Budget Hearing: Mayor, Council, Library, Parking Utility, Marina and Court
PERTH AMBOY – The Mayor’s Office budget was discussed first.
Councilman Fernando Gonzalez questioned the line item of $90,000 in 2017. “Now it’s reduced to $74,000 for the attorney. I thought that we (the Council) passed a resolution for a full-time attorney for a position higher than $74,000. We specifically set up a salary (for a full-time attorney) and agonized over the amount.”
CFO Jill Goldy said, “This salary is within the guidelines.”
Council President Petrick responded, “If the attorney agreed to $74,000, we’ve got a deal.”
Business Administrator Cruz responded as to whether the attorney works full time, “He works during the week and Saturday and Sunday.”
Gonzalez said, “Most of our staff works 7 days a week.”
Cruz responded, “You can check with the attorney’s assistant when he will be here. You asked for 35 hours a week.”
Gonzalez responded, “If you guys didn’t want a full-time attorney, tell us. We had a full-time attorney before who we could talk to all the time. This attorney (we have now) may call us two days after we call him. $25,000 for legal fees are no longer there. There’s monies missing. Other lawyer’s salaries come out of legal fees funds. When we disagree with the City, we have a right to hire an outside attorney.”
Cruz responded, “The Council can have a line item for legal fees. Last year, we did have a line item for this.”
Councilman Irizarry questioned, “Suppose we don’t want to approve the budget for the tax increase?”
Cruz responded “This is now your budget. You must place in writing to me what changes you want made. The Mayor’s budget is fiscally responsible. Amendments were made based on the last budget hearings.”
Goldy then said that if the budget as introduced is approved, then the budget is due in two days. “If amended as introduced, the deadline will be extended to May based on if it’s approved on 4/25/18.”
Irizarry was frustrated as he talked about not getting the budget until mid-April. “We now have marathon budget hearings. The budget should have been submitted in early February. We have to go through all this information in two weeks. It’s not fair.”
Councilman Helmin Caba spoke next, “It’s increasing our taxes. If the State stops school funding, we’ll have to declare bankruptcy.”
Cruz responded, “The State gave us the same amount of money as last year.”
Councilman Gonzalez responded, “If you assumed that the State will give us the same money as last year, you could have put it in the budget. Then if the State money had changed, then you could have put it in as an amendment. In the future, any Council would appreciate more consideration.”
Cruz responded, “Pension reforms affected municipalities. We anticipated money for Code Enforcement that didn’t happen. We have been crunching numbers. We can’t make assumptions.”
Noelia Colon gave the budget for the Mayor’s Office which was for $12,575. “There’s 6 accounts for vehicles, conference meetings, travel, and miscellaneous. There was $8000 used out of the budget.”
Fernando Irizarry then asked about a salary increase of $11,688. This was a salary that went from $64,312 to $76,000.
Colon responded, “I cannot answer that question. I can only answer questions about operational costs.”
B.A. Cruz responded to Irizarry, “This increase in salary was due to a promotion.”
Goldy added more details, “The promotion was due to a title change. The salary increased through the two-year incremental amount of 2% across the board. There was no line item before for police vehicles. There has been a $1000 insurance for each vehicle in each department.”
The Council did their budget next. Fernando Gonzalez spoke first, “We can use money to hire an outside attorney.”
Irizarry wanted to know about the money that is allocated for plaques.
Assistant City Clerk Victoria Kupsch said, “That’s if you decide to give one.”
Goldy then added, “There is a line item for an audio system in the Council chambers.”
Library Director Eleni Glykis came up to speak, “We’ve added books and publications. We’ve increased the number of databases per use which people can use to access the library 7 days a week. The $51,000 is for participation in the Libraries of Middlesex Consortium. We pay $48,000 to them to offset the number of cost. There were building repairs and there’s a history room for researchers to come from all over the country. We get a majority of our books from Baker & Taylor. The Home News Tribune is put on microfiche. The microfilm lasts 500 years. We have 3 readers. They are newer and better-quality machines that we got from another library. The Friends of the Library donated Museum Passes that allows 2-6 people free entrance to museums. We also have kindles that you can borrow. We use Comcast Internet and Verizon telephone service. We use T-Mobile for our hot-spots. We get 20 hot-spots for the price of 10.”
B.A. Cruz said, “We base it (communication prices) on who has the best price.”
Former Parking Utility Director Jeannette Rios and newly appointed Parking Utility Manager Bryan Walensky came up next. “We had a decrease in the contractual services. The new machines can take bills, coins, and credit cards.”
Bryan Walensky was asked if he’s had any prior experience in Parking Utilities. He said, “No, but I’ve taken the Parking Authority one day training session which involved parking enforcement. I feel we increase the revenue by $100,000. We are rotating more people (around the town).”
Rios spoke again, “We collected $65,000 more than the previous years.”
Councilman Gonzalez mentioned, “Woodbridge has no meters.”
Rios explained, “You can’t compare Perth Amboy to Woodbridge.”
Gonzalez continued, “In the 1970’s if we parked our cars overtime, they would mark our cars.”
Rios then explained, “There’s a 2-hour limit on the meters.”
Councilman Caba explained, “The 2-hour limit is not enough especially if you are going to see a physician.”
One business owner suggested a 15-minute limit. “Customers are getting tickets and not coming back.”
Rios then reminded the Council, “There are lots you can park up to 12 hours.”
Caba said, “We need to educate the public about this.”
Rios explained, “We have used social media in English and in Spanish.”
Council President Petrick said, “We need to be creative in attracting people to shop and dine and not get socked with a $30 and a $60 ticket.”
Representatives from the Marina came up next. DPW Director Frank Hoffman and Marina Harbormaster Frank Wild. Hoffman said, “There were 137 boat slips and it slipped to 62 slips after Superstorm Sandy. Now, it’s back up to 130. The revenues have increased from $268,000 in 2015 to $314,000 in 2018. There’s a 20-foot dock area for jet-skis. We are using Air BNB to find rental spaces for short term leases.”
Frank Wild then spoke. He was asked about low tides. “Near the Armory there’s a 2-feet low tide. We use 4 seasonal workers and their salary is $12 hour. They work anywhere from 12 to 20 hours a week including weekends and they’re there 24 hours (during the summer).”
CFO Goldy then added that the cost of $15,000 would be the total that is spread over those 4 workers.”
Petrick then questioned, “What is involved in the $16,898 line item marked miscellaneous?”
Goldy responded, “It’s for licenses, titles, back payment over several years, and initial purchase of flotation items for jet-skis.”
Harbormaster Wild then told the Council, “Of 130 slips, 102 are already rented.”
Irizarry told Wild, “Other places rent canoes and now boats.”
Wild said, “They’re canoes out here already.”
The Court System was the last to review their budget. Court Administrator Laura Meade came up. She introduced her assistant, Ms. Martinez. “We have 2 funds: DWI and POA. We have to mail out failure to appear notices. There’s 5 court sessions per week and two interpreters that come into each session. We have people who interpret sign languages and other languages. We now accept American Express and Discover Cards. The fees are higher with these cards, but we’re getting more revenue. The cost for $5500 with shipping and handling should be under postage. We have to mail court mailers and we process tickets for Code Enforcement, Animal Control, and the Parking Utility and we supply their ticket books. There’s a huge archive room for records. There’s old docket books as far back as the 1950’s. Everything has to be maintained forever. More police and more tickets are being issued. The State Troopers supply their own ticket books. We operated in the red last year. We increased everything by 20%. The credit card fee – we needed the extra money.”
Caba questioned the increase of $11,000 for one employee.
Goldy explained that we had replacement hires and some were promoted due to a change in staff. “Some people were given additional responsibilities.”
Meade went on to explain, “We expect to have revenue go up from $1.5 million to $1.8 million which is $800,000 more projected. I have 10 staff members. Our expenses are $130,000 – $150,000 and we’re waiting for approval to get 2 more part-time employees. We turn over $2 million to the City. The State gets 8% cut. A lot of the tickets have been issued for loud radios and it’s mandatory they appear in court. The fees are $250 and up. Tickets have also been issued for not wearing seat belts and talking on cell phones. We’re saving on contractual services involving office machines and annual maintenance. Everything is done through video conference.”
Pabon was impressed with Meade’s presentation, “You’ve educated us. And it’s good to know about the cell phone tickets.”
The Council argued about having a tax rate increase and was going through the budget through the different departments to see what could be reduced. Councilman Helmin Caba suggested since the City had a little over a $3 million surplus, to use part of that money to avoid a tax increase. After the Council went through the various department budgets, CFO Godly reminded that any department that Council wanted to make adjustments to would have to be called back to say why that money is needed. “This would push back presenting the budget to the State.”
After 45 minutes and falling very short of the almost $700,000 they would need to prevent a tax increase, the Council decided to use the surplus money.
Goldy told the Council that the amount they would need would be a little under $700,000.
