BY WALTER ELLIOTT
ORANGE – “Add $10,000 here and $10,000 there – and it becomes real money,” could describe the Orange City Council’s adding almost $2.7 million to 26 salary maximums – whose second reading, public hearing and final vote may come as early as its Sept. 24 meeting.
The council, at its Sept. 2 meeting, approved for introduction Ordinance 55-2025 on salary adjustments for 26 administrative, legislative and job titles. Those titles include the mayor, the seven council members, department heads, judges and other administrators.
55-2025, in its two opening paragraphs, is an ordinance amending the salary ranges set by Ordinance 21-2017 and was previously amended by 15-2020.
Current employees, in 55-2025, who were promoted into the listed positions listed in the ordinance’s attachment were to receive the minimum salary “or an increase of up to five percent of the minimum salary, whichever is greater.”
Those employees who were directly hired from another governmental entity in New Jersey or were newly hired are to get the minimum starting salary range or up to 15 percent increase on the minimum based on education and experience. A higher salary may be approved with the advice and consent of the governing body based on particular qualifications or “the difficulty of recruitment.”
The listed positions reflected separating public works and planning heads into two separate directors plus the additions of a fire and a police chief. Left unsaid in the ordinance is inflation affecting the cost of living since the 2020 global pandemic.
The ordinance mostly raised the salary range maximums for 22 municipal employees Two part-time tax assessor and tax collector positions remain unchanged.
Salary maximums of the 26 said positions added $2,675,000 to the available payroll. The average job title is therefore receiving $12,272 – or a 5.465 percent increase.
Pending the ordinance’s passage, the Mayor and Council would receive flat salaries without a maximum, step or grade.
The Mayor’s salary would increase from $55,000 to $75,000. The $20,000 boost translates to a 35 percent increase. Each of the seven Council Members would get a raise from $30,000 to $40,000 for a 33 percent increase.
The re-listed Fire Chief and Police Chief positions are to each get a $200,000 annual salary. The pre-existing fire and police directors would meanwhile see their maximums rise from $140,000 to $150,000 for a 5.2 percent increase.
This city had a fire and a police chief before the respective fire and police director positions. The public safety directors oversee and enact policy while the chiefs run their departments’ day-to-day operations. Some of those daily operations, until very recently, were given to deputy chiefs or captains in the chiefs’ job title absences.
Orange’s administration has also recently separated “Planning” from the “Director of Public Works and Planning” title. The pre-existing Public Works Director is to get a $10,000 maximum range to $150,000 or a 5.2 percent increase. The Planning Director is to start (or restart, when one goes deep into historical records) with a $200,000 maximum.
The Business Administrator’s $165,000 salary maximum would rise $10,000 to $175,000 – or 5.6 percent.
The Municipal Clerk, and directors of community service, finance, law (also known as the City Attorney) and recreation would each get their salary maximums raised from $140,000 to $150,000 – or a 5.2 percent increase.
As for the Chief Municipal Judge, that position is set to see a $10,000 maximum raised from $60,000 to $70,000 for a 6.53 percent increase. A Municipal Court Judge is to have the $55,000 maximum rise to $65,000 or a 6.53 percent increase.
The full-time Tax Assessor’s maximum is to rise from $130,000 to $140,000 or a 7.7 percent increase. The same would go for the full-time Tax Collector.
The part-time Tax Assessor and part-time Tax Collector salary maximums would stay at $75,000.
“Local Talk” has not found an explanation on why the Chief Financial Officer position is slated to have a decreased salary maximum. The CFO’s ceiling is to be lowered from $150,000 to $140,000 for a negative 6.53 percent.
The nearly $2.7 million, when or if passed, would be added through an amendment to the about $76.364 million 2025 Calendar Year Municipal Budget that the council had adopted Aug. 6. The city had projected $46,148,55 going to departmental salaries and wages at the May 8 budget hearing.
