Typically, the city makes an initial three-month temporary appropriation to start the year and then may request monthly emergency appropriations until the budget is passed. The resolution to launch the budget for 2014 was presented to the council two hours and eleven minutes into the Jan. 6 reorganization and included a full year's cost for the mayor's office. (I was unable to attend the reorganization, but it is on YouTube under "Plainfield City Council Reorganization 2014" if you want to view it.)
Despite the administration's explanation that it was allowable as long as the three-month appropriation overall did not exceed 26.5 percent of the previous year's budget, council members objected to the mayor's amount. Only after officials said failure to pass the measure would result in a shutdown of city operations and no payroll for employees did the council pass it, with a reduction from $188,000 to $94,000 for the mayor's office and a similar reduction for economic development.
The resolution for emergency temporary appropriations up for passage Thursday supersedes the Jan. 6 resolution and has 68.49 percent of the mayor's 2013 budget, or $70,000, for salary and wages and 77.27 percent, or $8,500, for other expenses. Most other categories are at 50 percent. The item is nearly last on the agenda and might provoke another discussion, although this time the resolution was in the packet provided to council members. On Jan. 6, the resolution was handed out on the spot, causing Council President Bridget Rivers to call for a recess so the governing body could look it over.
A possible complication of the 2014 budget process is the creation of new positions, such as "chief of staff." The council authorized the title and a salary range of up to $140,000 for 2014, but there is no specific line in the budget for the title. Several other titles that did not exist in 2013 will also have to be accommodated in the 2014 budget.
Overall, the agenda for Thursday has 50 resolutions, almost double the number on the March 10 agenda, due to new items and the addition of resolutions from the corporation counsel's office that had been discussed in closed session on March 3. The council meeting was rescheduled from March 10 to Thursday due to three council members and other officials being out of state at the National League of Cities conference. The meeting Thursday is 8 p.m. in Municipal Court, 325 Watchung Avenue.
--Bernice
Part of the reason that the budget is complicated is because of the lack for properly accounting for the monies for the past 8 years.
ReplyDeleteIf you read the findings in the audit report for the past 8 years, you will find that how money appropriates were incorrect, convoluted and repeated year after year.
So I suggest that it is past poor accounting practices that complicates the budget, not the addition of a position.
And, I find it interesting that Bill Reid still thinks it is important for the council to have its own budget consultant, even though we have a full time CFO, a qualified Director of Finance, and a CPA for a mayor. So money must not be that tight.
And one last thing, if we do get an accounting consultant, I am sure that it will come from Plainfield, or Gloria Taylor will not vote for them.