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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1996/01/23 JANUARY 23, 1996 A Budget Hearing was held by the Mayor and Council of the Borough ofCarteret on January 23,1996,6:00 P.M., Council Office, Municipal Building, 61 Cooke Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey. BUDGEl' HEARING January 23, 1996 The following were noted present: PRESENf Mayor Peter 1. Sica Councilmember Bialowarczuk " Failace " Fazekas " Feingold " Semenza Noted absent was Councilmember O'Brien and Borough Attorney Hedesh. Mailed to The Home News & Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted on the bulletin board on January 18, 1996. SfATJiMIiNf OF MEEITNG OOl'lCE a)Meet with Department Heads to discuss budget requests. PURPOSE OF TIlE MEEl'ING Mayor Sica said before they discuss budget requests he is going to make a motion to go into Closed Session to discuss Contract Negotiations RESOLUTION #96-27 was introduced by the Mayor and referred to the Council for action. RESOUJITOO #96-27 Closed Session Upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Semenza and Bialowarczuk RESOLUTION #96-27 "RESOLUTION TO GO INTO CLOSED SESSION" was adopted. Upon Individual roll call vote Councilmembers Bialowarczuk, Failace Fazekas, Feingold and Semenza voted in the affirmative. Councilmember O'Brien was noted absent. AOOPI'ED 1 JANUARY 23, 1996 ADJ{XJRNFD TO CUND SESSlOO OPffi SESSlOO Board of Health Fire Depart:rænt At approximately 6:03 P.M., a Closed Session was held. C;' At approximately 6:21 P.M., upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Semenza and Bialowarczuk and unanimous affirmative vote of the full membership present, this meeting was opened to the public. Ellen Ransdell and Diane Kish from the Health Department were noted present. Patrick said for them to go to page 2, the Board of Health. He said they had a $75,000.00 budget last year and basically left a balance of $950,000.00. Mayor Sica suggested that any department that has the same budget as last year doesn't need to explain it to the Governing Body. They will live with that budget. He said we are faced with a seven (7) cent tax increase which is about a 10% or II % increase in taxes for local purposes. Anybody that comes in there he is going to suggest that to them and ask them to take their budget back and review it, cut it where they think they can cut it and bring it back next Tuesday night. He then ask if anyone had a problem with that. He said this way they won't cut it out, they will let them look at it. Ellen Ransdell said the only problem is the County contract goes up $11,000.00 every year Mayor Sica said anticipating that you may have to look at some other places to cut because there is no way this city can absorb that and that is not counting giving anybody a raise. He is going to ask her to take the budget back and see ifthey can reduce it some and then to bring it back next Tuesday. Councilmember Failace asked about the Middlesex County contract. Mayor Sica said we have to have a licensed Health Officer. We don't have that so the county supplies that officer to us and a visiting nurse service, etc. He said it is worth it. Mayor Sica said to bring in Richard Greenberg from the Fire Department. Patrick said he had a budget of $108,000.00 last year and it looks like he left $12,000.00 behind. Richard Greenberg said he had some bills coming in so that left him with $5000.00 to $6000.00. He told the Mayor he was asking for the same amount as last year and he said he is asking for the same amount as last year for his Fire Prevention. Patrick commented that Fire Prevention is on the next page. 2 JANUARY 23, 1996 Mayor Sica explained the tax increase we are faced with to him. He asked him to look and see if there is anywhere he can reduce the budget and if he can to notifY the Clerk and come back here next Tuesday. Fire Depart:rænt James Brewer, Office on Aging - Patrick said he had $4000.00 of operating expenses and they transferred in $1000.00, so he had $5000.00 of operating expenses of which he spent everything except $95.00. Office on Aging Mayor Sica asked him to take his budget back and see if he could cut a couple of hundred dollars out of it and then come back with it next Tuesday. Mr. Brewer agreed. Councilmember Failace questioned if the computer could be Capital. Mr. Brewer said the computer is needed. Councilmember Failace said he was not questioning that. He just wanted to know if it was to be Expense or Capital. Patrick said they could pay for it under the Capital Improvement Fund, but they would have to do a Bond Ordinance. Mayor Sica said sometimes for a thousand dollar item it doesn't pay to capitalize because you have to advertise, etc. Councilmember Failace said he didn't know what kind of computer they are looking at. Mayor Sica said no one is buying anything in the computer field until Councilmember Fazekas looks at it. Building Inspector - Patrick said he is speaking on Ralph De Francesco's behalf because he could not be present. Last year he had a budget of$12,OOO.OO and we transferred in $2000.00 of which was all spent. He said when he spoke to Ralph he said he could live with his old budget and Patrick said he is sure he could live with the $12,000.00. Building Inspector Mayor Sica said to give him $12,50000. Tax Assessor - Councilmember Failace said he IS requesting $18,000.00. It is about $6000.00. Tax Assessor Mayor Sica said the thing is the Appraisal Fees. He said other than that item he is basically less on almost every line item. Bill Marbach was then present. 3 JANUARY 23, 1996 Tax Assessor Engineer Patrick said he came in with a pretty good budget. He spent some time working on it with him. Last year he had a $26,00.00 budget. He spent everything but $500.00. He said he is asking for $18,000.00 this year. He came through a complete audit with reevaluation. Bill Marbach said they completed the assessment from the Borough. Mayor Sica told him he will keep his budget the same as it is now. Councilmember Failace asked what the tax rate was. Patrick De Blasio said 96.84%. Mayor Sica said that is a dangerous level because that is the highest level we had in a long time. He said they put a big push on collecting taxes this year. Engineer - Mayor Sica said Mr. Parmar the Engineer was not present. Patrick said last year he had $35,000.00 and he left $11,798.00. Councilmember Failace said he was looking at the Estimated Expenses and he questioned why it was so low. Patrick said on the Tax Maps he only spent $2400 00 verses the $8000.00 he budgeted and for the Surveyor, he asked for a lot of money in 1995 and we really didn't spend more than $360.00. Mayor Sica said that is because we didn'!JS€. some of the money we were going to µse. Patrick said he is asking for $33,000.00. Mayor Sica said we had better put the $33,000.00 in there now. He then spoke on a major cave in on Blanchard Street. A thirty (30) inch sanitary line caved in and completely destroyed at least 32 feet of it that we know now. He said they have been bypassing pumping around the cave in to try and keep ahead of the sewers. He said he issued an emergency contract today to Cardell to come in and excavate it and try to fix it. He said Mr. Parmar is not here and we have to have an engineer. He said he issued an emergency contract to Valetutto to oversee this thing. Patrick asked how much it is going to cost us. Councilmember Semenza said he won't know until tonight when the camera crew comes back in. He said they will shoot from the other side and it will tell us the distance of the break. Mayor Sica said we came in [¡-om one side and found the break, we dug there, we have forty-five (45) foot of bad pipe there. He asked about the other way. He said they will send a camera down the other way and see how far back we have to go. 4 JANUARY 23, 1996 Mayor Sica said this sewer is down eighteen (18) feet. He said it is not an easy job and they still need an engineer there to make sure it is going right. . He said if someone goes in that hole and it is not sealed up properly and they get killed they have a law suit. He said he doesn't think he has enough money there. He said he thinks we should give the $33,000.00. It is $2000.00 less than we gave him last year . He said a lot of times we will charge things against the Sewer Account, which we have surplus money in all the time. Engineer Continued Councilmember Failace asked if the money for Blanchard Street could come out of a Sewer Surplus Account. Mayor Sica said they will do that in the interim. Patrick then spoke on Community Development. Pat Holden was not present. He said they had a $6500.00 budget last year. They spent about that. He said $6000.00 of that money was for the UEZ, Professional Service that we hired that we will not need this year. He said he spoke to Pat Holden on her budget today and she asked if she could have some additional office money to help organize the office. She is looking for a $1000.00 aþpropriation. Camunity Developnent Mayor Sica said he didn't see any thing wrong with that. He thinks the $6500.00 that we invested last year in the UEZ is paid off to $250,000.00. Councilmember Failace asked what the Professional Service for UEZ was. Mayor Sica said it was for when we went to Trenton and have an expert talk abouthisapplication, etc. Councilmember Failace commented that we don't need that anymore. Mayor Sica said what it is saying now is we don't need to put up the money now because if we have to go back to Trenton to the UEZ the 3% that we get has a certain portion that goes to Administrative Expenses. This $6500.00 we had to layout of our pocket last year. We had to pay it out of our poèket gambling that we were going to get a UEZ designation. Ifwe don't get it we lose $6500.00. Patrick went on to speak about Public Assistance. He said Hadiyah was not present. She has two (2) accounts. She has an operating expense of $12,000.00 last year. She has an account of Non-State Aid of $3500,00. He said that is money we have set aside to bury people that do not have the money to get buried. Last year they only paid out $193.00 and we left over a balance of $3300.00. He said she is requesting $4000.00 this year because the ptice of burials went up somehow. He said again we may not spend it. Public Assistance 5 Jt.tmARY 23, 1996 Public Assistance Continued Sewage Department Streets & Roads Street Cleaning Snow Removal Mayor Sica said in the past he was for selling the bodies to Medical Schools but they tell him that is illegal. All present spoke about going out to bid to purchase a Loader. Mayor Sica said on the Welfare Board we have got to give her the $500.00 increase on burial. We will knock her back to $12,000.00, the same as she had last year Councilmember Semenza told Mayor Sica that on the Sewage Department, Mr. Biel gave him permission to be there because of the cave in, so he said he will hold his budget as is. Patrick said the Sewage Department had $168,000.00 He said the Sewer Collection which is in there too will be held at .7. In Sewer Collection we had $27,000.00 last year. He said he is asking for $26,000.00. Patrick said there is also Industrial Monitoring and last year we had a $21,000.00 budget in there. Mayor Sica said he thinks it came in a little bit less. He said we will leave it the same as last year. Patrick said Streets and Roads were budgeted $44,000.00 and transferred in $9,000.00, so we had a budget of $53,00000 and there was a balance of $7,000.00 and this year he is asking for $50,000.00 or $51,000.00 Mayor Sica said they will bring him down to $49,000.00. Mayor Sica then discussed Street Cleaning. Patrick said it has a $3500 balance and we spent everything but $465.00. He said he is asking for $47,50000. We have two sweepers and two drivers so we are using them a lot more. He said when they start sweeping the streets in couple of weeks, we have a problem out there. Patrick went on to the Snow Removal Account. He said last year they put in $20,000.00 for salaries of which has been basically all spent right now and we got $15,000.00 dollars operating expenses and he spent at least $13,000.00 or $14,000.00 of that money. Providing we don't have anymore snow for our budget to increase we will hold it the same. 6 )'M Councilmember Semenza asked if there was some possibility that we are looking for some Federal help on this. Mayor Sica said we have already made an application for $38,000.00. If we get it then we just plug it into the budget in that line items, but it doesn't mean next November you can't transfer it out. Municipal Garage - Patrick said it has a budget of $61,500.00 and he transferred in $2000.00 he had an account in the amount of $63,500.00 to spend and he sent everything but $1100.00 and he believes that was eaten up by Utility Bills that we just received. He said that was their request. Patrick said looking for $88,000.00 this year. Mayor Sica said to give him the same thing he has last year. He said if we get some of that money back [¡-om FEMA for snow removal we can plug some of it into that account instead of putting it all in Snow Cleaning and Snow Removal we can put some of it into the Municipal Garage because we use the materials, but in the mean time it has to stay the same. Library - Ronna Pearl is present. Patrick said basically Ronna's appropriation has a minimum and a maximum the Borough could give to her. The minimum $350,000.00 and the maximum is $465,000.00. He said we have been having a policy in the past of charging the Library for fringe benefits. Last year in 1995 it was $78, 533.00 and in 1996 it is $76,000.00. He said last years budget was $404,000.00 Mayor Sica told Ronna since she was requesting an increase let him tell her the problem. He explained to her that the city is faced with a 7cent increase. That represents about a 10% increase in taxes for local purposes and that is not giving anybody a raise He said they don't want to have to do that. He told her anyone that comes in here tonight asking for an increase request they are asking them to take it back and look at it real careful and see if there is somewhere it can be cut a little. He told her he gave her to next Tuesday the same time. He then spoke briefly on all the new things they will have when they get a new Library. Ronoa said to live with last years budget she will have to draw on the reserves. Mayor Sica told her if she feels she has to then to do that. He told her they will give here $404,000.00 the same as they gave her last year. Councilmember Fazekas asked her if she had any plans or specs for the computer. Ronna said she has no money now. 7 JANUARY 23, 1996 Snow Removal Continued ~icipal Garage Library JANUARY 23, 1996 Library Continued ~ieipal Garage Vie Kazio Mayor Sica also told her that Councilmember Fazekas is very knowledgeable about computers and before you buy any you have to have him look at it. He said when they go into the new Library it will be done. Ronna said the new Library is a long time from now she was wondering if she could start on something now. Councilmember Fazekas said he can go over this with her and work on a plan. Mayor Sica said to do that and then maybe they could do some arm twisting and may be able to get some money from somewhere to do that. Ronna asked if there is any way they could use any of that 3% money. Mayor Sica said maybe He said he would have to go to Trenton and explain to them that we feel the Library with an updated system like this they can further educate their kids to go into technical kind of businesses that we are getting into Carteret right now. He said if we can't get the money from there than perhaps we can bond for it. He said ifhe is telling him that this Library us going to be so much more sophisticated because if we can get this internet in there than he is not adverse to go out and say we will just increase the bond by $100,000.00 and get it done. He said it will be done as soon as she sits down with Councilmember Fazekas Councilmember O'Brien asked Patrick how much they have in the State Aid and Reserve Account. Patrick and the Mayor told him over $100,000.00 Municipal Garage - Vic Kazio was present now. Vic said the roof on the Municipal Garage is leaking and there are no leaders or gutters. Patrick De Blasio said he had a budget of $61,500.00 and he transferred $200000, so he had a budget of$63,500.00 Mayor Sica told Vic Kazio that he was asking for a lot more money than he did last year. He said the problem is that we are now faced with an almost 10% tax increase and that is without giving anyone a raise. He told him to take it back and look at it. He said they put in for snow emergency money and if they get it they will readjust his budget accordingly. Vic said the prices are going up. 8 JANUARY 23, 1996 Councilmember Semenza spoke on fixing the Municiple Garage Building. He said they do have a few quotes on fixing drains gutters and everything else that ranges somewhere around the $4000.00 mark, of which he did not speak to Patrick yet, but the Mayor said it could probably come out of Capital Funds. He said he told Vic Kazio that they would work together on the roof. He said they would get Mr. Parmar there to look at it. He then mentioned that there is no way they can anticipate in the budget how many cop cars or fire trucks will come in damaged. ~ieipal Garage Continued Mayor Sica said we have all new cop cars there and they all have damages. He said from now on if a car is damaged and there is no report made on it, the last person driving it is going to be charged with an offense and be brought up on charges. He said he is going to tell the Chief tonight that they want a policy on damaged cars. Damaged Borough Vehicles Councilmember Semenza also mentioned that it should be in every department for their equipment. Some of our equipment have been damaged by our employees negligently. Damaged Borough Equipoent Mayor Sica said he will write up a Directive to all the Department Heads that they must submit to the Mayor and Council a policy for damaged equipment and how it will be reported and what the outcome is if it is not reported and then we will take it and send out another directive that whoever was the last person to use the piece of equipment and it becomes damaged then that is the person who will be charged with damaging that piece of equipment and they will be suspended. He told Vic to bring the men up on charges if they don't oil, etc. the machines. Vic said he had to get reports [¡-om the men. Mayor Sica then spoke on having the employees wear uniformed clothing so they can be identified as Borough workers. He said they get a clothing allowance and their clothing is a disgrace. Uniformed Clothing Councilmember Semenza said one other thing on behalf of the Municipal Garage. He said they had many complaints that when something went wrong with their Fire or Police cars we don't have an inventory. He said you can't have an inventory when you are being drained all year [¡-om accidents and everything else. Inventory Mayor Sica said that was crazy. He said you don't need an inventory. He said there is one hundred tire guys that will bring you the tire in an hour. Councilmember Failace asked if there is an accident and it costs $5000.00 and we get $8000.00, does it go into the General Fund. Mayor Sica said yes. Patrick said we cannot spend revenues. 9 JANUARY 23. 1996 FFMA Directive Handicapped Recreation Parks & Recreation Recreation Depart:rænt Mayor Sica told him 1brt::tbi!y'e~tll 'give him and when they get the monies [¡-om FEMA they will credit a portion of the money to him, more than enough to take care of your expenses. Councilmember Semenza suggested that a Directive be sent to all Department Heads that if there is any negligence it must be documented and put in the employee's file. He said if an employee keeps getting written up they can eventually get rid of him. Handicapped Recreation - Patrick said last year they had a $5500.00 budget and they spent all of it. This year they are looking for $9100.00. Joanne Kisselman said they were county funded and matching grants. Their enrollment has increased. She said the other part of it is the new program they are trying to introduce to Carteret, is Unified Sports. She spoke briefly on this. Mayor Sica said everything he said about not increasing budgets doesn't count here. He spoke on how these people put in so much time and how deserving of having a new program. He said to go with their request. Parks and Recreation - Willie Kolibas was present. Patrick said Recreation had a $5500.00 budget last year and spent it all but $78.00. He is asking for $69,550.00. Willie said he wants to increase the Sportsman and he wants money to put into the Recreation Commission too. Mayor Sica said the reason we can't do that is because it has to stay in Celebration of Public Events. It has to show it is open to everybody. He also commented that the Pop Warner buses are killing us. Councilmember Bialowarczuk asked why we don't know before we give them any money what their incomes are. She said we should know what amount of money is made at their fundraisers. Mayor Sica said their contention is you could never get what they are doing for the amount of money we have given them anyway and he said they are right Mayor Sica said to send a letter to the Sportsmen and Carteret Recreation Cheerleaders, cutting their expenses by 50%. He said it is too much right now. Patrick asked how much they wanted to allow for the subsidies. He asked Willie ifhe asked for $20,000.00 for that. Willie said he did. Mayor Sica said they will allot them $10,000.00. Willie said we spent $5000.00 on trophies. 10 JANUARY 23, 1996 Willie said he thinks that money on trophies is a waste. Parks & Recreation Continued Mayor Sica and Councilmember Semenza said it will stay that way because they mean a lot to the kids. Patrick said in Parks Department they had $45,000.00 and they transferred in $7000.00 so they had a budget of $52,000.00 to work with and it left a balance of $2200.00. He is asking for $50,950.00 and he said he is asking for another $10,000.00 in the tree account. Parks Depart:rænt Mayor Sica said they are not going to bond so maybe it will come out of Capital Improvement or our magic UEZ money. He went on to speak about Clothing Allowance, $5000.00. He said that can come out of there because it is coming out of the Payroll Account. Willie asked if it was the same as last year. Patrick said $45,000.00. Mayor Sica said he thinks we should raise it to $47,500.00, because he thinks that the Parks Decorations went over big and we made a statement there that we are going to continue to upgrade it every year and he thinks we should continue to do so . Willie said we need equipment also. Mayor Sica said they will try to get that out of the Capital Account. Senior Citizens Transportation - Patrick said last year they had a $6500.00 balance and they spent $3800.00. Senior Citizens Transportation Mayor Sica said they will give them $6500.00. Patrick asked they can take the tree money out of Capital. Mayor Sica said yes. Mayor Sica went on to say that they have the Kiddie Keepwell Camp letter here. He asked what we gave to this camp. Kiddle Keepwell Camp Patrick said we had a legal opinion from Attorney Triarsi saying that we can't pay it because it is a charity. Mayor Sica said he doesn't know what he is talking about. He said that camp belonged to the First Aid and Volunteer Fire Departments in the state of New Jersey and they can get money from cities. They take poor children to camp and it costs $350.00 a week for each child. They took forty (40) kids last year, mostly minorities. It is in Roosevelt Park. We use to give them $1000.00. Attorney Triarsi said we couldn't do it but he said we could because he knows John Toolan had a special dissertation [¡-om the state along with the First Aids and the Volunteer Fire Depattments to allow it. He said there is only three (3) in the state that has that. 11 JANUARY 23, 1996 Kiddle Keep.æl1 Camp Continued Police Department Mayor Sica said he thinks we should give them a stipend of $2000.00. Patrick asked the Mayor if it was okay with him to include that in the Recreation Budget. Mayor Sica said he didn't care and then he said to put it III Celebration of Public Events. Patrick said Public Events had $45,000.00 in it last year. Mayor Sica said to up it $5000.00 and make it $50,000.00. He said he thought last year the concerts in the park, the Halloween Parade, the Christmas thing and the House Decoration thing all went over big. Police Department - Patrick said last year they had a budget of $221,000.00. They are showing a balance of $9000.00 left over. He said they had a lot of Utility Bills that came in after the fact. He said this year they are asking for $227,000.00. Mayor Sica said that was out of the question. He told the Chief they would have to give them the same amount as last year. He told him ifhe feels he cannot live with the $221,000.00 then he said to come back to them with something between the $221,000.00 and $227,000.00. The Chief said he cannot accept the $221,000.00. He said all his numbers are realistic numbers. He said he did not exceed any area. He said College Credits are left out because last year they were paid in Salaries. Mayor Sica said he has been knocking out some of the money he has been putting in for the College Credits. He said some of them should have not been submitted. He said this year no college credits will be submitted until he reviews them. Chief Sica said this year in his department he will collect all the college credits. They will be in by the 29th of January. Mayor Sica said he is dead serious about going back and getting the money back from the back years Chief Sica said he will review the college credits and he will submit to him the college credits that are supposed to be paid. The Mayor said the next time a person submits to him a college credit that doesn't belong on there, the person that is in charge of submitting those college credits will be suspended. He said he is going back three years and everybody that got college credit money that was not deserving of it, they will take it out of their pay. 12 Chief Sica said this year in his department a new policy was set up where he will be the one that reviews the college credits. He will send it over to you and you can make the decision based on whatever........ Mayor Sica told the Chief to take it back and look at it and come in somewhere between $221,000.00 and $227,000.00 and they will discuss it again next Tuesday night the same time. Chief Sica said he sent the Mayor a letter. It was about overexpending their overtime all?ttment last year. Patrick said they were given $145,000.00 and they spent about $175,000.00. The Cheif said that was because of shortages in the department. Mayor Sica said they will look at revamping the double shift. They will have one (I) less guy on each one ofthe double shifts, where the shifts overlap one another. Chief Sica said they have been looking at revamping for three (3) years now. Mayor Sica said he is tired of these smashed up Cop Cars. He said there is going to be a Directive issued to his department, the Fire Department, the Parks Department, the Streets and Roads Department. It will say the last person to use the vehicle prior to the report being issued will be suspended. Chief Sica said they have a system in the Police Department that they know who uses each and every vehicle. They sign out for it. They mark in what is right or wrong with it. Mayor Sica told him that tomorrow have someone in the department make him up a list of all the accidents the Police Department has in the last three (3) years and who was involved with those accidents. In the snow storm the other night he saw a cop car going up Carteret Avenue and instead of going to the end, for no reason decides to go between the isles hitting into a four (4) foot snow drift and ripped off everything. He said [¡-om now on when an accident occurs involving a Police Car, Fire Vehicle a Streets and Roads vehicle, etc., they will have a committee to sit down and review every single accident and every bit of damage that is done to every vehicle that is owned by this city and that committee will determine whether it was an accident or negligence and they will be suspended. Councilmember Semenza said at the height of the snow storm they did not have one (I) Patrol Car on the road. He thinks it is time to invest in some four wheel vehicles where we know we could have these......... . 13 JANUARY 23, 1996 Police Depart:rænt Continued Police Cars JANUARY 23, 1996 Police Cars Contirued ~ieipal Court Purchasing/Planning/ Zoning Boards Tax Collector Election & Clerk's Office Buildings & Grounds Legal Expenses Charter Study Mayor Sica said the only problem with that is if we had people who took pride in the vehicle it would be okay. He said you don't use the four wheels unless you have to. These guys would be bopping around with the vehicle and if it is shifted wrong one time there will goes three thousand dollars worth of truck repairs. He said he would rather buy a four wheel drive vehicle for the Fire Department. Municipal Court - Debbie Uhouse present. Patrick said they had $27,000.00 last year and they left an amount of$4300.00 He asked Debbie what she was asking for this year. Debbie said she would like $30,700.00 for fringe benefits. She said she needs carpeting and the building needs a new roof. Mayor Sica asked her how much she had in there for carpeting. Debbie said $5000.00. The Mayor said he will give her the same amount. He said she will not put in carpeting until they fix the roof. He said they could probably put the carpeting in in Capital later on. Purchasing/Planning Board /Zoning Board - Patrick said Gloria will not be present. Mayor Sica agreed that the Planning and Zoning Board is the same as last year, $2500.00 and $2000.00.. Patrick said she had $16,000.00 in Purchasing and they transferred in $2000.00. He said she asked for $18,000.00 but we will give her $16,000.00. Tax Collector - Patrick said it is the same. Election and Clerk's Office - The Clerk said it is the same. Buildings and Grounds - Mayor Sica said he had $42,150.00 and he is asking for $42,500.00. He said they will give it to him. Legal Expenses - Patrick said we had $170,000.00 in the account last year and they left $30,000.00 behind. Mayor Sica said to reduce that to $160, 000.00. Charter Study - Mayor Sica said they have no more Charter Study. Salary _ Patrick asked the Mayor if he wanted to see zero, so he could see where he comes in at. Mayor Sica said yes. Councilmember Failace asked when the contracts for the unions were up. 14 Mayor Sica said as of December 31st. He said at the end of this meeting they will set up a meeting date with AFSCME and the Blue Collar Workers. He said what he thinks we should do is have all the union representatives in one meeting and tell them where we are at and get a feeling of what they want and then reduce it to a three (3) man committee together and we will reduce an offer:iJ:¡ writing and then they will either accept it or not. Then at that point in time we will have to make the decision to cut heads or raise taxes. He asked if anyone had any suggestions to that. He said we cannot have more than three (3) people because then we will have a Sunshine problem. He then suggested the Council President, Councilmember Failace and the Mayor He said we will call a meeting of all the representatives of each bargaining unit to send a representative here next Tuesday night at 7:00P.M. He then asked if anyone else had any suggestions to do with this budget. He said the problem is, and a lot of people don't realize that until they sit up here, is there is not really much money you have to put in here. The biggest other expense is the Police Department and that represents about 30% of all your other expenses. Councilmember Failace said that Patrick said to him that our Purchasing is pretty solid in how they do it. Mayor Sica told him to rest assure that before anything is signed it has to have his initial on it and he sits there an look at everyone of them. He said unfortunately a few of them on college credits got by him last year. He said they have to take a strong stand on this. He said in reference to how college credits got started, back in 1977, Doctor Fenick decided he was going to give the Police college credits. The way it was proposed is if they go to college, at that time it was $15.00 a credit. It had to be job related. In 1978 Dr. Fenick signed a contract making the college credits a yearly thing meaning every year you would get paid for college credits. He said it was supposed to be a one time shot. In 1977 in the contract it was a one time shot. He said Dr. Fenick signed it and he didn't even know he signed it and he said he then had a fit over it. He said to add insult to injury, two (2) years ago, if a man came on the Police Department and already had college credits, they gave him money. He said there is nothing in the contract that says that. He said he eliminated that when someone got through. He said if they want to push this thing he thinks they should go back to everyone who has gotten a college credit. They could find the paperwork on it and make them pay that money back. Councilmember Failace agreed with the Mayor that the taxpayer cannot afford that anymore. Mayor Sica said he doesn't even mind if someone goes and takes these courses and produces through the ranks and becomes a Sergeant, Lieutenant and a Captain. Some of these men don't even to take the test to become a Sergeant but they are getting a thousand dollars in college credits and if they take the test to become a Sergeant they fail. 15 JANUARY 23, 1996 Bargaining Units College Credits JANUARY 23, 1996 College Credits Continued First Aid ADJOURNfl) Mayor Sica said if they want to go to school for a police rated course we have to allow it. They don't pay for the course, only the credits. CounciImember Semenza asked if the Chief documents that. Mayor Sica said it had been assigned to a policeman to review all these things and then ship them up here. It was the head of the Patrol Division and he said it was a "My Buddy" deal, that everyone in a uniform is a buddy so if the cop put down, Beginner's Tennis, he would just initial it and send it through. "- Mayor Sica then spoke on one other thing since they were in an Open Meeting. He said they got a letter today [¡-om the First Aid. He said they have some serious problems with manpower. He said two (2) years ago, the Career Men had made a proposal to put one of the First Aid rigs in the Fire House so if there is a call and no respose comes from the First Aid within a certain amount of time then the Firemen would respond. He said he thinks they will have to do something like that. They First Aid is asking for something like that. We will have to go into negotiations and we will have to write that into their job description. Councilmember Bialowarczuk asked if they were down to one rig now and Councilmember Semenza said they got a rental. Mayor Sica said normally we have three(3). Two (2) are out for repair. When we have three (3) we are going to have to sit down with the First Aid and the career Fire Department and work out something. We just have to have two drivelS on hand in the Firehouse at all times. He said it won't be any extra work for the fireman because he is on duty anyway. He will respond with the First Aid rig, ifthe First Aid doesn't respond within say three (3) minutes. He said we will have to make sure that on every daytime crew we have a fireman that is trained in EMT. Council member Semenza said most of them are. He commented when a Heart Attack call comes in both vehicles should be dispatched. He said if the Fire Department gets there first they could always return once the First Aid gets there. Mayor Sica and Councilmember Semenza said something has to and will be worked out. At approximately 8:20 p.m., Councilmember Feingold made a Motion to Adjourn and it was second by Councilmember Failace, so after no further discussion, this meeting was adjourned. ~~ KATHLEEN M. BARNEY, Municipal Clerk KMB/lr 1E