5/24/21 Caucus
By: Carolyn Maxwell
PERTH AMBOY – Four members of the council were present at the council chambers except for Councilwoman Milady Tejeda who had to work late. She was supposed to join via Zoom, but the meeting was over by the time she was available.
Council President William Petrick read the ordinances and the only person to make any comments was Petrick who talked about Ordinance No. 3 – An ordinance to amend an ordinance entitled, “Sewer and Water” regarding rates and fees.
He stated that rates are going up 3%.
There was a brief discussion about a vendor by the name of Summers BBQ, LLC who was recommended to have a site at the marina. The charge for him will be $2,250 for the year 2001 and from years 2-5 $2,842.41 (with an escalator of 4%).
The second site would be the train station $200 per month (with an escalator of 4%).
Council President Petrick asked if they have a permit.
Councilman B.J. Torres responded, “They have a permit, and it was approved by the police department.”
Deputy City Clerk Theresa Lopez stated, “This vendor did apply and were approved.”
Deputy Police Chief Larry Cattano came up to add more comments, “I received a complaint about this vendor. They had a permit, but not for the location they where they were set up at the marina.”
There was a long discussion started by Council President William Petrick regarding Ordinance No. 2 (First Reading) to amend an ordinance fixing and establishing a schedule of salaries and salary ranges and increments for officers and employees for the city of Perth Amboy regarding management and nonunion.
Petrick had several questions starting with personnel and some of the titles. “Why is there a Confidential Aide and a Confidential Assistant Aide needed in the mayor’s office? If anything, we need additional personnel in the clerk’s office and the tax office. We don’t need a Deputy Tax Assessor. Why do we need a title of Supervisor of Code Enforcement? And why a title of Public Safety Director that has to have a Civil Service title? This should be under a Police Director. Irving Lozada from Code Enforcement has no civil service title and Kenny Ortiz (Director of Human Resources and Recreation) just had a civil service title (for his position) added last year. Who developed this new organizational chart?”
Business Administrator Remsen responded, “It was myself, along with the mayor. The business administrator is equal to all the directors.”
Joel Rosa, who works in the mayor’s office came up to address some of Petrick’s questions, “The chart that you have is not much different from what the previous administration had in place.”
Petrick responded, “In the past, the chart would show the Mayor at the head, then the Business Administrator, then all the directors would be under the Business Administrator.”
Council President Petrick suggested that they table this ordinance. It was seconded by Councilman B.J. Torres. It was a tie, with Torres and Petrick voting to table and Morales and Pabon voted “No”. Since there was a tie, the ordinance was left on for Wednesday’s Meeting.
CFO Jill Goldy came up to talk about R-272-5/21 – Amending the 2021 Budget.
Council President Bill Petrick asked Goldy, “Did you incorporate some of the suggestions that I made to try to bring a zero increase for the taxes?”
Goldy responded, “The changes that you sent were not incorporated in what I am presenting tonight. In order to not have a tax increase we used surplus funds and we switched some of the state aid that was given to us. Some of the allocations were reassigned and four grants were received. In previous years, we would have 100.22% tax collection due to additional tax appeals that were favorable to the city. We were able to add $43,116 appropriations into the budget. The council rejected a 6.5% rate increase for the water/wastewater utility. A 3% increase will be effective July 1 ,2021. The rent is $154,000+. This may or may not materialize this year. We still have a moratorium on delinquent accounts. We have to make sure that we keep the water/wastewater utilities self-liquidating. We were able to collect additional rent and we were able to get the amount to reduce the water to only 3%. There was an additional 60% used because there was a salary deduction due to a vacancy that was not filled. There is also a reduction in overtime which helped to get a further reduction of $384,000. There was a plan for a project which we would have had to have applied for a loan from the New Jersey Environmental Trust Fund. Because this project was put on hold, the loan was also put off. Some of the loan programs are only good for a specified time. Some of our bonds that were callable this year had interest rates that were reduced. There is an 18% savings on the entire life of the bonds which were callable in March.”
Council President Petrick asked Goldy, “Can you look at my suggestions, so we have a zero increase? We need to get a new employee in Nancy Martin’s office. Goldy continued, “The Water Utility Department is separate from the City of Perth Amboy. Luis Perez Jimenez (Director of Operations at the USA-PA) is not a city employee.”
Petrick responded, “I thought a city employee was taking over the collections for the Water Department.”
Goldy responded, “The contract with Middlesex Water for billing and collections were brought in-house. Those two positions were under the Water Utility. The tax-collector collects the water and sewer rents. The customer service and billing were brought in-house under the city. A former Water Company was hired for one of these two positions and the other person was already a city employee. The former Water Department employee resigned, which left us with only one employee who was left to do additional duties.”
Petrick then stated, “It’s imperative to help the Water Department have someone working in-house, even if it requires for them to work overtime. I’m just asking for one person to help out in Nancy Martin’s department.”
Councilman Joel Pabon spoke up, “I just want to make sure that the bill does not come back to us if we add another person in one department.”
Petrick responded, “I think with more work, you have a zero tax increase.”
B.A. Remsen said, “There is not a lot of options. I thought on Thursday (May 20, 2021) that at the meeting we had there was an understanding that a 3% tax increase as presented was acceptable. There are items that cannot be touched such as salaries.”
Petrick responded, “This is not the first time we revisited this (the budget).”
Pabon spoke up and said, “My concern is a salary reduction of some of these employees. We are talking about reducing a salary by $30,000+.”
Councilman B.J. Torres agreed with Pabon, “I don’t approve of taking away over $30,000 away from an employee.”
Pabon continued, “How can you do that to somebody? Doing large salary reductions such as in the Parking Utility and Code Enforcement Departments.”
Petrick responded, “One person was supposed to take courses to get certified so they would be qualified for their position. I have not gotten proof that they went to these classes to become certified for the position that they are currently in. . If you look at my suggestions, I restored a position in the Office of Aging, and we need a new hiree in the Data Processing Department.”
Pabon said, “When Ocela David came here to talk about the budget at the last meeting, she said she was looking for one additional person to work in her office. No Directors came here to ask for additional hirees.”
Petrick continued, “There are only two employees in the Data Processing Office. Under the former Administration, they let go of needed staff to give jobs and big salaries to people who worked on their campaign.”
Pabon continued, “I’m talking about what’s going on currently, and not what went on in the past.”
Petrick countered, “People are getting salaries they never deserved in the first place.”
Pabon again stated, “I am not comfortable reducing people’s paychecks. I could live with just getting rid of them instead.”
Petrick continued, “I’m just asking the CFO to look at my amendment to recalculate the budget to get it down to a zero increase.”
B.A. Remsen responded, “I will ask her (Jill Goldy) just to look at the suggestions, but there are things that are not legal to do. At the meeting, I was left with the impression that most of the council accepted a 3% increase in water.”
Petrick then stated that he remembered, “In the past a councilman came here almost in tears to apologize for rubberstamping that former Mayor Joe Vas wanted.”
Jill Goldy then asked if she could say one more thing.
Council President Petrick said, “No. And thank you.”
Public Portion:
Resident Ken Balut spoke first, “I am in favor of using surplus money for the budget. Why would you have a private citizen come in as a Police Director. We already have someone qualified for that job. 10-11 jobs were added on with high salaries. Taxpayer dollars are being used for salaries for unqualified people. We keep borrowing money at 5.25% interest with additional fees. You need to start watching the money. The Strategy Group (Who are supposed to be searching for a permanent Business Administrator) has billed the city $15,000 so far. And so far, you don’t know what they do. Now, they are going to be billing you an additional $80,000. Our Law Director Northgrave is in Edison and he is double-dipping.”
Resident Vince Mackiel came up next. “When Ms. Goldy came up, she talked about an infrastructure loan for $5 million for the water utility. We would like to have better water. We need a better water system for this growing town, especially with new buildings going up.” Mackiel then read a letter that he would be sending to NJ Transit asking them to acknowledge that we need improvements on the Market Street Bridge. They need to service people with disabilities. There is a need for them to be able to access this bridge.”
Goldy was asked to come up to respond to Mackiel’s questions regarding the infrastructure loan of $5 million. Goldy said she never said anything about a $5 million loan. “There was a project we were going to do that had to be suspended.”
The next person to come up to speak was David Spevack. He spoke about R-276-5/21 – Supporting the naming of the site of the Perth Amboy Waterfront Tennis Courts to be the “Ronald Spevack Memorial Tennis Center”.
He said, “I, my father and grandfather were all born here. My dad won championships in State Tennis Tournaments and I believe he won at least six titles in city championships. He was very dedicated and donated equipment to any kids that needed it. He also took kids to major tennis tournaments. I am honored to have the courts named after him.”
The meeting was now opened up to Zoom participants. No one called in.
B.A. Remsen then spoke up and said that a representative from Comcast was here to speak.
There was a brief exchange of words between Remsen and Petrick when Comcast was available to speak during the of the meeting.
Petrick invited the representative from Comcast, Senior Director of Government Affairs of Comcast Charles Smith to speak.
Before continuing, B.A. Remsen said that the city has a 15-year agreement with Comcast that will be expiring soon.
Smith stated, “There are two parts to the agreement. The Municipal Consent which the council dictates, and the Municipal Board of Utilities which issues the final documents. We started this process 3 years ago around October 2018. In the final 2 years of the contract, you can review any issues dealing with your Comcast experience. There will be a public hearing on July 7, 2021 where people can discuss specifications, equipment used, the public access channels, technology, finances, and the leadership of the company. Negotiations can start after the public hearings with whoever the city chooses to represent them. Once an ordinance is adopted, then we can go forward to apply for a license. Prior to 2010, some contracts were as long as 25 years. We were interested in getting long-term contracts. The contract we are currently looking at would be a 10-year deal. We are the second largest internet provider. Cable TV is what we are providing. We need infrastructure to support wireless services and we have to pay a franchise fee for the use of the public right-away.”
Council President Petrick said, “In the past, people were complaining about audio problems on Channel 34.”
Smith responded that he was not aware of these problems, but they can be addressed by upgrades and repairs.
After the presentation, B.A. Remsen wanted to make an announcement that the library will be reopening on June 7, 2021. “Temporary hours will be 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mon.-Fri. Eventually there will be two nights when they will be open late. The maximum capacity in the building will be 15 people and that will include staff members. Library staff will do temperature checks and other safety precautions will be in place.”
Councilman B.J. Torres asked, “If the library has been closed, why would they need people to staff it?”
At that point, Herschel Chomsky from the library spoke up via Zoom, “The staff has been very busy while the library was closed to the public. We still had curbside delivery and pickups. We had notary services and interlibrary loans. We also delivered books to those who were homebound. We have been fixing up the rooms.”
There was a question regarding the museum pass program.
Chomsky replied, “The Friends of the Library paid for those passes. During Covid, a lot of the places that the passes were for were closed temporarily.”
The council then went into closed session at 7:14 p.m. with no further action to be taken.
