HomeMy Public PortalAbout1997/05/15
A Special Meeting of the Mayor and Council of the Borough of
Carteret was called to order by Mayor Peter J. Sica at 6:00 P.M.,
Thursday, May 15, 1997, Municipal Court!Police Facility, 230
Roosevelt Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey.
Upon individual roll call, the following were noted present:
Councilmember Deborah Bialowarczuk
" "John Du Pont
" "James Failace
" "Jack Fazekas
" "William Feingold
" "Stanley Gutowski
Also noted present was Borough Attorney Craig Coughlin.
Also noted present were Patrick DeBlasio, Treasurer/CFO and
Gary Higgins, Borough Auditor.
Mailed to The Home News & Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted
on the bulletin board on May 9 & 13,1997.
To discuss sewer fee allocation and defeated school budget. The
meeting may include an executive session. Formal action mayor
may not be taken.
Gary Higgins explained that what he gave them was agreed upon
procedures report with respect to the allocation of the sewer costs
against the sewer revenues for the year 1986 through 1996. That's the
period covered since the inception of the ordinance. They reviewed
the administrations cost allocation categories to determine
reasonability. The administration has been preparing an allocation on
an annual basis against the sewer revenues to ascertain the excess or
deficit on an annual basis so we reviewed the catagories. We verified
certain cost catagories allocated to supp01iing documentation,
whether that be the order reports, supporting schedules or whatever
types ofinfonnation were provided to us by the CFO. We verified the
Sewer User Fee revenue and related miscellaneous revenue to audit
reports and supporting schedules. We analyze the funding sources of
all general Capital Fund Ordinances relating to Sewer System
Projects.
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MAY 15, 1997
SPEX:lAL MEEl'ING
May 15, 1997
PRESml'
STATEMENl' OF
MEEl'ING OOl'ICE
PURPOSE OF 1HE
MEEl'ING
DIsœSSlOO
Sewer Fee
Allocation
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MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Fee
Allocation
Continued
Gary Higgins said they finally reviewed the current fund budget
appropriations to the account entitled "Reserved for Sewer
Improvements" and verified into the appropriate General Capital Fund
Account. Those were the procedures we implied during this
engagement. They will kind of tie in to the Findings in order. If you go
to the Findings you will understand the application or the procedures
a little bit easier. Under number ones Finding the cost allocations
made by the Administration against Sewer User Fee Revenue and
related miscellaneous revenues appear reasonable. There were no cost
that they found that were allocated that shouldn't be allocated,
however, it appears that certain additional costs related to the sewer
operation were omitted rrom the allocations and they were as follows,
on an annual basis if any salaries are charged back to the appropriation
in reserves, whether it be retro, overtime or whatever, it appears that
the allocation percentages that were applied to all the salaries were
not applied to those reserve charges. They are not material like in
numbers, but, they do amount to over the eleven (II) years, $9308.00.
With respect to B, Administration did allocate 75% of Engineering
Department salaries to the sewer charges, however, other expenses
were not allocated, and we feel that since other expenses of a
department are directly related to the personnel of the department then
the same percentage should be allocated or applied to the other
expense category as they are to the salary and wage category. For the
eleven (II) years that amounts to $213,299.00.
Gary Higgins said, C, with respect to professional fees, audit services
have been allocated over the years at a ratio of 15% of the actual
charges. No allocations were made for legal services incurred by the
Borough so we utilized the same 15% that was allocated in the
professional fee area audit. We applied the same percentage to legal
services and that amounts to $217,783.00 over the eleven (II) year
period.
Mayor Sica asked what kind of legal fees they would have.
Gary Higgins said any type of contractual things, building a plant or
any type of issues that came up.........he questioned if we had penalties
or something in the past.
Mayor Sica said that was before we had a Sewer User Fee, the bond
money, the grant money, the state and feds. He said he didn't know
of anything that would ............
Gary Higgins asked if on a daily basis any issues come up with sewer
issues ............ he said they didn't know, he was just looking that we
figured some legal fees.....
Mayor Sica said 15% or 17% of some unknown number......he can't
remember anything we used for legal for last year in the Sewer
Department or the year betòre. Perhaps if they want to say reviewing
bid, but even the lawyer didn't review the bidding, except for here, say
the five (5) different catagories are done. There are a number if
amendments to the ordinance .......he guesses those were all prepared
by the lawyer. He doesn't know if he did any bonding.
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Mayor Sica said no bonding at all. Then we had Bond Counsel.
Gary Higgins asked when we had ordinances done throughout all this
period, if the attorney got involved in those ordinances, he would have
assumed that the Borough Attorney would have done something. The
percentage really wasn't arbitrary from his standpoint. He uses the
same percentage as he used for audit services and he doesn't know if
that is arbitrary.
Gary Higgins said they use the same percentages in the professional
fee range. He said any if these can be disputed, but they had to come
up with some rational so they took the percentage that was used for
the other Professional Service category. With respect to insurance
premiums this was about half the number they have come up with.
Insurance premiums related to sewer operations were not allocated.
This included not only liability but also on the vehicles, coverage on
automotive and things like that. They were prepared by administration
based on a request. As part of the study we reviewed them and found
the information provided to us to be reasonable and adequate and that
number over the eleven (11) years comes to $497,700.00. With respect
to the final one, the Borough does not have an indirect cost study
with respect to cost related to various departments, however, certain .
people in the Borough Hall are charged to Sewer Operations and they
do receive the services of the Borough Hall in the way of utilities and
other nominal charges, so we took an indirect allocation of $7000.00
per year. That was probably more of the arbitrary number than any
of the other ones, for a total of $77,000.00 for the eleven (II) years.
The total comes to one million fifteen thousand and ninety dollars. We
can go through Schedule E and you can see how each one falls into
place, but the real thing to look at now is that based on prior
calculations at December 31,1996 the cumulative amount owed over,
based on the sewer allocations, was one million one hundred and
ninety eight thousand five hundred and fifty five dollars. If he applied
the one thousand fifteen ninety to that it comes down to $183,465.00
and that is shown on Schedule A. Ifwe go to Schedule A you will see
how this flows. We start with the top number, one million one ninety
eight five fifty five. We subtract off the additional allocated
expenditures and come with a net number due to Capital Fund of
$183,465.00. The 1997 Budget includes an appropriation transfer to
the General Capital Fund for one million one and on the other side of
the budget we anticipated bringing back $190,000.00 of prior year
transfers for allocated costs and that was just a number when we put
the budget together, it was just done as an estimate. So the net
number of what you are going to transfer over and bring back from
the General Capital Fund from the reserve in Sewer Improvements is
$910.000.
Gary Higgins said applying that to the actual of $183,465.00 it would
appear that there would be an extra $726,535.00 in General Capital
Account in Title Reserve for Sewer Improvements, if you went
through with the budget as is. That is schedule A and it finishes off
the paragraph on Page 3.
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MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Fee
Allocation
Continued
MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
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Gary Higgins said with respect to the other two (2), three (3), items
that we did do, Sewer User Fee Revenues were verified and agreed to
reports and supporting documentation and were in agreement . The
funding sources for all fully funded sewer ordinances were rrom
sewer related sources including a reserve for sewer improvements.
Surplus rrom cancelled sewer ordinances and State and Federal Grants
for sewer projects and the account entitled "Reserve for Sewer
Improvements," is properly allocated with respect to the
appropriations done rrom the current Fund Budget. Everything was
done properly with respect to the handling of the transfers, the
allocations of the revenues and the allocations of sources and uses of
funds for the Sewer Ordinances. However, we are just suggesting
applying those additional costs, A through E against the keepment of
total. That is what Schedule A does With the respect of Schedule B
on page five (5) that just shows you on an annual basis the cumulative
balance due to or due from the General Capital Fund after allocating
the additional costs and that is where we come up with the net
difference of $183,465.00 at the end of 1996, which ties into the
number on Schedule A after applying additional allocated
expenditures against the one million one ninety eight five fifty five.
He said he will just go through all the schedules. Schedule C is the
compilation of administrations allocations done rrom 1986 to 1996.
That just keeps bringing the revenues in at the top, applying the
expenditures, coming up with a net basically profit or loss and rolling
that forward. He said if they look in the right hand corner of that
Schedule C on page six (6), they will see a number, one million one
ninety eight five fifty five. That is the cumulative number at
December 31,1996, which ties into the top line on Schedule A. If you
go to schedule D, this takes administrations calculations but includes
the additional allocated expenditures of approximately a million fifteen
thousand and after applying that you come up with the revised
cumulative balance of $183,465.00 and that is in the right hand
corner on Schedule D. If you want to go to Schedule E what happens
here is, this is what ties back into A through E up on finding number
one. You will see they have the catagories Salaries first and that is all
your Appropriation Reserve salaries by year. We applied to
percentage that was applied to the salaries by administration, however
they just applied them to appropriation reserves If you go down the
total column you will see the second number up rrom the bottom, that
was the $900,308.00, that was Number IA of the Findings of the
Appropriation Reserves. Engineering is the $219,230.00 in the right
corner on Schedule E and then when you flip the page you'll get the
legal total for the eleven (II) years, that is the $217,783.00 and just
continuing down the column you will come to the total insurance
premiums of $497,700.00 and the indirect cost of $7000.00 a year,
that is $77,000.00 and when you sum all those six (6) totals it comes
to one million fifteen thousand and ninety dollars and that is how it
ties back. The final Schedule F just reviews the Sewer Reserve
Account and shows you the balance of December 31, 1996, of one
million, three seventy, three forty six. That is what is in there before
any 1997 transfers of the one million one.
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Gary Higgins said if you add the one million to that you would come
up to two million four eighty and you back off to one ninety and you
come back down to two million two eighty, so the Reserve for Sewer
Account will have two million two eighty in it after you make the
transfers for this year. However what you are saying is there is really
seven hundred thousand in there after all that, that is really available
money that isn't Sewer Reserve Account Money. He said the thing to
keep in mind is that we just have basically five (5) main catagories that
they have taken and added on the allocations previously made to come
up with a number. All the other compilations and calculations that
were done, were done properly over the eleven (II) years.
Mayor Sica asked whos schedule was Schedule C
Gary Higgins said Schedule C is Patrick's schedule. Schedule D takes
that Schedule and really infuses the one million fifteen thousand.
That is where you come down on the Schedule D in the corner of the
actual cummulative total of $183,465.00 which ties back in to
Schedule A as to the adjusted balance of December 31, 1996. That
is where you have to start looking then, at the net $910,000.00
transfer that is going to be made one million one over.
Gary Higgins said then the one ninety back in the 1997 Budget which
wilJ only introduce it not adopt it as a result of the states holdup in
the disgressionary aid. You do have flexibility with respect to the
1997 Budget if they wish to do anything. He asked the Governing
Body if they wanted him to retrack anything here.
Patrick DeBlasio said in the Capital Fund right now they are holding
one million three hundred seventy three thousand dollars in Sewer
Improvements. One Hundred and Eighty Three Thousand Dollar
transfer that he is putting in there, he is going to wind up with about
five million dollars in that account and then some.
Gary Higgins said by making that adjustment you are still leaving a
million and one half and which if you look on Schedule F the account
had one million eight eighty five in 1993, one million one sixty four in
1994 and four eighty in 1995. He said they are still above the average
of those three (3) years on an annual basis. Even if they make the
adjustment they will still have a million and one half left.
Mayor Sica asked would he take into consideration that there are a
lot of projects that they have to do and Gary Higgins said alright.
Mayor Sica said the problem is going to be it will take all our surplus.
We are going to have problems with those projects on a (inaudible)
basis and some of them are ready to be done right now. He thinks
that the Finance Committee should sit down and discuss a way of
doing this, to use this money over a course of two (2) or three (3)
years.
Councilmember Gutowski asked what would the ramifications be if
they did go out and bond .
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MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
;i ,or
£!ii
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Gary Higgins said what he would really think, what they are trying
to do is, try to model permanent financing around two (2) items. One,
your profit that they are generating. Try to tailor a debt service
schedule into that plus a projected savings from the MCUA and really
go ahead and do the projects now.
Gary Higgins said it might be the right thing to cut ofIthe MCUA
immediately with this continual increase and capitalize on doing all
the projects immediately to end the leakage.
Mayor Sicft said with the surplus that we have been able to build up,
whether it be that we didn't charge the Sewer Account the lights for
the City Hall or enough for Engineering is irrelevant, still the money
is all there. His philosophy is one, we have to continue to decrease
the flow of water going to the MCUA at all costs because we are
getting ripped off. He brought it to the Council's attention the first
of the year that number one, no one could tell him what day to take
the flow readings. If we are sending about a million and half gallons
on a dry day, that is predominantly sewage. On a rainy day that
increases to seven (7) or eight (8) million gallons. Weare paying the
sanle rate per gal!on for the million and one half gallons as they are
paying for the seven or eight million gallons, although it is not taking
anywhere near the amount of chlorine or lime or whatever they are
treating. They are not gctting anymore suspended solids out of eight
million B.OD.'s and they are not getting anymore sludge out of the
eight million gallons of water than they creating at the million and one
half gallons of water, but they are charging us for that.
Gary Higgins said he was absolutely correct.
Mayor Sica said his objection has always been to continue to stem the
flow of water to the MCUA. Now when we first put the first Sewer
User Fee into effect or when we first built the first sewer proj ect, the
known connections that were co-mingled sanitary and storm. Even
after that first project there were times when they hit fifteen (15)
million gallons a day. More than our pump station could pump. He
then asked Parmar if they never hit more than seven million
Parmar agreed.
Mayor Sica said his contention is that we still have to get that out,
even if it is only a couple hundred thousand gallons every day and
seven, eight million gallons when we get a bad rain day. Every time
we have a wet season we pay through the nose. He is not against
taking these credits, but over a period of time. He said to use the
capital that we still have to finish these projects that we have going.
Number one, West Carteret is going to be a disaster one of these days
because we do not have enough capacity at the Dorothy Street Pump
Station to handle both sides of West Carteret. In our review in that
project we can separate the two (2) sides of West Carteret, cutting
down in even our electric expenses because the southerly side of the
pump station can gradually feed all the way to the pump station.
·-·l!I';fj"·~-.F;:¡.¡:,,:'~
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MAY 15, 1997
Mayor Sica said which means we will have to pump probably three
or four hundred thousand less gallons a day rrom West Carteret,
which is a continual savings. There the initial capital expenditure will
be there, but it takes the strain off the Dorothy Street Pump Station
and it eliminates the problem the people in West Carteret have. He
thinks these Capital Projects have to go hand in hand with our action
against the MCUA. We can document to the MCUA the way we
backed up these costs. We can show the gradual decrease in the
water flow all the way from 1986 but the continual increase in their
cost fàctors.
Sewer Allocation
Continued
Gary Higgins said the point being, that was brought up, is it might be
worth looking at trying to tailor a debt service schedule to do all the
projects and basically stop all the bleeding immediately, meaning the
MCUA or additional electric costs and various other additional costs
that are occurring because of this. Do all the projects as soon as
possible. Possibly bond it and then tailor your debt service schedule
that there will be no increase in (inaudible) taxation because you are
getting the benefit of the savings in the other cost catagories and we
will utilize the excess generated every of the sewer fees to basically
payoff the debt service so it probably would be the light thing to do
to proceed in that direction.
Councilmember Failace said he thought that maybe that should be
something we should look into.
Mayor Sica said the Finance Committee, himself and Gary should sit
down and look at that because number one, we are ready to go with
the separation of the two sides of West Carteret. All that is required
is getting a piece of property.
Gary Higgins asked if we had an idea of the total sum of dollars that
we need. If we do he can proceed and work with Patrick to prepare
some amitization schedules to see how this falls into place with the
profit.
Mayor Sica said Parmar has an estimated cost. We already have the
plans already drawn up.
Gary Higgins said if the plans are ready they might as well just get the
capital and then (inaudible) at that service schedule.
Councilmember Failace said he thinks what Gary is saying is to look
into it, put the schedule together...
Mayor Sica said the problem is if we do the West Carteret Project
now, iliat is ready to go. Ifwe do the Beverly Street Project that will
be ready to go within a couple of weeks Those projects there are
two and one half to three million dollars. Then there is other
projects. If we continue to generate new revenue into sewer bills.....
you can see it is starting to go up because of new industries that are
locating in Carteret and industries predominently pay good sewer
rates.
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MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
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Mayor Sica said if that keeps generating, the million dollars that we
generated here will allow us to keep doing these things. The eight (8)
miJlion dollars are not needed tomorrow morning. Even if we had
eight (8) million dollars to do it tomorrow morning we couldn't do it
then because of engineering and permits, etc. It is like two (2) years
in the making before we can do all these projects except for ones that
are ready to go right now and that is what we need this money for.
We can go out and bond for the four (4) million dollars next year but
no sense doing that now before we do the projects we have capital to
do it with. That is what we have been doing since 1992.
-'
Gary Higgins commented that we are fully funded.
Mayor Sica said whether we didn't pay it out of the right account is
irrelevant. We saved enough of money doing whatever we did to pay
for these things on a pay as you basis and not strap the city with
additional bonding and interest to sum.
Gary Higgins said it might be worth looking at it and we can sit and
try to structure something for the other money.
Councilmember Failace said they should sit down with Gary and the
Finance Committee to go over it Ifwe could possibly do this where
there is no e,,'tra expense to the taxpayer (pay as you go) and possibly
a savings because they are doing it in this and next years
dollars......
Mayor Sica said he is not disagreeing with that. If for a fact we have
two million dollars to do these projects, that will wipe out our
surplus, but if we do know that this Sewer User Fee ........he
commented that they put in a 10% fàctor for new construction to
continually upgrade our sewer system because as we eXplained to the
state at that time we don't know anything about the sewer, we don't
even have any maps of any sewers. There were no maps, they were
burnt up in a fire. He explained that one year they didn't spend the
$8000.00 for chlorine because their sewer plant was down and they
dumped it in the river. That is how he got all that money.
Councilmember Failace said what he would like to do is set
something up and look at it. The rates may be velY tàvorable.
Gary Higgins ~¡aid last night they got a sale that they represented and
it was very favorable. It was five and one eighth and they got ten (10)
year bonds, which is still very favorable, so it is something to look
at.
Mayor Sica said if a year rrom now someone said to him to bond for
. .
tòur million dollars and we will show a savings to the MCUA of
$200,000.00 which is more than adequate to pay the bonds, he has
no problem with that otherwise then he would recommend you pay
as you go, rather than give away the interest.
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Gary Higgins said they should be able to model something to show
you how it will work
Council member Failace asked what are we saying with this money
that we have.
Gary Higgins said if they go back to Scheule A, if you stick with the
budget as introduced, if they had a minute they should talk about
your budget since the disgressionary aid numbers are in and he
knows we were waiting for them. He said they could do a couple of
things with the $726,000.00. They could leave it in the General
Capital Fund and use it for other capital type projects since it is really
freed up money or they could bring it into current funds to do
whatever they want to do with it.
Councilmember Failace said if they left it in capital and drew down
on it to do some streets, etc...........
Gary Higgins said if they want to stick with the transfers in the 1997
budget, the \.1 and the 190 they will have 726 net and he would
recommend that as a resolution to reallocate out of the Sewer
Reserve Improvement Account into a Fund Balance in the General
Capital Fund Then you could go al1ead and do fully funded
ordinances out ofthe Fund Balance in the General Capital Fund.
Councilmember Failace said he thought that would be the best way
to go with that.
Mayor Sica said very seldom do we put money into the General
Capital Fund for the 10% or 5% down -payment on a bond. We pay
as you go.
Gary Higgins said what he would suggest if he doesn't want to bring
it in to reduced taxation, is to pass a resolution and bring it into
General Capital Fund Balance and then you could gò from there.
Mayor Sica said he has no problem (inaudible) the cost the Capital
Fund because new industries that have located in Carteret are paying
a tremendous amount in the sewer that was not taken into
consideration when they first enacted a Sewer User Fee. He said we
make money on sewer rrom industries because they are paying a
portion of the Capital cost to build the sewers that were built in 1986,
1987, 1988, 1989,1990, ~<m. 1992 He went on to mention some
indusHies. He said they are tremendous sewer users and that is what
increased 0"1' Sewer Collection Fee by about $150,00.00 a year.
Taking that into consideration just that alone gives us enough money
if we wanted go out and bond without increasing the Sewer User Fee
because enough people are putting into the pot.
Gary Higgins said they would look into that.
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MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
Mayor Sica said for them to set up a meeting.
Gary Higgins said they should talk about what they want to do with
the budget so they could close this out. The disgressionary aid
obviously everybody is aware of, got reduced rrom 400 to 350. They
have to go ahead and do something now. With respect to this, ifthey
want to leave this alone, this doesn't effect the budget If you are
going to transfer it out of the Sewer Reserve Improvement Account
into Fund Balance it has nothing to do with this budget. It is strictly
in the General Capital Fund. The question is if this item is not
effecting the 1997 Budget will you just proceed to adopt with an
amendment of $50,000.00 between a disgressionary aid and
(inaudible) taxation.
Mayor Sica said maybe it would be who of us to take $50,000.00 of
this money, apply it to the General Budget, using $710,000.00 into
the Capital
Gary Higgins said the only other problem that they have is next year
they have the $240,000.00 verses the $190,000.00 which they spoke
about , so you have to make it up so you are getting deeper in the
1998 hole of a one shot revenue.He then asked Patrick De Blasio
what he had given him, if they were amendments.
Patrick said 1997 budget amendments.
Gary Higgins said they have to do an amendment.
Councilmember Fazekas suggested they meet pnor to next
Thursday's Agenda Meeting.
Councilmember Failace asked Patrick what was the total effect with
where they were at, regardless of this now. Where we were at plus
the $50,000.00 is what
Patrick said believe it or not that number plus all these amendments
comes out to be about $58,000.00 including the loss of
disgressionalY aid so our budget went from ninety nine cents to
$1.02 and the $58,000.00 they will discuss through taxation or
through (inaudible).
Gary Higgins asked if they would do a possible budget amendment
next Thursday.
Patrick said yes.
Councilmember Failace said we are talking in the average of around
$35.00.
Patrick said the average house is $118,000.00 so three (3) cents is
about 33 or 34.
Councilmember Failace asked Patrick if that was the total.
10
Patrick said it was the total.
Mayor Sica told Gary Higgins that East Brunswick, Oldbridge,
Cranberry etc. are the expanding towns and they are putting in proper
sewage where we had to go for mega dollars for improving our sewer
system in the mean time you are punishing us too. He commented
that they can't have all the world they have to give up a little too.
Councihnember Fazekas was noted absent at 6:50 p.m. and then was
again noted present.
School Budget - Craig Coughlin, Borough Attorney spoke. He said
ifthere is questions with regard to a law on an issue then they could
go into Closed Session and talk about that, but if they are going
talk about the proposed or the information they sent us in response
to our request or proposed cuts he does not believe this would be a
Closed Session.
Mayor Sica asked if they had seen the School Budget and if the
Council had any idea of what they wanted to do with it, cut it, leave
it, send it back.
Councilmember Failace said he looked it over and it seems our
children seem to be getting up to par with everyone else. He said he
knows that we have gotten some statement and that one is
categorically designed and Mr. Panigrosso told us, with a zero
increase to taxes in it. He personally makes a motion to have no cuts.
Councilmember DuPont said second he thinks the girls who were in
programs were strong on raises and that was a good sign and he
seconds the motion.
Attorney Coughlin said he prepared two (2) resolutions. A no cut
and a blank one that he applied for a cut. He said if they want to
consider that resolution , getting it advertised so action could be
taken.
Mayor Sica asked the Clerk to poll the Council.
Attorney Coughlin spoke saying as he understood the motion is to
certify the tax levy as requested by the School Board in the budget.
The Clerk agreed.
RESOLUTION #97-161A was introduced by the Mayor and was
referred to the Council for action.
11
MAY 15, 1997
Sewer Allocation
Continued
Councilmember
Fazekas noted
present
Defeated School
Budget
RESOL moo
#97-161A
Taxation -
School Purposes
.''''''~'':'~- "......:~-,~
MAY 15, 1997
Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Failace and DuPont
RESOLUTION #161A
"DETERMINING THE AMOUNT TO BE RAISED BY
TAXATION FOR SCHOOL PURPOSES FOR THE 1997-1998
SCHOOL YEAR"
Adopted
was adopted. Upon individual roll call vote, Councilmembers Du
Pont, Failace, Fazekas and Gutowski voted in the affirmative.
Councilmembers Bialowarczuk and Feingold voted NO.
Cœments
Councilmember Bialowarczuk said as it is. She said personally she
thinks there is some really good things in this budget.
Defeated
School Budget
Councilmember Bialowarczuk commented that the one thing that
bothered her was they didn't have enough time to look at it and that
it has become simple for this Council to say okay. She said the
people in the Borough voted no for this budget for some reason or
another and those same people voted them into office and she thinks
they expect a little bit more from them and so she has to vote no.
Councilmember DuPont said this is a no tax increase budget with
many pro!,'1'ams for our kids. He said there was many good things in
this budget and he thinks they worked hard and they were very tough
with those raises . He thinks hopefully the Borough could follow at
suit. He votes yes, it is a good budget.
Councilmember Failace said they have a zero increase budget. He
believe in what the School Board has done and what programs they
put in . He votes yes.
Councilmember Fazekas said he is looking at the technology they are
going to bring in this year and he said he likes to see that and he
would like to see more of that, like he told the Assistant
Superintendent and the Superintendent, that there is more that we
could do in both the middle School nd the High School. He thinks
they are pursuing up the right path considering technologies and that
is his expertise and that is why looking at that and talking to them he
thinks they are on the right path and he hopes they add more to it.
They don't have the money right now but hopefully they could help
that by sharing services. He voted yes.
Councilmember Feingold voted no.
Councilmember Gutowski said he was suprised at Councilmember
Feingold's vote.
Councilmember Feingold asked him why.
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,.,
Councilmember Gutowski said because he was not there for the
presentation of the budget.
Councilmember Feingold said he just got the notice at eight o'clock.
Councilmember Gutowski said if his contention was that he didn't
have time to review it......
Councilmember Feingold said his contention is that he votes no. He
said he agrees with Councilmember Bialowarczuk. He agrees with
the voters.
Councilmember Gutowski said what he liked to say is over one third
of the voters didn't even take the time to vote on the budget. He
thinks if they were more infonned on the budget, what it entailed this
year, addition of programs, no tax increase, actually a decrease in
expenses, they would have probably voted in favor of this budget.
He feels in that case he will vote yes.
The Clerk asked for a Motion to Adjourn this meeting
At approximately 7:05 p.m., Councilmember Failace made a motion
to adjourn the meeting and Councilmember Du Pont second the
motion, so after no further discussion this meeting was adjourned.
Respectfì.1lly submitted,
,
~;~Ç0~#CLV
KATHLEENM. B J' ---.
Municipal Clerk
KMB/lr
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13
MAY 15, 1997
Defeated School
BWget
Continued
~tion to Adjourn
ADJOURNED
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