HILLSDALE—Mayor John Ruocco moved to veto three provisions of Ord. No. 23-11 that provides for annual stipend increases for the mayor, council members, and qualified purchasing agent, calling the raises for mayor and council “exorbitant” and the highest in Pascack Valley.
Ruocco declined to sign the ordinance on June 17, sending it back to the borough clerk, and wrote a memo outlining his rationale.
Ruocco, who is running for a council seat in November, said the mayor’s annual stipend increase to $13,000 represented a 44% increase over the present maximum, and the council members’ stipend raise represented a 67% increase over the present maximum.
The QPA’s yearly stipend increase of almost 250% to $15,000 was an increase from $500 monthly, or a jump of nearly 250%, he charged.
The council next meets July 11. Generally, a council majority of five Republicans votes as a bloc, with Ruocco supported by councilman Zoltán Horváth, who is aiming this year for a shot at the gavel.
As mayor, Ruocco votes only in case of a tie.
Councilwoman Abby Lundy told Pascack Press, “In the borough form of government, veto power for the mayor is senseless because overturning the veto doesn’t require more votes than when the ordinance originally passed, which I believe was 5-1. The mayor knows this and knows that his veto will be overturned.”
Lundy said, “He’s made his opinion heard in more than one commentary and has made it clear where he stands. His veto is one of his few mayoral powers but I see it as nothing more than his grandstanding and an unnecessary waste of people’s time.”
‘Unseemly appearance’
Ruocco said in his two-page memo, which he also forwarded to Pascack Press, “The unseemly appearance of elected officials increasing their compensation in one shot by such exorbitant amounts conveys an awkward and inappropriate message to the taxpayers who must foot the bill. Indeed, if these maximum compensation levels were enacted, it would represent a 62% increase over last year’s budgeted amount.”
Ruocco and Horváth criticized the proposed stipend increases at prior budget hearings.
And Ruocco derided the raises in his “State of the Borough” part two, which he delivered mid-meeting on June 13.
“To justify these large increases, council members have cited that their compensation has not kept up with inflation and they are making less than the minimum wage. However, these measures have never been the yardsticks to gauge the appropriateness of mayor and council compensation since the positions were never considered paid employee positions of the borough that would command salaries subject to minimum wage laws,” he said.
Ruocco said “Their compensation in the form of stipends was intended to symbolically reward those elected officials for their willingness to assume what are part-time voluntary positions.”
Ruocco’s two-page veto notes that council members claim they are “overworked” in their committee roles, but he disagrees.
“In the period Jan 2022–May 2023, there were 119 monthly opportunities for the seven standing committees to convene in toto, but they did so only 33 times, according to official council minutes. In that same period, the nine special committees with 39 monthly opportunities to convene met zero times, except for one committee that met once,” he said.
He said if council wishes to up its compensation, “it should set more modest maximum levels” such as $7,500 for council members and $11,000 for the mayor.
“With the understanding that going forward such stipends could be tied to the raises that the council would approve for the non-unionized staff, [that] would be more palatable and appear less self-indulgent,” he charged.