The 2010 budget passed with a 4-2 vote at tonight’s council meeting. Before the budget was voted on there was an amendment passed taking $200,000 from the sewer surplus and adding it to the budget funds.
With the new budget there will be a local 9.2 percent increase, which was originally 11 and 5.5 percent increase of blended rate, which was originally 5.6.
The 2010 Montclair town budget saga is continuing right now. At last week’s council meeting, amendments to the budget would have made it $70,577,978 with a 5.6 percent tax increase.
Because of the delay to pass the budget, the state has intervened and set a deadline for the council. Township Manager Marc Dashield said before the meeting that if the budget is not passed by Oct. 14, each councilor will have to pay $25 for each day there is no budget.
Last week, the 2010 budget failed to pass as a result of a 3-3 vote (Councilor Rick Murnick wasn’t able to attend the meeting), with Councilors Cary Africk, Roger Terry and Renee Baskerville voting against it.
Councilor Baskerville said in a phone call before the meeting that she is waiting to see what happens tonight, but is “just hoping we are moving in the right direction.”
Councilor Baskerville said in a phone call before the meeting that she is waiting to see what happens tonight but is “just hoping we are moving in the right direction.”
Over 60 people are filling the council chambers eagerly waiting to hear the fate of the 2010 budget.
8:15 p.m.: Mayor Fried is moving public comment to happen now during the meeting since the agenda was written for a conference session and didn’t include public comment. The Mayor will allow three minutes per person to talk since there are “obviously c dollars ontroversial issues on the agenda.”
8:24: One resident who spoke, “I am flabbergasted that you went to China when you should have been here wrestling with this budget.” (followed by very loud cheers and clapping) “I’m sick and tired of bike lanes and art on the wall… enough is enough.”
8:33: Resident calls for town to look at privatization of sanitation. Water, too.
8:35: 8:35 yet another citizen offers to help the council with budget.
8:35: Moving onto the agenda. Residents keep coming into meeting, almost ever seat in the chambers is full. About 100 residents are here now.
8:36 Amendment proposed by Cary Africk to take $200,000 from sewer utility surplus and move into operating fund. Roger Terry expresses concern about this strategy.
8:39 Africk says, “The $2.6 million in sewer connection fee is above and beyond the money normally dedicated for sewer improvements … that money is essentially a win-fall, we just won the lottery. The most sensible thing to do with the money is lower the debt.”
8:40 Terry says “something may come up in the next month or so, God forbid a hurricane.”
8:43: Resolution amending the budget with Africk’s $200,000 resolution passes with Bakerville and Terry voting no.
8:47: Councilor Lewis, “Doesn’t know why people don’t think we worked hard on this budget. You guys…” Lewis was cut off by residents in the audience who shouted, “Don’t talk to us that way” and “We are concerned residents not you guys!”
8:50: Councilor Baskerville would like to have a citizens component to work with throughout the year so we aren’t here like this next year .
8:54: Councilor Terry, “I have seen the for sales signs, now more than ever. “I’m angry.” “Somebody hit it right on the head. When we should have been focused on this, we were focused on other things: moving people around…. somehow or other we got sidetracked.”
“if I have to take a $25 hit to save some people some money I’m going to do it.”
8:56: Councilor Weller-Demming, “People have been leaving Montclair because the taxes have been to high for years. It has been going on since 2004.”
9:00 Councilor Weller-Demming said that residents should show up earlier enough with suggestions and ideas when it could make a difference. About five residents got up and walked out of the meeting, saying “Right, its our faults” and “I’m not sitting through this anymore.”
9:03: Mayor Jerry Fried,”You’re right to say that we need to do more but you don’t have the right to say that we are spending like a drunken sailor.”
9:08: 2010 Budget resolution is adopted 4-2. Councilor Africk- Yes
Councilor Terry- No
Mayor Fried- Yes
Councilor- Weller-Demming- Yes
Councilor Lewis- Yes
Councilor Baskerville- no
The council chambers emptied out significantly (pictured above) with only about 20 residents staying for the remainder of the meeting.
Councilor Weller-Demming routinely comes across to me as exceptionally smug.
We’re doomed. How do we get rid of this council?
You’re right to say that we need to do more but you don’t have the right to say that we are spending like a drunken sailor.
Is that because we actually DO NOT HAVE THE RIGHT to say it??!! Or do you mean that if we say it, which is our right, that we are wrong?
If the latter, Mayor Fried, you are indeed correct. You are not spending like a drunken sailor. Drunken sailors necessarily stop when their revenues fall short.
Weller-Demming, Lewis and Fried are all smug. How dare we criticize them?
How do we get rid of these people? They have the nerve to blame the citizens!!!???? for not having good ideas.
useless. pathetic.
Africk is the turn coat here. voting yes? got his drop in the bucket? wuss.
Counselor Weller-Demming reminds me a bit of Nurse Rachett, or maybe The Trunchbull.
OK, I’ve vented my initial, emotion-enhanced responses, so now I’d like to be more productive.
Dear town council,
Congratulations on passing the budget. Yes, really, it’s time — so as much as I have capacity to whine non-stop about this budget, I suppose you’re right to pass it so we can move on.
In the spirit of moving on, it would be great to set a genuine target for an initial proposed 2011 budget to be unveiled as soon as possible. How about a little more than a month from now, November 16th? Maybe follow it two weeks later, November 30th, with a hearing to allow citizens to give their many, many ideas as early as possible?
Perhaps the last few weeks have given you some insight into the feelings of the populace. Can you envision that a 2011 property tax CUT might be possible? If not, why not?
What do your neighbors and constituents due when their salaries are cut, when their businesses are less profitable, when their retirement funds are decimated? Hopefully, they do some common sense things:
1) postpone major spending
2) drastically reduce non-essential spending,
3) refinance high rate debt (if possible) with lower-cost debt,
4) sell stuff to raise money,
5) cut out hired help/services (spread out haircuts, do your own yardwork, etc.)
The township can do the the municipal equivalent of the household budget cutting described above. First, it’s time to redefine “essential” in this environment:
How is having three pools essential?
In fact, how is having two more pools than most other towns our size essential?
Is a new parking lot for the police essential?
Is the Bellevue branch library essential?
Does the town rent any property? Why?
Is any town council deliberation essential when compared to cutting the 2011 budget?
I continue to assert that 5% of whatever was spent last year in every department CANNOT have been essential — try the across-the-board cut decree (i.e., each manager must cut 5% from last year).
Again, thanks for passing a budget. Now, please pass a REDUCED 2011 budget.
your constituent,
appletony
yeesh — “what do your neighbors and constituents due” — some kind of subconscious slip there! The bill has come due, so we must do what we do…
Councilor Africk- Yes
What a disappointment.
Please don’t give me your song and dance, Cary. I don’t want to hear it. You caved for a measly $200k, that’s the fact.
what’s salient here is that there is no new cutting. It remains a “revenue” problem and not a budgetary one. This is the main failing of passing this budget now. The council is still not facing the actual and pressing issue. They simply don’t have the balls to even begin the process.
I would not expect anything to change much for next year.
”… you don’t have the right to say that we are spending like a drunken sailor.”
This reminds me of Richard Nixon’s “I am not a crook” speech.
Here’s where we were:
It’s simple. I could have said no, as I did in the past. But I said: Show me a REAL plan to go forward. With dates. Show me “some” gesture, i.e. put back in money from the Sewer Utility. Then I’ll vote for the budget. They did and I did.
I should have made this a crisis back in May. I didn’t.
We should not have changed managers at the start of the budget process.
If we turned down the budget, this Friday it would have cost us $40,000 to finance a one year note to pay our bills due next week.
And next week the State was set to approve our budget anyway.
So what could we have gained? What could we have done? Layoffs require 60 days notice. I think I got our “best deal.”
I do think we have a lot of torqued up citizens who will demand numbers and to be involved.
I do intend to start tomorrow.
Probably by asking for the rest of the $2.6MM for the 2011 budget….
Hey, I sit out in my backyard like many here and think, “in ten years, when I retire, I’ll never be able to live here.” It’s sad.
But we have to do MAJOR changes.
This “shared services” stuff is baloney.
MAJOR CHANGES.
I’ve already listed 13. With dates. No one is going to want to do ANY of them. We have to.
Cary Africk
60 days notice for layoffs? Lets start sending them out .. I would suggest a 20% percent cut across the board. Use half of the savings for inevitable increases in Healthcare and contractual raises etc and use the remainder to pay down the principal.
Seriously, I would like to see a serious attempt in zero-based budgeting for next year.
Sounds sensible Cary. It’s time to focus on 2011.
Baristaville sends beaucoup state income tax dollars to Trenton and gets little to none in return. This money was to go to property tax-relief.
Shared services may not cut it but shared lobbying efforts may work to either get the tax repealed or het Trenton off its duff and send our fair share back to us.
Baristanet, how bout a poll asking how many of us plan to retire in the area?
The 60 day notice for layoffs could have started weeks ago with the first vote on the budget. Cut now. It’s really nice to talk about Trenton, and I applaud lobbying efforts to reform the way the state governs itself. However, that is not going to help this town at any point in the foreseeable future. So we have to stop saying it’s a revenue problem, and as soon as we get our share from Trenton we’ll be fine. It’s a budget problem. The library will exist if the budget is cut – they didn’t need the give back from the Mayor. The pool fees can be raised to not only cover the cost of running the pools, but to bring in revenue. Every department has to cut 10%. Just do it. Why do we need a parking authority, how much money goes into those salaries? And then there’s the school budget. Tear it apart and stop hoping for relief from a governor who has no intention of sending any.
The mayor very recently posted a WSJ article on the ‘cooler about suburban towns that remain vibrant, and good transportation for commuters and walkability were the key components. He also included an article from the mid-90’s that describes Montclair as the Upper West Side of NJ. Well, it’s not the mid-90’s and I’ll bet most of us cannot afford to live in the overly gentrified Upper West Side of Manhattan. If the goal of this council is to have a “creative class” town modeled on a neighborhood in Manhattan, they might have wanted to share that bit of ideology prior to the election here.
All right, Cary. I’ve had a few hours sleep, I’m feeling a little better. I’m willing to forgive your sorry ass. If and only if you wake up this morning 6 am, do 50 pushups and start again on the 2011 budget. I wholeheartedly–with tears in my eyes–endorse apple’s memo above. The time for urgency about 2011’s budget is not October 2011. It is now.
And not just another nip-here-tuck-there-next-year-we’ll-deal-with-the-gigantic-elephant-in-the-room budget, but a realistic budget that’s part of a five-year plan that begins to take into account the looming frickin debt crisis. Such a plan requires a new vision for what makes Montclair Montclair, which I am happy to hear creeping into your speeches.
Your slogan is: THE TIME IS NOW.
Now suck in your gut, stick out your chest, and get the hell back in the ring!
I haven’t had my coffee yet, so can someone please clarify:
Does this mean my *combined* total property tax increase is 5.5%, including School and County?
Just trying to plan my budget for 2011 !!!
Thanks, Mr. Africk, for being willing to collaborate to pass a budget, even if it’s not a good one. The 40K hit and state intervention would have been adding insult to injury.
I’m with all those who say let’s get 2011 started yesterday. Did anyone think to take names/addresses of those who volunteered to help last night? Couldn’t go myself–at work, trying to pay those 2010 taxes. By the way, does anyone else find it odd that Rich Murnick has been AWOL? It’s a weird time to miss crucial votes.
Look “the time is now” has been true for two years or more. We end this chapter with yet another Hughes tax increase, few substantive cuts, and solemn promisses of “next year”.
Again.
The no votes should not have become yes votes without actuall cutting of expenses and without extracting promises of fitting within the cap for next year (no exemptions).
Without the leverage of the threat from the state neither of those things will now happen.
This council will NEVER make the needed cuts unless they are FORCED to. Period. (no matter how many sensible lists Appletony makes. Or how much Cary whines.)
When our taxes go up another 6 % next year. Don’t say someone didn’t tell you this was going to happen.
damn automatic spell checking.
“another HUGE tax increase”
Just trying to plan my budget for 2011 !!!
Ha ha ha ha ahhahahahahaahha!!!!
Good one, Kay.
Don’t say someone didn’t tell you this was going to happen.
Do we need someone to tell us this, ROC? Please.
When our taxes go up another 6 % next year. Don’t say someone didn’t tell you this was going to happen.
ROC, that “someone” should primarily include those who pushed for an elected school board. Naysayers and fear mongers pushed that idea down, so two-thirds of the budget is awfully hard to get to now that popular sentiment has come around to stopping the bleeding.
The next month’s worth of council meetings should be completely and totally dedicated to the 2011 budget.
Right gurl. good luck with that.
Were now back to the status quo, and the council can go back to ignoring Cary. (yes, the only one correctly thinking about the budget) After all what’s he going to do? Withhold his yes vote for a week?
I’d like to also commend Baskerville and Terry for their “no” votes. At least the council in not entirely feckless. And it’s nice to see Baskerville reestablish her independence from Fried.
We’re doomed. We have a town council that’s annoyed with it’s own citizens for being angry and rude and not understanding they did their best. Read the quotes on patch. Talk about a bunch of arrogant losers. They all deserve to be kicked out on their keisters. The shenanigans with the petition for the elected BOE, the firing of the lawyer and replacing him with a blue waver whose wife is a vocal advocate of appointed BOE’s, putting Demming in as deputy Mayor instead of Terry – transparency my ass. This is small town politics at it’s worst.
Oh come now, have some perspective. At least Fried broke a sweat and for a time we had something to cheer. Pigs don’t sprout wings and fly over night. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, or even a month or two.
“Oh come now, have some perspective. At least Fried broke a sweat and for a time we had something to cheer. Pigs don’t sprout wings and fly over night. Sometimes it takes a few weeks, or even a month or two.”
Yes walleroo. And owing to a one time benefit of unanticipated income our tax increase was reduced one tenth of one percent. At that rate, in a mere 56 years, assuming 56 additional windfalls, we’ll be living within our means.
Huzzah!
“…where were all these residents back in May?”. Are you kidding, Cary? There are many cities that adopt responsible budgets without citizen input. We elected (some) of these Councillors to do things differently. Without resident supervision.
We seem to be posting on two threads. Here’s what I said on the other thread:
I am NOT criticizing people for not having shown up in May. I appreciate EVERYONE’S efforts RIGHT NOW. And although some spoke up in May, and I thank them for it, it was nothing like last night’s turn out.
What I wanted to say:
As I looked over the audience I felt great that so many people had spoken up the last two weeks and so many were vocal.
I wished last night’s meeting had taken place in May.
Perhaps then it would have made a bigger impression on the other members of the Council, and the staff.
Perhaps they would have sharpened their budget cutting knives even more, feeling the community input.
But to everyone who turned out, and everyone who reached out to me via email: You’ll get no criticism from me. We’re partners in this.
So, what did we get? Among other things a call pledging 100% support and cooperation with the staff for any numbers, explanations, data, etc. that we might need. I think all of YOU made it abundantly clear that the era of excuses is over. Thank you!
Cary Africk
2nd Ward Councilor
as far as I’m concerned the “era of excuses” never began.
What have we gotten indeed Cary? A “pledge” the manager will have his staff send you up to date spreadsheets? Thank heavens.
The podium was erected, the mic was on, the lights blazing. He steps to the mic, he opens his mouth, the crowd falls silent and he says “never mind”.
Simple question: Montclair’s fiscal year begins on January 1. And we’ve just adopted the budget for 2010? is that possible? why is it permissable?
Crankydave, so they could say we have to pass this, the money has already been spent!