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HomeMy Public PortalAbout1996/02/13 An Informal Meeting was held by the Mayor and Council of the Borough of Carteret on Tuesday, February 13, 1996, 7:00 P.M., Council Office, Municipal Building, Cooke Avenue, Carteret, New Jersey. Upon individual roll call, the following were noted present: Councilmember Deborah Bialowarczuk " " James Failace " " William Feingold " " James O'Brien " " Sam Semenza Noted absent was Councilman Jack Fazekas. Also noted present was Borough Attorney Robert A. Hedesh. Also noted present was Patrick DeBlasio. The Clerk stated that on February 9, 1996, in compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act, a notice oftonight's meeting was sent to The Home News & Tribune, The Star Ledger and posted on the bulletin board The purpose of this meeting was to discuss the 1996 Local Municipal Budget. Councilman Failace said that there are a couple of things he'd like to talk about first, in open session. He spoke to Patrick last week and he knows where we're at with the budget, what we're going to get and what we have coming in with discretionary aid and so forth. He asked what we are going to do with the $60,000.00 Blue Cross and the $167,000.00 from the MCUA. Patrick DeBlasio explained that as far as the Blue Cross and Blue Shield, they have included in the budget a 10% or II % increase. We have since gotten a letter that it may be down to 5%. We have some extra money in the Blue CrossIBlue Shield account based on these numbers. Mayor Sica said that they are imaginary numbers right now. We don't have a contract yet. Until we negotiate with the unions, we've got to stick with our high number, the $63,000.00. Ifwe're going to go now with a prescription plan, we have to have money to pay for that. Councilman Failace asked about the MCUA money. Mr. DeBlasio said that the only correspondence we have on that is that the flow was reduced last year. Mayor Sica said that is sewage money That goes into sewer surplus. That money got wiped out the other day on the $62,000.00 to fix Blanchard Street. Councilman Failace asked if we have to go into closed session to talk about contracts. FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING February 13, 1996 ROLL CALL STATEMENT OF MEETING NOTICE PURPOSE OF MEETING DISCUSSION FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued Borough Attorney Hedesh advised that if they are going to discuss strategy for negotiations and its relevance to the budget, they should go into closed session. It's their choice. It's an acceptable reason to go into closed session. Councilman Failace said thafhe has some things about contracts that he'd like to talk about. He looked at some of the things and he'd like to talk them. Mayor Sica said that he doesn't think that it should be at this kind of a meeting. It has nothing to do with the budget. Councilman Failace said that some of the things do. We talked about no salary increases. He said that he got last year's salaries versus this years's salaries and the police go up $60,000.00. Mayor Sica noted that it is easy to figure. There's a step in the police contract, with the 2 cops on, that goes from $29,000.00 to $41,000.00. Councilman Failace said that he adjusted for that. The Mayor said that there is longevity, a new cop, all of those things. Patrick DeBlasio said that college credits are in there. Councilman Failace said that this is the same thing when he sat with them about the school board. The same thing went on, they said there were steps. When they say that they are getting no increase, they are really getting 2%. Mayor Sica said that those are contracted things. We can't just arbitrarily eliminate them. Those are things that they have. We have to appropriate money for that. When we talk about no increase, we're saying that we're not giving them a raise. If someone is in the 5th year then they automatically get 4% longevity. If they are in the 10th year, they get another 2%. As they get to these longevity steps, we can't eliminate that. Even though we say that we're not giving them a raise, that's theirs already. That's earned by the contract they have. Councilman Failace said that is the same thing that's said with the school board They have the same kind of steps. Mayor Sica disagreed and said that it is different than the school board. Councilman Failace asked why. The Mayor explained that the school board set it up with steps and that is contracted money. What they do is say that they're only giving a 4% raise. They're giving the top guy 4% but if you lump everything together, they're giving 9%. 2 Councilman Failace said that is the same thing that will happen here. Ifwe give them 2%...(inaudible). Mayor Sica said that we are locked into that. There's nothing we can do with that. Councilman Failace asked about new contract negotiations. Mayor Sica said that those are things that we can negotiate but if we don't build a budget with those things in it, if we're successful and we get them out of there, then we have a surplus at the end of the year. If we're not successful in getting them out of there.. .Longevity and steps for everybody, not just the cops, for the whole Borough, we estimate to be $50,000.00. Suppose we take a stance right now and say that we're not giving anybody any steps or additional longevity this year, we eliminate $50,000.00 out of there. If we lose, and we're going to lose in court, then we built a budget with a deficit in it. Now, we're in a lot of trouble. We could go to jail for that. i Councilman F ailace said that he understands that Mayor Sica added that the $50,000.00 is a wash deal. We can't control that. That's a raise that they're going to get. He is saying that they're getting nothing additional than what they already have in their contract and not a penny more. Even with the cops, if we gave them a 3% raise, their pensions are costing us an additional $200,000.00 this year. That alone constitutes a 4% raise to the Police Department. Do you want a 4% in your pension plus an additional 3% for a total of7%? Councilman Failace said that he agrees 100%. He said that his own feeling is that he doesn't think that we should be giving them a prescription plan either. In an economy where everybody is cutting back here and there, they should be actually giving something back to us. If you're talking a year or two down the road, we've got the mall coming in. We've got a lot of things coming in here. Why can't we look for something to come back, to give us ...(inaudible). Borough Attorney Hedesh advised them that they are actually talking about something that should be in closed session. These minutes are going to be open to all of the unions. It's your prerogative to pass a resolution to go into closed session. His only question is, his problem would be that it wasn't advertised for that. Mayor Sica said that is the problem. Attorney Hedesh said that this was advertised as an informal session concerning the budget. 3 Mayor Sica said that is why he said that we will have 3 people on this negotiating team, Failace, Semenza and himself If you want to win, the committee has got to sit down with the Borough Attorney and write a counter proposal. For instance, they get raises automatically because of their pensions, steps and longevity. They should compute all of those numbers together and offer them zero. They go to arbitration and this is our reason for offering them zero. First, we can show economic hardship. Secondly, they are getting a built-in 4% or 5% raise by virtue of their longevity, their steps, their rank increasing, their college credits or their pension. We're showing an arbitrator that we'll give them 3%, then they don't get the increase in the pension. You can't have everything. The Mayor said that this is what he is against with the school board. They only show the salaries of what the people are going to get but they're not showing all of these other things. For instance, if someone makes an additional $5000.00 this year in their pay, we have to pay social security on them. If they put in to social security based on $5000.00, $350.00, then we have to put in $350.00. That $350.00 is a raise to them. It's not a raise they see in the check but FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued when they retire, they are securing their pension. It's still part of their money. It's their money that they're forcing us to put in the bank for them for when they retire. The same way with the cops. That's the way the strategy has to be d~pe. It has to be reduced to writing and then submitted to them with our reasoning. Now, if they want to go and fight it, go ahead. We have to be strong enough to say that we're not even going to listen to what an arbitrator says. We're going to be the first ones to take it to Superior Court, to a regular court, if necessary. Borough Attorney Hedesh said that what is happening this year, is that the legislature has changed the arbitration laws. At one time it was their plan or this plan. Now, what happens is they can pick parts and choose. If you go in just the local plan, you say you want 4% and we're going to give you zero, you're not giving them any options. You've got to now sit down with this arbitrator and come up with x- amount of options. The criteria is different and everything else. Does he think that everybody that goes to arbitration next year is going to Superior Court? Everybody's filing a complaint to Superior Court. Everybody will seek to overturn it because all new laws take time to be defined. The legislature passes sit and then the court decides what they're really supposed to mean. Everybody's going to take their case to Superior Court and they're going to take it because they want everybody to define the parameters. The Mayor said that we want the court to define what a 3% raise is Is it 3% in your pocket or is it 3% plus 4% in fringes that you're getting automatically because we have no control over it because the state sets the dollar number that you have to put into the pension? Councilman Failace said that he understands. Mayor Sica noted that it is a strategy that we have to work out. If you look at last year's budget, you'll see that there's a number in there of $227,000.00 that shows salary surplus at the end of the year. That's not really what it says because the last payroll is not reflected in there. One week oflast year plus one week of this year is in that budget but it has to be charged against... If you look, last year's salary account represented 8 1/2 million dollars. If you take everything that has to come out of there, we actually had a $70,000.00, give or take a few dollars, surplus in salary accounts. If we get hit with another snowstorm, that's gone. If we get hit with a major fire, a hurricane, it all gets eaten up. There has to be some latitude in there. We finished up last year, on a 8 1/2 million dollar salary account, with less that 3/4 of 1 % surplus. That's cutting it too close. That means that if, in fact, we do the same thing this year.. .Don't go that we wound up with a $395,000.00 surplus because a $395,000.00 surplus is generated from a lot of different things of which $70,000.00 was that money. The $395,000.00 is generated from extra revenue we collect, the $100,000.00 we got from Bellemead. All of these things go into that. We actually wound up with less than 3/4 of 1% surplus in our salary account which can get wiped out instantly. 4 Councilman Failace said that he is sorry for wasting everybody's time. Mayor Sica said that it is not a waste of time. He said that he told them that he is playing it straight with them He knows budgets as well as anyone in the State of New Jersey. He said that he doesn't even listen to the courts. When they said to help the cops and show them where the money was, he refused. He told the court to show them where the money is if they think there's money because there's no money in there. He told them that if they think that he's good enough to show them where it's at then they should take his word that there's none in there and there was none in there. The Mayor said that if you look at the steps with the cops, that's $24,000.00. There's 3 additional school crossing guards. Last year, we transferred a guy from Streets and Roads into the Police Department. We've now replaced that guy in Streets and Roads because they're short. We've got a net gain of a whole salary there. Even though this guy went over here, it's not a wash, because when he goes over here he gets less money. This guy gets a little bit less, he gets more money over here.. .it's not a wash. We still are 2 cops short in the Police Department and 3 or 4 people short in other departments. We haven't replaced a mechanic in the mechanic's department. He doesn't think it is necessary. We're not going to replace him. In accordance with the 94 budget and part of the 95 budget, we reduced 1 guy there. We stayed even in all of the other departments. Patrick DeBlasio said that we went up 1 guy in Sewage. Mayor Sica noted that he paid for himself already. The reason why the MCUA is telling you to reduce your anticipated cost to us by $67,000.00 is because last year we saved $150,000.00. They're saying to us, ifthey really were playing fair, they are going to raise our rates a little bit. They should be saying to us to anticipate paying to us what you paid to us in the 95 budget, not only $67,000.00 down, because we're over $150,000.00 savings in that department. It was a savings last year that helped generate money into the sewer account. Another major break... You heard it here the other night. There's parts of that line that may go down. Granted, we're going to sue and we're probably going to recoup that money but we can't gamble on that. In the meantime, if the other part of the line goes down, you better have the money to fix it. Otherwise, you have to pass an emergency. If you don't have surplus to cover it, then you've got to go out for short term borrowing and pay interest. Fortunately, we've never had to do that, especially in the Sewer Department, because we've always had back-up money there. Councilman O'Brien asked an inaudible question. Patrick DeBlasio said that it is $500,000.00 plus we are going to be transferring in $900,000.00. Mayor Sica stated that we have a considerable amount of projects that are out there and that money is encumbered already. 5 Patrick DeBlasio said that it is sitting out there to be encumbered by capital ordinances. We have sewer surplus and we can't really spend sewer surplus. We will have to either adopt an ordinance prior to paying this guy [Cardell] or we have to put a line item in the budget indicating how much this job is. Councilman Semenza asked how much we are over on snow. Patrick DeBlasio eXplained that we budgeted $20,000.00 and it is used up. At this point in time, we are simply just charging the departments that are spending the overtime. FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued Mayor Sica said that is until such time as we submit it to FEMA. If FEMA then turns around and says, here's $30,000.00, and the Parks Department has encumbered $5000.00 worth of overtime, we'd switch that over there. If Streets and Roads has encumbered $20,000.00 in overtime and $5000.00 worth of material, we switch that over to there. The Sewer Department, the Fire DepartmenLIt will be disbursed to those departments. In the meantime, because we have no budget, we are working on a temporary budget, it gets charged. Patrick DeBlasio asked if he should prepare an ordinance to pay for Cardell. - Mayor Sica said yes. He said that he wants to use the number that they submitted to us but that's not the number we're going to pay because we're going to fight a little bit. We're going to save some money. Patrick DeBlasio said that the ordinance takes 2 readings before we can process the payment. The Municipal Clerk said that we will have to put an ordinance on. Patrick DeBlasio added that it will be funded by the sewer fees. Borough Attorney Hedesh asked Patrick DeBlasio why he wants an ordinance. Patrick DeBlasio said because there's nothing to charge it against right now. The Mayor asked if anyone had any more questions. Councilman Failace said no but that he wants to make sure that the Mayor understands that he wants to meet very soon. Mayor Sica said that he will sit down at the beginning of next week with Councilman Failace, Councilman Semenza and Borough Attorney Hedesh. He has a copy of their proposals. He's got what they have in their contract from last year. We're going to submit a counter proposal. After we write it all up, we'll call a meeting for the whole Council to discuss the proposal. We'll go through our counter proposal to their proposal and if anybody on the Council has anything they want to put in at that time, fine. If we try and do it with 7 or 8 people, it isn't going to get done and he'd miss crossing one "t" and dotting one "i" and that is all the arbitrator needs The Mayor told Councilman Failace that he anticipated the questions he would have tonight because if he were in his shoes, these are the questions he'd be asking. Why is there some additional money in the Police Department? We got 3 new crossing guards. That's $10,000.00 a crossing guard. It doesn't sound like a lot of money but it's $10,000.00 a crossing guard. We have the steps with the cops. We have the longevity and the college credits. College credits cost us about $11,000.00 or $12,000.00. He said that he told every one of the Councilmen that if they don't see his name on it, don't sign it. 6 The Mayor mentioned courses he felt had nothing to do with Police Science. There being no further discussion, upon MMS&C, by Councilmembers Semenza and Bialowarczuk and unanimous affirmative vote of the five (5) members present, the meeting adjourned at approximately 7:20 P.M. RespectfÌJlly submitted, ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- ---------------------------------------------------------- 7 ---------------------------------------------------------- FEBRUARY 13, 1996 INFORMAL MEETING -Continued ADJOURNED