Montclair Township on Thursday defended an employee-organized holiday party planned to be held in honor of its outgoing interim town manager. It is an event that one local government expert said speaks to a level of “tone deafness.”
A sign for the party to be held in West Orange “in appreciation of” interim Township Manager Michael Lapolla invites town employees to “dress to impress and celebrate!” The cost is $55 per person with a cash bar at Llewellyn Parq Bar and Grill, the announcement says.
Township spokesperson Matthew Amaral said Lapolla “had no knowledge” of the party being organized before it was advertised, and municipal employees are handling the event independently of town leadership.
“The township is not funding anything to do with the party, and employees are paying for it on their own,” Amaral said. Employees are not required to attend, he added.
What About Cost?
Marc Pfeiffer, senior policy fellow at Rutgers’ Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy, said many local government entities hold such events.
“On this surface, this appears to strike a balance. It’s something they’ve done before,” Pfeiffer said. The employees likely have been buffeted by management changes with the governing body changes over the last year. You always have some people who may not like the idea. But here, the phrase ‘don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good applies.”
Is the cost to attend the party an issue?
“It can be. Everybody’s circumstances are different,” Pfeiffer said. “Public employees usually get paid less than the norm in most other jobs in a community. But you have to believe that the people putting it together will take those things into account.”