West Deptford Committee Moves to Slash Own Salaries

It’s not every day an amendment to an ordinance brings about applause.

But when hauled out the administrative axe and moved to hack committee members’ pay Thursday night, that’s exactly what happened.

Democrat Denice DiCarlo broached the idea initially, bringing up the high-end range of salaries from last year’s salary ordinance, and proposed cutting them all significantly.

“It’s time we take some action to decrease the mayor and the township committee’s salaries,” she said, noting the committee is the highest-paid in Gloucester County. “We need to give a little bit of relief to the taxpayers.”

Her proposal was to knock the mayor’s salary down to $6,000 and township committee down to $5,500, down from the current $11,300 for the mayor and $9,500 for township committee members.

Republican Sam Cianfarini immediately one-upped her, proposing the bar be set even lower—$5,000 annually for all committee members, including the mayor.

It was a move DiCarlo quickly adopted, first seconding Cianfarini’s lower proposal, then cutting through Robert’s Rules to drop her first motion and amend it to the lower.

That amendment immediately passed with a unanimous vote.

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