Social services and overtime costs were among targets for cutting 2013 budget costs as the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee made its recommendations for amendments Thursday.
CBAC Chairman Chairman Charles McRae said Plainfield is the only city that has a Bilingual Day Care program. The committee recommended shifting it to a non-profit and also outsourcing the Women, Infants and Children nutrition program for possible savings of $1.1 million, but budget consultant David Kochel said the programs are largely grant-funded and the city only spends $48,000 on the Bilingual Day Care program. The only savings might be on pension and benefit costs, he said, but Finance Director Al Restaino said because grants exceed salary lines, the excess covers those costs.
Police overtime stems in part from a 4-day on, 4-day off schedule, Public Safety Director Martin Hellwig explained at a previous budget session. Relief may not come until 2014 after a new union contract is negotiated, Councilman William Reid said.
Reid, Cory Storch and Adrian Mapp heard the CBAC recommendations in their role as members of the City Council's Administration & Finance Committee. McRae described the recommendations as preliminary and expected further discussion at another joint meeting, but the council has just set a special meeting for next Wednesday to approve possible amendments, with an eye to final passage this month.
Among other CBAC recommendations:
- Replace the Recreation Division with a volunteer commission. McRae said information on the Recreation web site was outdated and might be part of the reason for low enrollment in its programs, which he said amounted to "262 kids, with a $1 million budget."
- Make the Inspections Division self-sustaining. A recommendation to have workers out on weekends ran afoul of contractual issues, officials said.
- Reinstate the position of public information officer to help "re-brand the city." McRae said the Office of Economic Development "has little to show for is department," bringing in only about $3 million over four or five years while its director is paid $85,000.
- Do not ask the Plainfield Public Library for givebacks. McRae called it "the only real department that is giving back to the citizens" with its programs.
Reid made frequent allusions throughout the meeting to a "new mayor" who will bring a different approach in 2014, indicating Mapp, who just won the Democratic primary. Mapp still has to face Republican Sandy Spector and independents Mustapha Muhammad and D. Scott Belin in November, but historically a Democratic primary winner has prevailed in November.
Reid told the CBAC members he felt they had learned a lot about how the city works, if sometimes how inefficiently. McRae said a lot of CBAC members are professionals who "take a corporate view." CBAC member Lisa Cright-Bryant questioned a lack of data, such as the number of seasonal workers hired.
"Record-keeping is everything," she said. "I don't think we're doing it very well."
The Administration & Finance Committee charged Kochel with formulating budget amendments, taking into account the CBAC suggestions. The special meeting for possible action on amendments is 8:30 p.m. Wednesday (June 12) in City Hall Library, with an agenda-fixing session beginning at 7:30 p.m.
--Bernice
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well dang 250 of those kids play baseball?? Don't they..............we can also save $ if the folks running recreation knew the meaning of seasonal which legally written by the state says, "3 months(90 days) per year. Let's not forget to look there
ReplyDelete$200,000 last year, and $200,000 this year, that's how much PMUA looks to be shortchanging the city on the sewer lease. But you wouldn't even know that because the city has been passing off the sewer lease as revenue sharing since 1998, although PMUA has never paid a penny in revenue sharing, ever! That was also brought up at the meeting, and it's something the public ought to know and deserves an immediate explanation. Could it be the city is kicking in to pay off the fraudsters?
ReplyDeleteMeanwhile, Mr. Reid showed once again that he is a voice for obstruction and inefficient government. He is very good at wasting time generally, and wasting other peoples' time particularly, in this case the CBAC's. With the many hats he's worn, from PMUA Vice-Chairman, to City Councilman, to campaign treasurer, his game should be up.
As a means of clarification, it turns out PMUA simply deducted grant monies owed by the City to the Authority amounting to $207,000. This doesn't seem to be the proper accounting method for this transaction, but it does imply that PMUA's lease payment for the current year should be, at a minimum, $207,000 more than is being budgeted.
DeleteBernice,
ReplyDeleteI am hoping there is a written report from the CBAC volunteers, which I thank for their time and efforts. My sore point here is that the recommendations for the PD have been basically the same year after year. We know that the biggest slice of money is given to the Police Department, yet, I have yet to see any real reforms suggested to the PD. This has nothing to do with who is in charge but rather about having the guts to go ahead and have a real analysis of what kind of services the city needs from the PD and making sure we get them. We are stuck with a 20th century PD that is accountable to....whom? And saying that returning a police chief is the answer is really not a solution, is it? I am truly concerned about the city's biggest expense and will be interested to hear how Adrian Mapp will tackle this problem so the city and the PD are both satisfied.
Hi Maria,
ReplyDeleteThe CBAC always submits a written report to the council. If you need previous reports, please let me know and I can email them to you. I will make sure you receive the report for this year also. -Jeanette
Reid told the CBAC members he felt they had learned a lot about how the city works, if sometimes how inefficiently.
ReplyDelete: Such an odd statement from a man who only recently thought he knew everything there was to know about a city budget...