Town Settles with Employee for $73K

A township employee is receiving a settlement totalling $73,500 after he claimed that Township Manager Victor Canning refused to fully credit him with more than 400 days of unused sick and vacation time accrued during his career.

Canning, however, said he’d had no choice but to deny Frank DeLorenzo’s request, stating that a collective bargaining agreement normally allows town hall employees to carry over no more than a year’s worth of allotted days from one year to the next.

The Belleville Township Council unanimously passed a resolution May 10 awarding the money to DeLorenzo, Belleville’s construction code official.  DeLorenzo was to receive $13,750 by May 14 for pain and suffering, an amount paid by the township’s insurance carrier. He also gets three payments of  $20,000 each, with the first payment due by yesterday, June 1. Two more payments must be made by Feb. 1, 2012 and Feb. 1, 2013, the settlement also states.  

As well, DeLorenzo will be credited with 50 “banked” vacation days, which will be subject to township rules limiting how often they can be carried over.

A copy of the settlement and a court complaint filed by DeLorenzo was obtained a few days ago from the township following a request made under the state Open Public Records Act.

According to his complaint, DeLorenzo -- who has worked for Belleville since 1981 -- wrote to Canning in November 2006. DeLorenzo was seeking confirmation that 222.5 vacation days he had accumulated could be carried over to the following year, in accordance with “past practice and precedent followed by all Township Managers prior to Victor Canning’s appointment,” the complaint states. DeLorenzo had accrued a total of 209 unused sick days and 224 vacation days by November 2002, according to the complaint.

Canning rejected the request, allowing DeLorenzo to carry just 60 vacation days, the complaint states, denying DeLorenzo 162 days. After demanding that he be credited with the full amount, three years  later, in 2009, DeLorenzo’s lawyer asked that the days be reinstated or that DeLorenzo be compensated. The township still declined to credit or pay DeLorenzo for the days, and in May 2010, he filed a complaint in Essex County Superior Court.     

Canning said today that when he first became township manager in 2006, he discovered that there were several employees who had vacation days “going back a number of years.”  Canning said he sent out a memo advising employees that vacation time could not be carried for more than a year, which was stipulated in a collective bargaining agreement. Canning said he lacked the authority to override that agreement even if he wanted to.

“The only way I could was if there was an emergency, like a hurricane,” Canning said.

He added that “he could find no proof” that past managers had expressly permitted DeLorenzo or any other employees to continuously bank vacation and sick time.

Canning also noted that the practice of allowing employees to rack up days off over the course of their careers is costly, a perk Canning described as a “golden parachute.” With enough accrued vacation time, an employee could spend much of his or her last year not working but still drawing a paycheck, forcing the township to pay an additional salary to whomever would actually have to do the work.

“As a former councilman myself, once I became manager I knew some things had to be addressed,” he said.  

DeLorenzo did not make a formal request for his accrued time “for more than a year” after Canning became manager, Canning said. He added that other employees accepted Canning’s decision to abide strictly to the terms of the collective bargaining agreement, even though those workers lost several vacation days as well.

According to his complaint, DeLorenzo had for years failed to take his sick and vacation time at the township’s behest, due to “shortages in manpower and the inability to process zoning and planning applications without [DeLorenzo’s] involvement.”

Canning, however, flatly disputed that claim.  

“The construction code official is important but to say he could not use his vacation time is just an absurdity,” Canning said. “I take vacation. The chief of police goes to the Shore.”

But while adamant that he was right in denying DeLorenzo’s claim, Canning also acknowledged that the council -- which voted to settle instead of fighting in court -- might not have wanted to take its chances with a jury or a public-employee board. In one count of DeLorenzo’s complaint, he asked for “treble damage,” along with court and other costs, meaning that an unfavorable decision could have cost the township far more than the settlement.   

“We go on the advice of counsel,” said Mayor Ray Kimble. “I think he [Township Attorney Thomas Murphy] thought this might be the easiest way out.”

Kimble declined to comment further on the matter. Murphy also declined to comment. A call left today for Frank Cozzarelli, DeLorenzo’s attorney, was not immediately returned.