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Residents press Hague board over salary increases and call for transparency
Summary
Multiple residents questioned apparent large percentage increases in some salary lines and urged the board to publish clearer salary information; the chair said he will consult the town attorney about sharing individual-dollar figures and promised to supply position‑level details and averages.
Residents pressed the Hague board about proposed salary increases and asked for clearer documentation of how the town arrived at large percentage changes shown in the budget overview.
A resident asked bluntly, "How do you justify a 99% salary increase?" (speaker 6). The chair responded that the public hearing is the forum for comments, not an on‑the‑spot Q&A, and said the board would answer substantive questions after the hearing. Several commenters urged the board to publish a detailed sheet showing hourly rates and how those map to annual budgeted amounts.
Joe McCullough (speaker 1) drew on private-sector experience to argue the town must keep pay competitive. "We had class a CDL truck drivers… from $18 an hour to $28 an hour," he said, describing how market forces required pay adjustments. The board's fiscal lead and another member said they compared Hague rates to neighboring Warren County towns and used that market data, overtime expectations and position-based calculations to set hourly rates and annual budget lines.
The chair acknowledged some figures in the budget come from combining hourly rates with 52 weeks of work plus overtime, which can make percentage changes appear large in the line‑item view; he offered to circulate positional averages and the sheet showing hourly rates so residents could assess the figures directly.
