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ATLANTIC CITY — To the rest of the world, an employee furlough day is a sacrifice in pay. To Atlantic City Council members, it’s a paid day off.

Mayor Lorenzo Langford has called for all city employees, excluding the public safety departments, to take 10 furlough days to help balance the city’s budget.

The legislative branch of city government, which includes City Council, the City Clerk’s Office and Vital Statistics, intended to have its 26 employees take the same scheduled furlough days. The first furlough day is scheduled for Monday.

But City Council President William “Speedy” Marsh earlier this month advised employees in the city’s legislative branch by memo that their first furlough day will instead be a paid “administrative day” — meaning, they get the day off with pay.

Why? Because Marsh, who supervises the legislative branch, was late in sending a request to the New Jersey Civil Service Commission that the branch be included in the furloughs. The approval came too late for the city to give employees the necessary 45-day notice.

Council then decided to take nine furlough days instead of 10. Council’s furloughs will begin Aug. 16; all nine will match the remaining days in the administration’s furlough schedule.  

“This is totally absurd, what they’re doing,” said Gary Fulton, union representative for the city’s electrical workers. Council is “the reason we’re in this situation in the first place. They can’t manage the city properly and they can’t manage the money properly.”

Reached late Wednesday, Marsh initially defended only taking nine furlough days but eventually admitted the situation was unfair.

“I made a mistake and I’ll take the blame,” he said. “But we’re going to make it right. We want to make sure we share in the pain that everyone is going through.”

Marsh, who spearheaded the effort to start furlough days for the legislative branch, said he intends to write to the commission requesting an additional day when employees under the administration are back at work.

Council Vice President Steven Moore acknowledged that a paid day off for some employees, and a furlough day for others, could create a problem with employee morale.

“It doesn’t seem equitable,” he said. “I’m willing to give my day, or my days. The way I work, I come and go as I need to come and go.”

But he also argued that it would be difficult to have the legislative employees work on a day when the rest of the city’s employees, excluding public safety employees, would be off.

“Opening the building up for five or 10 people doesn’t make a lot of sense,” he said.

Asked why the three offices cannot take a furlough separate from the rest of the city’s employees, Moore said he did not know.

“I really haven’t ingested this, or digested this whole issue yet,” he said.

Eric Clark, president of the city’s blue-collar workers, asked a similar question Wednesday.

“The last furlough day is Dec. 10. Why can’t they take one on Dec. 11?” Clark said. “Ten should be 10 for everybody. They ain’t no different than anybody else.”

The legislative furloughs will include City Council's nine members, whose salaries range between $27,800 and $30,396. The section is a small part of a city government made up of 1,560 full and part-time employees during the summer months. Public Safety employees, including police, fire and communications, have been removed from the administration’s furlough plan and will be operational throughout the year.

Contact Michael Clark:

609-272-7204

Michael.Clark@pressofac.com