$120 MILLION BUDGET PROPOSED Council votes 9-0 not to pass it; state monitor furious

But on Thursday morning, Tripodi blasted the council in a letter, saying that her budget – and not their amended one – would be sent to the state for approval.

After the state approves it, the council can work on cutting it and eventually give it a final vote. Last year’s budget was finally passed at $92.6 million, although it did not include a $10 million overexpenditure of funds. The city’s taxpayers will have to make up that amount over the next five budgets. In addition, the taxpayers are also making up this year for a recurring structural deficit.
Each year since the early 1990s, the city’s budget has sustained a widening gap that had to be filled with short-term revenue sources that didn’t come back, such as the sale of city property to developers. These deals, which were sometimes criticized as gimmicks, allowed the city to fund spending increases without having to raise taxes. However, this year, Tripodi demanded that the city fill the recurring gap once and for all with a tax contribution from the residents, who will have to now pay a $62 million tax levy over the next two quarters.

Thursday, Tripodi said that the council was playing politics with its comments at the meeting and with their vote.

“Perhaps you misunderstood my cover letter accompanying the budget,” she wrote in her e-mail to the council on Thursday. “Under statutory law, the budget must be introduced before amendments can be made. Therefore, your ‘amendments’ will not be considered and the budget as proposed by the administration will go to the state as the official introduced budget.”

Trying to cut
Councilman Michael Russo, who chairs the council’s Finance Committee, said Thursday that he would have approached the situation differently had he known that by state law, the budget had to be introduced first.

At the meeting on Wednesday, Russo had proposed $17.5 million in cuts, which he brought to the meeting in a document listing the various lines of the budget that would be cut.

His eight money-saving ideas included the elimination of the police and fire chief positions, as well as a reduction in the city’s fleet of vehicles by half (effectively reducing fuel costs by half). Besides the police and fire chiefs, the city also has a public safety director who was appointed last year by Mayor David Roberts, but he was brought on mainly to deal with a widening police scandal.

The majority of the council supported Russo’s cuts, but some of them had concerns about specific cuts and ideas, including temporarily erecting a city garage on unused parkland.

Councilwoman Beth Mason suggested that they instead agree to cut the budget by a specific amount – without specifying exactly which items to cut. She said that specific cuts could be inserted at a later time.

The council agreed that this would be a way to show the administration that they wanted cuts as soon as possible.

But this aroused Tripodi’s ire.

“You cannot make wholesale cuts to the levy without identifying the balancing items,” she wrote in her e-mail.

She also implied that the council members appeared to be playing to a tax-weary public.

“Perhaps you were playing to the crowded room, but this, again, is totally irresponsible and, quite frankly, I have had enough of this,” she wrote.

She added, “You refuse to follow statutory law and refuse to make responsible and prudent budget decisions.”

Council confused about law?
Unfortunately for the council, it appears that none of the members understood that state law does not allow for amendments to be made before the budget is introduced, even though two of them are attorneys and one is a state assemblyman.

A few members, like Council President Nino Giacchi, asked at the meeting whether it would be better to accept the budget and later draft a resolution calling for cuts. But the council went in the other direction.

At the meeting, the council unanimously voted down the administration’s proposed budget. Then they unanimously voted for the same budget to be reduced by an unspecified $30 million.

Against the law
Russo said Thursday that Tripodi was right to call out the council for “micromanaging,” but that his proposal to cut specific programs and his line-by-line amendments at least addressed her concerns about not being specific.

Once the council introduces the budget, it is their job to make changes before giving final approval.

The fiscal year runs from July 1 through the following June 30, so it is already one third over.

In the past, city budgets have often been very late due to attempts to find revenue deals rather than raising taxes, and because the cities have to wait for state financial aid decisions.

Politics as usual
Mayor David Roberts echoed Tripodi’s sentiments about the council on Friday.

He said that if the council had worked with the state to pass his budget last year, “We would be enjoying a tax increase of 12 percent or less right now.” Instead, city taxes are climbing by 84 percent, and the overall tax rate (including city, school and county taxes) will increase by 47 percent.

“What a terrible, terrible, terrible price the taxpayers have to pay,” Roberts said.

Roberts is running for re-election in May, and council members Mason and Russo are also rumored to be running for mayor.

Most councilpersons acknowledge the political head-butting that goes on at the dais, but they have charged that the administration misled them with an underfunded budget last year and caused some of the chaos.

This year, it was actually the City Council who chose to hire Tripodi, with Councilman Peter Cunningham and others saying they had seen her work with the city and that she seemed tough. However, they didn’t have too many choices when considering Tripodi, as the only other options given to them by the state were two Philadelphia financial firms that would have cost the city $500,000 each. Tripodi’s price tag was $150,000.

Mason fires back
On Friday, Mason took umbrage to Tripodi’s claims.

“I am deeply troubled with the direction the state monitor is taking by using political grandstanding as a means to communicate,” she said, “instead of simply coming to the City Council meetings and engaging in a transparent budget process.”

In fact, the council has been frustrated since last year with city directors and the mayor not being at the meetings to answer questions.

Tripodi has vowed to stay away from the politically-charged meetings and has instructed the other financial specialists for the city to do the same.

“I have been trying to work with you in good faith, but you are not interested,” she wrote. “You refuse to follow statutory law and refuse to make responsible and prudent budget decisions. Instead, you adopt resolutions rehashing the past, looking to place blame by invoking subpoenas to city workers.”

Come cut the budget!
The council is beginning budget hearings that will be open to the public, starting on Monday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m. The full council will be present.

They also rescheduled their next council meeting from Nov. 19 to Nov. 24.

Wednesday night, the council passed a resolution requiring Corporation Counsel Steven Kleinman to issue subpoenas to tax Collector Louis Picardo, Parking Utility Director John Corea, and a parking supervisor to appear at the Nov. 24 meeting.

The resolution that they passed also allows Kleinman to issue subpoenas in the future to other city officials, like Roberts and former Business Administrator Richard England.

Tripodi was not amused.

“This may be a feel-good move to you,” she wrote, “but it is counterproductive to the work I am doing.”

For questions or comments on this story, e-mail tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.

SIDEBAR

The bills were for Aug. 1 (sent late) and Nov. 1, requiring payment by Dec. 1.

If taxpayers are late with payment, penalty fees will be assessed dating back to August for third quarter taxes and Nov. 1 for fourth quarter taxes, even though the bills were sent out late.

Resident Donna Antonucci, who has recently made a point to admonish the City Council for bad fiscal practices, spoke at the meeting about the council’s dealings with the mayor.

“This board has failed. You should have been holding the mayor to this a long time ago,” Antonucci said.

“If he was ignoring your motions for hiring freezes and expense freezes, I’m sorry, you should have figured out how to hold him accountable.”

She added, “Take him to court, organize a recall – which is a municipal way of saying, ‘Fire him.’ I’m sorry, but you should have figured it out.”

Lane Bajardi said the city’s financial problems from the past are still coming to roost.

“People are really angry about their tax bills right now.” Bajardi said, to applause. “And many of them are also waking up to the fact that their 11, 12, 1300-square-foot condos are paying more in taxes than some members of this council are paying on 2,600 square foot townhouses. And that is wrong.”

Bajardi also pointed out that the city used to send out mailers touting the city’s strengths in previous tax bills, but conveniently did not do so with these bills.

Newer to the meetings, Chris Bianco spoke on behalf of irate taxpayers.

“I, personally, am interested in how this happened,” he said. “I would like a detailed explanation. Something should have been sent with the bill saying what the hell is going on here.”

Resident Forde Prigot was unyielding in his criticism, especially in regards to a not-yet-verified claim from Councilman Michael Russo that some individuals are receiving city benefits but do not work for the city.

“If there’s people that are getting health benefits that … don’t work for the city, cut them off now,” Prigot said. “We’ve borrowed money. We’ve sold off city property to hide [spending] from [the taxpayers]. But now we’ve run out of stuff. Find the money to make sure that these [taxpayers] don’t have to move out of town.”

Charles Mancini read from one of his prepared statements at the meeting.

“We do not suffer from a lack of revenue,” he said. “We suffer from mismanagement, reckless spending and a lack of oversight. All sacred cows must be put out to pasture.” – TJC