Mayor appoints 2 men to newly created jobs
BY PATRICIA A. MILLER Staff Writer

BRICK TOWNSHIP- Although Mayor Stephen C.Acropolis recently said he wants to reduce the number of township employees, two more were added to the roster on Monday.

Juan Belau andDavid Francese are both classified as data systems analysts, Acropolis said.

Belau will work in administration, the mayor said.

"I consider himan assistant business administrator, but that is not his title," Acropolis said. "He will not have Civil Service protection."

Francese, the past president of the Brick Pop Warner Dragons, started in the recreation department onMonday.

"At some point, he may be the Department of Recreation chairman," the mayor said. Why add twomore people to the payroll?

"We've lost eight people in town hall and we've only rehired two,"Acropolis said.

Three employees in public works retired, the special events coordinator and constituent services positions were eliminated, an employee in the tax assessor's office and one in administration retired and the chief financial officer just resigned to take a job in Spring Lake,Acropolis said.

"Ifwe lost eight people, that doesn'tmean we are not going to replace any of them," he mayor said. "We have to replace a couple."

Acropolis said earlier that he had trimmed $500,000 in salaries since he took office in early November.

"If these two guys come on at [a combined] $150,000, that's still a net loss of $350,000," themayor said.