The $1.66M budget blooper by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs isn't the only thing Plainfielders should be keeping in mind as the FY2009 budget process works itself out.
Citizens Budget Advisory Committee members have drawn a bead on plenty of other questionable items:
- What is Robinson-Briggs' policy on discretionary salary increases? (Those NOT mandated by union contracts.) For instance, with the nation slipping into a deep recession and many Plainfielders struggling to make ends meet, what is the justification for proposing 9%+ increases for Department heads and 5.4% increases for seconds-in-command -- after giving 3.5% as the City's standard?
- How can a salary go up 417%? As in the Public Information and Media line going from $17,000 to $71,000.
- How can some salaries go in reverse? Everyone knows government workers' salaries are never reduced. But Committee members spotted a salary cut in Purchasing from$48,000 to $38,000; and another in Administrative Services from $32,000 to 2$7,000. Can a salary cut in the Municipal Court from $74,000 to $16,000 be correct?
- More salary mysteries. Cutting jobs in the Health Division and giving the Director a hefty increase? Is the work getting done? Why no salaries reported for WIC in the previous year? Why would the Deputy Court Administrator and a Violations Clerk get outsized increases?
- Tax foreclosures. A prolonged discussion of tax-foreclosed properties (which Robinson-Briggs' budget duo failed to distinguish from bank foreclosures, a totally separate and mostly unrelated issue), led to the disclosure that the Robinson-Briggs administration now DOES have a list of tax-foreclosed City-owned properties (after being called to account by the auditors for this slip-up).
BUT, there appears to be NO ORDERLY PROCESS IN PLACE for foreclosing on properties in tax arrears. This is a serious omission, as the tax-foreclosure pool must be constantly replenished. And that takes both time and money. It takes approximately 18 months to move a property from notice of intent to foreclose through actual foreclosure and assumption by the City of title to the property. And that involves legal costs for each and every property. Not to attend to this in an orderly fashion means that the pipeline will eventually run dry -- and so will the potential of income for the City. Question: Is Mayor Robinson-Briggs trying to forestall investing in the tax-foreclosure process in order to shave expenses from this year's budget, only to leave herself -- or her successor -- a problem in future years?
- Street sweeping. One off-the-cuff suggestion by City Administrator Dashield Thursday evening was that money might be saved by reducing the street-sweeping schedule -- which has been every street approximately once-a-month, weather permitting, for the past ten years or so. I heard it, but I didn't process it until over the weekend. So, if Robinson-Briggs is NOT proposing to lay off any DPW workers (specifically the street-sweeper personnel), and we already have a street-sweeping program in place, what will the street-sweepers do if they are not sweeping the streets and not being laid off? And how will it save the taxpayers money?
Of which you, dear taxpayer, are one.
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1 comments:
The suggested cut in street sweeping would result in the City falling out of compliance with DEP stormwater regulations. Plainfield is a Tier A municipality (1,000 or more people per sq. mile), and is required to sweep "predominantly commercial areas" at least once a month, and is "encouraged" to sweep other areas as needed:
Minimum Standard
Tier A Municipalities shall sweep all municipally owned or operated curbed streets (including roads
or highways) with storm drains that have a posted speed limit of 35 mph or less (excluding all
entrance and exit ramps) in predominantly commercial areas at a minimum of once per month,
weather and street surface conditions permitting.
Measurable Goal
Tier A Municipalities shall certify annually that they have met the Street Sweeping minimum
standard. Tier A Municipalities must maintain records including the date and areas swept, number
of miles of streets swept and the total amount of materials collected. Information shall be reported to the Department in the annual report and certification.
Implementation Schedule
Beginning 12 months after the effective date of permit authorization, Tier A Municipalities shall
have developed and begun implementing a street sweeping program that meets the minimum
standard above.
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