"Why are we seeing this for the first time tonight?" Council President Annie McWilliams asked Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson, who said it had been provided by Chief Finance Officer Ron Zilinski. McWilliams said she was not comfortable getting the document "literally when we walked in," and said henceforth Zilinski must attend council meetings, even if it is by phone.
Zilinski was hired at the end of November when both the mayor and council were facing state daily fines for not hiring a CFO for three years after the retirement of former CFO Peter Sepelya. The former Trenton official began working for Plainfield for 28 hours a week in January, but has only attended council meetings a few times since then.
Transfers are a regular part of the budget process. The council may, by a two-thirds majority vote, make transfers in the last two months of the fiscal year between budget lines that are over or under appropriations for the year. The total amount of the proposed FY 2011 transfers is $471,700, with the largest transfers being $100,000 each to Fire and Police division salary lines and $100,000 for "accumulated absence buyouts."
Perhaps the biggest surprise Monday was the proposed use of $30,000 in Recreation Division seasonal salary funds to help plug holes in the budget, this after a protracted exchange in past months between the council and administration over a Recreation cut in the same amount. In a conciliatory move, the council voted in April to restore $25,000 to the Recreation Division. Monday's proposed transfers included adding $5,215.76 in salary and wages to the division.
Councilwoman Rebecca Williams called pulling $30,000 from Recreation "ridiculous" Monday and said the transfers were "giving us a blueprint for budget cuts," an apparent reference to the upcoming budget process for the fiscal year beginning July 1. Councilman Adrian Mapp, a certified CFO himself, said there were 12 salary and wage lines being increased through transfers and pointed out the administration should not be over-expending salary and wage lines. The transfers, he said, indicated "a lot of fat in the budget."
"This is the reason why the Finance Committee needs to meet with the administration," Mapp said.
The Finance Committee is one of several established annually in recent years by the governing body through its "Rules of Order." Mapp said the committee has been denied meetings with the the chief finance officer.
Monday's council meeting was the last scheduled before the end of the fiscal year. Correction:There are meetings on June 14 and June 20. Last year, the governing body held a special meeting July 1 to deal with $460,700 in FY 2010 budget transfers. Click here for Plaintalker's post on that meeting.
--Bernice
Since we do have a part-time CFO..I propose 2 solutions. (1) The CFO should have accompanied the resolution with a memo for the council to explain the administration's position and (2) The Director of Administration and Finance should have been at the meeting to explain the resolution. I know this is a radical idea, but all resolutions should be accompanied by a memo.Therefore you would have an explanation ahead of time and councilpersons could actually call and speak with the department heads and thus reduce the number of questions at agenda meetings and less grandstanding by councilpersons.
ReplyDeleteAre not June's Council Meeting in this Fiscal year? The new FY starts 7/1/2011. What has happened on the plan to change to the calendar year? There has to be a resolution which I thought was due this month am then an Ordinance.
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