Mayor's salary increased
Mayor Jun Choi will now make $75,000 a year
BY CHRIS GAETANO Staff Writer
The Edison Township Council approved an ordinance that would increaseMayor Jun Choi's salary from $49,000 a year to $75,000, less than the increased salary the administration first proposed five months ago, $97,000. The vote during the Oct. 6 Township Council meeting was 4-3.

Proponents of the measure have said that Choi, as a full-time mayor, should draw the salary that is typical of a full-time mayor, and said that he is underpaid for his job. In previous conversations with the Sentinel, township Communications Director Jerry Barca noted that the mayors of other towns of comparable size make much more money than Choi, citing Woodbridge ($75,000), Elizabeth ($119,224), Paterson ($98,880) and other towns as examples. Increasing the mayor's salary to $75,000, Barca has said, would place Choi's pay scale at the market rate for people with similar jobs in comparable towns.

In an interview on Oct. 3, Barca said it would be accurate to say that the change from the initial $97,000 to $75,000 was to make the pay increase more palatable to the residents. Still, he said that the salary increase was justified because Choi is a fulltime mayor, and noted that the mayor of Woodbridge gets paid the same amount but for a part-time position. Choi, upon assuming office in 2006, changed the position from part-time to full-time, a campaign pledge both he and his opponent at the time, Bill Stephens, had made.

"I think the move is to have this mayor position be a full-time position and be what you do for a living, so the salary adjustment here is based on the position of mayor. It's based on the CEO of a town with a $118 million budget with more than 100,000 residents. It's for the person who is responsible for the public safety, the public health of the fifth-biggest town in the state of New Jersey," said Barca.

The idea has been met with resistance by opponents of the mayor, such as Councilwoman Antonia Ricigliano, who in previous conversations with the Sentinel has said that the pay increase is too much, too soon, especially at a time when the township has been facing tough economic times. The councilwoman in an Oct. 6 interview with the Sentinel said that the change from $97,000 to $75,000 makes little difference in her opposition to the mayor's proposed salary increase. She felt that the increase was too much too soon, especially when one factors in the benefits the mayor would also receive, such as health insurance. She said that Choi knew what the job paid when he was campaigning and that he was now trying to rewrite the rules, which she said are contained in the township's charter, for his benefit.

"When Jun Choi ran for mayor, he ran knowing what the salary was, that it was a part-time position — and that is by our charter, by the way, not something I'm just saying, and as far as I know, the charter was never amended," said Ricigliano.

She said that if the mayor truly wants to change the salary of his office, he should have the increase take effect in his next term, to avoid the appearance that the raise is more for Mayor Jun Choi rather than the position of mayor in and of itself. Either that, she said, or hold it to a vote by referendum this November.

The ordinance creating this increase in the mayor's salary was introduced at a Township Council meeting at the end of September, but garnered no discussion from individual members of the council. Ricigliano was the sole dissenting vote to an otherwise unanimous decision to let the ordinance have a second reading.

Lauren Mortenson contributed to this story

Contact Chris Gaetano at sentnorth@gmnews.com.