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VERNON — Vernon Mayor Victor Marotta gave $66,000 in “performance awards” to 20 non-contractual township employees in December 2012. Non-contractual generally refers to hires outside the purview of a labor union, in which salary terms are built-in and protected through pre-negotiated contracts.

The payments were made five weeks after the Nov. 6, 2012, defeat of the salary ordinance ballot question – of which 87 percent of Vernon voters opposed. The ordinance would have increased the mayor’s salary from $30,000 to $50,000, the council president’s salary from $3,000 to $6,000, and the council members salaries from $3,000 to $5,000 each. The ordinance also proposed raises for 16 municipal employees at various ranges.

Of the 20 employees who received performace award bonuses on Dec. 11, 2012, 15 were slated to receive raises as part of the defeated salary ordinance. The bonuses awarded range from $2,000 to $5,000. The biggest bonus was paid to business administrator Gerry Giamis. Municipal clerk Susan Nelson received $4,500.

Marotta confirmed the payments in an interview Monday. When asked if an ordinance or resolution is needed to authorize this program, Marotta said, “Absolutely not.”

“Once the budget has been adopted by the council, the expenditure of funds in the budget – as long as they are not outside of the line items that have been laid out – are in the purview of the mayor,” said Marotta.

Marotta said his program is beneficial to the township and residents. “For the year 2012, Vernon Township’s department heads and division heads were able to return to cash surplus $900,000,” said Marotta. “That’s money that was in the budget for 2012 that we did not spend.”

Marotta said that money was given back to residents through tax reductions in 2013, and was used to pay down bond debt and add to the township’s cash surplus.

Councilman Brian Lynch said the program is necessary to award employees on their job performance. “I think that the people in Vernon have benefitted from the hard work of all the employees,” said Lynch. “People need to be rewarded for hard work.”

Program evolution unclear

Marotta said he first made the program known to the public during his mayor’s report at a council meeting in the fall of 2012. A search of meeting minutes from August through December 2012 revealed no mention of the program. When asked to clarify, Marotta wrote in an e-mail that meeting minutes “don’t always capture every detail of our council meetings.”

The Advertiser News North then reviewed videos of the mayor’s reports at every council meeting from August through December 2012 and no mention of the awards program was made. Marotta did not respond to a request for further clarification.

In an interview Tuesday, Marotta said that the performance award program started as an evaluation tool for township managers and was not initially designed as a mechanism to award bonuses.

Marotta initially called the program an “evaluation process, which included a form, and it would be used for determining goals, objectives and remuneration,” he said. “I had no idea whether it was going to be by way of bonus, whether it was going to be by way of raise, the whole issue was still up in the air.”

It is unclear when he decided to make performance awards part of that evaluation process.

Money reserved for salaries and wages part of adopted 2013 budget

The first mention of the program that was found during an investigation by the Advertiser News North was at an April 22, 2013 council meeting, during which Marotta said, “We will continue the employee evaluation program that we began in 2012 for non-contractual employee merit performace bonus payments and we will in fact continue the written performance and objectives set for each of those people and we will move forward in rewarding people for the job that they do.”

Money that could be used in the program is part of the 2013 municipal budget adopted by Vernon on April 8. But Marotta stressed that it will not necessarily be used for the program. The 2013 budget includes money reserved in line items for salaries and wages for the township’s various departments. Marotta said the money could be used for merit bonus pay or for a raise in one of the departments.

“If it’s warranted after the administrative team goes through the evaluation process and sets objectives as we go through 2013, they may very well be paid, they may not be paid,” said Marotta.

Marotta said that he did not receive a bonus and that nobody on the council received bonuses.

Not everyone on council aware of program

Councilman Dan Kadish said he was unaware of the program until the April 22 council meeting and did not know that $66,000 in performance awards had been paid out in December 2012.

“We are not apprised of anything of this,” said Kadish, speaking of the council. “It seems to me that [the performance awards program] is one more way of getting around the ballot question, giving out these bonuses opposing what the voters said.”

Lynch said Marotta made him aware of the program sometime in the fall of 2012, but could not recall whether Marotta mentioned the program in a council meeting or at some other time. Lynch said he was aware that $66,000 in performance payments had been made in December 2012.

“Quite honestly, it had nothing to do with the salary ordinance,” said Lynch. “They were going to be getting a merit bonus whether that salary ordinance went through or not.”

Kadish and Lynch were the only councilmen to respond to a request for comment.

A document obtained by The Advertiser News North shows that $66,000 in performance award bonuses were paid to 20 township employees on Dec. 11, 2012.

Lynch added that after Marotta informed him of the performance award program, he checked with township attorney Kevin Kelly and “everything was perfectly legal what [Marotta] did, under the statute he’s allowed to do it,“ said Lynch. “It’s a strong mayor form of government. The mayor instituted a bonus award program for the people that have done a great job. He brought in taxes two years in a row lower than they were, and the people that benefitted from the bonus award did a really good job and worked really hard to get this to happen.”

Marotta said there is nothing unusual about the performance award program. “What we did was we put into place business principles that are nothing earth shattering in the private sector,” said Marotta. “We did exactly what I said I would do when I ran, that I will run Vernon Township like a business and that’s what I’m doing.”

This article was originally published on May 30 in the Advertiser News North and other Straus News publications.

LACKAWAXEN, PA. — The body of Peter Wislotski, 29, was found in a Lackawaxen, Pennsylvania, garage last Wednesday, dead of a gunshot wound to the head.

According to a Pennsylvania State Police report, troopers were called to a Rowlands Road residence at 2 a.m. for a report of a shooting. Upon arrival, the troopers saw Stephen Saski, 27, also of Sussex, inside a garage with Wislotski, who was curled up in a fetal position in a pool of blood. The report says it took police two hours to convince Saski to exit the garage, but offers no details on why it took them so long to gain control of the crime scene.

According the report, “Saski was pacing back and forth inside the garage with the garage door open.”

When troopers gained access to the garage, around 4 a.m., they found spent shell casings and a black handgun with walnut grips on top of a dog crate.

Homeowner ‘attacked from behind’

According to the report, the homeowner, Stephanie Connelly, said she received a call from Saski Tuesday evening saying that he and a friend were coming over to work on his car. Around 11:30 p.m. she was awakened by a loud noise and thought that the two men had perhaps broken something in the garage. When she opened the door to the garage, which has an entrance into the house, Connelly saw Saski at the bottom of the stairs with a handgun. She then saw Wislotski lying on the floor of the garage.

“Connelly…then saw the magazine drop from the gun and she attempted to get the gun away from Saski at that time,” said the police report. “A struggle ensued and Connelly related that Saski attacked her from behind. Connelly was able to break free and then barricaded herself inside the home.”

The report said Connelly heard several more shots and called 911.

When Saski exited the garage he was taken into custody. He was interviewed by troopers at the Blooming Grove barracks and indicated that he had shot Wislotski in the face. The report did not give a reason why.

Peter T. Wislotski

Wislotski remembered
Wislotski’s friend, Kristina Nicos, remembered him as a great guy.

“He was the kind of guy you could confide in, he was really fun,” said Nicos. “He just made everything better.”

Wislotski was an avid skydiver and made his living as a handyman in the area. Nicos said that Wislotski’s best friend would be skydiving with the last parachute Wislotski packed to honor his memory.

Another friend, Jack Adamczak, said he wasn’t good friends with Wislotski but he “seemed like the kindest guy I could ever meet.”

Adamczak said he also knew Saski, but not well. “I went to high school with him, he was really nice too, I never had a problem with him.”

Victim and accused both veterans

Wislotski graduated from High Point High School in 2003 and was an Army veteran who served two tours in Iraq and one in Afghanistan. He earned a bronze star and a combat action valor medal during his time in the Army. At the time of his death, Wislotski was a member of the Army Reserves.

Both Nicos and Adamczak said Wislotski suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from his time in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“I know he was going to the [Department of Veterans Affairs] and was getting better,” said Nicos.

Nicos said she last heard from Wislotski on May 18. She said she believed Saski was a veteran and suffered from PTSD. Adamczak said Saski served in the Marines.

“I just hope the town can resume as usual, but it’s really hard because we all know each other,” said Nicos. “Pete was a really good guy, I’m really sad that he’s gone, we had a lot of good memories…it’s just really unreal.”

Saski is facing charges of criminal homicide, possession of a firearm without a permit, and possessing an instrument of crime with intent. He is being held in Pike County Prison without bail and is being represented by public defender Thomas Earl Mincer of Milford, Pa.

Lackawaxen is approximately one hour northwest of Sussex.

This article originally appeared on April 18 in the Advertiser News North and Advertiser News South, as well as other Straus News publications.

BOSTON — George and Kisha Acevedo of Hamburg went for lunch soon after watching their son pass by the 18-mile mark at the Boston Marathon.

George Jr., an 18-year-old freshman studying computer science at Boston College, had an app installed on his phone that allowed his parents to track his progress throughout the race. During lunch the app stopped working. The Acevedos didn’t know why.

After lunch, driving to the Newton Campus where their son lived, the Acevedos turned on the radio. In that moment they experienced every parent’s worst fear.

“We heard there was an explosion at the finish line,” said Acevedo. He and his wife began calculating when George Jr. may have crossed the finish line. It was close.

George Jr.’s cell phone had died during the race. He finished ten minutes before the first explosion and was resting by the finish line.

“He looked up and he could see all the smoke up in the air,” said Acevedo. “Originally they all thought it was part of the celebration and then the second explosion went off.”

Runners gathered at the finish line began to realize that something was wrong.

“People started stampeding towards him,” said Acevedo. “He got up and he just started running.” The Acevedos didn’t hear from their son until about two hours after the first explosion, when George Jr. was able to use someone’s cell phone to leave a message for his dad.

His dad had a hard time describing what it was like to finally receive word that his son was okay.

“It was like the greatest thing that I ever…” said Acevedo, choking back tears. “You know, before that I just couldn’t get to him, I didn’t know where to look for him.” Acevedo said he considered forcing his way through the barricades to look for George Jr. but decided against it.

“The thing that scared us is that they said there were body parts all over the area,” said Acevedo. His wife made him turn the radio off.

Acevedo and his wife were in the car when he received his son’s message. “When I heard the voicemail she was hysterical,” said Acevedo. “Once I heard his voice I pumped my fist in the air and…we hugged each other.”

Later, at the Newton Campus, the Acevedos were reunited with their son. “We just grabbed him, we just ran up and we started hugging him,” said Acevedo.

George Acevedo Jr. after being reunited with his parents

‘Act of terror’

On Monday two explosions occurred at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. Three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, and as many as 176 people were injured. The explosions occurred around 2:50 p.m.

According to media reports citing law enforcement officials, the bombs were made out of pressure cookers placed in duffel bags that were left in the spectator area near the finish line of the marathon. The bombs contained shrapnel, according to the reports.

President Obama during a press conference Tuesday morning said the FBI is investigating the attack as an act of terrorism.

“Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians it is an act of terror,” said Obama. “What we don’t yet know however is who carried out this attack, or why, whether it was planned and executed by a terrorist organization – foreign or domestic – or was the act of a malevolent individual.”