Morristown council gets earful on paid sick time ordinance

Video playlist: Advocates and opponents of mandatory paid sick time sound off in Morristown

By Kevin Coughlin

Morristown council members are dictatorial descendants of Fidel Castro…or enlightened protectors of the voiceless.

It all depends on how you feel about their ordinance requiring businesses to provide paid sick time for workers.

“Fidel Castro passed away. This is America. You want to dictate how we run our businesses?” said Karen Kiehn, a landlord who employs part-time help.

She joined a parade of business owners who sounded off at Tuesday’s council meeting about a measure that takes effect on Jan. 11, 2017, when Morristown becomes New Jersey’s 13th municipality to mandate earned sick time.

Paul Boudreau, president of Morris County’s Chamber of Commerce, urged the council to delay implementing an ordinance that he said could harm small businesses. Alison Deeb, the only council member to vote against the law, presented a survey by a group calling itself the Morris County Business Council, which cited opposition by more than 40 local business owners.

Many of them wished to remain anonymous, Deeb said, for fear of retribution by customers.  Councilwoman Hiliari Davis countered that shoppers should know where businesses stand on issues of fundamental fairness.

In the end, the council stuck by its September vote, siding with people like Morristown resident Carlos Sotelo, who said he knows many struggling workers afraid to call in sick for fear of losing their jobs. Brian Lozano of the immigrant advocacy group Wind of the Spirit gave similar testimony.

The ordinance only requires three- to five paid sick days per year for qualifying employees, a small price to pay for public health, said Craig Garcia. His nonprofit, New Jersey Working Families, crafted the law and gathered enough petition signatures to force a public referendum, if the council had not enacted the ordinance swiftly.

“Republicans, Democrats, everyone gets sick,” Garcia said, describing paid sick time as a “basic human right.”  Business opposition was “disheartening,” he said.

 Two shop owners told the council they may leave town over the issue.

Marisa Spagnoletti, the widowed mother of an ailing child, runs a charitable shop on South Street called Lucy’s Gift.

“It is simply unfair and will not allow us to survive and grow,” she said of the ordinance, as her voice choked with emotion.

Suzi Mack has operated Suzi’s Salon in Morristown through thick and thin for 30 years, she said, with a loyal and diverse staff that she treats well.  Yet some of those workers call in sick on weekends to pursue lucrative wedding gigs, she said.

“I’m inconvenienced, and all their eight or nine clients are inconvenienced that day because they call out sick. And now on top of that, you want me to reward them with a sick day, even though they weren’t sick,” Mack said.

She said the ordinance penalizes herself and other conscientious employers whose staffers are on the books; unscrupulous outfits that fly under the radar are not saddled with the same constraints.

Yet most people in town support the measure, according to Council President Stefan Armington.  Few objectors came to prior meetings, even though the Morristown Partnership, a downtown business organization, says it contacted more than 500 businesses and more than 30 restaurants during the summer.

When critics painted the law as biased for omitting town employees, Mayor Tim Dougherty pointed out that state rules mandate up to 15 paid sick days for full-time municipal workers. That benefit is pro-rated for part-timers, he said.

Lawyers are scrutinizing the constitutionality of the ordinance, opponents told the council.

Deeb, one of two council Republicans, wanted more time to flesh out enforcement questions and definitions–the measure allows paid sick days to care for ailing family members, for instance.

While endorsing paid sick days, Stacey Schlosser, owner of the Glassworks studio, agreed with Deeb that the ordinance could be improved.

But Armington expressed faith in the Mayor’s administration for a smooth rollout.

“Personally, I feel this is the right thing to do,” the council president said. 

IN OTHER BUSINESS…

Town Clerk Kevin Harris took some heat for missing minutes. Resident Linda Carrington noted that minutes of numerous council meetings from 2015 and 2016 are absent from the town website.

Going forward, every council meeting should include minutes from the preceding meeting for council approval, suggested Councilman Robert Iannaccone. 

Harris said he would attempt to satisfy that request. Last year’s minutes are up to date, he said, attributing delays to a new system.

“It was just a process of going from an old way to a new method,” the clerk said.

Iannaccone also inquired whatever became a council ordinance to define restaurants, bars and nightclubs.

The council had wanted recommendations from the planning board… but the request fell through the cracks, Harris said.

“It was referred to the planning board. Somewhere along the way the communication was never received,” Harris said.

As a result, the council must reintroduce the measure in 2017, Armington said.