Schedule Set for Budget Talks

The City Clerk's office has released the dates for budget deliberations, with possible adoption of the 2012 budget projected for late May.

The sessions will begin April 12 with Public Safety, the department that includes Fire and Police divisions. These are the two most costly divisions in Plainfield city government. The meeting is 7 p.m. in City Hall Library. Presenters will most likely be department head Martin Hellwig, who is also the Police Director, and Fire Chief Frank Tidwell.

This is the city's first calendar year budget since reverting from a state fiscal year budget that ran from July 1 to June 30. If the budget gets adopted by late May, it will be a step up from the chronically late budget passage under the old system.

At Monday's council meeting, Councilman Cory Storch suggested that because new City Administrator Eric Berry came to the city so late in the last budget process, the city might hire David Kochel as a consultant. Kochel was acting city administrator throughout most of 2011 and was much appreciated for his expertise, honed over 33 years. Berry said the city is already "working out arrangements" to hire Kochel.

The city is also without a full-time chief financial officer currently, but a search is on and an ordinance increasing the maximum salary to $125,000 has taken effect. Currently the borough administrator and CFO of South Plainfield, Glenn Cullen, is serving a few hours a week to help the city out.

The second budget meeting will be at 7 p.m. April 19 at the Senior Citizens Center, 400 E. Front St., and will cover Public Works and Engineering.

Plaintalker will post the other dates later. The full schedule is available in the City Clerk's office.

The council will re-activate its Citizen Budget Advisory Committee, which did not take part in the budget process for the six-month "transition year" from July through December 2011.

--Bernice