PERTH AMBOY – Just squeaking by with a “No” vote from Councilman Bill Petrick and Council President Joel Pabon, Police Chief Benjamin Ruiz received a slight increase of about $2700 over the maximum amount of the range in his salary category.

The increase was given despite impassioned pleas from different residents asking the Council to consider the finances of the City before they made their decision.

Former Councilman Fernando Gonzalez told the Council to consider the situation of citizens with taxes. “I understand everyone wants a raise, but the citizens are hurting. When do we stop spending the citizens money? It would be different if the finances were different. I was here when Fehrenbach negotiated a fair contract with the unions and he doesn’t live here. When are you guys going to do this?”

Fernando Gonzalez continued, “My mortgage went up because of tax increases.” Businessman David Caba said, “The average household (in the City) income is less than $25,000/year. To give someone an increase given the incident that happened a month ago (Rodriguez shooting). This is a slap in the face to the taxpayers. I have nothing against Ruiz. He is a nice guy. What more is he doing to justify this increase. Sanitation workers took a paycut to keep their jobs. This individual (Ruiz) was in a campaign headquarters on election night which is a conflict of interest.” Resident Alan Silber made reference to a remark that Councilman Bill Petrick made earlier in the meeting. This was in reference to acoustics at the Art Center on the corner of Fayette and Reade Streets. Petrick said, “Something should be done with the sound system.” He wanted to know, “Perhaps we can get money to take care of that problem.” Silber continued, “We magically found money for the Police Chief.”

Councilman Kenny Gonzalez gave a brief explanation as to why he voted “Yes” to give Ruiz a raise. “We have decreased spending and there was also another ordinance increasing salaries.” K. Gonzalez also made reference to a picture that was shown by former Council President Ken Balut showing Ruiz at the Mayor’s Reelection Campaign Headquarters in 2012. K. Gonzalez said, “Those pictures were taken off of my Facebook page. The pictures shown were taken after 9 p.m. and the police were there on security detail for the winning candidates.”

Councilwoman Lisa Nanton who also voted, “Yes,” said that this ordinance pertaining to the pay increase was discussed at a closed session. “We can’t talk about personnel matters, but we debated about this.”