City Council

SPECIAL COUNCIL CONFERENCE MEETING MINUTES MARCH 26, 2009 CITY HALL – 5:30 PM A Special Meeting of the City Council of the City of Trenton, New Jersey, was held on the above date at 5:45 p.m. in the Council Conference Room, City Hall. The meeting was called to order by Council President Paul M. Pintella. Council President announced that adequate public notice had been provided to the public specifying the time and place for this meeting in accordance with the Open Public Meeting Act. Notice was mailed to the Trenton Times and the Trentonian Newspapers, posted on the first floor bulletin board in City Hall, and filed in the City Clerk’s Office. The agenda for this meeting was mailed, posted and filed on March 25, 2009. (N.J.S.A. 10:1 et seq) ROLL CALL: PRESENT: Messrs. Bethea, Coston, Ms. Lartigue, Messrs. Melone, Segura, Ms. Staton (arrived at 6:14 pm), Mr. Pintella – 7. ABSENT: None PRESENTATION: DCA Pension Deferral Program and Budget Amendments Appearances: Dennis Gonzalez, Acting Business Administrator Renee Haynes, Chief of Staff Mr. Dennis Gonzalez, Acting Business Administrator notified that he was going to provide the most recent information regarding the Water Infrastructure sale. He informed City Council that the Board of Public Utility would consider and act on the requested approval of the sale of the water infrastructure outside the City of Trenton to New Jersey American at a meeting on April 3, 2009. This approval will allow the Department of Community Affairs, Division of Local Government Services, to take action on, and authorize Council to adopt the budget. Mr. Gonzalez stated that the City would need to have a public hearing on the amendments to the introduced budget on April 2, 2009. This public hearing needs to be advertised. If there are no changes to the budget all of the information will be provided to the of Department of Community Affairs, Division of Local Government Services to review and authorize after the Board of Public Utility makes a decision. He requested that City Council ask the City Clerk to advertise a special meeting for the purpose of adopting the budget on April 9, 2009. Special City Council Conference: Minutes March 26, 2009 1  He also stated that in conversations with Mr. McManimon, and meetings with the Department of Community Affairs, Local Government Services, DCA has advised the City to do the following: • Requested that the City anticipate $7.7 million from the sale of the water proceeds. • Submit an application to Local Government Services for the pension deferral plan (this is mandatory). This will allow the City not to pay $6.8 million into the pension for a year. • The City has been given a grace period of one year to begin the write-off of the $16.5 million never received from the State back in 2002 in order to meet the budget. The City will have to write off this money at $1.6 million per year for ten (10) years starting next year. These funds add up to $16 million. This is to cover part of the $20 million the City anticipate from the Sale of the Water Infrastructure. The City must raise $4 million to balance the budget by increasing the tax rate. The City has proposed a tax increase of 29 cents – that would be an additional $290.00 annually for a property assessed at $100,000. Mr. Gonzalez explained the three resolutions being brought before Council for their approval. • One Resolution Authorizing an application to the Local Finance Board for a reduced pension contribution. • Two additional Resolutions are of proposed amendments to the introduced budget o One resolution reflects the changes of pulling out of the $6.8 million from pension, pulling out 1.5 from the cost, anticipating the $7.7 million for the water infrastructure sale and increasing the taxes by $4.5 million. o One resolution reflects the changes suggested after having some discussions with Councilman Coston to reduced line items by $540,000. The City discuss with Councilman Coston putting these funds into a surplus line item. After Mr. Zilinski spoke with the State he was notified that the City could not put this as a line item, the City decided to call it outstanding insurance claims. Councilwoman Lartigue read the following memorandum into the record: Due to current fiscal uncertainty, the City of Trenton is facing its most severe fiscal budget crisis. The City's fiscal challenges will require share services and sacrifices; difficult choices and cooperation. Determination of cutbacks will have to be made in a careful and thoughtful manner that will preserve core municipal services while continuing to treat the City's dedicated employees, citizens, and neighborhood partners with respect and compassion. The seriousness of the situation, will require the City to take a fresh look at restructuring such aspects of its operation such as employee benefits and workforce structures; eliminating City services that are really optional programs rather than core municipal services. The $31 million shortfall facing us cannot be addressed as with a "business as usual" mentality. Special City Council Conference: Minutes March 26, 2009 2  Efficient cost-cutting is the only way of ensuring that core City services such as public safety, quality of life issues, education, park road maintenance and the public library continue to be provided to residents without reduction in value or availability. Today, I would like to make a recommendation that we divide the city departments into groups of two (2) and move to zero-based budgeting one group at a time and begin the process of benchmarking the efficiency and effectiveness of these groups. This process will oblige departments to identify their mission and objectives as they relate to the overall goals of the department and the City. Municipal planning departments are exempt from the Zero-based budgeting process. Zero-based budgeting is a method of budgeting, in which all expenses must be justified for each new period. zero-based budgeting starts from a "zero base, and then every function within an organization is analyzed for its needs and costs. Budgets are then built around what is needed for the upcoming period, regardless of whether the budget is higher or lower than the previous one. Zero-based budgeting allows top-level strategic goals to be implemented into the budgeting process by tying them to specific functional areas of the organization, where costs can be first grouped, then measured against previous results and current expectations. Because of its detail-oriented nature, zero-based budgeting may be a rolling process done over several years, with only a few functional areas reviewed at a time. zero-based budgeting can lower costs by avoiding blanket increases or decreases to a prior period's budget. It is, however, a time- consuming process that takes much longer than the City's current budgeting process. The practice also favors areas that achieve direct revenues or production as their contributions are more easily justified. Mrs. Haynes, Chief of Staff stated that the money included in the third resolution is money that the City can zero out or brought down to the figure in the resolution. Moved to a surplus area and then used in next year budget. After a discussion a brief question and answer period ensued. Councilwoman Lartigue requested from the Finance Director, Mr. Zilinski for a copy of the money the City carry over for the passed three years. Special City Council Conference: Minutes March 26, 2009 3  Motion was made by Councilman Pintella, seconded by Councilman Bethea, to adopt the following resolution by vote of Council. 1. RESOLUTION NO. 09-123 – RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE APPROVED FY 2009 MUNICIPAL BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF TRENTON (This resolution is the one with the Total General Appropriations of $190,073,853.35) (Sponsor by Councilman Pintella) Ayes: Messrs. Bethea, Coston, Ms. Lartigue, Mr. Melone, Ms. Staton, Mr. Pintella - 6 Nay: Mr. Segura - 1 Motion was made by Councilman Bethea, seconded by Councilman Pintella, to adopt the following resolution by vote of Council. 2. RESOLUTION NO. 09-124 – RESOLUTION TO AMEND THE APPROVED FY 2009 MUNICIPAL BUDGET FOR THE CITY OF TRENTON (This resolution is the one with the Total Parking Utility Appropriations of $1,562,277.00) (Sponsor by Councilman Bethea) Ayes: Messrs. Bethea, Coston, Ms. Lartigue, Mr. Melone, Ms. Staton, Mr. Pintella - 6 Nay: Mr. Segura - 1 Motion was made by Councilman Pintella, seconded by Councilman Melone, to adopt the following resolution by vote of Council. 3. RESOLUTION NO. 09-125 - RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN APPLICATION TO THE LOCAL FINANCE BOARD FOR A REDUCED PENSION CONTRIBUTION PURSUANT TO N.J.S.A. 43:15A- 24 (c) and N.J.S.A. 43:16A-15(9) (Sponsor by Councilman Pintella) Ayes: Mr. Coston, Ms. Lartigue, Messrs. Melone, Segura, Ms. Staton, Mr. Pintella - 6 Nay: Mr. Bethea - 1 PUBLIC COMMENTS: Frank Weeden, 256 Allen Street – Spoke on TRACT concerns with the salary raises and retro pay that Directors and the Mayor received; questioned the ordinance authorizing these raises. James Fouse, 13 Cavell Avenue – Asked Council for the name of the auditing company that audits the City. Algernon Ward, 838 Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. – Spoke of his concerns regarding the budget and budget cuts; employee’s making over $100,000.00 per year should not receive a raise; the City should look at all of the cuts they can consider before they sell any of the City Assets. CIVIC MATTERS: The meeting adjourned at 6:44 p.m. Respectfully submitted ___________________________ __________________________ PAUL M. PINTELLA JUANITA M. JOYNER CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT ACTING CITY CLERK Special City Council Conference: Minutes March 26, 2009 4