Councilman Tony Soares, who has been critical of the way the administration manages the city’s money, did not make substantive comments about the budget at this council meeting, but he did raise an issue about the city’s two-week payroll period that ended on Dec. 22. Every two weeks, the City Council approves the municipal pay roll with one vote. This week, Soares asked George Crimmins, the city’s business administrator, to explain why there was a line item in this two-week period paying Crimmins $20,742. “Its money that was owed to me going back several years,” Crimmins said. “My longevity was not correctly calculated.” Before the Council voted on the payroll, Soares pressed Crimmins for more details, but Crimmins said that he did not have the details in front of him. Robert Murray, the city’s legal counsel, explained that Crimmins had not been treated any differently than any other city employee would have been in a similar situation. Soares said that he was simply after more information and that his questions were not motivated by politics. “If you had $20,000 in your bank account, you wouldn’t just say that it was for this or for that and that you can’t find the details,” he said. “You would question where it went if you spent it. And that is all I am trying to do.” “We are not hiding anything,” Teresa Castellano said. After the meeting, Soares said he was pursuing the matter because he was concerned about the way the city was handling the payroll. “If the business administrator is not even doing his own pay check right, what about all those city employees whose paychecks he is responsible for?” He added, “I also want to know why a man who is up to 6 figures in his own contract is also getting a $20,000 one time disbursement.” Also at the meeting, Soares held up a copy of a mailing that he had received in late December and asked the Business Administrator how much the city had paid to lay out, print and mail the publication. “All the items in there were just like ads for the mayor,” said Soares after the meeting. “I’m very concerned about this, because the city must have spent more than $10,000 on this.” Towards the end of the meeting, Mayor Russo entered the city council hearing room with two plaques in his hands. Taking the microphone he invited a pair of teenagers, Tyrell Dortch and Carlos Perez, to the front of the room to receive awards commemorating their achievements as Hoboken High School football players. The two seniors led the team to victory in the state championship recently.