The group will have 20 days from Sept. 15 to turn in their petition
TRENTON -- A group of residents disenchanted with city government and opposed to increasing the salaries of Trenton's top officials are vowing to circulate a petition to overturn the raises should they be approved later this month.
The group began its efforts two weeks ago after learning of the city's intention to give as much as 15.5 percent raises to the administration, but the mayor's recent attempts to clarify the "confusion" only added to residents' ire.
"If there's anyone confused about this, it's not the public," said Kevin Moriarty, who is head of the citizens' group that is protesting the increases. "It's the mayor."
On Sept. 15, City Council is scheduled to vote on an ordinance that would set salary ranges -- not the actual pay -- for the mayor, business administrator, chief of staff, municipal judges, department directors, division directors and city council members.
If it is approved, then City Council will vote on a resolution that would set fixed salaries retroactive to Jan. 1 and through Dec. 31, 2016.
Under the measure, the salaries of the mayor would go from $126,460 to $130,253; the business administrator from $115,922 to $119,399; the chief of staff from $107,231 to $110,447; the municipal judges from $101,968 to $105,027; the chief municipal judge from $112,164 to $115,528; and the department directors from $105,384 to $108,543.
They represent a 3 percent increase over their current salaries, but a memo that had gone out with the ordinance suggested something else entirely.
The memo listed recommended salaries for 2016, 2017 and 2018 showing that the city's officials, judges and heads of departments would get a 15.5 percent increase over three years.
But on Friday, two weeks after council gave preliminary approval to the ordinance, Mayor Eric Jackson clarified to the press that his administration would not be getting such high pay raises. He said his intention has always been to give annual 1.5 percent increases -- and the 3 percent represents increases for both 2015 and 2016.
He acknowledged that Business Administrator Terry McEwen had gotten ahead of him with the memo, but for some residents, it's another example of Jackson taking too much of a hands-off approach when running the city and being unaware of his employees' actions.
"The mayor is being disingenuous with his characterization of this whole issue as being confusion," Moriarty said. "If (the 15 percent raises) weren't his intention, why didn't he make public notice of this two weeks ago? When council approved it two weeks ago, it was in the context of a written plan from the mayor's own business administrator calling for 15 percent."
Moriarty said the administration has had one too many missteps that have cost taxpayers more money -- the biggest being its failure to follow up on warnings from the state and federal governments that ultimately allowed its payroll vendor to embezzle $4.7 million in payroll taxes.
He said that the mayor has yet to announce any personnel or policy changes that would reassure the public that something like that would not happen again.
Moriarty said he and others will attend next week's council meeting to see what action is taken, and if the ordinance is approved, will begin gathering the necessary signatures to force a public vote.
The group will have 20 days from Sept. 15 to turn in their petition.
They have been working under the impression that they would need to collect 805 signatures of registered voters, or the equivalent to 15 percent of the 5,369 Trenton residents who voted in last year's general election.
But Renee Steinhagen, the executive director of the NJ Appleseed Public Interest Law Center, said that referendums protesting ordinances that provide salary increases are governed by a broader state statute.
Under 40A:9-165, a petition requires the signatures of at least 5 percent of all registered voters in the city. The latest figures from the county's superintendents of elections shows Trenton has 38,717 registered voters, meaning the group would need 1,935 signatures.
Moriarty said about 200 people have already indicated that they would sign or help circulate the petition.
"A lot of people who were upset at the prospect of 15 percent raises, we don't know if they're going to be equally upset at 3 percent," he said. "But we're continuing with what we're doing right now."
Moriarty said he and others also taking issue with the fact that the city is using an ordinance to set salary ranges, but a resolution to set the actual pay since only ordinances are subject to citizen referendums.
The abovementioned statute says that "salaries, wages or compensation fixed and determined by ordinance may, from time to time, be increased, decreased or altered by ordinance," which the group interprets to mean that fixed salaries, not ranges, have to be set by ordinance.
"If the salary range is set via ordinance, then on an annual basis or however frequently they want, they can set new salaries by resolution, which we feel is counter to the spirit and letter of the state law," Moriarty said.
Cristina Rojas may be reached at crojas@njadvancemedia.com. Follow her on Twitter @CristinaRojasTT. Find NJ.com on Facebook.