TRMUA Under Fire for $24K Benefits Package to Commissioners

The men and women serving on the Toms River Municipal Utilities Authority Commission can receive more than $24,000 in benefits and salary annually for serving on the government board.

The TRMUA commissioner’s potential benefits, according to the TRMUA:

• $1,662.87 a month in health insurance for family coverage or $665.16 for single coverage;
• $116.05 a month in dental insurance for family coverage or $47.34 for single coverage;
• $2,000 annual salary;
• a $30 contribution to pay for the benefits.

Toms River resident Nels Luthman attended the recent TRMUA commissioners meetings demanding to know when the compensation was first approved, but he said the township has yet to find the ordinance that grants the seven-member commission its health, dental, eye and prescription benefits.

Since 1979, the commissioners receive an annual salary of $2,000. Previously, they received $1,000.

Calls to Eliminate Benefits, and Eliminate MUA

Luthman said the commissioners should receive zero benefits and salary, both as a cost saving measure for the township and because the commissioners are not employees of the MUA, but are those appointed to govern it.

“I have served seven years on boards, and I have not received a dime, which is fine. This should be a volunteer board. These benefits are outrageous,” Luthman told the , where he asked the council to draft a resolution to eliminate the benefits.

Paul Brush, , went a step further than Luthman, calling for the all-out disbandment of the MUA, pushing for the entire operation to be folded into township operations instead of existing as a “quasi-governmental body.”

"Get rid of this layer of bureaucracy," Brush said. "I would like to see the council abolish it."

He also decried the level of benefits the commissioners receive and also that the years of service would contribute toward a government pension.

Council, MUA Hear Concerns

From the council dais, Councilman Gregory McGuckin said Brush's push was a campaign-year tactic but that he did recall Brush inquired on such a move when Brush served as mayor previously. While McGuckin said the idea warranted further study, Mayor Thomas Kelaher said the township has been looking into the matter.

“We’re perfectly willing to address those issues,” said McGuckin.

The Director of the MUA, , said he too believes efficiencies should be explored.

“I think we should be talking about regionalizing the MUAs,” Acropolis said.

“What’s the big secret?,”  Brush said, in response to current Mayor Thomas Kelaher who said he has been discreetly studying the MUA/Township merger for the past eight months. “This is not the Manhattan Project he’s studying.  This is the merger of the MUA with Township operations, something people have been asking for since before I was elected Mayor.  We are not reinventing the wheel here.  There is no good reason for secretly conducting such a study for the past eight months.  I have serious doubts about this supposed study,” said Brush in a prepared statement.

After Luthman presented his request to the council, he was met with audience applause but no response from the council members.

Political Accusations

Serving his first meeting as a councilman that night was who previously served as the chairman of the MUA board of commissioners. Manforti was also the president of the Toms River Regular Republican Club, and agreed to resign from the club and the MUA following his appointment to the council.

Brush said Manforti’s appointment was another example of “political shenanigans.”

He said the appointment of Stephen Acropolis, who is mayor of Brick Township, to be director of the TRMUA is “double dipping,” and that Acropolis was hired after a TRMUA Commissioner, Juan Carlos Bellu, became assistant township administrator for Brick.

“One MUA commissioner is paid $149,999 to work for the Mayor of Brick after which the MUA commissioners then hire the Mayor of Brick and pay him $93,000 to work for them. The Mayor of Brick earns $53,000 there and now has two full time jobs for a total of $146,000,” Brush said “This is in your-face arrogance. Meanwhile, our Mayor and Council reward the MUA Commissioner with a position on the Township Council. This has to stop."

Acropolis called Brush’s charges “hypocritical,” saying Brush himself served for years on a mortuary board which contributed to a government pension.

“That all will come out during the campaign. I would love to have a public discussion with Paul Brush. If I had his record as mayor, I would be attacking people like Tom Kelaher and myself, too,” Acropolis said.

“Acropolis is publicly pleading for his job at the MUA.  It is really sad to hear him trying to defend his full time job at the MUA while he is also the full time Mayor of Brick.  He’s the poster boy for double dippers and gives all public officials a bad name,” Brush said.  “Mayor Kelaher is too late in asking for a merger study even though he’s had a very friendly council to work with for four years.  I didn’t have that luxury.”

Commissioners' Terms and Benefits

In addition to Manforti as former chairman, the TRMUA commissioners are an all-Republican board with members such as Toms River Republican Club Senior Vice President Joe Bilotta and TR Republican Club Trustee Charles Valvano, who have each elected for the benefits package that includes family health insurance ($19,954 annual benefit), dental ($1,392) and vision ($1,000), which adds up to $24,317 in annual compensation with the $2,000 annual salary as a commissioner.

Commissioner Deborah Clement opted for single health insurance coverage, which added up a $12,344 total benefits and salary package.

Commissioners Bellu and Carmen Memoli declined the health insurance benefits put opted for dental and vision, adding up to $4,392 total benefits and salary package. Commissioner Virginia Haines has $3,568 total benefits and salary, including dental and vision health benefits.

A Push for No Benefits

Luthman said the benefits are given to the alternate members of the board of commissioners as well as the regular members.

“Other MUAs don’t do that,” Luthman said. “I’m not asking you to abolish the MUA, just get rid of the benefits, which are outrageous.”

The commissioners, who meet once a month, govern the MUA — a separate agency from the township government whose purpose is to oversee the township’s wastewater collection for treatment at the county sewerage authority. The commissioners are appointed to four-year terms.

Luthman would like to see the board make the shift to a volunteer one, and says it can be accomplished over the next four years as commissioner’s terms expire.

“All you have to do is deny benefits to them is pass a resolution,” Luthman said. “As terms expire say to them ‘Look you are going to be a volunteer board, just like all the other boards in town.’”