In a seven-hour meeting on Wednesday, the Hoboken City Council introduced the Zimmer administration’s proposed $101 million municipal budget for 2011, amended rent control, approved police contracts, established a hospital subcommittee, and introduced a $20 million parks and open space bond ordinance, all accompanied by the usual politicking.
After unanimously voting to introduce the proposed 2011 calendar year budget, the council will amend it in a series of workshops before it is subjected to a public hearing at a date to be determined.
Budget workshops are scheduled for March 9 and March 23 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
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The city’s total budget surplus is $25.4 million, according to Finance Director Nick Tresante’s presentation. The city must set aside $10.6 million of that for deferred charges and “state aid receivable” due to Hoboken’s past financial troubles. That leaves a cash surplus available for use of $14.7 million, Tresante said.
Of that amount, the administration proposes spending $9.5 million of the surplus in the 2011 budget, including approximately $4.25 million toward tax reduction, leaving $5.1 million as a surplus that Zimmer has said will help improve the city’s bond rating.
The public budget workshops are scheduled for March 9 and March 23 at 7 p.m. at City Hall.
Rent control passed
Three amendments to the city’s 1973 rent control ordinance were unanimously passed after a two-hour public hearing featuring spirited debate from tenants and landlords.
The changes limit tenant reimbursement for rent overcharges to two years and make it easier for landlords to provide alternative documents to prove a fair vacancy when applying for 25 percent rent increase under vacancy decontrol laws. Landlords are also required to distribute a pamphlet outlining tenant’s rights and obtain signatures confirming delivery whenever a change in rent or tenancy occurs.
The city’s Rent Control Ordinance limits rent increase to a few percent each year, based on the economy, and has certain other provisions allowing landlords greater increases for various reasons.
One tenant advocate, Rebecca Lewis, said she was disappointed with the changes, saying the two-year period “gives landlords even more incentive to ignore the law.”
Previously, if a tenant discovers that a landlord has been overcharging him for rent for years, the tenant could sue to be paid back for the length of the overcharge and could collect penalties for consumer fraud. Landlords won their argument in court that documentation had not been properly maintained by Hoboken’s Rent Leveling Board office, making it difficult to determine a legal rent.
Charles Gormally, an attorney representing a class of landlords suing the city, commended the council for making changes. Gormally called the amendments “a very fair first step.”
Political figures have been reluctant to address rent control because of the heavy tenant lobby in town, which tends to fight any changes and view them as incentives for landlords to kick out long-time tenants.
Tenant advocate Cheryl Fallick thanked members of the council for listening to her concerns, but asked them to make additional changes to protect tenants before they voted on the ordinance.
Ron Simoncini, a spokesperson for the landlord organization Mile Square Taxpayers Association (MSTA), said the subcommittee and the interested parties had two years of conversations, and the changes have been “vetted to death.” He urged the council to act on the amendments.
Some tenant advocates wanted a six-year reimbursement period rather than two. Council President Beth Mason said two years was the agreed upon number during her Rent Control Subcommittee meetings and in hearings.
While some suggested “on the fly changes” to the ordinance on Wednesday, the city’s rent control attorney, Victor Afanador, said he would be “very concerned with any changes at this point.”
Tenants feel the changes only benefit landlords, but Councilman Ravinder Bhalla, who serves on the subcommittee, disagreed.
“The subcommittee’s agenda was to do the best job for Hoboken on this issue,” he said. “It may seem like a landlord-friendly amendment because in the past the application of the ordinance has been unfair to landlords.”
There were additional concerns before the amendment was passed about the specific language of the ordinance, and the committee members said they would introduce more changes in the wording soon.
The changes will take effect in late March.
Parks ordinance introduced
Mayor Dawn Zimmer introduced a $20 million parks ordinance to the City Council on Wednesday, which appeared to be destined to be tabled by Zimmer’s council foes because of complaints about the ordinance not being properly vetted through subcommittees and containing a lack of specifics. That all changed when Mason voted against her council allies, introducing the measure by a 5-4 vote.
Councilman Tim Occhipinti, the chair of the economic development and open space acquisition subcommittee, voted against the ordinance because he said the plan lacks specifics about new park locations. He said he wants to wait until a clearer plan can be presented about where the parks will be placed.
Mason later said she supported the ordinance because the acquisition of the park space correlates with the city’s master plan. Zimmer and Mason usually spar on seemingly every heated political issue, but the two appeared to find common ground.
The city also unanimously introduced an ordinance appropriating $1.6 million for park improvements throughout the city.
Ordinances that are introduced at one meeting will generally go to a public hearing and two final votes at a future meeting.
Police union contracts passed
The council also approved police union collective bargaining agreements for the Hoboken Police Benevolent Association and the Hoboken Police Superior Officers Association by unanimous votes. The police unions have operated without contracts since the end of 2007.
Police Benevolent Association President Vince Lombardi, Police Superior Officers Association President Ed Drishti, Mayor Dawn Zimmer, and City Attorney Mark Tabakin signed the new contract on Feb. 15, and it is in effect until Dec. 31, 2013. As part of the deal, officers will receive $3 million in retroactive pay. Among other issues addressed, patrol officers receive slight pay increases, have a one-year decrease in vacation carry-over, and a uniform budget increase.
The contract will result in a savings of $700,000, as well as an annual $200,000 savings due to the timing of the contract and the city’s new health care plan.
Ray Smith may be reached at RSmith@hudsonreporter.com
SIDEBAR
Hospital subcommittee formed
After a Newark-based interest group called on the City Council and Mayor Dawn Zimmer last week to “hold a public hearing prior to adopting an ordinance dissolving the Hoboken Municipal Hospital Authority, and [prior to] approving the sale of the Hoboken University Medical Center” on Wednesday, the council formed a subcommittee which will intend to find answers about the sale of Hoboken University Medical Center.
A company called HUMC Holdco., LLC, which also partly owns Bayonne Medical Center, was chosen to enter negotiations with Hoboken to purchase the hospital from them and continue to run it as a hospital.
Councilwoman Theresa Castellano said during the meeting on Wednesday that the Hospital Authority was “not very free with a lot of information” about the sale, and she wants answers as an interested party. The city voted in 2007 to guarantee a $52 million bond for the hospital, and the bond must be extinguished before a sale is completed.
The council wants information on other companies that placed bids for the facility. Hospital Authority Chairwoman Toni Tomarazzo said the information about other bidders could not be shared at this time because of disclosure agreements.
Councilman Peter Cunningham suggested that the council ask the Authority for an update.
“We’re beyond an update,” Mason said, adding that she would like to see an investigation into the sale.
The new subcommittee will consist of Councilman Dave Mello, Councilman Michael Russo, and Castellano.