The city is negotiating several labor contracts, including those for the police and fire departments, but Mayor Dawn Zimmer and the City Council – the elected officials – may have no say in the outcome. That’s because Hoboken’s state-appointed Fiscal Monitor may decide the final contracts.
Several unions have been without a labor contract for two years, and the outcome of the current negotiations will have an immense impact on the fiscal health of the city over the next two years.
Public safety employees are most likely going to get four-year contracts with some sort of raise that the city will pay retroactively for the last two years.
The council is looking for a giveback that they can call a “win” politically.
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Wednesday night, the council sat in closed session to discuss police negotiations, but took no action afterwards. According to one councilperson, it wouldn’t matter anyway: State-appointed Fiscal Monitor Judy Tripodi has the power to override any council decision.
According to sources close to the negotiations, the city has offered 3.9 percent raises retroactive for 2008 and 2009 and 2.3 percent increases for 2010 and 2011. The deal also included a change of health benefit provider that would save the city money, but would not ask the police to pay into their benefits, as some local budget hawks were hoping.
The police agreed to the deal and signed a memorandum of agreement on Tuesday, which means the council could have closed the deal on Wednesday, pending Tripodi’s approval when she returns from vacation.
But the council is looking for a giveback that they can call a “win” politically, according to a source on the council.
In the past, Zimmer has publically voiced her disagreement with Tripodi’s labor proposals, asking public safety employees to hear the pleas of the taxpayer and agree to a much less expensive contract.
A few public safety employees have called the pleas ridiculous, explaining that they face dangerous situations and should not have to pay a part of their health care benefits.
Zimmer’s majority on the council may be fighting on her behalf now, but Tripodi will have the final say when she returns from Puerto Rico.
Sources also said that the municipal employees’ contract will be resolved quickly after the fire and police contracts are finalized.
Superior officers in both public safety departments have their own union and a separate contract.
Moving the elections
Wednesday night, Councilman Ravi Bhalla intended to introduce a measure moving local non-partisan elections, like the mayoral and council elections, from May to November to coincide with general elections. The move is made possible by recent laws passed in the state legislature.
Bhalla claims the move could save the city $300,000 per election and increase voter turnout, but apparently his council colleagues wanted to examine the issue further before going forward.
So Bhalla instead introduced a non-action resolution sending the issue to committee to be examined.
Councilman Nino Giacchi said, “We’re going to look at each and every one of those dates of consolidation. Maybe June is the best?” Primary elections are held in June.
Councilman Michael Russo noted that the school board has considered moving their April elections to November as well.
He also pointed out that the council majority had chastised Councilwoman Beth Mason two weeks ago for putting forth a resolution to send something to committee, but they were effectively doing the same thing.
Zoning Board makeover
The Zoning Board’s membership has changed dramatically in the past year, as was evidenced last week when the board appointed former City Councilman Tony Soares as the new chairman.
Soares had been on the board as a regular member and recently had sought the 4th Ward council seat recently vacated by Dawn Zimmer, but that seat went to Councilman Michael Lenz instead.
Now, Soares is leading a board of mostly neophyte zoning members.
At the council meeting, two alternate seats were added to the Zoning Board, bringing the total number of alternates to four.
The additional alternates will improve the efficiency of the board, according to Councilwoman-At-Large Carol Marsh, by following cases and voting should other members be absent or conflicted. The Zoning Board has a large backlog of cases due to the city’s failure to implement Master Plan-recommended zoning changes years ago.
The council may be hearing zoning appeals on three substantial building projects, including the proposed garage that Stevens Institute intends to build along the waterfront.
The council has not heard zoning appeals in nearly a decade, according to Councilwoman Theresa Castellano, who was on the council at the time. Instead, the applicants chose to have them heard by a judge. Going to the council instead can save the applicant money.
CFO on notice
Several contracts were put on hold at the meeting because there was no certification that funds were available for the services.
It is Chief Financial Officer George DeStefano’s job to certify the funds, according to Lenz, and it wasn’t the first time that the certification wasn’t there. Lenz said the council will not continue to “bailout the CFO” and “could take action if the deficiency continues.”
“He’s not doing his job,” claimed Lenz, a former city CFO.
Even Russo, DeStefano’s nephew, agreed.
DeStefano, who has been told by Tripodi not to attend meetings, said on Friday that the contracts were never put on his desk to be certified before the meeting. Once they were, he said, he certified the funds.
Timothy J. Carroll may be reached at tcarroll@hudsonreporter.com.