Orange Mayor Eldridge Hawkins Jr., who was
elected after his predecessor, Mims Hackett Jr., pleaded guilty to federal
bribery charges; vowed things would be different when he took office. But he's
getting off to a poor start.
Not satisfied with
the $25,000 mayor's salary, Hawkins now has three municipal jobs that earn him
a total of $104,000.
It may
be legal, but it isn't right.
In
addition to being the duly elected mayor, Hawkins appointed himself -- you read
that right, he appointed himself -- to the acting fire director position for an
additional $76,000. Officials appointed to acting positions by the mayor do not
have to be approved by the council.
On top
of that, the city council had previously approved him as the city's emergency
management coordinator for an additional $3,700. Apparently, that had long been
the practice in
The
28-year-old mayor took a leave of absence from his $50,000-a-year job as a West
Orange police officer to devote him self completely to his new job as mayor.
Pointing to the fact that the last fire director earned $86,979, Hawkins claims
he is actually saving the city money by being the fire director and mayor.
His
exact quote was: "By appointing
myself, I've exercised discretion and voluntarily reduced the salary and thereby
saved the citizens money, and give them a full-time effort." It was,
Hawkins said, "a win-win for everybody."
Hogwash! It may be a win-win for Hawkins, but it's not
so clear it's a win-win for the taxpayers of
Hawkins
said that when he talked to residents they told him the city needed his
undivided attention and they expressed concerns about how he would juggle the
police work in
But
there is a better solution than the one Hawkins has fashioned. If the people
and the elected officials of Orange want a full- time mayor, they should take
the necessary legal steps by passing a law making it a full-time job and
raising the mayor's salary accordingly. This backdoor approach seems curious at
best.