Several council people are pushing to change the way the city clerk pays its workers during elections, especially after city Business Administrator Peter Cresci reported that the current practice appears to violate state statutes.
The city pays workers additional money to deal with election issues in the hours before and after their ordinary workday.
Cresci has been reviewing the city's operations to determine if they are in line with current ordinances and to determine if the city might implement programs more efficiently.
Councilmen Anthony Chiappone and Gary La Pelusa have raised questions about how the rate of pay is determined.
The City Council and Mayor Terrence Malloy tried to put the resolution on hold until next month, prompting an outburst from several clerk office employees.
City Clerk Robert Sloan pressed the issue, saying he wanted the council to vote the matter up or down.
"These people worked for me and they should know why they're not getting paid," Sloan said, blasting the council for targeting the clerk's office in an effort to cut city spending. "Don't stop the bleeding [of the city budget] by cutting my workers' throats."
Waiting for support
Council President Vincent Lo Re said the council was putting off the resolution because he didn't believe the resolution would pass.
Councilman John Halecky, however, urged the council to pass the resolution since the workers had agreed to the extra hours based on promises made by the city clerk. He said the council could review the pay practices for future elections.
Malloy agreed.
"Regardless of how we got here, these workers received a promise of employment at a certain rate by a city official; it is the responsibility of the city to pay them. But we will review the process," he said.
A 30-year practice
Cresci said the fee paid for the extra work for those in the city clerk's office does not comply with state guidelines, and workers are receiving well in excess of the time and a half or even double time offered to most employees for overtime work.
State statute requires the City Council give approval to the city clerk for election work prior to the election.
"This was not previously done," Cresci said. "The clerk set his own rate of pay for himself and his staff at rates of $72 and $70, and $37 for DPW workers."
Although the council agreed to pay Sloan's request for payment this time, several members - including Mayor Malloy - said the policy would be reviewed to come more into line with state regulations.
Sloan cautioned the city not to act too hastily since the staff volunteers to accept the extra work on election nights. Without this help, the city could be saddled with an even higher rate of pay if the county election office has to send workers into the city to help.
La Pelusa, however, said the practice has to stop, and asked Sloan how the city could expect other departments to cut back on the cost of government when the clerk's office was allowing hourly rates that differ from state law.
Pay amounts looked strange
La Pelusa and Chiappone have asked for a 10 percent spending reduction in each department as one step in reducing the $30 million shortfall in the city's annual budget.
Cresci said that the review of employee pay came after the clerk's office submitted a request for payment to the payroll office for the hours worked by several municipal employees.
He said the request was sent back without payment for several reasons.
Employees appeared to be getting paid twice for some of the same hours, regular pay for their normal shifts, and then extra pay for the election.
Cresci said that with the exception of one employee who had taken a half day personal leave, the rest of the employees were on the clock for the same time they were requesting pay for the election.
The hourly rate of pay also troubled Cresci.
"I could find no authority or support for the hourly rates set forth on the request for payment," he said.
He called a payment of $70 an hour to someone who normally makes $25.50 exorbitant.
"My research demonstrated that the same employee was paid $95 an hour in the Nov. 6, 2007 election," he said.
This employee in that election made $1,975, as well as $400 in regular salary, he said.
Cresci was also concerned about the number of hours submitted for payment.
"It appears that an excessive amount of hours were submitted," he said. "How can someone work 19 hours for the election and still work their eight hours for the city of Bayonne?"
The law
According to the Fair Labor Standards Act, non-exempt employees, such as clerks and secretaries, get one and a half times their rate of pay for an overtime situation.
Cresci said he gave the clerk's staff a chance to use a vacation day or personal day on the election.
Sloan claims that the staff has been paid in this manner for the past 30 years, which allows him to set the hourly rates. Cresci disagreed.
Sloan also said the employees got paid the election rates for hours outside their regular work hours.
But Cresci said he had reviewed the employee sheets that showed this was inaccurate.
Cresci said the council, not the clerk, sets the rate of pay according to state statute.
Employees angry
Cresci said two city clerk employees "heatedly voiced their displeasure" with him when he refused to authorize the payment request.
"They have verbally threatened to forgo working on future election unless they are compensated at the rates set forth on the request for payment," he said.
Even the clerk, according to Cresci, said "he may just call in sick the day of the next election."
Sloan, in his own calculations, said the seven Public Works employees were paid slightly over $80 above time and a half for their work on election day.
Two clerk staff members were paid $37 per hour for their work for about $333 each. Based on overtime criteria, one would have been paid about $417 and the other $276. Since they both did the same work, they both got the same extra pay.
"Using the regular rate of pay at time and one-half, I have overpaid myself by $48.37," Sloan said. "My two staff members are paid more than time and one-half of their normal salary, but they are doing what five people used to do."
Sloan also pointed out some problems with Cresci's calculations.
"The 'woman' from the Finance Department who gets paid $50 is actually two people," Sloan said. "She brings her adult daughter in the Saturday before the election and they sort and pack the election supplies, emergency and provisional ballot packages, the voter registry books, and the supply boxes for distribution to the poll workers on Monday. They also both work election night in the recovery and sorting process following the close of the polls. We don't pay the daughter because she is not a city employee. We stopped using non-employees about 20 years ago. They split the pay between them as they see fit."
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