HOBOKEN — Mayor Dawn Zimmer and her five council allies are trying for a third time to convince their four foes on the City Council to approve a budget line item transfer so the city can pay some of its bills.
On the agenda for the Dec. 7 meeting is a resolution “authorizing the transfer of funds within accounts” for the annual budget. The resolution is not requesting more money, but the council needs to vote by a supermajority (6 out of 9 votes) to move items around in the budget.
“Without the passage of this measure, the city will not be able to pay our firefighters and other employees after the [Nov. 30] pay period,” Zimmer wrote in a memo to the council. Zimmer added that if the resolution fails for a third time, the city will turn to the courts for guidance.
Council members opposed to Zimmer have said in the past that they want more information about why money is being moved around in the budget.
Zimmer said in her memo that each of the council members have received “thousands of pages of documents from the clerk’s office” to outline why the changes are being made. In the memo, dated Dec. 2, Zimmer asked the council members to call or email the Business Administrator so questions would be answered before the meeting.
Food truck update
Councilwoman Jen Giattino, who is helping craft a food truck ordinance for the city, said that the ordinance was still being worked on last week. If substantial changes are made to the ordinance, which Councilman David Mello said would likely happen, a new ordinance would have to be introduced at a later meeting.
The original ordinance appears on the agenda for the Dec. 7 meeting, but it is expected to be pulled from the agenda so the council can have more time to make amendments.
Since the last council meeting, food truck owners have opposed, through letters to the editor of The Hoboken Reporter and through feedback at a subcommittee hearing, the originally proposed $4,250 fees that would be associated with operating a food truck in the city. To read about the proposal, click here.
As part of the discussions since the last council meeting, Giattino said the council subcommittee has entertained the idea of lowering the fees.
Watch the meeting live right here. – Ray Smith