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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1997/02/03 An Infonnal Meeting was held by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Carteret on Monday, February 3, 1997, Municipal Court/Police Facility, 230 Roosevelt Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey. The following were noted present: Mayor PeterJ. Sica Councilmember DuPont " Failace " Fazekas " Feingold " Gutowski Noted absent was Councilmember Debra Bialowarczuk. Also noted present was Borough Attorney Craig Coughlin and Borough Auditor, Gary Higgins. Mailed to the Home News Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted on the Bulletin Board on January 30, 1997. Discuss 1997 Local Municipal Budget. Gary Higgins said along with Patrick and himself they put the budget in the statutory budget document fonnat. There is some departments where there had been no numbers on the worksheets so they took last years numbers and put in the same appropriation. It was about fifteen other expense items. They fonnulated the b;Jdget based on that. We also included the discretionary aid of fcmr hundred thousand dollars. The state does not allow you to put any more but you can put in last years amount if you wish and that is the way the budget was fonnulated. Mayor Sica asked if they had any other suggestions or have anything they would like to include or take out, or change. . He thinks it is a pretty tight budget and said unfortunately they would have to make some transfers next week. This Council is paying a bill for $75,000.00 for legal expenses. I(you do that you don't have to add it into this year's budget. It will decrease our Surplus Agreement at the end of 1996 so if you don't pay for it today you won't pay for it this year but you will pay for it next year. It will effect us in the future. He said the prudent thing to do, in his opinion, is to pay the whole thing this year out of Surplus and . hopefully things will change in 1998 and Patrick will be successful in getting the $75,00.00 for Legal Expenses. Patrick De Blasio said the Sewer User Fees are being reduced from 4.7 million dollars in 1996 to 4.4 . This budget doesn't include any salary increases what so ever. All the salaries have been held at 1996 level simply for the purpose of showing where we are at right now. He asked Gary about the tax rate. 1 FEBRUARY 3, 1997 INFORMAL MEEITNG February 3, 1997 l'lW>ffif SfATIMENf OF MEEITNG OOITœ PURPOSE OF 11IE MEEITNG DISCUSSlOO FEBRUARY 3, 1997 <l1uncilmember Bia10warczuk noted present At approximately 7:34 p.m., Councilmember Bialowarczuk was noted present. Gary said it will be about $1.04, approximately a five (5) cent increase over 1996 of ninety nine cents. Patrick said he didn't know how much he could save here, the salaries run about 8.3 million dollars and one percent point is eighty three (83) thousand dollars and then some, considering longevity . He said we need to introduce this budget pretty much by Thursday. He spoke to Gary Stowell and we don't have to put the salary increases in each and every line item, we can put it in one line item before negotiations are completed and then we can disburse them accordingly. Mayor Sica said you had a number today on the (inaudible) page. He asked what it was. Gary Higgins said he had a memo from a while back and there were four (4) individuals that were amounts listed on the letter and then the two (2) other ones said to be detennined. Mayor Sica said they don't put it in their request. Gary asked if the other four (4) people that have amounts on this letter have submitted their request. Mayor Sica said they have, but they can withdraw it too. He said our problem is if they tell us what theyhave, do we have to put it in the budget. I know we can bond it but we sure don't want to do that because if next year the other two go out we will never catch up. Gary said if it is known at the time you are completing your budget you should budget for it because then it wouldn't be considered American, it wouldn't be unforseen at that point. Mayor Sica suggested to have a Closed Session Meeting on Wednesday. Gary told the Mayor if they could not meet before Thursday they could do an amendment to the Budget prior to adoption after the hearing. Mayor Sica said they will introduce the Budget and then understand down the line they may amend it. They want to discuss these particular items in Closed Session because they are part of the contract negotiations. Gary said in addition to it by the time you have the Public Hearing and you are pennitted to amend your (inaudible) would have expired and you would definitely know who is in the pool to potentially retire. 2 Councilman Gutowski asked Gary if the $1.04 rate included the pension payments that we are making this year. Gary said it did and he referred him to page 19, Deferred Charges. Councilmember Failace asked if that was the money we used last year. Mayor Sica said that we were always one (I) year ahead and then last year we decided why should they let the state play with their money. Gary then asked if we were charging it to the budget for the year that it is due and payable. Mayor Sica said we were. Councilmember Gutowski asked about the Sale of Municipal Assets on page ten (10). Gary said they already sold the assets and the cash in on hand from December 31, 1996. Councilmember Gutowski asked about the first line, Utility Operated Surplus. Gary said that is a pre-printed line item and is utilized if there is a surplus from a utility fund. Trenton pennits you to take surplus out of those funds from prior years and anticipate it as a revenue to reduce (inaudible) taxation. Mayor Sica said except for sewers, it has to be directed to sewers or sewer accounts. Gary said other towns have taken from sewers. He doesn't know why water would be different from sewer, he would have to get clarification from the Division of Local Government Services. Patrick De Blasio spoke about Legal Expenses, for 1996 they budgeted $160,000.00 and they are anticipating the same amount for 1997. Gary said it is the same thing on Buildings and Grounds for that page. He said an increase of $10,000.00 would be put on for Buildings and Grounds for the new building. The amount would be $52,500.00. Patrick went on to Sheet #15, Fire Operating Expenses. This budget would again be $113,000.00, same as last year. Councilmember Gutowski said Fire already got raises. Mayor Sica said they have to put something in the budget for that. 3 FEBRUARY 3, 1997 DlSOJSSlOO cmrINUID Deferred (barges Sale of tb1icipa1 Assets Utility Operated Surplus Legal Expenses Buildings and Grounds Fire Operating Expenses FrnRUARY 3, 1997 Uniform Fire Safety Account Fire Salaries & Wages Air Pollution/ Celebration of Public Events/ Garbage and Trash Trees Sr. Citizen Transportation Patrick said the next account is the Unifonn Fire Safety Account, holding at $17,500.00 from 1996 and First Aid Contributions, which is $20,000.00 held from 1996. Gary told Patrick to go back to Fire Salaries & Wages, that it is actually down $50,000.00 from the 1996 charge. He asked if someone retired. Patrick said in the accounting for the 1997 wages he believed there was some money transferred out of the Unclassified Salary Account into that account and cancelled it to the Trust Fund. He then went on to Sheet 15b, the Board of Health is also at the 1996 level. Mayor Sica said they have to put in another $10,000.00 for the Visiting Nurses, so they have to go to $15,000.00. Patrick said Air Pollution is 975 to 975. He said on Celebration of Public Events it would be the same as last year, $55,000.00. He then said for Garbage and Trash they went from a million dollars in 1996 to $988,000.00 in 1997. Councilmember Failace asked if whatever salary increases they had discussed would go on line ten (10). Patrick said yes. He then went on to Trees, which was not included in the Budget, but was a special Line Item for $10,000.00. Councilmember Gutowski mentioned Sr. Citizen Transportation. Patrick said it is $6500.00. Gary asked Mayor Sica if they still want to introduce the Budget for Thursday night. Mayor Sica said yes. Gary said then they won't put anything in for Salaries. He said he is cautioning them if they are putting in for Discretionary Aid, Trenton frowns modifying appropriations substantially after the award of the Discretionary Aid. You could put yourself in jeopardy of them not pennitting us to make a change. He thinks we should put something in for salary negotiations. Mayor Sica said they will have a Closed Session on Thursday night at 6:00 p.m. Patrick DeBlasio went to the last section of the budget asking if anyone had any projects they want to address. This has to be completed for 1997. We didn't want to address some of these issues, he asked if they want to get back to him on Thursday. 4 Patrick De Blasio said we have $109,000.00 III the Capital Improvement Fund Mayor Sica said that is not an accurate number, we could say there is $45,000.00 coming out ofthere for the bus. Patrick said we already have in this introduced Budget, $300,000.00 to go into the Capital Improvement Fund. Mayor Sica said they have some major road construction that may have to come out of Capital Improvement or a Bond, but we don't want to bond. $150,000.00 is needed to fix the Industrial Road. They also need to do sewer improvements. All present spoke briefly on this. Patrick said he is concerned with the Library saying we may need more money. Mayor Sica said you would have to take the first 10% out of Capital Fund. Councilmember Failace said he called Gary to talk over some of the numbers and then asked about the allocation of the various things to the sewers, electricity, telephones, etc. Patrick said he believes that we allocate as much as possible to the Sewage Account. Some questions that Gary brought up were for street lighting for the poles or anything that is not charged to the Sewer Account and he would review it. He said the only thing that is not allocated in the insurance is the Pump Station Building and also a small telephone bill and they can calculate it out but it is not material at this time. He said all the employee insurances, which is a large item, are already allocated. Patrick told Councilmember Failace that he would look with Gary closely and see if they need anything else towards the sewer on the adopted Budget. Gary asked Patrick about the adjustment, the $89,000.00, if that could be backed off. Patrick said that is the difference in what we pay the MCUA and what the actual charges came in at. He said he had just gotten a certified letter that showed we owe $89,000.00 for 1996 and we have sufficient monies in the 1996 Budget to handle that so that goes in Allocated. Mayor Sica said the MCUA has been ripping off a lot of the older towns in Middlesex County for years in their charges. He suggested looking into that to see if we could get a lot of our money back or at least put a stop to paying a lot of money. 5 FEBRUARY 3, 1997 Capital :rmprovement FuOO Sewage Account FEBRUARY 3, 1997 Sewer Improvements Discretionary Aid Closed Session to be held Gary asked if are looking to amend a Line Item on Sheet 26, Reserve for Sewer Improvements. He asked if we are going to adjust the million two thirty eight two eighty two. That is the piece that 1996 Eaming and Profits were calculated. He asked if we should adjust that for the $89,000.00 and maybe some other piece that would represent some other costs. Councilmember Failace said he thought we should. He thinks we are going to end up with a pretty big increase. He asked what happens with what they introduced on the 10th. He questioned what the State would say that we introduced this budget and then made so many cuts, what would happen to us. Gary said only from the standpoint of the Discretionary Aid. He said we can they could do anything they want with amendments, but if you are going to jeopardize your Discretionary Aid by giving them one set of numbers and then pulling back and cutting your budget. You are more held to the best when you are filing for Discretionary Aid if you are allotted that money Trenton will not look favorably at that point if you start modifying the budget substantially that is why he suggested we put a salary increase in here. He said if that is the case Thursday night may be too premature to introduce our Budget, but we have to do it before the 24th, when the Discretionary Aid Application is due. Councilmember Failace said they were told it had to be done by the 10th. Gary said that is the Statutory Date, but the 24th the Budget must be on file. Patrick De Blasio said for the last couple of years they tried to make the 10th. Gary said he is not saying they should not be done by the 10th, but in his experience if you got the Budget the way the letter reads to Trenton by the February 24th, the Discretionary Aide deadline, they didn't hold you in violation of the statute. Mayor Sica said there is only a few line items to adjust. Councilmember Failace commented that these few Line Items are going to add to it. Patrick said Gary already brought that down five (5) cents plus any salary increases. Councilmember Failace said this creates a problem. The Governing Body suggested to make the changes in the Budget at a Closed Session at 6:00 p.m., before the Thursday night Meeting and Gary agreed to that. 6 There being no further business or discussion, upon MMS&C by Councilmembers Fazekas and Bialowarczuk and unanimous affinnative vote of the full membership present the meeting was adjourned at approximately 8:10 p.m. Rzsubmitted, é',,~(-¿y KATHLEEN M. BARNEY V Municipal Clerk KMB/lr FEBRUARY 3, 1997 ADJOORNED