Friday, July 2, 2010

FY 2011 Opens with Debt


The city entered the 2011 fiscal year Thursday more than a quarter million dollars in debt, a tab that may go higher when winners of FY 2010 legal judgments press for payment.

The biggest chunk of the debt came from an emergency appropriation of up to $200,000 in March to take down a failing historic building on North Avenue. While the demolition took just one day, the cleanup went on for a month. At this time, City Administrator Bibi Taylor said no additional bills for the work have yet come in.

In addition, because budget transfers were not approved before the end of FY 2010, various salary payments totaling $82,275.69 must be made up in FY 2011, Taylor said.

Corporation Counsel Dan Williamson said motions are being filed by people who won lawsuits in 2010 but have not yet been paid.

Taylor stressed that Thursday’s transfers were the first of the new fiscal year, but others may be made up until Sept. 30.

The council made adjustments to the $460,700 transfer total to allow for possible payment of a repair bill for Drake House Museum, a city-owned building where programs are administered by the Historical Society of Plainfield. The repairs were made with a $50,000 loan from a trustee, in anticipation of city funding. But Councilman William Reid opposed the amendment, saying the council had no documentation of the cost and no assurance that the work was done in accordance with New Jersey contract law.

Discussion of the amendment took up most of a “special emergency meeting” with the transfers as the sole item.

The council also held a separate special meeting to allocate funds for the first three months of FY 2011. Most of the proposed costs represented about a quarter of last year’s funding, but a few – the Independence Day celebration and a summer youth program, for example – were “front-loaded,” Taylor said, and needed to be paid at a higher rate.

The July 4th celebration cost of $50,000 will be expended this week, with fireworks on Friday and the parade on Saturday.

During the lengthy discussion of transfers, Williamson reminded the council that “the responsibility of approving or rejecting certain items” goes through the chief finance officer and director of Administration & Finance. Though possible, council involvement in such decisions could be “inappropriate,” he said. But the city has not had a CFO officer since the end of 2007 and there is currently no director of Administration & Finance. The situation has led to some sparring between the governing body and the administration over finances. A closed retreat Monday was meant to increase cooperation between the two branches.
--Bernice Paglia

2 comments:

  1. Better put some $$ in there to knock down the beat up old "Historic" home on Terrill Rd near Cushing Rd. Or wait until it is an "Emergency" and pay triple.

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  2. "A CFO or Director of Admin & Finance has the responsibility of approving or rejecting certain items" according to our Corporation Counsel. Doesn't that indicate the City cannot function? Hmmmmm..

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