North Bergen has increased the salary ranges for a number of municipal employees.
Mayor Nicholas Sacco and the Board of Commissioners voted to adopt an ordinance doing so at its Dec. 21 meeting after it was introduced earlier in the month. The move follows similar increases for a number of other positions in 2021.
The ordinance amends, mostly raising, salary ranges in each of three schedules. The salary ranges are broken down into schedules, with Schedule A for competitive, Schedule B for non-competitive and Schedule C for unclassified.
In salary Schedule A, the new salary ranges include from $50,000 to $136,000 for Assistant Fiscal Officer; $21,000 to $40,000 for Building Inspector; $90,000 to $161,000 for Director of Community Improvements; $7,000 to $25,000 for part-time Electrical Inspector; $3,000 to $40,000 for Fire Official; $30,000 to $73,000 for Mechanic; $50,000 to $127,000 for Municipal Court Administrator; and $11,000 to $54,000 for Public Safety Telecommunication.
In 2021, salary ranges were previously increased for Assistant Fiscal Officer from $50,000 to $130,000; Director of Community Improvements ranging from $90,000 to $150,000; and Municipal Court Administrator ranging from $50,000 to $122,000.
Under Schedule B, the new salary ranges include $8,000 to $94,000 for Keyboarding Clerk; $8,000 to $75,000 for Laborer; $5,000 to $73,000 for Mechanic’s Helper; and $20,000 to $45,000 for Security Guard.
Lastly, for Schedule C, the new salary ranges include $12 to $20 per hour for Counselors; $15,000 to $58,000 for Fire and Police Surgeons; $90,000 to $250,000 for a Municipal Administrator; $40,000 to $125,000 for Municipal Township Clerk; and $20,000 to $138,000 for Tax Collector and Tax Search Officer.
In 2021, salary ranges for Schedule C were previously increased for Municipal Administrator ranging from $90,000 to $231,000; Municipal Clerk ranging from $40,000 to $116,000; and Tax Collector and Tax Search Officer ranging from $20,000 to $131,000.
Township attorney Tom Kobin explained, in response to Sacco, that the salary ranges are expected to be changed as often as the township needs to. He said the ranges are adjusted to be good for a few years, but can be changed whenever the board desires.
Sacco recalled a story of a former employee who misinterpreted a similar ordinance in the past. He said they thought it was salary increases, not range increases, and resigned out of misplaced anger.
“Someone resigned because they saw the salary range and thought everyone was going up,” Sacco said when the ordinance was introduced. “They thought that they were only getting a 3 percent raise and everyone was getting more. So he resigned and left. I said to him, they’re not getting more, they’re getting the same 3 percent you’re getting, it’s just the range.”
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