HomeMy Public PortalAbout1997/01/28
An Informal Meeting was held by the Mayor and Council of the
Borough of Carteret on Tuesday, January 28, 1997, 6:00 P.M.,
Council/ Office, Municipal Building, 61 Cooke Avenue, Carteret,
New Jersey.
Upon individual roll call, the following were noted present:
Mayor Peter J. Sica
Councilmember Bialowarczuk
" DuPont
" Failace
" F azkeas
" Gutowski
Noted absent was Councilmember Feingold and Borough Attorney
Robert A. Hedesh.
Also noted present was Chief Financial Officer/Tax Collector,
Patrick DeBlasio.
Mailed to The Home News & Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted
on the bulletin board on January 24, 1997.
He purpose of this meeting was to discuss the 1997 Local
Municipal Budget.
Mayor Sica said that there are a couple of important things if you
look through you will see on Insurance and Premiums (Budget
Appropriations - Account #116) that is $125,000.00 and up. It is not
because we are paying more for insurance, it is because we have a
lot of lawsuits that we are going to pay, many of them for
$25,000.00 and then there is the Steve Moylan one that is costing
us about $79,000.00 and he anticipates that the Nagy Cases will
cost about $125,000.00.
Councilmember Bialowarcuk said that there was something she
didn't understand and someone had to clear it up for her. She asked
why if you are paying out of your EO.P. or your P.B.A fund for
that lawyer, then why does the Borough have to turn around and
pay him.
Mayor Sica explained that they all pay. He said the F.O.P. has a
Legal Defense Fund and all the members put in $100.00 a year so
there is money to hire a lawyer to defend a cop. He said he is not
sure if the P.B.A. does that. He said under their contract and the
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JANUARY 28, 1997
INFORMAL MEEl'ING
January 28, 1997
PRESmr
STA'IHIDIT OF Ha"TING
OOl'ICE
PURPOSE OF TIlE
MEEl'ING
DIsaJSSIOO
Insurances
JANUARY 28, 1997
DISœSSIrn Cant:
Insurances
State Contract, if he is found innocent the municipality has got to
pay his legal fees and then they put the rnoney back in the Legal
Defense Fund.
Councilmember Bialowarczuk asked if the biggest bill is with the
County indictment.
Mayor Sica said he wasn't sure he guessed it was equal. He said
there is three (3) cases that he has seen and he mentioned the one
with the kid with the PTI.
Councilmember Failace said that he thought that was the case that
Bobby sent the letter saying we don't believe that..........
The Mayor interrupted saying we don't allow a letter saying we
don't believe it.
Councilmember Failace said he understood.
Mayor Sica explained that winning is another thing and that the
contract says that if he does something while he is performing his
duty he has to be protected and when he is off duty he is not, so if a
kid is robbing his house at 3:00 in the morning and he grabs the kid
and interrogates him wrong, like he allegedly did, he is doing it in
performance of his duty and we will probably get nailed for that.
He then mentioned the one with the Federal Officer, Semenza and
those guys, and for this one you have to stretch your imagination.
He can go to court and say he was driving and he is cop twenty-
four (24) hours a day, and he didn't do anything wrong and the
court says he didn't do anything wrong. He got out of a car and
told the cops to go do their jobs and wound up getting indicted and
because they found out he didn't try to fix the ticket he was
innocent. He said there is an outside chance that maybe we can win
that one. He said the third one was with Csimbok and it was so cut
and dry that the judge threw half of it out before it got to the jury
and then the jury took five (5) minutes to throw out the other half.
Here you have the Deputy Chief coming into to town and he sees
what he thinks is police brutality and he doesn't make a complaint
he makes an internal memo to the Chief of Police to investigate it.
Under the law he has to turn it over to Internal Affairs to
investigate it and he did and they came back and said there is no
real validity to it because the kid that supposedly got roughed up
said he didn't so it was dropped. Then the Prosecutor indicts him
for using his office for getting back at a cop and he is found
innocent again because it is in the performance of his duties. He
commented that the bills for these three cases are about
$300,000.00 and he asked Patrick DeBlasio if he was right.
Patrick said he hadn't seen any bills.
Mayor Sica said there was two (2) bills for one hundred and some
and one for one hundred fifty and some. Attorney Hedesh has them
and he keeps sending them back saying we won't pay them, but he
commented that we would be getting nailed for something. He said
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now we are not showing any payments but we should take into
consideration if we do have to pay them we will need to go to
Trenton for an Emergency Appropriation.
Patrick explained that if we don't budget for the numbers now and
if a large bill comes in we have to seek permission from Trenton to
go there and increase our budget and if you do that you will have
to raise those funds in 1998.
Mayor Sica said they will allow you to pay it out of your Surplus
but you will have to pay it back in 1998. He said if Trenton thinks
we didn't take precautions they could turn us down for an
Emergency Appropriation and then we would be stuck for the
interest anyway.
At this time the transcribing machine malfunctioned and from this
point the transcribing will be done solely by the Clerk's notes.
Richard Greenberg -
Richard Greenberg said his 1996 Budget was $113,000.00 and he
transferred $5000.00 which made it $118,000.00. Now he is asking
for an increase of $2500.00 for Fire Prevention and $1000.00 for
the Fire Department.
Mayor Sica asked him why he wanted the increase In Fire
Prevention.
Richard Greenberg said to transfer some utilities to other accounts.
He said he is requesting a total of $3500.00.
The transcribing machine began to work again so the transcribing
was resumed.
Mayor Sica said the Volunteer Fire Department has thirty (30)
people and the other has about fourteen (14). He doesn't think it is
fair that we turn around and say that we are going to give this guy
who made 90% of the fires $500.00 because there is thirty (30)
guys in his company and the guy who made 20% of the fires
$800.00 because there is only ten (10) guys in his company.
Unfortunately you are never going to resolve the problem because
from what he understands if Fire Company #2 votes that they pull
the money in and split it and Fire Company #1 votes against it, it
dies. Both companies have to agree to it and none of them are
going to give up money. He feels we should sit down with both
companies and tell then that none of the $25,000.00 is going to be
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JANUARY 28, 1997
DIsaJSSIrn Cant:
Transcribing Machine
Malfunction
Richc-ml Greenberg
Fire Prevention
Transcribing Machine
ResuDed
Vohmteer Fire
Department
JANUARY 28, 1997
Volunteer
Fire Department
Cant:
Snow Duty
subtracted but they are going to divide it between all of the men of
both companies and that is the only fair way to do it.
Councilmember Fazekas said it should be based upon last years
performance.
Mayor Sica said if that is what he wants he is all for it.
Councilmember Fazekas said he talked to Mr. Greenberg about it
and he didn't understand it.
Mayor Sica explained you would take the $25,000.00 and then take
the amount of fires and break that down into the cost of a fire and
then break it down into manpower and how much each fire would
be worth per man and then they would get paid on how many fires
they made.
Councilmember Fazekas said looking at the manpower he noticed
that some of the guys show up all the time and some don't.
Mayor Sica explained that was because it costs the same amount of
money to insure a guy either way. That is why he thinks they
should call a meeting with the two (2) Volunteer Squads and
explain his way of distributing the stipend.
Councilmember Fazekas explained that we hadn't cut the
$25,000.00.
Mayor Sica explained that we are going to leave it at $25,000.00
and we are going to divide it by the amount of fires, by the men
and then come up with a dollar value for each fire. He said some of
the firemen say that each fire takes a different amount of time, but
we can't get it down to hours. He commented we cannot be picky
because it only takes one (I) minute to die.
Councilmember Fazekas said that is a better way to distribute the
money and they will not like it no matter what the excuse.
Mayor Sica said he put a stop to the Snow Duty at the end of last
year. He said that there will be a Snow Watch when it calls for one.
Councilmember Fazekas said that there was one (I) or two (2) days
they called for a Snow Watch.
Mayor Sica said we had an inch and one half of snow so we had a
Snow Watch.
Councilmember Fazekas said they never really know how many
people are put on for a Snow Watch, they should give us an
estimate.
Mayor Sica said when he calls an Emergency Snow Watch he
wants to know from the respective Chiefs and Assistant Chiefs on
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#1 and #2 how any people are going to be there because he doesn't
want a fiasco like last year where it cost us a ton of money. He said
they won't be reducing or finishing up this budget until the end of
February so they will still have time to change it in March.
Patrick De Blasio asked the Mayor what numbers they agreed to
fill in.
Mayor Sica said that they haven't agreed on anything, they are
going to wait until the end.
Patrick asked if he meant the end of all the requests coming in.
Mayor Sica said yes, that he thinks the only way to do a budget
this year is that we get all these requests in. We can total up this
years requests against last years and see what the difference is in
dollars and then if we are going to allow anything that is not
mandatory, that we don't have to allow, then we should decide in
that point in time if we want to give any raises. If not they just
have to cut the budget and if that number comes out to be
$50,000.00 then we can bite the bullet and give everyone a little
bit.
Councilmember Fazekas said that on this snow duty he thinks that
he talked to him about listing quite a number of people, this way
they can take who ever they want. He thinks there is a list of about
ten (10).
Mayor Sica said 95% of the fires in this town can be put out with
three (3) people. We have ten (10) men waiting.
Councilmember Fazekas agreed with the Mayor.
Board of Health -
Patrick De Blasio explained that the Board of Health operates out
of three (3) accounts. They appear on page two and the account
number is 134, Board of Health, 135, which is Air Pollution and
136, Services of Visiting Nurses. Board of Health Department
account 134 last year they got $80,000.00 and this year they are
requesting $97,000.00. We also transferred $6000.00 to their
$80,000.00 budget.
Mayor Sica asked if it was because we got an increase from the
County that we had to transfer that money.
Pat Tozzi said no, you're getting the same thing this year.
Mayor Sica asked if it was another $6000.00 from them.
Pat Tozzi said no your contract is for $10,300.00.
Mayor Sica asked if the Board of Health ever looked into what it
would cost us to hire our own Health Inspector.
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JANUARY 28,1997
DISCUSSIrn Cant:
Board of Health
JANUARY 28, 1997
Board of Health
Cant:
Pat Tozzi said that is quite another thing to bring up this here
expires at the end of the year and they have to renegotiate a new
contract. He would like to be able to get members of the Board of
Health and start looking around and start coming up with some
figures and so forth before..................
Mayor Sica said he doesn't think that Owen makes that kind of
money from the County.
Ellen Randsell said no but one town did do this and found out that
it was cheaper to go through the County. She has a copy of the
survey they did and she could get it together and get it for him.
One town did go as far as having their own survey to find out if it
was cheaper to go to their Administrator, Health Inspector, their
own nurses, if that is what he is talking about and cars and so forth.
It entails a lot and she believes that it would cost more to go into
their own than it would be going to the County.
Pat Tozzi asked if it is a possibility going through another town,
like Linden.
The Mayor said yes, that we do that with Linden with the Dog
Catcher and if we had to do it on their own and Linden had to do it
on their own, it wouldn't be economical. He asked if Linden had
their own full time Health Inspector.
Pat Tozzi and Ellen Randsell said yes.
Mayor Sica said that we should get hold of Mayor Gregorio and
talk to him and see if we can rent time with his Health Inspector.
We've got to look into it because there is because there is
$6000.00 and $10,000.00 and he said that anytime you can go out
and save a buck, you go right out and do it. If Linden is willing to
do it fine. He asked if Woodbridge had their own inspector or did
they rely on the County.
Pat Tozzi said that Woodbridge had their own inspector.
Mayor Sica said that we should talk to Mayor McGreevey the
same way, perhaps we can buy time in theirs. They will supply us
with whatever we need for X amount of dollars.
Ellen Randsell said that they had already talked to Woodbridge
once before and they don't want to bother with that.
Pat Tozzi said he approached Linden about a year ago or so and
they were interested. He said there are certain things that the
County takes care of for us that don't go directly to us. He will
have to see if Linden picks that same sort of stuff.
Mayor Sica told Pat Tozzi if he needed help speaking to Mayor
Gregorio he would go with him to see him.
6
Pat Tozzi said they are obligated contracts. There is nothing they
can do about that. He said that all they are asking for is an increase
of $2000.00
Mayor Sica referred to the Buildings and Grounds and he asked
Ellen if she is taking into consideration that they will move to
Borough Hall.
Pat Tozzi said that is the next thing after he gets done with the
Budget. He said that he has seen so many different things like in
the paper. The paper said they were moving into (inaudible).
The Mayor said that is not worth what the paper is written on.
whatever they put in. What they are proposing to do is move them
over from there and give them the whole downstairs in Borough
Hall. Our contention is it is barrier free right now. They don't have
to worry about making it barrier free. They will gain two and one
half times the space that they have over there. These are offices
that are already cubed off, that they can have for clinics, etc. All
they are going to do is keep sinking over there and all and all they
are going to do is have an X amount of floor space. He questioned
why they would want to spend $10,000.00 or $15,000.00 on a roof
and still have the same floor space when we can do the same thing
here. Just to make it barrier free it is going to cost a fortune. Here
we already have it wheelchair accessible.
Pat Tozzi asked when they would sit down an talk about it. He said
that they were interested.
Councilman Fazekas said he would like a copy of their office
supplies service contracts. He also wants to know if they have an
inventory of their computers, fax machines and copiers.
Ellen Ransdell said that all they have is two (2) computers, one (I)
copier and one (1) fax machine and she will give them the model
numbers.
Councilmember Fazekas said that he would like the model
numbers and whatever contracts they have. They are working on
getting one service contract for the whole Borough.
Ellen Ransdell asked if he wanted to include typewriters.
Councilmember Fazekas said if they had service contracts for their
typewriters, then he would like that also.
Mr. Tozzi explained that they budgeted for $4000.00 to give to the
nurses. They used $1800.00 plus $200.00 for estimated
expenditures and there is a reason for that. They had two (2)
cancellations in their clinics because of the snow last year so
actually the cost was $4680.00. He commented it is State
mandated.
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JANUARY 28, 1997
Board of Health
Cant:
JANUARY 28, 1997
Board of Health
Cant:
Longevity;
Social Security,
SIP
Salary . Account
Nursing Services
The Mayor asked if he was looking at a total increase of $1,180.00
in this account.
Mr. Tozzi said that they might not use it all, but he has to
anticipate it.
The Mayor said he understood. He said in their Salary Account,
the $153,000.00 is predicated on 5%.
Pat Tozzi and Ellen Randsell said yes.
Mayor Sica asked if they arrived on that amount by 146 X 5%.
Ellen Randsell said yes.
Mayor Sica said that in actuality it won't be $153,818.00. He said
that they have to account for Longevity, Social Security, SIP. He
asked them if they had taken all of this into consideration in the
$153,000.00. He explained that in their synopsis of 153 it represents
5% but if we are going to give 5% then we would have to add
something to that 153. It might not be in this Line Item but it might
be in the Social Security Line or Longevity Line Item, but the 5%
actually comes out to almost 6%.
Ellen Randsell agreed.
Mayor Sica said he would get back to them. Then he went on to
say if you look under the Salary Account for the Board of Health
you will see a raise in the Surplus. It is because somewhere in the
course of the year we get $20,000.00 back. He said this year they
tried to get the $20,000.00 to give themselves raises. We refused
to give it to them. No one got a raise. They say they have all this
money, but they don't. We put money in there and when it comes
back it comes back. What we can do is anticipate the money
coming this year and reduce the total that we have to raise because
that $20,000.00 will come.
Pat De Blasio explained that we can't anticipate putting that money
in until we have a signed contract which usually comes out in July
and that is for Nursing Services. He said that the Board of
Education provides the nurses and we got reimbursed by the Board
of Education last year instead of putting in $150,000.00 for Salaries
we wound up knocking that down to $130,000.00. Then they were
complaining that they can't send the nurse over there. They don't
know if they are going to get the $20,000.00. They will have to
borrow their nurse, etc. At that point in time we decided to fund
the Nurse's Services and put $150,000.00 in the budget. Then July
came around and we received the $22,000.00 that the Board of
Education gave us and we amended our budget and put that Line
Item in. Some of the $22,000.00 goes toward Operating Expenses,
which is 4,000 or 5,000 of it. The rest goes towards Salaries. When
they did that it freed up some money in their Salary Account. Then
they came out saying that they had extra funds in their budget. He
had to write a letter or two saying they didn't have any extra
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money. That money was put there for us to fund the Nurses
Services.
The Mayor said that we could knock it down and then they are
going to come back and cry and say they can't supply nurses. He
said that we can then turn around and say, no you can do your
regular thing and if when November comes they didn't give us the
money then we will transfer, so there is $20,000.00 that we do
have to play with.
Pat De Blasio spoke in regards to Middlesex County's budget. He
said that the County did it two (2) or three (3) years ago when the
contract was a lot lower but they seem to keep going up.
Councilmember Failace interrupted saying that the letter says that
Middlesex County has not increased their operating budget in the
last three (3) years and will continue to maintain the current budget
and still provide quality help, but they are raising us $7000.00 to
$10,000.00.
Mayor Sica said that is the same thing that Whitman does. She cuts
down and eliminates some of the Sales Tax or the State Income
Tax and she raises up your license plates. That is what the County
did, only the County had caught up with them and he told the
County years ago that somewhere along the line they are going to
pay the fiddler. Last year they sold the Golf Course and the
Parking Deck and this year they have a $13,000,000.00 deficit,
which they have to make up somewhere and the $10,000.00 we
just gave them is where it is made up. It doesn't sound like a lot of
money but it is $10,000.00 from a town like Carteret and it is a
$100,000.00 from a town like Woodbridge. Come the end of the
year they have picked up $1,000.000.00 on our backs and that is
what the problem is.
Councilmember Failace asked Patrick De Blasio if the Interlocal
Agreement was money in a Surplus Account or a Trust Account
that they used in 1996.
Mr. De Blasio said he didn't think so.
Mayor Sica said the Interlocal Agreement is the Dog Warden.
Councilmember Failace said it is showing only $8,000.00 when it
should have been $18,000.00. He said part of it was paid by the
Dog Trust Surplus.
Patrick De Blasio said on Page 2, there is a Budget Line that says
Dog Regulations and it shows a budget of $18,200.00. He said that
number can also be knocked down too because whenever they
collect fees for Dog and Cat Licenses it goes into a Dog Trust
Fund. They generate $10,000.00 out of that account, so half of this
can be charged to the Trust Fund and the other half can be funded
through our budget.
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JANUARY 28, 1997
Nursing Service Cant:
Middlesex Colmty' s
BOOget
State Taxes
Dog Warden
JANUARY 28, 1997
Dog Warden Cant:
Mayor Sica said the difference is in the Local Agreement it is the
money that we pay Linden to catch the dogs. He said there is a few
dollars in this account that we can reach in and get so if we have to
raise up that $10,000.00 it shouldn't affect the budget.
Councilmember Fazekas, Mayor Sica and Patrick spoke on buying
in bulk.
Office on Aging
Office On Aging -
Mr. Brewer was not present.
Patrick De Blasio said his budget last year was $4000.00. He is
requesting $4300.00 in 1997 and he has a breakdown of what he
intends to do. There is money outside the cap but it is for salaries
and it is funded by a grant. The Borough pays $14,250.00 into this
program.
Mayor Sica said we have to put in so much to get the grant money.
Patrick said he could keep the same amount as last year.
Community Center - Patrick said he had a $3000.00 budget last
year and he only spent $280.00 last year.
Mayor Sica said he didn't think we should cut that budget because
that building needs work. He suggested to cut it to $2500.00.
Building Department- Building Department -
Ralph De Franceso said he thinks he doesn't need an increase and
he said they will make a little more money because it is a busy year
with construction.
Mayor Sica told Ralph he is looking to cut some of the expenses
there. He suggested to hire one (I) person with more than one (I)
license.
Councilmember Fazekas questioned $8200.00 in Office Supplies
for his department.
Mayor Sica told Ralph to break the costs down for Councilmember
Fazekas.
Mayor Sica then spoke about the White Rose Building which was
657,000 square feet. We charged them $220,000.00 for the
Building Permit. The new building they are putting up is
$160,000.00 and it is just a big refrigerator. Ralph told them they
will pay $105,000.00 for the permit. He said the law says you
cannot pay anymore for the permit than it costs to oversee the work
of building, which is $32,000.00. He thinks it shouldn't be
knocked down that low, but he thinks we should make some
money on it. He suggested $75,000.00.
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Office for the Disabled -
Mayor Sica told Joanne Kissleman they would approve everything
they had there and they will give them a $250.00 raise.
Tax Assessor-
Bill Marbach said he is trying to get one contract to cover the
Municipality but then every department will have an account
number so they will know his expenditures.
Mayor Sica told him they would let him know.
Engineering - Parmar -
Patrick said this Department had a $33,000.00 budget and he left
behind $5000.00. He is requesting the same budget for 1997.
Mayor Sica asked if any of the $5000.00 left behind is earmarked.
Patrick said he didn't think so.
Mayor Sica said they could cut his budget about $2000.00.
Public Assistance-
Hadiyah Muhammad - Patrick said she has really three (3)
accounts that she operates out of. One is her regular operating
expenses, which she was given $12,000.00 last year and her second
account is the State Aid Account, $4000.00 and that is for burying
people. Then there is the Re-Location Account for $5000.00.
Mayor Sica said she does a good job.
Patrick said she is asking for another $1200.00.
Mayor Sica said they have no choice but to give it to her.
Library-
Ronna Pearl and Michael Adams-
Patrick said their monies are outside the cap. The monies that we
have to fund the Library has a minimum set by State Law. Their
minimum is $323,000.00 and we pay the Library Board well in
excess of that.
Mayor Sica said under the law we should not give them one (I)
penny more than we gave them last year. He then questioned if
they gave themselves a raise last year.
Patrick said he believed one or two at least did get some kind of
increase.
Mayor Sica said this is what makes him so mad about the Library
Board, if you tell the rest of the employees you aren't going to give
them raises you can't give them raises.
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JANUARY 28, 1997
Office for the
Disabled
Tax Assesor
Engineering
Public Assistance
Library
JANUARY 28, 1997
Library Cant:
Councilmember Gutowski asked if it was going to cost us this
much to run this Library what will it cost to run the new Library.
Mayor Sica said we don't need anymore people and he suggested
they look into the part timers. He said if they drop the funding
down to $323,000.00 then they will have to layoff three (3) or four
(4) people and the Library will still run good.
Patrick De Blasio said we set this money aside for them and if they
don't spend it they are allowed to bank it because they are
autonomous.
Mayor Sica argued about this because when we go into the new
Library there will a lot of things they will need that will not come
out of the bond.
Councilmember Fazekas said they will not give it to us out of
there.
Mayor Sica said they will and explained that money has always
been put aside to modernize the Library or to get the Architectural
Plans started or they acquired a Landfill and we didn't ask them to
do any of that. When the Library becomes ready to go that account
will be depleted for furniture, etc., etc. If it is not decreased down
to nothing than the following year we will give them exactly what
the State of New Jersey says we have to give them and then they
will have to use the money or lay some people off.
Patrick said they are a one (I) Line Item, so we are only approving
the total amount.
Ronna Pearl spoke about her budget.
Mayor Sica asked Ms. Pearl if she gave anyone raises in 1996.
Ms. Pearl said no. She said they did promote one (I) person and
with that came a raise of $100.00.
Mayor Sica said they will be building a new Library but in the
interim it is hard to justify increasing their budget . He said they
are looking for a $21,000.00 increase and that is not including
salaries. He told her to even consider it she must bring them a
breakdown to justify the increase.
Ms. Pearl spoke about some of the reasons she is requesting the
increase.
Mayor Sica again told her they need a written breakdown.
Ronna spoke about her reserve money and Mayor Sica told her to
hold on to it because they will need that for the new Library.
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Municipal Garage-
Vic Kazio-
Patrick said last year we gave them a budget of $71,500.00 and we
transferred in $7000.00.
Mayor Sica said for all the cars we tow and then sell for a couple
of thousand dollars there should be a way to put it back in the
Department that has done the towing not the General Fund.
Patrick said they do have a separate Revenue Line Item that shows
that but he is restricted to crediting his account.
Vic is requesting a budget of $96,000.00.
Mayor Sica said he thinks we could knock off $6000.00 of that
making it $90,000.00.
Streets & Roads/Street Cleaning/Recycling-
Ted Surick-
Mayor Sica said he had $49,000.00 and he is asking for $50,000.00
this year. He asked him why he doesn't just settle for $49,000.00.
Ted Surick said okay he would live with $49,000.00.
Mayor Sica told him that he has some other money in other
accounts so they are going to ask him to go down to $45,000.00
and they will shift some money out of Recycling if he needs it.
That would be for Streets and Roads. He will get $4000.00 for
Street Cleaning and $10,000.00 for Snow Budget.
Sewage -
Al Biel-
Patrick said he had a budget of $177,000.00 and we transferred
$6000.00 out and put it into Salary Account so he really had
$171,000.00 and he spent all of that money in 1996.
Mayor Sica spoke about taking down an old building and putting
up a new one. He then said Al is requesting a budget of
$179,200.00.
Recreation-
B. Hedesh, W. Kolibas - Patrick said he had $55,000.00 last year
and he spent it.
Mayor Sica asked W. Kolibas if we had any kind of a breakdown
on the various subsidiaries you give out, recreation, transportation,
football, etc.
W. Kolibas said Pop Warner is given a flat $10,000.00 and that is
their limit.
13
JANUARY 28, 1997
Municipal Garage
Streets & Roads/
Street Cleaning!
Recycling
Sewage Dept.
Recreation
JANUARY 28, 1997
Recreation Cant:
Parks Dept.
Senior Citizen
Busing
Recreation
Cannission
Patrick said that appears in the Park's Budget.
W. Kolibas said that was all we gave out.
Mayor Sica spoke on how we need all the bills before hand for the
Recreation Expenses. They cannot wait until the end of the year.
He told W. Kolibas if we keep his budget the same they are going
to have a lot better internal control on how the money is spent. He
suggested a letter go out from the Mayor and Council to each
organization we have ever given any money to, that if there is any
funding it has to be reduced to writing and given to us by the end
of February. He asked the Clerk to send this letter out to all the
Sports Associations asking them for a budget number that they
think we should assist them with.
Councilmember Bialowarczuk said to give them a deadline.
Mayor Sica said they are asking for the same as last year and
unless we cut something out there is nothing we can do about that,
so hold it.
Parks Department-
Willie Kolibas said he is looking for an $8000.00 difference. He
said he needed more money in Supplies and Utilities.
Councilmember Bialowarczuk asked how we were repairing the
Grant A venue Park.
W. Kolibas said he hoped he could get the kids parents to pay for
that.
Councilmember Fazekas asked if there were grants they could get
to fix the parks.
Mayor Sica said there is grants for new parks but not to repair
parks.
Mayor Sica said this budget had to be cut about $3000.00.
Senior Citizen- Patrick said their last year amount was $6500.00
and W. Kolibas said it would stay the same.
Recreation Commission - Mayor Sica said the money for this last
year came out of Celebration of Public Events.
Patrick said the salaries comes out of W. Kolibas's account.
He said they had in there $55,000.00 and they also left behind
&26,000.0 in Celebration of Public Events.
Mayor Sica said out of Celebration of Public Events comes the
money they gave the Senior Citizens for Christmas Parties,
Memorial Day needs, the Halloween Parade, concerts in the park,
14
etc. and he commented that he didn't think anyone would want to
eliminate any of those things.
W. Kolibas asked the Mayor what the status was of the Bus and the
Cherry Picker. He said he gave Councilmember Gutowski a bunch
of numbers.
Mayor Sica said they want to look into a Cherry Picker and as far
as the bus goes they have the money for the bus, that it was
already bid, but, they have to look into a different approach to get
the Cherry Picker. He said there may be a way we can get some
money out of Recycling.
Municipal Court -
D. Uhouse - Patrick said her 1996 budget was $27,000.00.
Mayor Sica asked Debbie Uhouse what the increase was.
Debbie spoke about getting new Personal Computers. She also said
that the judge sent them a letter about the possibility of having
court every Monday instead of every other Monday.
Mayor Sica said before they cold agree on that they would have to
see what kind of cost is involved. He also said their Operating
Expenses should be knocked down to $30,000.00.
Police-
J. Sica- Patrick said they had a $222,900.00 budget last year ad
they transferred in $10,000.00. so their budget was $232,900.00
and they basically spent it all. He is requesting $244,550.00.
Joseph Sica said that their cellular phones were being changed to
NYNEX from Comcast because their price is much better. He said
all the New Hires have to be given guns, uniforms, etc. and there is
Supplemental Training at the Academy for it. The Radar
Breathalyzer Review have to be updated. He said they try to hold
their own In Service Training and not have to send anybody out to
the academies, if they could do it.
Councilmember Failace said in reference to the gas for the Police
Cars they budgeted $20,000.00 and they only spent $11,300.00.
Chief Sica said that could or could not be a right number because
those bills come in two (2) or three (3) months later. These are the
numbers he had at the time.
Patrick said when the tank for the gasoline is empty and is refilled
that is when the departments are charged for its usage. We
encumber it at the end of the year.
Chief Sica said Chevy is no longer making the big cars so they
tried the Chevy Lumina. which is too small for a Police Car so they
are going over to the Ford Crown. He also said we have a problem
because our Borough Garage is not geared for fixing Police Cars,
15
JANUARY 28, 1997
Recreation Cannission
Cant:
Bus & <berry Picker
Municipal Court
Police
Cellular Phones
Gas; Police Cars
JANUARY 28, 1997
Police Cars Cant:
Jail Cells
Roof
Photo Copier
Sick Leave
Camp Time
Adninistrative &
Executive
they don't have a computer or tools that are needed so we are
going with the bumper to bumper warranty which will save us
money in the long run. He said they put in $70,000.00 which
should get them three (3) Police Cars with the bumper to bumper
warranty. He said they will try to replace a fourth car from their
DWI Funds. He said they don't keep prisoners overnight anymore.
They only use their cells as holding cells. Their cells are inspected
once a year and have to have good mattresses and blankets. He
also spoke on hiring new people because when they do they need
to buy them uniforms. He said this year he dropped College
Credits and Salary and Wages from his budget.
Mayor Sica said he would let him know.
Chief Sica said he had sent a cover letter over to the Governing
Body about replacing their roof because it is again leaking.
Mayor Sica said they need to appropriate $50,000.00 to fix it.
Chief Sica said they need to replace the large photo copier at
Police Headquarters. That runs them about $9000.00 or $10,000.00.
They went out and got three bids already and the cheapest was
$9600.00. He said he received a letter from the Department of
Justice and it says that we took the money and we have to come up
with some cops in order to come up to their number, (54) fifty-
four. They asked to see some action on the part of the city by
February 21st. The Chief also spoke on people retiring and they
would like their money put in the budget.
Mayor Sica said anyone retiring shouldn't attempt to take Sick
Leave if they are not sick. He and the Chief spoke on this for a
while. The Mayor said he wants a report after someone is out sick
ten (10) days. He said he would lay some one off because they are
not physically capable of doing his job because he took one
hundred and ten sick days. Then they will arbitrate before Civil
Service who will say to lay him off because he took too many sick
days and he can't do the job.
Councilmember Fazekas said if someone IS out that long there
must be a serious problem.
Chief Sica then told the Mayor that he had sent him a letter on
Comp Time and he asked him to explain it to him and how he
don't want him to use it.
Mayor Sica said no one said you can't use Comp Time, he only
said when they use it the Governing Body has to know about it and
the reason for it. He explained that there are some people abusing
it. He spoke on this for a while.
Administrative & Executive-
Kathleen Barney, Municipal Clerk-
The Clerk said this budget could stay the same.
16
Election Account-
Kathleen Barney, Municipal Clerk
The Clerk said this budget could stay the same.
Mayor Sica suggested to go back to the Police Budget. The Chief
said he did not like the small cars so he suggested to buy big cars
for the Police Department and small cars for the Detective
Division, so he would only need two (2) cars so it would knock off
$10,000.00.
Mayor Sica said that yesterday they had gone to court on the
Manella garbage thing. Their lawyer said to him if he had reviewed
everybody's qualifications and if he had looked at his trucks. He
explained that he put in his Performance Bond, his Consent of
Surety, his Non Collusion Affidavit and Corporate Statement.
That is all he is required.
Patrick said for the Police Department they got In Service Training
down to $7,000.00 from $9,000.00.
Purchasing -
Patrick said they have a $16,000.00 budget and are requesting the
same.
Planning Board-
Patrick said $2500.00 and it will stay the same.
Zoning Board-
Patrick said this is $2000.00.
Tax Office-
Patrick said the only change it had in there was Payroll Costs and
he now wants this paid through the budget.
Mayor Sica spoke briefly on how overstaffed they are in the Police
Department.
Patrick mentioned Salaries to the Mayor and asked him if he
wanted to hold them.
Mayor Sica told him that he would like him to compute all the
numbers with the changes and total it so they can see where they
are going.
Patrick said they have to address Salaries and Retirement Fees.
Mayor Sica said tonight they knocked down the Retirement Pay.
Patrick asked if he should push the Revenues to the max. He said if
he wanted to cut the Sewer Fees it should be reflected in there.
Mayor Sica said there are still major things to be done with the
sewers and he spoke on some of them.
17
JANUARY 28, 1997
Election Account
Police BOOget
PUl:chasing
Plarming Board
Zoning Board
Tax Office
JANUARY 28, 1997
Sewer User Fee
ADJOORNJiD
Councilmember Failace asked about lowering the Sewer User
Fees.
Mayor Sica spoke on this.
Upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Failace and DuPont and
unanimous affirmative vote of the five (5) Councilmembers
present this meeting was adjourned at approximately 10:00 P.M.
Respectfully submitted,
~b~UY
/ ='\..,/ 1
KATHLEEN M. BARNEY
Municipal Clerk
KMB/lr
18