At the last Mayor & Council meeting in January, the governing body tabled two resolutions (45-14 and 54-14) that would, in combination, hire Mark Pasquali as the Department of Public Works (DPW) Superintendent for $85,000 instead of Rich Graves. This is $5,000 more than is currently being paid to Neglia Engineering, the borough’s engineering firm, that was temporarily appointed in December of 2012 to the position as a contractor which did not require the municipality to pay for any insurance, pension, or benefits. The person that Neglia Engineering is currently using as their representative for DPW Superintendent is Mark Pasquali. It should be noted that Neglia Engineering was originally contracted as DPW Superintendent in December of 2012 for $40,000 (Resolution 267-12) and this amount was increased to $80,000 three months later in March of 2013 due to the workload being doubled from 20 hours to 40 hours a week (Resolution 86-13).
Add to that the fact that it had been stated publicly that Neglia Engineering was hired temporarily until DPW employee Rich Graves, who was appointed Assistant Superintendent in 2012 (Resolution 260-12), completed required training and received the certification needed to take over that position. Mr. Graves, in his only comment for this article, stated that he has passed the test and received the necessary certification to become DPW Superintendent.
The matter was originally set to be voted on at the January 15 Mayor & Council meeting but was taken off the agenda and discussed in closed session. Whether or not Mr. Graves was provided a ‘Rice notice’ or ‘Rice letter’ is not known. Pursuant to Rice v. Union Cty. Reg. High School Bd. of Ed., w.2:0.0.0.0.0.0″>Print / Download / E-Mail