Highway Superintendent Robert Murphy On Salary Increase

Robert Murphy holds the elected position of  Smithtown’s Superintendent of Highways. He has been in the position since being appointed to fill the vacancy left by Glenn Jorgensen’s departure in 2015. In 2016 he was elected to serve the remaining term which ends December 31, 2017. He is up for reelection in November and is running unopposed. According to Murphy the feedback he has received from members of the town board has been very positive. One would think that it would be smooth sailing for Murphy’s election bid. But the reality is with less than six weeks before the election Robert Murphy is getting hammered with negative press about his recent budget for the Highway Department. 

In his budget proposal Robert Murphy has included a $40,000 salary increase for the position he holds as highway superintendent. The position he is running unopposed for, the position he is expected to win.

Supervisor Vecchio, in a phone conversation with Smithtown Matters said “NO” to the increase.

Robert Murphy is standing strong in defense of his proposal. According to Murphy there are many reasons why the position warrants higher pay, “There has been an increase in the job responsiblilities of the superintendent of highway including Governor Cuomo’s shared services initative.” With the goal of saving taxpayers money Smithtown will now be sharing responsibility for maintaining roads in the town’s three villages Nissequogue, Head of the Harbor and Village of the Branch. He has been praised for the work he has been doing. Some of his foremen and  some department heads in other departments have higher salaries, even though he has more employees and a budget that is one quarter of the town’s budget. In nearby towns the position pays much more than the current $110,000 he receives. And by the way he made the same salary proposal last year.

Murphy, in a phone conversation with Smithtown Matters said, “I’ve been played like a deck of cards.” After talking about increased responsibilities he pointed out that he made the same proposal in the budget he submitted in 2016 and he received a $13,824 increase and no press. This year he included the increase with the expectation that he might get a modest increase. What he did get was a lot of press. What’s different this year? Murphy is running on the Republican ticket that supports Ed Wehrheim for Supervisor.

Superintendent Of Highway Robert Murphy speaks at Patrick R. Vecchio’s candidacy announcementMurphy was at Vecchio’s candidacy announcement standing at the podium and speaking about his support for the Supervisor. What  changed? He is a Republican and the Smithtown Republicans selected Ed Wehrheim at the nominating convention.  He says he was warned that there would be consequences if he didn’t support Vecchio for supervisor, but it is a safe bet that he did not expect the consequence to be the bad press he is receiving. 

Murphy acknowledges that he is asking the public to vote for him and he acknowleged that he knew what the salary was when he accepted the appointment and when he ran to fill Jorgensen’s unexpired term. He knows that there are some people who will say he is being greedy; he, however, is steadfast in his belief that the unlike other elected positions superintendent of highway requires a full time commitment, oversees 130 town employees and has a responsiblity for a large part of the town’s budget.

Murphy has already had his budget meeting with Supervisor Vecchio and according to Murphy it went well. Murphy offered assurances that regardless of the salary he will continue to do his best to meet the needs of Smithtown residents.