The following Opinion is submitted on behalf of Michael Goldberg and Nancy Gould:

On Thursday, September 15, 2011, the BOT held a Special Meeting for the sole purpose of voting on 2 resolutions:  (an additional resolution was added at the last minute)

• Resolution 2011-242 to authorize the Village President to execute a contract with John O. Gross to provide administrative consulting services to South Orange.
• Resolution 2011-243 to authorize the Village President to execute a contract with John O. Gross to remain in South Orange as part-time CFO.

We voted a resounding "no" on both of these resolutions for a variety of reasons that are best expressed in the remarks we shared at the meeting, as follows:

Michael Goldberg:

This evening, I cannot and will not support the proposed resolutions  for a number of reasons. 

First and foremost, with every decision we make, I make a determination if it is in the best interests of the Village and the taxpayers.  In my opinion, these agreements are not.   This agreement provides compensation of $55k per year for at most 10 hours of work per week. This is compounded with compensation of an additional $4500/month guaranteed for 6 months to transition to a new Administrator.   While a search for a new Administrator is now underway and will take SOME time, I am confident the right person will be found in less than 6 months, yet we are bound by this agreement for 2 years for the CFO role and 6 months for transition services. 

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, the contract that West Orange provided (and is available to the public on their website) states

"it is understood and agreed that the Employee may provide certain services to the Village of South Orange for not more than ten (10) hours per week to occur at the facilities of South Orange Village; provided, however, that the Employee shall always be available to the Township (of West Orange) and that the services to the Village of South Orange shall not interfere with this Agreement."  

There are multiple provisions of that clause that are problematic and which put the residents of South Orange SECOND to another employer, especially during business hours. That is completely unacceptable.

Our Administrator has made a career decision to submit his resignation and I accept that.  In my professional experience, I have always learned it is never good policy to stand in the way of someone's resignation and career desires.  I want to sincerely thank the Administrator for his long service to the community, for his assistance on many projects over my past 4 years on the Board and in particular for the long hours and hard work he (along with many members of Village staff) recently put in to help the town deal with the aftermath of Hurricane Irene and ensure our Village remained operational, along with assisting surrounding municipalities.  I do truly wish him the best of luck and success.  However these agreements are simply not in the best of the interests of the Village and the taxpayers of this Village and I cannot support them.

Nancy Gould:

I would like to wish Mr. Gross all the best with his new position in West Orange. 

That being said, I have grave concerns about the terms of Mr. Gross' proposed contract. I would like to outline my concerns to the public at this time.

First, I am deeply upset that the public did not have the opportunity to review this material prior to our meeting. The public has the right to weigh in on this topic that is so important to both our town and budget. My largest concern is over the length of Mr. Gross' term as our CFO. I felt that a short term transition period is far more appropriate. As of October 1, Mr Gross is employed full time in West Orange and Mr. Gross will be engrossed in his new job in West Orange, as he should be.

Will he have the time or inclination to do our CFO job? Mr. Gross' West Orange contract states that he will be allowed to work 10 hours a week in South Orange. Is this sufficient time to do the CFO job? Will Mr. Gross have enough hours during the work day to interact with our staff to do the CFO job? I am concerned that South Orange will not get the dedicated service it deserves and needs.

Further, I believe that having Mr. Gross remain at Village Hall will blur the line of responsibility for our Village staff. That is, there may be confusion over who is ultimately in charge. Is it Mr. Gross, or is it our new Administrator? Who do I direct questions to? Who do I get advice from? That has the potential for confusion and many bad political situations in Village Hall.

We are embarking on a very important search for a new Administrator and I want to South Orange to get the best possible candidate, but we may lose our best candidates if they know that our old Administrator is still at Village hall. Who would want a job where "the old guy" is still hanging around? This is such an important job that I would hate to see our candidate pool diminished even by one resume because Mr. Gross is still employed at Village Hall.

I'd like to see Mr. Gross remain as CFO in the SHORT term, but 2 years is simply too long.  As for the payment, I felt that it was way too high for the unspecified hours that we have in the contract and I cannot agree to it.

Now let's turn to the Village Administrator transition services.  I had suggested that the services would just be a few hours a week at an hourly rate. After all, Mr. Gross has a new job.  This agreement calls for $4500/month for 10 hours a week of undefined work.

So, let's see - Mr. Gross has a full-time job in West Orange, he's our CFO and he has time to work another 10 hours per week.  How many hours will he actually work and how much will he really be paid with this agreement? Why would we agree to 6 months or a year, and not hourly?  This is totally unacceptable and I will not vote for it.

So, we have the contract for CFO and we have $4500/month for 6 months or a year. Think of what we could do with the money - Give it to the Downtown? Increase Library Services? Open the pool early? Need I say more?

We went through the budget line by line, and I had PERSONALLY cut items that were really important to me in order to keep our budget low and our taxes as low as possible. And then I see these bloated resolutions in front of me that waste tens of thousands of dollars.  This is an outrage. Since being on this Board I have worked hard to cast votes that are in the best interest of the village, and I will not vary from that tonight. I will vote no on both resolutions.