HILLSDALE, N.J.—The Borough Council is separating the joint borough administrator and certified municipal finance officer position, putting incumbent Jon DeJoseph out of a gig just shy of tenure when his four-year contract ends Dec. 31.
He would be among those eligible to apply for either of those roles, though not both. He is pulling in total compensation of $144,000.
He makes twice as much as CMFO as he does as BA, worked out in a single contract.
The change was agreed in a resolution, R19228, at a two-hour-long Sept. 10 council meeting.
The change prompted an incendiary letter to Pascack Press from former mayor Douglas Frank, who had supported DeJoseph, a former Hillsdale councilman, and former Closter business administrator, in his current role.
Frank, a Republican who served one term as a councilman and was elected mayor in 2015, stepped down for health reasons in 2017. His term would have expired this Dec. 31.
He said of the current Republican council, in the wake of the restructuring resolution, that a bipartisan council might better serve taxpayers.
Also Sept. 10 the governing body passed resolution R19225, designating areas in need of redevelopment (without condemnation), and R19226, authorizing labor counsel to prepare a contract with Police Chief Robert Francaviglia on behalf of the borough.
It also heard an Eagle Scout presentation from Sean O’Connor and swore in Robert DeGroat as a member of the Hillsdale Fire Department.
In closed session the council took up personnel, contract negotiations, and the borough’s redevelopment plan. The council’s next regular meeting is Oct. 1 at 7:30 p.m.
Special meeting required
As CMFO and qualified purchasing agent, DeJoseph is responsible for the day-to-day fiscal operations of the borough. As BA he is responsible for day-to-day executive operations.
He attends all Council Finance Committee and mayor and council meetings per his contract.
The BA/CMFO resolution had three parts: To solicit letters of interest, to restructure the positions into two peoples’ roles, and to give 90 days notice to the incumbent.
Council President Frank Pizzella championed the resolution in the cause of protecting the borough from granting tenure to a political sphere position, and one that in his view is overpaid to boot. When it came time to vote, he abstained.
Steven Segalas was absent. Abby Lundy, Anthony DeRosa, and John Escobar voted yes. Zoltan Horvath voted no.
The morning after the meeting, the borough attorney advised the mayor and council that borough code requires any vote related to the BA position have a “supermajority” of four or more affirmative votes to pass.
Owing in part to Pizzella’s abstention, the vote fell shy on that front. The governing body is to reconvene at a special meeting before Sept. 30 to take it up again.
Working for the borough
His job evidently evaporated, DeJoseph told Pascack Press on the morning of Sept. 11 that he was working on a large project list, including preparing for the budget and police union contract talks.
“It was very disappointing based on my hard work and dedication for Hillsdale, to have it come down to something like this, voted on via resolution,” he said.
Asked to which recent accomplishments he was most proud of, DeJoseph touted the improvement of four railroad crossings this year.
He also said he was proud to have pulled in nearly $1 million in NJDOT grants for the Piermont and Saint Nicholas avenue sidewalks and regular road work.
He also noted he’d helped settle collective bargaining agreements this year with crossing guards and office staff and was closing in on a contract with the DPW.
He cited improvements to the leaf and snow removal process, investment in new public works equipment, stepping up the roads program, and his role in the borough negotiating a positive settlement on affordable housing.
He said he was proud that Hillsdale is resuscitating the Beechwood Park bandshell.
Asked his views on Frank’s harsh letter, DeJoseph said he had seen it but had not contributed to it.
He added that negotiations had not begun and that he had to be careful, for legal reasons, with what he said on the record.
DeJoseph most recently was borough administrator in Closter. He served as Hillsdale councilman under the Republican Party and was finance chairman.
In February 2012, DeJoseph, a lifelong Hillsdale resident, resigned from his post as councilman after serving for four years so the then-governing body could appoint him as the borough’s administrator.
At the time, Hillsdale had been without a borough administrator for a year, following the resignation of Victor Polce.
Following Polce’s resignation, then-Mayor Max Amowitz and then-Councilman Doug Frank stepped in to take up the slack.
DeJoseph served as Hillsdale’s borough administrator from February 2012 to late December 2013, when he resigned.
A terminal leave agreement between DeJoseph and the borough was approved at a special meeting on Dec. 30, 2014. Arnowitz said the settlement allowed DeJoseph to leave the borough by resigning rather than being fired.
Amowitz was outspoken about his belief that the council had no reasons to terminate the administrator and that personal reasons and political motivations were at play.
In 2012, Hillsdale Democrats grabbed a 4–2 seat majority. They denied Amowitz’s accusations.
The settlement, $50,000 paid in two installments, was approved by the council. Frank was the lone voice against the agreement.
DeJoseph earned his bachelor of science in business administration at St. Thomas Aquinas College. He is a certified municipal finance officer, a qualified purchasing agent and completed training to become a certified county finance officer through Rutgers University Center for Government Services.
At the Sept. 10 meeting, member Zoltan Horvath said he was satisfied with DeJoseph’s results for the borough and argued against restructuring, drawing applause from the audience.
According to the resolution, after “extended evaluation” of borough operations “the governing body has determined that it is in the best interests of the borough” to restructure.
Prudence or pretext?
Mayor John Ruocco and Pizzella clashed over the resolution. Pizzella questioned the merger of a tenured part-time finance position with an untenured full-time job seen as more political and time consuming—the powerful BA role.
Ruocco said the hybrid job was hardly unique and read the effort as “a pretext for a personnel management change.”
He said Pizzella and others had complained to him “for months and years” about their perception of DeJoseph’s performance but that critics would not put anything into writing.
Ruocco said, “There are moments in life where you have the right to do something but not the reason and there is no good reason here; there is only political contrivance.”
He added in part that the council contingent pushing for the restructuring told him, “We want to see what else is out there” before DeJoseph reached tenure, which seemed on track to kick in with contract renewal and the Jan. 1, 2020 reorganization.
Ruocco said the cut to prevent tenure, applied to a single employee who had years of positive performance reviews, sets “a terrible precedent” that could leave the borough open to a lawsuit over labor practices.
Ruocco said DeJoseph is comfortable rebuffing requests when he feels they’re not in the borough’s financial best interest, which he said rankles some constituencies.
“I would rather have a BA and a CFO who errs on the side of fiduciary caution and fiscal conservatism even if it upsets some rather than have one that doesn’t care how or when the public’s money is spent,” Ruocco said.
After Pizzella disputed anyone was being “terminated” by restructuring—and denied performance was at issue—he took issue with the terms of DeJoseph’s contract.
“That was probably political because the person who did the contract wanted to make sure that their BA stayed the whole time, so I can understand that. All the towns do that, it’s not just Hillsdale. But it doesn’t make it correct,” he said.
At that, Ruocco pointed out that Pizzella was among those who approved DeJoseph’s contract. This drew laughter from the gallery.
According to Ruocco, DeJoseph’s total compensation of $144,000, weighted to his finance duties, “is inexpensive when you compare that to what other towns in the Pascack Valley pay to have two persons fill those roles.”
He said that DeJoseph had offered to revise his contract and to work under separate contracts if need be.
Ruocco also noted the market for administrators is tight and warned hiring replacements “will cost you, the residents, dearly.”
He said the average compensation for an administrator in the Pascack Valley is $125,000 and that of full-time and part-time CMFOs are $87,000 and $45,000, respectively.
The mayor said “It’s common practice among municipalities that when you get a qualified individual who can perform in more than one capacity you take advantage of that. Hillsdale was fortunate in 2016.”
He predicted replacing the positions would cost the borough another $25,000 a year and bog the borough down “while Mr. DeJoseph’s considerable experience, knowledge, and skills walk right out that door.”
Councilmembers tap delay to consider feedback
In advance of a special meeting to settle the resolution in its entirety, Pizzella told Pascack Press on Sept. 12 that council members are taking this time “to investigate alternatives, look into how the public’s concerns can be addressed, and how to consider some of the suggestions offered by the public at the meeting.”
He dismissed Frank’s letter—in which he and Lundy are named as “conspirators” and part of a council on the whole “who are single-issue oriented and spend little time in Borough Hall”—as mocking and valueless.
In his letter, Frank said, “As a Republican, I plan to support Janetta Trochimiuk [running mate of Ruocco and Pizzella] and anyone who will run against these unprofessional councilmembers, starting with Democrat Ian Askins in November.”
He added, “Hillsdale voters should do the same. Perhaps a bipartisan council will put a stop to cronyism, fiscal irresponsibility, and ridiculous actions.”
In partial response, Pizzella expressed pride in his work as Council President, chair of the Economic Development Committee, chair of Access to All, liaison to the Environmental Commission, a member of the Finance Committee, and past service on the Planning Board.
He scorned the letter as bullying, and said “I do not understand why people say and do cruel and vicious things, but I’m not going to allow it to bring me down. I’d rather continue to do good work and I will work as hard as ever and for as long as my community wants me.”
Lundy told Pascack Press on Sept. 12, “The positions held by Mr. DeJoseph were restructured in order to better serve the town as well as to correct an inequitable salary distribution in his contract.”
She said “Doug Frank was the orchestrator of this contract that rewarded his friend and son of a longtime Republican Party supporter and Republican County Committee member a salary of $90,000 for a part-time CMFO position that would become tenured after four years.”
She added, “Having two people will provide a greater segregation of duties and checks and balances.