Weathersfield trustees reinstate administrator

MINERAL RIDGE— Weathersfield Township trustees Tuesday reinstated David Pugh as township administrator under a new one-year contract, after Pugh spent a year as township road superintendent.

Pugh was reinstated to the salary scale he would have progressed to if he had been administrator in 2007 at $57,000.

A former township trustee, Pugh was paid $46,000 as road superintendent in 2007.

The vote to rename Pugh township administrator was 2-1, with former chairman William Miller saying it was “nothing personal,” but he does not believe the township needed an administrator. He noted the township police chief, fire chief and three trustees, as well as the fiscal officer, all are paid $245,000 total and can run their own departments and the township.

Miller noted he had recommended a wage freeze for township employees, most of whom received a 2.8 percent increase at the trustees’ December meeting.

Newly elected Trustee James Stoddard said Miller’s claim that adding the administrator back to the payroll will cost an additional $18,000 doesn’t add up, since the township is already paying Pugh’s lower salary. He estimated the increase to be at $16,000, plus benefits, which he noted are available to all employees.

Stoddard added that Pugh will not operate in an administrative role as much as a functional role, to do paperwork and review finances. “No trustees can give a direct order to an employee in the township. That can be addressed by the administrator,” he added.

Trustees accepted the resignation of Bob Eyster as a zoning commission member effective June 1. Eyster said in his letter of resignation his personal obligations with his job and family would not give him enough time to give to the zoning job that it deserved.

Named to replace Eyster was former Trustee James Price.