Lt. Gov. candidate Assembly speaker emeritus Sheila Oliver works for the county. Teresa Ruiz works for the county. And the mayor of Rahway used to work as the business administrator in Hillside.”

Garretson said Warren no longer works in Hillside and she decided to hire Vauss to help her administration’s DPW to be more efficient. Garretson is running for the Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders and her term as mayor ends Jan. 1, 2018.

“By the way, your guy Dwayne is gone,” said Garretson on Monday, Sept. 11. “Mayor Vauss brings 17 years experience and he can relate to the guys there.”

Vauss agreed with Garretson.

“I ran the Department of Neighborhood Services for Irvington, that included DPW, Housing, Building, Construction and Health departments,” said Vauss. “When Wayne Smith made the Department of Neighborhood services, I ran the department, but he didn’t want to make me the director outright. I was the assistant director of the Department of Neighborhood Services, which included all those departments, from around 2010.”

Vauss now joins a list of Irvington Township employees and appointed officials who have found jobs in Hillside during Garretson’s administration, but he said there isn’t any “pipeline” from Irvington to Hillside.

“When it comes to people from the township that have also worked in Hillside during my administration, I like to say none of those people are from Irvington. They worked in Irvington. Stephanie Bush-Baskette was from East Orange. Faheem Ra’Oof has a contracting company and the work that he does is through that company. He is a Hillside resident. Joe Santiago was from Newark to Trenton to Irvington. Dwayne Warren is from Newark.”

Vauss said he is trying to bring organization to the Hillside DPW.

“I’m over there just trying to get them organized. I’m just there to try to help out my neighboring community in any way that I can. I don’t know how long I’m going to be there, but I’m trying to help out as long as I can while I can,” said Vauss. “They have a great department with a good group of people. I’m just trying to make it better. I just want to bring my expertise of actually running a DPW department. I actually did that for 17 years. It’s just to help out.”

Garretson agreed, adding, “Anthony ‘Tony’ Vauss brings a wealth of experience and I am excited he is joining my administration and will do well organizing the Department of Public Works.”

  Elouise McDaniel, Hillside Department of Public Works, Mayor Angela Garretson, Mayor Tony Vauss