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Salary Increases Approved By Council; Mayor's Salary Nears $30K
By Keith Hagarty
With the first directly elected mayor of Jackson having more responsibilities and time investments over his four-year term, Mayor Mark Seda was given a boost in salary last week when the township council unanimously approved the 2007 sala- ries for the governing body.
The mayoral position will now receive $29,500 per year, an increase over three times the mayor's previous annual salary of $9,337. The salaries for four of the five council members will remain unchanged from 2006, holding at $8,668 per year. However, the position of council president has received an increase of $1,000, bringing the salary to $9,668.
In the mayor-council form of government, adopted by township voters in 2005, the mayor is given more duties and responsibility, therefore a salary increase made sense, said Township Business Administrator William Santos.
"In this form of government, the mayor is in charge with the executive branch in the day-today operations, where before it was more spread across the committee," he said. "You had your liaison positions, and you had it where everything was a majority vote of the township committee. Where here, the mayor is truly empowered to make day-to-day decisions and because of that requires a lot more time."
After studying the pay scale for mayors across Ocean County, Santos said the salary increase for Jackson's mayor is still much smaller than those of comparable municipalities, such as in Brick, where the mayor receives $52,000 per year.
"You look at other towns, like in Dover they're paying $75,000 when it was only $27,000 to $28,000 before, and in Lakewood Township where they're paying around $22,000 for the township committee form of government," said Santos. "In this form of government, there's a variety (of mayoral salaries) I've seen, from $3,000 to $4,000 up to somewhere like in Hamilton where they're making upwards of $100,000."
Such varying pay scales for mayors and other elected officials from municipality are still nowhere near indicative of the commitment needed for anyone who takes office, said Santos.
"I always say, elected officials to me, the salaries they receive are token in comparison to their responsibilities and the amount of time they spend on the job," said Santos. "Whether you're a councilman, mayor or township committee member, you spend a tremendous amount of time."
Before the council's vote, Dan Gross, of Pointe Circle, questioned the need for the mayor's salary to increase by nearly threefold.
"What will we be seeing as far as performance to generate three-times as much in salary?" Gross asked Seda.
"I ask that you spend a day with me, and you be the judge," Seda replied.
Sharing a laugh, Gross said he would take Seda up on the offer, and despite their political rivalry, Gross said he thinks the approved salary increase for the mayor is a reasonable one.
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