Majority of SP Council Feels Budget as Lean as Can Be

The Scotch Plains township council concluded their second of two budget workshops Monday by commending manager Christopher Marion for the work he's done to keep a tight reign on 2010 spending.

Still, Councilman Kevin Glover said he wasn't convinced they couldn't work together to squeeze a few more savings out of the $22.9 million budget, which has a $72,120.62, or .32 percent, increase over last year.

"I believe there are categories there that need to be explored further," Glover said, pointing to the township's telephone bills, cell phone accounts and office supplies usage. "Maybe we can't get it down to nil … but I've never seen a budget where I can't find something I can get out of it."

The rest of the council, however, stated they are satisfied with the budget as presented, acknowledging that they feel it's already been cut as bare as it can go, and that they don't feel the need for a third workshop to discuss it further.

"We've cut a lot of things already," Councilman Dominick Bratti said. "Maybe we'd be able to find a couple of bucks here and there, but it's not enough impact to be worth the pain."

"I'd love to be able to give money back, but we have to provide certain services; we've forgone every nonessential service we could," added Mayor Nancy Malool, who said that any work to realize savings in the areas Glover suggested wouldn't have an impact until next year and that the only real place left to make cuts is labor. The mayor stated that her overriding concern is that all decisions made this year will impact next year's budget.

And if the governor's proposal to reduce the hard cap from 4 percent to 2.5 percent gets approved, then next year won't be easy.

The township manager said Monday that the township only came in a couple of thousand dollars below the 4 percent cap this year, and that "I don't think layoffs are off the table for next year," even though they were able to forgo them for 2010. Other hard choices also lay ahead for the 2011 budget, which Marion said he will begin working on as soon as the present budget is complete.

Last year, the township laid off five employees and reduced three positions from full-time to part-time. Some council members stated those decisions made in 2009, including the tough choice to create the sanitary sewer utility bill, are why this year's budget is in such good shape.

"No doubt we wouldn't be in the position we are in today if we hadn't gone through those horrible, painful situations last year," the mayor said.

In regards to Glover's request to look more closely at telephones, cell phones and office supplies, the township manager noted that he is trying to reign in costs of all of those things, and that one measure he's taken is working to get Scotch Plains to have more centralized purchasing. Marion said that currently all departments purchase their own supplies, but that requests have to be OKed by him and the chief financial officer.

"Everybody buys their own supplies, and that's something that's been bothering me since I've been here," he said.

Also Monday night, Police Chief Brian Mahoney and Public Works Director Kevin Ward presented their budgets to the council. Both included salary wage freezes for employees, with the exception of 13 DPW workers, who are contractually due 3.1 percent salary increases. The township is currently planning to keep all salaries for police officers flat this year, but the PBA's contract ended in December and a new agreement is still in negotiations.

In addition, wage freezes have been enacted across the board for all other township employees, including the municipal manager, clerk and department heads.

In the police department, Marion noted crossing guards will also see no increases in 2010. The police chief stated that there have been no complaints or issues with those employees since they had their midday hours cut back earlier this year.

Funding has not been included for one vacant officer position, but has been included for one vacant dispatcher position. Money has also been allocated to purchase two new police vehicles toward the end of the year.

Mahoney said that his department "needs probably six," and that of the 32 in his fleet, 18 are above the industry standard of 100,000 miles, including four patrol cars.

"We needed those two cars last year and needed two the year before that, and the year before that," Mahoney said.

In the Department of Public Works, items of note this year include funding for temporary leaf rakers for the leaf programs, which the town manager noted suffered last fall from not having the additional help. The fall brush pickup program, however, has not been added back in.

Finally, CFO Lori Majeski presented revenues in this year's budget, stating that the main place of variation is the anticipated interest on investment. Majeski said last year the township realized $120,000, but because interest rates are down again, she's only anticipating $80,000 for 2010.

State aid, of course, was another hit to revenues, with the township seeing a decrease of $626,465 over last year.

The tax levy for this year has been set at $15,090,537.14, a $740,185.49 increase over last year. The average tax increase for homeowners this year is estimated at $91.80.

Scotch Plains' 2010 budget is slated to be officially introduced at the council's May 18 meeting. It will likely be adopted June 15.