(CANCELED) Special Budget Meeting

SPECIAL COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING MINUTES: 1 FEBRUARY 4, 2023 MINUTES FOR THE SPECIAL COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING OF THE MAYOR & COUNCIL OF THE BOROUGH OF WALDWICK HELD ON SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 4, 2023 AT 8:30 AM Mayor Giordano called the meeting to order and read the Statement of Compliance. Mayor Giordano asked for a roll call. Present on roll call: Mayor Giordano, Ms. Cericola, Mr. Ritchie, Mr. Schatz, Mr. Sciolaro, Mrs. Sherman and Mrs. Weber. Also present: Patrick Wherry, Borough Administrator; Matthew Guilder, Grants Administrator; Colleen Ennis, CFO and Kelley Halewicz, Municipal Clerk. Mayor Giordano asked everyone to join in the Pledge of Allegiance, remain standing for a moment of silence honoring our Veterans and to remain standing for the prayer. PUBLIC COMMENT Mayor Giordano asked if any member of the public wished to come forward and to discuss anything and if so, please state your name and address for the record. There was no public to come forward to speak at this meeting. Mayor Giordano explained that we will go over the Operating Budget and salaries today. There will be a take a break at 10:30 am and wrap up around 12:30 pm today. Mr. Sciolaro discussed the Council has been discussing what we need to do today. There are many line items with increased costs and a number of larger line items in the budget with significant increases 20- 40%. The challenge is being felt all over; there may be different line items being discussed but every municipality is seeing increased costs and making those tough decisions. How to meet the tax cap, appropriations cap and how do we make cuts to offset these increases so we stay within our cap. Utilizing our reserves to balance the budget while keeping an eye on our future. Where do we make cuts. The staff has already done a great job, the department heads are doing the best they can, with presenting us with a workable document. We will go through this to see where we stand and some discussion. Mayor Giordano commented that next week the Bergen County Mayor’s Association is having James Tedesco speak about budgets, sharing services and what opportunities are there for municipalities at the County level. Mr. Sciolaro added that there are certain line items that happen to be the largest ones that are non- discretionary. These are our bills, not negotiable and have large increases of 10% or more. How do we continue to do this and for all of this to be sustainable. We do not know about increases for next year. Mr. Wherry went over the Overview of the Budget including the Expenses In Cap, Expenses Out of Cap, Revenues, Appropriations Cap Calculation, Current Overage of $153,400, Items to Consider that are not in the budget, Potential cuts from budget, Emergency Reserves, Items already removed from budget and Select Trust/Reserve. Of the expenses in cap, the increase is $768,316. The out of cap expenses increased $221,298. With regards to the Cap Calculation, the total additions equal $545,302; while our maximum 2023 In Cap SPECIAL COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING MINUTES: 2 FEBRUARY 4, 2023 Appropriation is $15,713,472.00, with an overage of $153,400. We are over what the State allows by $153,400 and that is what needs to be cut from the budget to get under the cap. With regards to Emergency Reserves, these accounts allow us to transfer if needed at the end of the year and helps us generate a certain amount of surplus unspent appropriations each year. If we don’t have these emergency reserves in our budget, we will not regenerate that savings at the end of the year. Next year you would generate $500,000 less. Understand that if we use some of this to balance the budget, you are then shorting future years. For the most part operating budget is in cap and the capital budget is out of cap. OPERATING BUDGET Mr. Wherry explained and answered questions from Council Members in each department including all areas of the Operating budget funding which includes: General Administrative and Mayor & Council; Borough Clerk; Audit Services; Tax Collection; Liquidation of Liens; Assessment; Legal/Engineering; Planning Board/Board of Adjustment; Construction Code; Insurance; Police; Emergency Management; Park and Ride; Fire Prevention; Road Department; Snow Removal, Park & Ride, Traffic Control Devices; Sanitation/Recycling; Buildings and Grounds. There was a break at 10:30 am. The Council came back on the record at 10:50 am. Mr. Wherry continued the explanation and answered questions from Council Members regarding Municipal Garage/Vehicle Maintenance; Public Health Services, Board of Health/Animal Control/Public Assistance, Parks and Recreation, Community Television, Municipal Court, Public Defender, Utilities, Solid Waste Disposal, Public Events, Pension and Social Security, Sewer Treatment, Grants, OEM, Capital and Debt Service and Water. With regards to Sewer Treatment, NWBCUA contractual amount of $1,828,791.00 that we can do nothing about. We play a part in the process. They ask for all our water usage for each home. There are other components to the calculation. We make sure we are not too far off and with other municipalities. Mr. Sciolaro explained that we receive the bill, we pay it. We have questioned it in the past and wanted clarification. We are at the end of the line and unmetered. We received a chart with the assessment for 2023. They started a sump pump initiative (I&I) and saw a reduction in the charges. We may need to look at that again to help curb this bill. SALARIES Mr. Wherry went through the proposed salaries and explained the split of salary for certain departments. There are several non-union employees in the Finance office with a 7% increase. They all have generally similar roles and are all cross trained. We had seen a higher rate of turnover in this office, some left for better pay. We increased them last year but need to be competitive so that is why the 7% increase was included. For dispatchers, it is 10% increase to get them to be competitive. Mr. Sciolaro explained that we have made adjustments for salaries each year. It is necessary to be competitive with other municipalities. Mrs. Ennis explained that with regard to Finance staff. She has been there almost seven years. Three full timers that have left. Staff right now been there the longest and really do not want to lose them. It is very difficult to train employees on all the different aspects of the department. These employees are SPECIAL COUNCIL BUDGET MEETING MINUTES: 3 FEBRUARY 4, 2023 answering every question because they are cross trained. It makes them valuable to us as well as other municipalities. Superintendent of Public Works raise is in line with what the union is receiving this year. Mr. Schmidt is retiring and leaving in August. Proposed to hire someone in April but that is up for discussion. There are two promotions for DPW Repairer. Chief of Police is contractual receiving same as the Lieutenants. We are always going to have trouble retaining dispatchers as they typically want to be police officers so this is a good stepping stone. Those were kept low because the starting police salary was low. That was corrected last year and now we need to take care of the dispatcher salaries. Ms. Cericola left the meeting at 12:15 pm. S&W and APPROPRIATIONS AND REVENUES Mr. Wherry went over the in cap and out of cap appropriations summary with the Mayor and Council. This shows the overage of $154,000. With regards to Reserve for Uncollected Taxes, we still need to pay the school and county but if we don’t use it, it goes to fund balance. We have to put that money there, just in case. Mr. Sciolaro explained that the Borough has outstanding tax collection rate of 99.4%. Mr. Wherry went through the revenues for 2023. Currently there is $2,376,495.00 surplus used in this proposed budget. We are using $408,000 more of surplus this year over last year. Mr. Wherry explained what tax increases could look like on the averaged assessed home ($424,368). There is a benefit to raising taxes as things are getting more expensive for us and we cannot make up these increases. Mr. Wherry then went over the historic fund balance figures. How much are we anticipating in the budget. We are moving to a period of time where we are anticipating more and generating less fund balance, but it is a balancing act. Mr. Sciolaro explained that we now have all the information. Council Members should bring their final questions on this and we will go over the capital budget on Tuesday night. We need to get to a point where we cut the $154,000 or more depending upon what we include back into the budget from those items not currently included. Patrick has also provided some areas of potential cuts. Council Members need to review the budget and look for cuts. Look at the implications and defend in your mind what you are recommending, increase spending, cutting spending or eliminating all together. Mr. Wherry explained that we will start with Police on Tuesday followed by Fire Department. Mr. Wherry will distribute information to the Council on Police Accreditation and the fire truck. Reach out to Mr. Wherry or Mrs. Ennis if you have questions or are looking for more details on any item. ADJOURNMENT There being no further business to come before the Mayor and Council at its Special Council Budget Meeting on MOTION by Mr. Ritchie, seconded by Mr. Sciolaro and on roll call carried the meeting adjourned at 1:00 pm. Adopted: February 14, 2023 __________________________________ KELLEY HALEWICZ, RMC/CMC MUNICIPAL CLERK