New Jersey Corruption: Settlement of overtime lawsuit gives Paterson’s budget director a $15,000 pay increase

04/03/2014


PATERSON – City budget director Russell Forenza will be getting a $15,000 raise as part of the settlement of a lawsuit he filed against Paterson after municipal officials stopped paying him overtime.

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Forenza

Under the agreement, Forenza’s new base salary will be $111,000. The city also has agreed to give him a $20,307 retroactive check, with the raise taking effect on January 1, 2013. Moreover, the deal also calls for Paterson to pay $42,307 in fees for Forenza’s lawyer, Susan Champion, the city’s former law director.

As budget director, Forenza had been getting overtime for 20 years. But the state Department of Community Affairs issued a report on the city’s overtime spending in December 2011 and recommended Paterson discontinue the practice.

Forenza, who ran unsuccessfully for a Ridgewood council position several years ago, argued in his lawsuit that the city was wrongly denying him overtime payments. He has maintained that he does not fit the requirements of being an employee exempt from overtime because he does not make hiring decisions and he does not supervise at least two subordinates.

Forenza also has argued that he was the only city “division director” not being paid overtime.
The City Council voted in favor of the settlement at a special meeting on Tuesday night. Councilman Julio Tavarez cast the only vote against the settlement. “I didn’t think it was appropriate,” Tavarez said. “I didn’t think it was appropriate that he sued us.”

Champion has not responded to an email seeking her comment on the case.

In the lawsuit, Forenza was asking for $25,752 in overtime he said he was owed for extra hours he had worked between September 2011 and January 2013. The settlement does not provide for that payment.
The increase in Forenza’s base salary also will result in extra longevity money for him. City policies give extra longevity pay to employees who reach certain thresholds of service time. Forenza gets 10-percent of his base salary. So the pay raise will boost his longevity from $9,600 to $11,000.

By getting a higher salary, instead of collecting overtime, Forenza also puts himself in position to get a larger pension when he retires.


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