The Jersey City Board of Education, municipal utilities authority, and Hudson County Schools of Technology are largely non-compliant with the state’s “boat payment” rules, an audit by Ward E Councilman James Solomon’s office says.
By John Heinis/Hudson County View
“Jersey City is in a serious budget crisis — and it shouldn’t fall on homeowners and working families to foot the bill for corrupt and illegal payments,” Solomon said in a statement.
The downtown councilman, a potential contender for Jersey City mayor in 2025, said at the end of January he and his office would look into sick and vacation leave payouts that impact local taxpayers, as HCV first reported.
The 10-page report released today says that 42 contracts and regulations from the five aforementioned agencies were reviewed.
By state law, all employees hired after May 2010 cannot receive more than $15,000 for unused sick leave. Employees can only receive that $15,000 at retirement – not when they resign, change jobs, or as an annual payout.
In the case of the BOE, MUA, and HCST, the majority of their contracts (70.83 percent), “were either non-compliant and contained ambiguous language.”
A breakdown of each individual entity lists the MUA as the biggest offender: Out of three contracts, zero are compliant, one is containing missing and/or vague language, and two suggest non-compliance.
The next is the HCST, with three of their five contracts suggesting non-compliance, another containing missing and/or vague language, and the fifth and final one compliant.
As for the BOE, which has a hefty 16 contracts, nine contain missing and/or vague language, six are compliant, and one suggests non-compliance.
“Specifically, the JCPS and JCMUA exhibited a recurrent pattern of issuing contracts that either do not mention or incorrectly reference the $15,000 sick leave caps. For instance, out of the six union contracts reviewed within JCPS, five failed to mention or properly cite the $15,000 sick leave cap mandated by N.J.S.A. 18A:30-3.6,” the report says.
“In total, nine of sixteen JCPS contracts did not clearly comply with the sick leave reforms, with one of those nine not clearly compliant with the vacation day accrual cap. Furthermore, four were vague about whether they permitted annual unused vacation day
payout. HCST had a higher percentage of contracts that included caps, but included provisions seemingly designed to circumvent these caps.”
The review from Solomon’s office continued that two of the HCST union contracts adhered to the $15,000 sick day cap, but also included “substantial yearly bonuses” for not using sick time.
Similarly over at the MUA, none of the three contracts were in compliance with sick leave laws and annual vacation day payouts are still permitted. One contract also had no limits on vacation day accruals, the councilman’s research shows.
The City of Jersey City and Hudson County government fared much better, with the city having four of their six contracted identified as complaint and the other two said to contain missing and/or vague language.
The county, meanwhile, had 11 of their 12 contracts determined to be compliant and only one containing missing and/or vague language.
“If our investigation finds that these loopholes have in fact been abused, our office intends to work with the appropriate authorities to recoup those losses at no expense to the taxpayer, while strengthening independent oversight over the administration of
these contracts to ensure full compliance with state law moving forward,” the report concludes.
Solomon’s office also noted that their investigation was inspired by the Office of the New Jersey State Comptroller, who reviewed the sick and vacation time payouts of 60 different municipalities last year, 57 of which were non-compliant.
The comptroller’s office did not review any of the government entities that the councilman and his team looked into.
In response, city spokeswoman Kimberly Wallace-Scalcione contends that all municipal contracts are in line with state law, as well as that Solomon’s work on this topic is appreciated.
“All of our contracts, including those cited in the Councilman’s report, are in full compliance with the NJSA, and any contract language that he feels is vague still falls under state law, which supersedes any contract language,” she said in an email.
“That said, we appreciate the Councilman’s efforts to review county and city payouts on contracts that were established long before this administration, and to which, we are legally obligated to fulfill.”
Spokesmen for the county and the HCST did not return emails seeking comment, nor did representatives from the BOE and MUA.
Make it a crime of embezzlement & mandatory 5 year prison term.