Council appoints new CFO
BY LAYLI WHYTE
Staff Writer

RED BANK - A new chief financial officer will begin work in the borough on Sept. 1, filling the position left open by the resignation of Terrance Whalen.

Frank V. Mason, Cranford, will receive an annual salary of $85,000 for his work as CFO, treasurer, comptroller of the borough water utility and parking utility collector.

Mason comes to the borough from North Bergen Township, a densely populated 5-square-mile municipality, where he served as treasurer since 2000.

"It's wonderful downtown [is what attracted me to Red Bank]," Mason said after his appointment at a special meeting of the Borough Council on Monday. "Red Bank also has some great special events and really has a great reputation."

Mason said that he hopes to provide good financial guidance to the borough.

"I hope to work to keep the taxes stable," he said, "and keep the finances of the borough stable."

Mason said that he would not comment on the actions of his predecessor, Whalen.

Whalen's resignation was accepted by the Borough Council at its June 12 meeting, and former borough CFO Bruce Loversidge was appointed at the June 26 meeting to fill the temporary position of assistant treasurer and tax searcher during the interim.

Loversidge retired from the borough in 2004, after working as the borough CFO for nearly three decades.

During a council meeting last month, Borough Auditor David Kaplan said that mistakes and oversights made by Whalen were responsible for the increased tax rate borough taxpayers would pay this year.

Kaplan said that some of the problems in the finance department included delinquent payments of the pension bills as well as the unemployment taxes.

Kaplan also said that the bank reconciliations had not been prepared correctly, meaning that at least some of the 40 bank accounts held by the borough, were not balanced.

"There were also several overexpenditure items," he said, "which is a violation of state regulations."

Kaplan said that the over expenditures and delinquent payments made by the finance department under Whalen contributed to the high budget for 2006.

The borough tax rate increase for 2006 stands at about 5.65 cents per $100 of assessed value, and 4 cents of that, according to Kaplan, can be attributed to mistakes made by Whalen.

The 2006 municipal budget is $16.3 million.