On January 17th, Roselle park’s governing body met for their first budget workshop meeting of 2012. The first order of business was to establish a calendar of dates for the meetings so that budget could be introduced by the Mayor & Council meeting of March 1, 2012. A state mandate exists which has a deadline for the introduction f municipal budgets of February 29, 2012, or the next regularly scheduled governing body meeting where formal action may be taken – in Roselle Park’s case that date is March 1st. The following dates were proposed and agreed upon by the governing body:
- February 1 (Wednesday)
- February 7 (Tuesday)
- February 9 (Thursday)
- February 15 (Wednesday)
- February 21 (Tuesday)
- February 23 (Thursday)
- February 28 (Tuesday)
- February 29 (Wednesday)
All budget workshop meeting are scheduled to start at 6 p.m. in the conference room in Borough Hall.
The rest of the meeting followed an agenda which started with a discussion of the painting of the railroad bridges throughout the borough, increasing bulk pick-ups to more than once a year, and a community garden.
Ken Blum the Borough Chief Financial Officer (CFO) reported that the Net Valuation Taxables for the borough were down $1,281,039.00. Net Valuation Taxable is the assessed valuation of real property excluding Class II railroad property, over which property taxes are levied. Telephone and telegraph equipment are assessed locally, and are included in this figure.
The CFO also stated that, using 2010’s amount to be raised by taxes of $10,628,925.93, with the state 2% cap levy, would mean – with no exceptions included – an cap of $212,578.52 in the tax levy. Other information that was mentioned during the meeting included:
- An increase in pension estimates of around $12,500
- A decrease in PFRS
- An increase in Aeta health insurance by 8.6%
- A decrease of 6.77% in the Borough’s Horizon plan
- Horizon prescription went down10.81%
- Delta Dental had no change from 2011
- Debt service overall for 2012 increased by $25,690.44
- Most Liability Insurance Rates have an estimated increase of $7,000
- Worker’s Compensation increased $38,150 to $404,615.00. The reason given for the increase was due to claims.
- 2010’s one scheduled bulk waste pick-up cost a total of $38,023.92 with $11,700 going to the actual pick-up and $26,323.92 being paid for disposal.
The garbage contract, which expires June 30th, was also discussed along with the two (2) vacant positions for the DPW. Instead of replacing those positions, the governing body was looking at hiring a landscaping contractor to reduce costs. Additionally, three (3) positions are vacant/open in the police department with combined salaries of $256,000. An option was discussed of possibly replacing those positions with officers from the police academy program. The Red Light Camera program would need to have an increase in its budget due to the fact that the program will be for the full year as opposed to seven months in 2011.
The library’s decrease in its state mandated minimum contribution of $23,021.57 was also discussed as well as the mayor’s recommendation to either hire or appoint a Chief Administrative Officer (CAO).
The next scheduled budget workshop meeting is February 1st at 6 p.m. Since the January 17th meeting, the state deadline for the introduction of municipal budgets was extended to March 9, 2012 which might effect the proposed dates for budget meetings.