Mayor deserves pay raise

This letter is in response to Bonnie Rubin’s comments about the present government in Vernon. Ms. Rubin clearly doesn’t understand the Faulkner Act and how it changed responsibilities of the mayor and TC. All daily decisions in running the town are made by the mayor. He is the decision maker-not the TC. If the residents of Vernon don’t like the mayor’s decisions, they can vote him out of office at the end of his term.

Meanwhile, under this administration, taxes were decreased for 2 years in a row. He saved Vernon township over $1 million in negotiating new labor contracts and renegotiating health benefits and liability insurance premiums without a decrease in services; he auctioned off surplus vehicles which resulted in over $100,000 in new revenues, he recaptured $912,000 of past sewer expenses, and then made over $100,000 from the Recycle Center — and the list goes on. This is why we changed to this form of government — the Mayor is now accountable to the voters. We are more than getting our money's worth!! Ms. Rubin’s comments can only make clear to me that she doesn’t know or chooses not to research all the accomplishments of this administration. Why is that?

She mentions that there is no transparency. As I understand it, the previous administration went into executive session 40 times and this administration went into executive session only 10 times. Who was transparent? It seems to me that the secrecy of executive sessions was the old way of doing things. Also, all TC members get a list of items or services to be purchased or encumbered before monies have been spent on those things. The reading of the bills at a TC meeting is after the fact — the money was already spent and any questions the TC had should have been addressed before the money was encumbered. By Ms. Rubin’s comments, it is clear she doesn’t understand this fact.

As I see it, our mayor, Mr. Marotta, more than deserves a salary raise from $30,000 to $70,000 a year. Quite frankly, with all the responsibility the mayor has, I believe he should be receiving at least $120,000 a year —t hat which the previous Mayor allotted for the Office of the Mayor.

Phyllis Pfeifer
Sussex