Council Passes Budget Amendments

New Children's Room, Plainfield Public Library


The Plainfield Public Library, targeted for a 40 percent budget cut by Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs, will get its full funding request and then some in an amendment approved Wednesday by the City Council.

The administration had included the requested $1.6 million in the 2012 budget, but the mayor later wanted it knocked down to the state minimum of $926,517. (See the story here.) Library officials had come to a budget session to ask for an additional $66,000 and were taken aback to learn of the proposed cut. But the amendment Wednesday added $70,000 for a total of $1,626,338. Council members Cory Storch, Annie McWilliams, Rebecca Williams, Vera Greaves and Bridget Rivers voted "yes" and William Reid voted "no."

The amendment was one of many in what can only be described as a tortuous process requiring a separate vote on each change on four pages of fine print. The process left the overall budget increased from the $70.8 million spending plan introduced in March to $72,348,196, but the amount raised by taxes for support of the municipal budget dropped slightly from $50,495,050.58 to $50,228,582.75. Officials could not say Wednesday what tax rate the final number reflects.

Given that the council only found out about a nearly $2 million shortfall on May 24, the recovery to a lower tax burden seemed like wizardry. If so, the "wizard" was budget consultant David Kochel, who scoured the figures for possible cuts or adjustments. Kochel had to overcome errors and omissions that came out in a state review of budget data submitted by the administration, among them failure to include a prosecutor and other staff, miscalculating insurance costs and not including enough to cover deferred pension payments.

The amendments will be published in the Courier News and a hearing and final passage will take place on June 18.

The lengthy session bogged down a couple of times, once when McWilliams asked whether the Recreation Division had provided requested information on budget needs. The answer was no, but attempts to get answers by phone fell through. The council approved the budget request with the proviso that the information would be as given as soon as possible.

Another issue had to do with how Reid voted on amendments at the April 9 meeting. The council needs five votes to increase a budget line and it was unclear whether the vote that night on adding $50,000 to the council's "other expense" line had passed 5-2 or 4-3. Reid did not recall changing his vote that night and the council took a recess to check the vote, but tapes of the meeting were not available. A heated exchange broke out between Mapp and Reid over the issue, but Mapp later apologized to viewers who might see the meeting on local television channels.

The $50,000 was earmarked for a study of the PMUA by various experts for submission to the Local Finance Board, which would have to approve dissolution of the authority. Reid wanted all parties involved in the dissolution proposal to meet and hash it out. Mapp explained several times that the study was part of a state-mandated process for dissolution.

An amendment to the Media Division did away with funding for the recently hired public information officer and also for an assistant PIO and a $10,000 expense line. The PIO only started work in April and is currently working on plans for the July 7 parade and related events for Returning Heroes Day.

--Bernice