The Jersey City Independent "

Photos: Steve Gold

This year’s raucous budget season came to a rather calm ending on Wednesday as the City Council voted 5-3 to adopt the amended municipal budget, which was first introduced in January. The budget applies to the 2010 fiscal year, which ends on June 30 — about nine weeks from now. Ward F councilwoman Viola Richardson was absent from the meeting; according to city clerk Robert Byrne, she was with an ill family member.

While most council meetings since the introduction of the budget have attracted large crowds and fiery speakers, Wednesday’s special meeting was relatively quiet. While about 50 community members — mostly the usual citizen activists who attend council meetings — were on hand, the handful who asked the council and administration pointed questions about the budget made their remarks in decorous tones and without pomp. A planned rally at City Hall did not take place before the meeting; organizer Esther Wintner told JCI she didn’t know why more residents didn’t show up, but suggested that the rainfall between 5 and 6 pm may have kept would-be protesters indoors.

Fourteen residents addressed the council during the public hearing on the budget, and most of them asked specific questions about the amendments contained in the document. Business administrator Brian O’Reilly, assistant business administrator Bob Kakolewski and chief financial officer Donna Mauer answered the public’s questions as they came up. Along the way, O’Reilly noted that the revised budget called for a property tax increase of about $572 per $100,000 of assessed value for each homeowner in the city, a number that was closer to $800 when the budget was introduced in January.

Council gadfly Yvonne Balcer had a rare positive message for the administration on Wednesday. Upon hearing that a significant portion of the reduction in the Health and Human Services budget was due to the elimination of funding for several parades and festivals, she clapped her hands with excitement.

“I should come over there and shake your hand,” she said.

Balcer has repeatedly asked the administration to spend less money on community events such as parades, which she says necessitates too much overtime pay for the required police detail. Balcer concluded her remarks by thanking O’Reilly “personally” for the budget cuts.

Wintner also leveled at city spending on cultural activities in her remarks.

“Does any revenue come in based on this non-essential department?” she asked, referring to the Division of Cultural Affairs. O’Reilly explained that the division is not responsible for bringing in measurable revenue.* However, the overall tone of Wintner’s remarks was courteous.

“The two percent cut in the budget, as miniscule as it is, is [what we need],” Wintner said. But she also asked the council to speed up the budget process for next year and reiterated her displeasure with the tax increase. “You’re killing us,” she reminded the council as she concluded her remarks.

Charlene Burke, who like Wintner is a community activist from Ward B, focused her remarks on the payouts to retirees for accumulated unused vacation and sick time. As O’Reilly noted, “this year … for some reason there was a flurry on the retirements.” As O’Reilly surely knows, proposed state legislation that would cap payouts of accumulated unused absences to retirees has prompted a record number of city staffers to expedite their retirement plans. The city has responded by devising a plan that will award retirees their payouts in up to three installments between July of this year and July 2012.

Resident Kevin Maguire also addressed the issue of accumulated unused absences in his remarks. He suggested that the city begin setting aside money for future payouts now so that the payout in future years will not be as burdensome. O’Reilly, while agreeing that it would be a prudent idea, did not have high hopes for the plan.

“What you’re saying makes a lot of sense,” O’Reilly said. “[But] in these economic times … I don’t think it’s palatable.”

Maguire also asked the administration to work towards making the full budget document more accessible to the public. He requested a “full, line-by-line” breakdown of the whole budget be made available on the web for public inspection. He added that the lack of access to this document, whether intentional or not, creates “an environment in the city where people think you’re hiding things from us.” Byrne said it was “a good idea” and promised his office would make arrangements to post the document online “soon.”

“I still have a vague feeling that there are ‘gimme’ jobs out there in the city,” Maguire said. “What are these people doing? That’s what we want to know now.”

Resident Susan Storey also suggested that the budget document could be made more accessible by improving the way it is presented to the public. Storey used our neighbor Newark as a good example of a clear presentation for all residents. Newark’s budget package is posted on the city website in sections and includes an introduction that contains a table of contents, an explanatory letter from the mayor and a city organization chart.

“I’ve looked at budgets from other cities around the country and I have to say that Jersey City’s … really does send a message that there is something to hide,” Storey said. “It really just does not measure up at all compared to any other city of equal size.”

After the public hearing was closed the council voted on the budget, but the commentary did not end there. Three of the eight council members present — Ward B councilman David Donnelly, Ward C councilwoman Nidia Rivera Lopez and Ward E councilman Steven Fulop — lodged votes against the amended budget.

“Tougher times are ahead,” Donnelly, at left, said as he voted no. “I’m very fearful for the next year.”

Lopez’s mind was also on next year as she cast her vote. “I look forward to having a more active role in the next budget — if it’s introduced on time,” she said. She explained her nay by saying that she “didn’t like the numbers.”

“It did give me a sense of lack of responsibility and leadership,” Lopez added.

Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano, Ward D councilman Bill Gaughan and Council President Peter Brennan were the three council members charged with meeting with city officials to develop and revise the budget. All three expressed regret that a tax increase was necessary, but said that they had done the most they could in difficult circumstances.

“We are where we are, it’s an unfortunate situation, but it is what it is,” Sottolano said as he voted aye.

Fulop, who has been an outspoken critic of the administration’s financial practices for at least the last two years, took direct aim at his council colleagues and the business administrator’s office in his remarks.

“To blame the economic times, or to blame Chris Christie, or to blame anything outside this building, that’s being disingenuous,” Fulop said. “It’s a very tough argument to say this is the best you can do.”

The vote and public hearing on the budget was preceded by a vote on the city’s Consolidated Plan for Community Development and Planning Programs, which is a document prepared by the Division of Community Development; division director Darice Toon (at right) explained the purpose of the plan to the council and presented highlights.

The Consolidated Plan, of which revisions and re-approval are required at least every five years in order to meet eligibility requirements for certain federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) grant programs, is a comprehensive overview of the city’s housing and community development activities. Toon said that the Plan “serve[s] as a strategy for carrying out HUD programs, … the city’s application for HUD funds … and a basis for assessing performance.”

During the public hearing on the plan, Suzy Yengo of the Belmont Avenue Homeowners Association addressed the council to protest the inclusion of grant funds for the Belmont Guest House, a transitional housing facility that some neighbors have complained about over the past few years. Yengo said that granting funds to the Guest House would “further perpetuate the revolving door of transient drug addicts” in her neighborhood and that the improvements to be made with the grant money are “almost entirely cosmetic.” Yengo further claimed that the bids received by the owner from construction companies were “excessive.”

“In light of the recent tax increases in the worst recession in history, we object to these funds,” Yengo concluded. The proposed grant for the Belmont Guest House, like all other grants in the Consolidated Plan, would come from federal, not municipal, funds.

Ron Brown of Emet Realty, who owns the building, was on hand to defend himself. He responded to Yengo’s claim that the house attracts drug problems by referring to police records that he said show that in a recent five-month period only 16 of 353 emergency dispatches to Belmont Avenue applied to the Guest House and half of those were ambulance calls. “For [Yengo] to condemn the residents … she has no basis to say that,” Brown said. Brown also told the council that he has received letters of support from the county Welfare Office and the Guest House’s next-door neighbor.

“All in all we’re doing a great job; we’ve been there for over 25 years and never had a problem,” Brown said. “I think this is a personal issue.” Toon and the council did not respond to either Yengo or Brown.

The Consolidated Plan was approved 6-1-1, with At-Large councilman Mariano Vega* voting no and Donnelly abstaining. Donnelly explained that his employer, United Way of Hudson County, “receives $20,000 from this budget” and so he was ethically bound to abstain from voting.

Vega* (at right) told Toon and the council that he was voting no in protest of the lack of soccer programs compared to baseball programs supported by the grants outlined in the Plan. He noted that youth baseball programs are traditionally less inclusive to girls than soccer programs. When Toon explained that her division had received no applications for funding from soccer leagues, Vega* testily instructed her to “go out and get them.” In Toon’s defense, Ward A councilman Michael Sottolano told Vega* that he “make[s] sure” that the three baseball leagues in his ward apply for funding and supports them through that process. The last word on the issue went to Council President Peter Brennan, who justified the lack of soccer programs with an entirely different kind of argument.

“Mariano, baseball has been around a long time; soccer is a new sport.”

UPDATE: After this story was published, city spokeswoman Jennifer Morrill called JCI to clarify statements made by city officials at Wednesday’s council meeting. According to Morrill, the Division of Cultural Affairs does indeed raise revenue. Cultural Affairs brought in “$101,331 in fiscal year 2010 through corporate donations, … grants [and] permit fees,” Morrill said on Thursday. Morrill also explained that the city does not foot the bill for police detail at festivals. By way of example, Morrill pointed out that the Puerto Rican Festival Committee paid $17,000 for police at their festival in August 2009. She added that although the city has in previous years provided grants of $5,000 to ethnic festivals — which in some cases have been used by those festivals to defray security costs — this year the funding for that line item was completely cut. However, Cultural Affairs reached out to the corporate community and raised $10,000 to restore some of the funding; ten festivals will receive $1,000 each.

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