MANSIFLE TOWNSHIP
BURLINGTON COUNTY
BUDGET WORKSHOP MEETING
March 5, 2014
7:00 PM
A special meeting of the Mansfield Township Committee was held on the above shown date with the following in attendance: Committeeman Sean Gable, Committeeman Arthur Puglia, Committeewoman Janice DiGiuseppe, and Mayor Robert Higgins, CFO Joseph Monzo, and Clerk Linda Semus. Deputy Mayor Fred Clark was not in attendance.
Mayor Higgins opened the meeting at 7:00 PM followed by the flag salute and the following opening statement
“Adequate notice has been provided for this special meeting and has been posted on the official bulletin board of the Township of Mansfield, notice to the Burlington County Times on March 2, 2014 and filed with the Municipal Clerk of the Township of Mansfield, notice of which was contained the date, time, place, and purpose of the meeting stating that formal action may be taken on any and all subjects involving Mansfield Township as so noted under NJSA10-4-8d amended in l981 by including Sections 10-4-18 which addresses regular meetings of the public body which is addressed under Annual Notices”.
Mayor Higgins explained that the purpose of this meeting is to have a question and answer session prior to next week’s meeting.
Committeewoman DiGiuseppe read the following statement into the record:
“Notwithstanding any other element of the contract process engaged that I might disagree with regarding this issue, my immediate concern is that a Consent of Surety protecting the Township; saving it harmless from any lawsuit, litigation, demand or claim arising was not required nor received from the contractor.
Local Public Contract Law advises this requirement as a Legislative directive, and if bidders fail to submit, it shall automatically be considered a non-available defect. (NJSA 40A: 22-23.2 Required Mandatory Items for bid plans, specification).
Since November 2013, I have been asking if this assurance documentation had been received, with no response until February 28th (last week), with comment that it was not required because the process was a reassessment not a revaluation.
A revaluation and a reassessment are synonymous; a licensed revaluation company performs a revaluation and the municipal Tax Assessor performs a reassessment. The municipality may also elect to perform a “hybrid” reassessment, in which, a municipality hires a licensed revaluation company to assist the Tax Assessor with certain aspects of the reassessment. The outcome of any of these programs is the same; all properties are assessed at 100% of market value.
However, the issue of my comments is a requirement of a contract award in compliance with the LPCL; pursuant to the requirement for Goods and Services specifications NJSA 40A:ll-23-2 and the requirement of 905.05 of the Division of Taxation secure the issuance prior to commencing the work.
As well, The Professional Service Contract awarded in conjunction with Resolution 2012-7-3 #9 Termination states, “This Contract with the Township Shall be deemed terminated upon completion or by action by the Township Committee”.
At the public meeting with residents, Mayor Puglia requested that the contractor attend the next meeting to address residents’ concerns and the Committee was told they would not.
To my knowledge the Township Committee did not authorize termination of the contact. It would have been beneficial in my view if this occurred having been awarded a contract for $199,770.00.”
Mayor Higgins requested Clerk Semus to forward a copy of Committeewoman DiGiuseppe’s remarks to Attorney Magee so he can address it at the next meeting.
Deputy Mayor Higgins remarked that there is litigation involved which we have to deal with. Answers should be provided to Committeewoman DiGiuseppe or, at least, acknowledge her remarks. Perhaps there are some things we need to address differently in the future. He questioned some of Assessor Bucchi’s procedures with the reassessment. We need to be more careful with contracts. Committeewoman DiGiuseppe was concerned over not securing the insurance to benefit the township. CFO Monzo felt that, in this situation, he doesn’t think a surety or performance bond would mean anything in this situation as they provided a service which the Township and County, and Division of Taxation accepted after which the numbers were implemented. Now we have a law suit because a select number of individuals are not happy with their assessments. It is out reassessment to defend. However, Committeewoman DiGiuseppe didn’t agree with CFO Monzo. She felt a State Contract was never put out without having a surety in it. However CFO Monzo didn’t feel a surety would protect us against this. Mayor Higgins said agreed that there would be no liability but he was not satisfied with the professionals who were paid $200,000 and didn’t even attend a meeting when requested. Mayor Higgins was concerned that the Committee does things to protect the township and everyone is comfortable with what they are doing. This topic will be on the agenda for the next meeting which should be attended by Assessor Bucchi.
BUDGET SESSION
Mayor Higgins said he wanted to review the information prepared by CF Monzo for each department as follows:
ADMINISTRATIVE: Mayor Higgins said this will include the hiring of a Business Administrator. It will be a part time position but he requested the full salary proposed in the budget this year to alleviate a big hit next year in the budget. He felt $40,000 should be in the budget. Everyone agreed to the $40,000.
CFO Monzo explains to Committee that “Administration” is them. The Governing Body. All the expenditures that falls under Township rather than a specific department. Clerk Semus and CFO Monzo explains to Committee that the Circulation Plan Grant was for TDR. There is a matching portion for the Township. Money is being paid out now because the Grant is winding down. The Grant was awarded approximately two years ago and now the bills are coming in for payment. All invoices comes to the Township and is paid to the professionals. The State does not pay the professional directly, the Township does.
CLERK: Clerk Semus said she did a webinar for a software to establish an easier way to do agendas, inserting, editing, etc. This company is called IQM2 and has been used by CFO Monzo in South Brunswick for several years. He explained how the program works. It is a full service agenda package creation. Mayor Higgins asked the cost which was not available for our township although the larger South Brunswick fee was $5400.00 and felt it would have to go to the bottom of the wish list and could be dealt with later on in the meeting after dealing with other issues. Mansfield will have less users than South Brunswick so cost will be different. For Mansfield this will benefit not only the Clerk’s Office but Planning and Zoning as well. In the future, there is another wish list for IPads, Notebooks etc. for everyone so that everything is electronic, paperless, and you bring your Notebooks etc. to the meeting.
Committeewoman DiGiuseppe asks if all the costs are real within the Clerk’s budget and CFO Monzo responded that last year $21,000 with transfers was spent and this year we are asking for 19,750.00.
FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION. Mayor Higgins noted a change from a full time person to a part time person which was a savings. He felt the audit line should be increased by $1,000 since he is requested to come to meetings. Committeeman Gable asks how many meeting he will be attending for the $1,000.00. Mayor Higgins and CFO Monzo stated two meeting, most especially preparation of audit meeting, introduction of audit as well as he being very hands on for questions throughout the year.
TAX ASSESSOR. The tax assessor has requested a part time position and has included that in the salary for $16,500.00. Committeewoman DiGiuseppe and Mayor Higgins were not comfortable with this and said to remove that figure. An increase in the budget for tax map maintenance, etc in the amount of $600 was approved.
LEGAL Attorney Magee’s request was for $110,000 which is an increase.
ENGINEERING SERVICES: Mayor Higgins questioned whether $20,000 would be enough this year and suggested another $5,000.
PLANNING BOARD LEGAL SERVICES: $15,000 was requested because of potential law suits against Planning Board activities. It was felt it should be reduced to $7,500. Codification can be taken from another Planning Board line.
ZONING BOARD: Budgeted less than before but still more than was expended. Reduced to $2,500.
LAND USE: Remains the same
ZONING ENFORCEMENT: Is fine.
INSURANCE: Proposals are from the JIF quote sheets so actual figures.
UNEMPLOYMENT COMP: Mayor Higgins asks what is in the Trust. At end of year there was approximately $17,000.00 and charged against it was $2,700.00. CFO Monzo didn’t feel there was a need to put anything in the Budget for this year. There is no layoffs scheduled. There is one employee on unemployment, even though he is working somewhere else, it still falls back onto the Township since he hasn’t worked at least 17 weeks with his new employer. CFO Monzo said there still was enough money left at the end of the year and he did not see the need to put any more money into the Budget for this line item.
Committeewoman DiGiuseppe asks CFO Monzo to explain employee contributions. He states that is the total sum of all employee contributions for all of our health care. Which totals a net amount of $60,000.00 which the CFO lumped together which includes major medical and dental.
POLICE: Mayor Higgins advised Committee that he spoke with the Chief today and explained that there is no way he will be getting $180,000.00 this year on overtime. He feels they need to get out in the street and patrol. However, in his budget request, he needed new data processing equipment so we should reduce the overtime to $155,000.00 but we will have to increase outside other expenses. The Chief needed to by the server for the pictures that they take which cost about $15,000.00. So, we will need to increase OE by $15,000.00 which will net $10,000.00 there. The police budget is the biggest item for any municipality.
EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT: The Mayor stated that he cannot see going from $5,300.00 to $17,500.00. They are asking for another boat. They are asking for 3 items which total $23,000.00 as per his last e-mail to the Committee. Committeeman Gable states that the boat can be taken out for $7,500.00. They are asking for a trailer, which would be a tremendous need since there are a lot of equipment and it is stored in various locations and they are not mobile. A lot of the incidents that happen are not always where some of the needed items are stored. If they had a trailer, they can respond to a call using the trailer and all items are right there and they are able to take care of the situation quicker, more efficiently and effectively. Mayor Higgins requests that we do this with an Ordinance. Committeeman Gable stated that these items are over and above the original budget request of $5,667.00 which covers supplies and other costs. CFO Monzo will take $10,000.00 out of this budget and do a capital Ordinance for the Emergency Management Trailer. Committeeman Gable stated that this trailer can be used by all of the Township’s emergency responders, i.e. police, ambulance and fire. Each of these divisions have vehicle capable of pulling this trailer. By doing the Ordinance that would leave $7,500.00 on the line item.
FIRE COMPANY: In 2012, they received a $10,000.00 increase and in 2013 we bonded for the $750,000.00. CFO Monzo stated that we have to make a payment in May for the truck, which he will borrow the money for and the interest will not come due until next year. The cost then will be approximately $60,000/65,000 per year. Mayor Higgins stated that they will have to consider this as part of the Township’s contribution for the year. CFO Monzo states that plus we pay part of our debt services for this facility which houses the fire company. Mayor Higgins states that without a doubt they are volunteers and they do a great job but we have a very generous LOSAP program. He feels that at this time we cannot give them 10%. Our budget is allowed to be increased 2% and he feels that would be fair. Mayor Higgins directs the statement “We cannot take away from other Departments just for them” to Committeeman Gable who stated that he didn’t feel it was appropriate for him to comment on this topic. Mayor Higgins suggests to take the $65,000.00 and increase it by 2%. It was agreed. CFO Monzo states it will be minus $4,800.00 which will get them to the 2%.
LOSAP: Is fine. Mayor Higgins states we have a nice program for them, it’s generous and it keeps people in the program. It’s a deferred comp program. It helps them with recruiting volunteers.
FIRST AID: Staying where they are.
FIRE CODE: (FIRE PREVENTION BUREAU) Committeeman Gable advises that this is for salaries. The education amount is for their continued education credits needed that are required. The $3,000 for equipment that has been the same since last year, which he did not spend, but is asking for same figure in the event something is needed. They agreed to put the budget request from $11,000.00 to $9,000.00.
STREET AND ROADS: Under snow removal we have $45,000.00 but we are at $70,000.00 already. Most of it will be outside the CAP. Mayor Higgins suggests to add another $5,000.00 bringing the total to $80,000.00. If we get hit hard during November and December, we will be able to transfer funds to cover the expenditures.