Article originally publsihed November 22, 2024 on northjersey.com

Link to Original Article by Kristie Cattafi

The Borough of Palisades Park is launching an investigation into possible overpayment of vacation and sick time to some employees after “red flags” were recently raised.

This isn’t the first time.

In 2021, a scathing comptroller’s investigation found that officials were improperly paying employees for unused sick time.

After the state comptroller found hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars were wasted, the mayor and Borough Council made changes, including amending white-collar contracts, issuing gas cards to department heads only and instituting an oversight committee.

The report found that in 2018, the borough made about $109,000 in sick leave payouts to 27 employees who, under a 2010 law, should not have received them. In 2019, $95,000 was paid to 22 employees. Most payments were between $3,000 and $5,000, the report shows.

The council hired Matthew Giacobbe of Cleary, Giacobbe, Alfieri, Jacobs to serve as the special counsel and paid the firm $150 an hour to review the comptroller’s 56-page report.

The borough attorney said during the Nov. 18 Council work session meeting that based on some “guidance,” it appeared the policy and practices of paying certain salary-related items, including vacation and sick time might have been “problematic.”

The borough’s chief financial officer and the borough attorney’s firm Ruderman & Roth will start an investigation and bring in backup if needed.

“Any alleged overpayments to borough employees that occurred during the previous administration and were outlined in the comptroller’s report are deeply troubling and we are taking this action now to ensure that every cent that is owed to Palisades Park taxpayers will be paid back in full,” attorney Scott Krumholz with Ruderman & Roth said in an email when asked if the recent issue is related to the 2021 comptroller’s findings.

“Mayor [Chong Paul] Kim and the Borough Council have instituted numerous reforms to end these kinds of blatant taxpayer abuses, and we will not rest until these improper and potentially unlawful payments to past employees are recovered and returned to the people of our community.”

Mayor Kim, who was a councilman when the improper payments were made, did not respond to a request for more information.

In 2021, Giacobbe and borough officials conducted an investigation and their findings, they said, show that instead of the hundreds of thousands of dollars the comptroller’s report suggested was overpaid, the number could be as low as $538, and if part-time employees were included, as high as $13,000.