Employee Raises, Agenda Talk and Lawn Mowing

Monday night marked the third month that the New Hanover Board of Supervisors has met just once.

As part of an experiment initiated in January, the board decided to try meeting just once per month, and last night, decided to keep it going as long as the meetings don't get too long.

But admittedly, Monday night's meeting was pretty long -- if you stayed to the end, which occurred after a fairly long executive session.

And out of that executive session came most of the news of the evening.

The wages of the township's non-uniformed personnel were increased by 2.4 percent, but not uniformly.

Supervisor Andrew Kelly explained that each employee received a different raise, based on merit. I will be trying to obtain that list tomorrow for a story to be published in The Mercury.

But two of the specific employees were broken out for separate votes for reasons which will shortly become obvious.

Recreation Director Connie Garner received a 3.7 percent pay increase, from a salary of $52,246 to $54,205 a raise of $1,959.

Garner's husband, newly elected Supervisor Charles D. Garner Jr., abstained from voting on his wife's salary.

Bookkeeper Kaleena Aguilano, received a 2.5 percent raise, from $35,899 to $36,796, a raise of $897.

Aguilano's father, Supervisor Phil Aguilano, abstained from voting on his daughter's salary as well.

The supervisors also voted to settle a dispute with a company providing uniforms to township non-police personnel for $3,000.

And the supervisors also put off the decision on hiring a new township solicitor.

Since January, when former Township Solicitor Paul Bauer stepped down, the township has been using its special quarry council, Robert Brant and Associates as interim solicitor.

But despite a last-minute add-on to the agenda of a vote on the new solicitor, the supervisors apparently could not reach an agreement.

Instead, they voted to advertise special meetings on April 4 at 5 p.m. and, if necessary, April 5 at 5 p.m. to interview candidates for the position.

And, without further ado, here are the Tweets from the meeting: