In a report issued this week by the State Brick and Toms River were among 16 towns said to have wasteful spending. Totals for both towns nearing $8M

Brick permits employees to trade in unused leave for cash, the report said.

Between 2011 and 2019, Brick paid out $6.6 million in accumulated sick and vacation leave to 197 employees, the report said.

The recipients of those payments included more than 50 employees who collected amounts totaling more than $50,000 apiece and seven employees who each amassed more than $100,000 through sellbacks, the report said.

All municipal employees in Brick are eligible to cash in accumulated sick and vacation time on an annual basis, the report said.

The number of days eligible for redemption and the dollar value paid for the earned time varies among different job titles, the report said.

Toms River banned cash payments for unused sick leave at retirement for employees hired since 2014 and capped such payments for accumulated leave at $15,000 for nearly all other employees, except for police hired before 2010, the report said.

Despite those limits, Toms River permits its employees to sell back unused sick and vacation time – albeit with some conditions – each year, the report said.

These annual sellbacks cost the township’s taxpayers nearly $731,000 between 2014 and 2018 and have had the effect of “thoroughly undermining the limits for payouts at retirement,” the report said.

Credit: NorthJersey.com and Patch