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Mayor’s veto overridden on council salary reduction for absence | Paterson Times

Mayor’s veto overridden on council salary reduction for absence

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A veto issued by the mayor last week on a resolution to diminish the salary of City Council members with high absenteeism rate was passed again on Tuesday evening to override that veto.

Council members had unanimously approved the resolution that would deduct the pay of members who were excessively absent from public meetings. The situation arose after Julio Tavarez, 5th Ward councilman, disappeared for some weeks without providing a prior notice of his absence.

Those who voted to override the veto were: Ruby Cotton, 4th Ward councilwoman; Anthony Davis, 1st Ward councilman; Kenneth McDaniel, councilman at-large; William McKoy, 3rd Ward councilman; Kenneth Morris, councilman at-large; and Andre Sayegh, 6th Ward councilman. The council requires six votes to override a veto, and those were met last night. Mohammed Akhtaruzzaman, 2nd Ward councilman; Rigo Rodriguez, councilman at-large, and Tavarez were not in the room for the vote.

Jeffery Jones, the city’s mayor, vetoed the resolution because he felt it was something personal between the council members rather than something of substance. He maintained that, Tavarez did make an attempt to be at the meetings through technology, but other members did not allow it, demonstrating a personal animosity against the 5th Ward councilman.

Correction: Julio Tavarez’s name was added to paragraph three which was left out previously by an error.

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