20190225 Special Budget Meeting - Village Council

A SPECIAL PUBLIC BUDGET MEETING OF THE VILLAGE COUNCIL OF THE VILLAGE OF RIDGEWOOD HELD IN THE SYDNEY V. STOLDT, JR. COURT ROOM OF THE RIDGEWOOD VILLAGE HALL, 131 NORTH MAPLE AVENUE, RIDGEWOD, NEW JERSEY ON FEBRUARY 25, 2019 AT 7:30 P.M.

 

1. CALL TO ORDER – OPEN PUBLIC MEETINGS ACT – ROLL CALL – FLAG     SALUTE

Mayor Hache called the meeting to order at 7:31 P.M. and read the Statement of Compliance with the Open Public Meetings Act.  At roll call the following were present: Councilmembers Knudsen, Sedon, Voigt, Walsh, and Mayor Hache.  Also present were Heather Mailander, Village Manager/Village Clerk; Matthew Rogers, Village Attorney; and Donna Jackson, Deputy Village Clerk. 

Mayor Hache led those in attendance in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag as well as in a Moment of Silence to honor the brave men and women serving in our armed forces and all our first responders.

1. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

There were no comments from the public.

1. INTRODUCTION OF 2019 BUDGET PROCESS – VILLAGE MANAGER AND CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER

Ms. Mailander stated that the budget preparation is a very long process, that started in September 2018.  Bob Rooney, Village Chief Financial Officer, stated that the process started in July when he sent a memo to Department Heads to start considering their budgets for 2019.  They had until September 14^th to come back to him with their requested amounts.  From October 16-18, 2018 he met with the Department Directors to go through each line item in the budget and addressed their capital needs. From November 2018 to January 2019 they processed all of this information, and put it into a readable format, Mr. Sanzari then entered all of the salary information with contractual increases for 2019, and also put together the spreadsheets for the capital budget to see what the increase would be for every operating budget and capital request in the Village.  Mr. Rooney stated that on February 13^th and 15^th, 2019, Ms. Mailander, Mr. Sanzari, and he met with the Department Heads again, reviewed their requests, and came up with a recommendation, after coming up with a consensus as to what their needs and wants were, as far as capital and operating budgets.  This is the budget document being presented to the Village Council tonight.  The Department Directors will present their proposed budgets, accomplishments from 2018, and goals for 2019.  There are four budget meetings, and then on March 13^th they will ask the Village Council to introduce the proposed budget with the anticipation of it being adopted on April 10^th.

1. DISCUSSION ITEMS

 

1. Review of Departmental Budgets and Capital Budgets

 

1. Building Department

 

Thomas Yotka, Director of the Building Department, stated that 2018 was an exciting year for the Building Department because in March, a new set of regulations was enacted by the Department of Community Affairs which significantly impacted the way they operate.  Last year, there were over 5,600 plan reviews performed and almost 2,000 permits were issued, which resulted in just over 6,900 inspections.  They calculated the number of permits that were issued from January to the date in March when the new regulations went into effect and he prorated it for the balance of the year.  It is anticipated that they lost 240 permits and just over $150,000 in revenue, but that was offset by the fact that some of the multifamily housing projects have started and received either full or partial permits.  Therefore, there was no decline in revenue because for the third year in a row, their revenues have increased, but that was significantly offset by the multifamily housing projects starting.  With regard to that new legislation that eliminated the necessity for roofing, siding, bathroom and kitchen permits to some extent, they held a public forum in June 2018, to make the stakeholders aware of how they were going to be able to proceed in the future.

Mr. Yotka stated that this year, projects have started and plan reviews are underway for some of the larger projects, they have had numerous construction meetings and that was one of their highlights, trying to coordinate all of the work that was going on simultaneously which is now taking shape.  He added that was reflected in his budget for 2019.  One thing they did not anticipate is that the full time electrical inspector retired just a few weeks ago, so one of the objectives of 2019 is to replace him and to look for a part time temporary inspector.  The part-time inspector may be dedicated specifically to the multifamily housing projects or may offset some of the backlog that is anticipated.  The Village is still waiting for the Enclave project to drop off plans later this year, and the Building Department will be doing inspections on the Hudson Street parking garage which will be built in 2019 and 2020.  As a result, there will be five major projects underway this year at the same time.

Mr. Yotka stated that there is an increase in their overtime budget, due to the fact that they have recently adopted an ordinance, and will adopt a few more, that will require some significant oversight and there is a potential for after hour inspections or court appearances.  There is no direction as to whether the state will revise the Uniform Construction Code in 2019, but if they do, the Village will have to buy new books which would result in a few thousand dollar expenditure.  Mr. Yotka said that the lease or purchase of vehicles will be eliminated, because the Building Department is anticipating getting a newer vehicle handed to them by the Police Department, who are replacing their vehicles.  Mr. Yotka added that their budget has been gone over with a fine tooth comb over the last few months, and he would entertain any questions from the Village Council.

Councilman Sedon asked if Mr. Yotka could explain to him the full time salaries have gone up about 14%, but the part time salaries have gone down significantly, and how that played in with losing and replacing a full time inspector and finding a new part time person.  Mr. Yotka stated that there is a deficiency, and they did not account for the two part time plumbing inspectors that they have now, so they have to add approximately another $48,000 for that salary, as the $52,000 that is currently there is for the temporary part time inspector that they are hoping to hire, plus money set aside to backfill or have an electrical inspector on standby.  Mr. Rooney added that was offset by the full time electrical inspector’s retirement, so that will balance that out in the budget.  Mr. Rooney indicated that the full time inspector will retire on March 1, 2019.

Councilwoman Walsh asked that in terms of the multifamily housing developments, did they have an anticipated spreadsheet in terms of what inspections they are going to have and timing, or a construction plan so that they can anticipate.  She asked if the Village would hold them to its schedule as opposed to being held to the construction schedules.  Mr. Yotka stated that he would anticipate that because of the redundancy that they have in the department now, and the advertisement for the full time electrical inspector will require someone with multiple licenses, resulting in the Building Department having four inspectors.  Mr. Yotka didn’t think there would be any diminished delivery of service even if all four multifamily housing developments are going at the same time, because there are five people in the Department that can conduct building inspections.

Councilwoman Walsh asked if there were going to be other line items that are going to be directly correlated to the multi-family housing developments or anything that could pop up because of the developments which might have to be inspected, that hasn’t been anticipated.  Mr. Yotka stated that they don’t anticipate anything out of the ordinary with any of these projects as the ground work has already been done for three of them, so it should proceed according to the plan that was laid out several months ago.

Mayor Hache stated that he saw there were allowances for the purchase or lease of vehicles but not for gasoline.  He added that he hasn’t had a gasoline allowance in a budget since he has started doing them.  Mr. Rooney stated that the gas allowances don’t get allocated back to the Departments, as they go straight to one line item.

Councilman Voigt asked about the Zoning Board of Adjustment.  Ms. Mailander stated that they would discuss that budget on another night with the Planning Board, because the same Secretary is for used for both Boards now.

 

2. MIS

 

Dylan Hansen, Director of IT/MIS, stated that for Operating Budget there was an increase in the contractual services for the Spatial Data Logic (SDL) or Municipality in a Box software, and they are also looking to do the ESRI program, which is a mapping software, this year with SDL.  ESRI is a mapping program that they are going to be splitting the cost with the Water Department, which is similar to Google maps, and they will have the mappings of all water pipes, sewage pipes, and electrical throughout the Village.  It will also be an inventory tool as employees will get a GPS location device to send people out to locate signs or other items that the Village owns, so they can tag it into the ESRI program.  They can go through and notice if something is missing right away.  This will tie into the SDL program too, so clicking on a Block and Lot will show everything from that location on the computer, including dogs, any permits, or work done on the house, which can be shared with the Police, Finance, Building, and Water Departments and any employee who goes out to residences.  He added this is something they have been wanting to do for many years.

Councilman Voigt asked how often this ESRI system would be updated.  Mr. Hansen stated that once they get the software they are going to work out a plan with the Engineering Department as to how to get the information in it from the beginning.  They are going to try to utilize interns and get as much information that they currently have in AutoCAD drawings, uploaded into the ESRI system.  Then as they are doing roadwork, and permits, all of that will be logged.  The Tax Assessor automatically updates a system when they get any change in information, and the update will be instantaneous.  Mr. Hansen that they can also share information and mappings to the public as well, through a portal.  Some towns use it already, and there are two people in the Water Department who are familiar with the software, in addition to Rich Calbi, and he has also budgeted for training of the Engineering Department as well.

Mr. Hansen added that there was a budget for supplies, purchase of office equipment, and they have a room in the Fire Department that they want to turn into a server room and buy some shelving.  This would act as a secondary site. 

Mayor Hache asked about the ESRI program, and aside from loading up the assets and tracking them, would there be any functionality to tie into the depreciation schedule as to when things have to be replaced.  Mr. Hansen stated that it would be more for fire hydrants, manholes, piping, and as much information they have, but as far as a depreciation schedule he would have to look into whether there were fields in the software to keep track of that.  He added that right now, the Water Department has something in their current software that he believes would give depreciation information.  Mr. Rooney stated that they have a fixed asset system that they are implementing this year that would cover the maintenance of vehicles, as the ESRI system is primarily for infrastructure.  Mr. Hansen added that ESRI would show when they click on a fire hydrant when it was last inspected.

Councilman Sedon stated that it looked like the budget was increasing significantly, and asked what the biggest drivers of the increase were.  Mr. Hansen added that last year, he budgeted for CISCO Services to be renewed and because he bought a firewall from them he got the hardware for one year.  This year he is not buying anything from CISCO, so the service has to be renewed.  The SDL goes up slightly each year as there are 25 licenses right now, and its has gone up about $2,000-$3,000 each year.  Ms. Mailander added that they also have Swagit with new cameras, which is in the budget as well.  Councilman Sedon asked where the camera operators came into the budget.  Mr. Hansen stated that the Swagit system would be automated but the Village would also have the ability to do manual televising for any meeting that is not scheduled.  He added that he has some money budgeted in the capital budget so they can do video from anywhere on the fiber loop.  Therefore, if they have to do a meeting downstairs in the Patrick A. Mancuso Senior Center, they can do it live on the public access channel.

Councilwoman Knudsen asked if they were hiring another person in the MIS Department.  Mr. Hansen stated that they were looking for an individual that is specializing in networking for switches and their primary focus would be the Water Department fiber loop, as well as backing him up on the Village fiber loop.

Councilwoman Walsh asked about the acoustics and the sound in the room, as she knows that it is part of the capital budget, but that seems to be the biggest challenge.  She asked Mr. Hansen to give an update.  Mr. Hansen stated that an individual from a company that they have used for the current recording software came in last Monday, and two sound engineers came on Friday and did a walk through and will give him a quote this Friday.  Councilwoman Walsh asked if that was reflected in the budget.  Mr. Hansen stated that he had money from the previous year budgeted and he is estimating that it will cover the cost.  Councilwoman Walsh stated that in terms of any challenges, who would be monitoring that project.  Mr. Hansen stated that he was looking for a contract from the vendor to maintain any of the hardware for one year to see if there are any adjustments that need to be made and he will talk to them about coming to a couple of meetings to make sure that everything is correct.  One of the things that they talked to him about is putting sound boards on the ceiling, as there is nothing that absorbs sound in the court room, which is one of the biggest challenges. 

Councilwoman Walsh asked what would happen with the system if there was a problem during a meeting.  Mr. Hansen stated that he would be present for a few meetings, but that all of the new equipment would be self-adjusting to a certain extent, and it will lower the sound if there is an echo.  There will be an override, but there won’t be somebody at the meetings.  It will also be network controllable.  Councilwoman Knudsen confirmed that it wouldn’t necessitate hiring anyone else, and handling the equipment would be done by the current team.  Mr. Hansen agreed, but added that he would speak to the vendor after they came back with the proposal.

Councilman Voigt asked what the estimated cost was for the sound system enhancements.  Mr. Hansen stated that he was estimating between $20,000 to $25,000 for speakers, soundboards, wiring, installation, and programming.  Councilman Voigt asked if there was a date as to when it could happen.  Mr. Hansen stated that when he spoke to the contractor, they stated that their proposal would include a three day install time, and he asked for them to give him the price including a Saturday, so that they could do the install Friday, Saturday, and Monday.  Councilman Voigt asked about the Network Administrator salary and whether they were part time.  Mr. Hansen stated that it was a full time employee, but the salary is split between MIS and the Water Department.

Mayor Hache stated the training budget has significantly dropped since last year, and asked how much of the training was mandatory versus discretionary.  Mr. Hansen stated that the big drop is the SDL training.  Due to the fact that the SDL software package use has increased, SDL has included free training which is a $10,000 decrease from last year.

Ms. Mailander stated that they would move onto the Capital Budget for MIS.  Mr. Hansen stated that in his MIS request, it is mostly to do with servers and computers, they try to maintain replacing computers at five to seven years.  They will be replacing computers in the Finance, Health, Engineering and Police Departments this year.  Windows 10 has a lot to do with the replacement as Windows 7 has an end of life this August.  There are some Windows 7 computers he can upgrade with Windows 10, but anything four to five years old he is better off replacing as they will run slow.  They are accumulating a lot of data, due to email and scanning, so he is starting to get low on space to archive a lot of the data.  He wants to buy a larger archive system.  He added that they want to do an off-site backup at the Fire Department, so they need a heavy duty server that can handle a nightly backup of all the data from Village Hall, which will allow faster execution of any item they have to restore.  

Mr. Hansen stated that the ESRI software, Police Department Ruggedized laptops to upgrade and replace those that are in the Police cars, Swagit, and a new telephone system are also in the capital budget.  The telephones that the Village currently has are Toshiba, and they announced last year that they will no longer be making telephones.  Mitel bought Toshiba and wants the Village to switch to their system.  He is weighing the options and seeing what’s available as he would prefer to go to Cisco or another vendor that is digital and not go to a cloud system.  This would also give the possibility of a recording system for the Police Department, ability to communicate between Departments if there is an outage over the fiber connections, and gives more flexibility in controlling the phones.  He added that cloud systems are expensive.

Mr. Hansen added that the Wi-Fi into Memorial Park at Van Neste Square would be added, and if the Village Council wanted to add additional parks, it would cost $3,000 to $5,000 per park.  Currently there are 600 subscribers on the guest Wi-Fi at Graydon, The Stable, and Village Hall. 

Councilman Sedon asked about the phone system, and whether the amount in the budget was subject to change if they go with a different vendor.  Mr. Hansen stated that it could go up or down, and he did price out a fairly elaborate system to see what was available.  There is the ability to surplus the current equipment and there probably are towns that are interested in buying the old Toshiba phones.  He added that he wants to put this out to a bid and get a couple vendors in to see what they recommend.

Councilman Voigt stated that he mentioned archive servers to archive data, and asked what $26,000 buys and how long are they supposed to archive information.  Mr. Hansen stated that it depends, as there are different requirements for different types of items.  Right now he has a lot of the information on portable hard drives duplicated, but as Open Public Records Act requests come in, it becomes time consuming pulling that data off.  The archive servers would be a better place to store the data and give faster access to it as well.  Councilman Voigt asked how much memory that would be.  Mr. Hansen stated that this would give them almost ten terabytes.  Councilman Voigt asked how much they currently have stored.  Mr. Hansen stated that the Village currently has an active six terabytes, including all of the databases.  There will be an increase with the ESRI, and email increases every day, so there is a lot of data to be archived.

Councilwoman Walsh asked how they could stop all of the junk mail that comes in.  Mr. Hansen stated that they process anywhere from 7,000 to 14,000 emails a day, and about 90% of that is spam that gets filtered out, that they don’t even see.  Councilwoman Walsh asked if they could block them from their email.  Mr. Hansen stated that they could use their email filters, but the junk email providers have gotten very smart.  He added that just last week somebody got access to a Village computer and used the file to send out emails, as if it was that employee, with a zip file attachment.  Virus protection was able to protect it on a local computer but the virus detectors were unable to stop it because it was a locked file.  They talked about having somebody come in to give a talk to employees to be more aware of what they were clicking on.

Mayor Hache stated that regarding the telephone system, Mr. Hansen had mentioned that MyTel was very motivated and asked how motivated they were in terms of concessions.  Mr. Hansen stated that he would be curious to see what they would give them for the current equipment towards a new system, but he would also be interested to see what surrounding towns would give them for the current equipment.  Mayor Hache asked if they were the only option.  Mr. Hansen stated that there were other vendors on State contract that were very hungry for the Village’s business.

3. Health Department

 

Dawn Cetrulo, Director of Health, stated that accomplishments from last year are that they were able to pass the licensing of e-cigarettes and brought in $5,000 that will be used towards education on e-cigarettes, particularly in the schools.  She has a meeting with the health educator to come up with some ideas. They also adopted an ordinance to license all nail salons, spas and hair salons/barber shops.  Their goal is to have them all inspected within the next few months.  They also received a grant from the County for $1,800 which she was able to use for some Mental Health First Aid classes, attending the “Lime Out” for Stigma Free at Riverdell High School, and some education for the day campers.

Ms. Cetrulo stated that the goals for 2019 are that they would like to form an official Stigma-Free Committee to do some more outreach with drug addictions and mental health.  They are trying to bring back GeesePeace, to oil the eggs to help control the population.  Lastly, Ms. Bigos, Ms. Mailander and herself met to increase the employee wellness program, with a yoga class and a nutrition program after work.

Ms. Cetrulo stated that her budget was basically the same as last year.  She may have someone retiring at the end of the year, and if she does retire, Ms. Cetrulo would need to hire somebody with some overlap for training.

Councilman Sedon stated that he was GeesePeace certified, and offered his assistance.  Ms. Cetrulo stated that she spoke to her colleagues and most of them are just chasing the geese away.  Councilwoman Walsh stated that regarding the new poultry and fowl ordinance, for having chickens, there are a lot of people interested in that, and suggested doing a tutorial to help people understand the requirements at their homes. 

Mayor Hache stated that there was an increase in the fees for vital records last year and there was a proposal for increasing them for death certificates.  Ms. Cetrulo stated that they haven’t increased those fees, and right now she doesn’t want to increase the death certificate fees, as the State currently charges $25 and $2 for additional copies for birth, marriage, and death certificates, and the Village used to charge $25 and $20.  Approximately ten years ago, they lost some revenue for death certificates, and found that the State was cheaper so the Village reduced its fees to $25 and $2 in order to match the State fees.   The Village did raise the correction fee to $50, because it is very tedious to do corrections.

 

 

 

 

4. Tax Assessor

 

Mike Barker, Tax Assessor, stated that highlights from last year are that they had another good year from a new construction point of view and they were processing as quickly as they could to get the revenue from that.  He added that they processed more than they did the previous year, but the types of projects can vary, which affects the total amount that they get. 

In terms of tax appeals in 2018, they were more aggressive in processing the appeals and identifying the properties that they had exposure to and tried to get rid of those particular cases as soon as they could, to get them off the docket and not have these cases go out three or four years.  In the past, they wait it out and try to get people to withdraw earlier years’ tax appeals and then they get a little more at the end.  However, this year they identified the cases right away that they didn’t have a good standing in and tried to get rid of them.  Mr. Barker stated that they had them withdraw appeals and then focused in on the upcoming year, so there is no exposure to the Village itself.  They get the appeal to go away and adjust the assessment before it is certified, so that there isn’t an appeal process.  He added that works better on the residential appeals over commercial, and he was proud to say that the pending number of appeals is under 100.  There are currently 49 new properties that are under appeal.  There were also two classification issues, one with Verizon and the other with Valley Hospital.

Mr. Barker stated that for 2019, the focus is going to be on transition.  He is going to be retiring at the end of the year, as well as his assistant, Kris Hayes.  They will be trying to put things in order and plan for a transition, which has been included in his budget for some overlap.  Mr. Rooney and Ms. Mailander made a decision to have funds available so they can bring somebody in before both of them leave.  He added that they decreased the appraisal money that was set aside.  Last year they didn’t have to use any money for some cases that he thought would require appraisals.  They are anticipating more residential appeals this year, which may require some appraisals.  There were some differences of opinion over some of the sales that have occurred over the year, and some distinct differences when looking at different sets of comparables.  Mr. Barker stated overall, the budget was the same as it was the prior year.

Councilman Sedon asked if Mr. Barker had any idea when the Valley Hospital tax appeal would come up.  Mr. Barker stated that he hasn’t had a conversation recently on that, but they have also filed appeals on some of their taxable properties which might come up sooner than their other issue.  They seem to still be looking to guidance from the legislature as to how they want to handle the exemptions.  

Councilwoman Walsh stated that her concern was that due to the changes in the Federal tax laws, residents are unable to write off the entire year of taxes, which is creating a problem for the higher priced houses.  She added that she is curious how the appeals are going to be reconciled, as they are being exposed to the market and the values of the higher priced homes continue to decrease.  Mr. Barker stated that it is, and he doesn’t give the decreased deduction for State and Local Taxes (SALT) all of the credit, as he thinks the market was slowing down before that and the buyers out there are very particular in what they want, with most people not wanting to buy houses that require work done on them.  He added that a lot of the Tudors don’t have the open concept that people are after and it costs a lot of money to convert them.  He stated that if they were to look at the assessed value disbursement, the total number of residential units is 7,426, with the average being $702,000 and the median being $591,000.  If they were to look at how many have an assessed value over a million, there are 1,111.  At the next level, for homes assessed at $1.5 million there are 285, and there are 84 units assessed at $2 million, and there are 11 units assessed above $3 million.  Mr. Barker stated that it is a problem, but it isn’t affecting a large number of homes.

Councilwoman Knudsen stated that he could extrapolate that number and it represents a significantly different assessed value or tax value.  She stated that 285 units at $1.5 million and the average is $702,000, then that 285 units represents almost 600 units.  Mr. Barker was in agreement, but added that there isn’t an impact because they aren’t selling for $1.5 million, they’re selling for $700,000.  Councilwoman Knudsen stated that she was just looking at the value of those homes when looking at tax revenue.  She pointed out that when the numbers are added up and applied to the average value, it makes a difference.  Mr. Barker stated that looking at the percentage to total value of the community it would be, but he was trying to demonstrate that they aren’t talking about cutting these homes down to $700,000.  Councilwoman Knudsen stated that she was just comparing those houses to the value of the tax amount.  Mr. Barker stated that he was trying to point out from an appeal standpoint and from a loss of value, when they talk about the upper end of the market having trouble, he is trying to point out that it is not like they are going to have over half of the community come in and file appeals.  In fact, it is a small amount and the hardest ones they have are the ones that get up over $2 million to $3 million, because there are no comparables for these homes.

Councilman Voigt clarified the number of homes over $3 million.  He asked Mr. Barker if the $1.5 million units sell at $1.2 million, would he get a rush of the other units at $1.5 million asking to get their units re-evaluated.  Mr. Barker stated that they are expecting more non-sales. The homeowners that see the other homes that are struggling that have sold and what they have done, word gets around, and they are thinking there is going to be an uptick in that.  Sometimes, it does take a little time, because the sales that they are starting to see that are troubling, are into 2019, so those sales will not affect 2019 assessments, it will be 2020 where they would start coming in.  There were some after the summer selling season and they got some troubled sales that ended up closing in November/December 2018, and that’s not information that can be utilized for a 2019 appeal because their evaluation date is October 1^st of the prior year. 

Councilman Voigt asked for some ballparks of this information, for example what a $1.5 million home would sell for now.  Mr. Barker stated that he can’t answer that question, because specifics would have to be looked at, as there are variations in the sale price.  Councilman Voigt asked about the $2 million homes. Mr. Barker stated that there was one in the process that was assessed at $2.1 and it looks like it is going to go for $1.6 million.  Councilman Voigt stated that it seems like the exposure is at $1.5 million to $2 million.  Mr. Barker stated that you can’t take one particular sale and say this is what the trend is going to be, because he hasn’t done any studies like that.  Councilman Voigt stated that it might be good for them to take a look at what the sale prices for the $1.5 million homes are, over time.  Mr. Barker stated that all of the sales prices are put on the Village website. 

Councilman Voigt stated that as an exercise from a Tax Assessor standpoint, it would be good to find the exposure.  He suggested some examples of price variations and the loss in assessed value.  Mr. Barker stated that actually, the Village doesn’t lose that value as it is made up by everybody else in the Village because from year to year you have a new net valuation taxable which puts pressure on the tax rate.  Councilman Voigt asked if he is saying that they are going to find our revenue by increasing the tax rate.  Mr. Barker stated that it automatically will do that, because a budget is put in place, and then the actual amount that a resident will pay is determined by their home’s assessed value.  If those values are constantly fluctuating, it is going to put pressure on the tax rate.  Councilman Voigt stated that they would potentially have a lot of unhappy residents.  Mayor Hache stated that the number doesn’t go up, it doesn’t increase the tax overall, just the rate.  Mr. Barker stated that when looking at a million dollar home, it goes down $100,000 which equates to approximately $2,500.  The overall value of the community is over $5 billion, so that $2,500 is miniscule.  Losing $10 million, when you are looking at $5 billion, is a small amount.  He pointed out that in 2013 they were up to a point where refunds got up to a million dollars, so they chose to do a reassessment, to level the playing field.  They don’t know what the true impact of the loss of the property tax and income tax deduction is yet, but they will start seeing that coming into the new selling season and it will be the key to seeing how the market reacts coming into the February and March selling season.

Councilwoman Knudsen stated that as many homes in that upper price range that are selling for less, in the lower price range there are many that have sold for considerably more.  There are a great many homes that sold for more than their assessed value and they are still being charged at the rate for the lower value, so that’s the true value and there is a difference in that.  She asked if there was a report that says how many homes sold for their assessed value.  Mr. Barker stated that the data is on the Village website, along with the ratio.  If the Village’s ratio is 85%, everything that is below that is going to be higher.  They are precluded from changing assessments solely based upon selling prices.  Councilwoman Walsh stated that everybody has to be mindful that there are individuals who purchased their homes for $3 million, and their homes are now worth $1.5 million, so the bigger challenge for the Village Council is the stability of the municipality.  The tax rate is a piece of it, but the fact that they have residents that are losing $1 million in the value of their homes is a bigger challenge for the Village Council.  There must be a meeting of the minds somewhere, so that people don’t say that they don’t get the tax deduction anymore, and housing prices keep dropping.  The strength in the community is the people who buy houses in that other range, and if they aren’t going to come here, they are going to go someplace where the taxes are only a fraction of what they are here.

Mayor Hache and Ms. Mailander spoke about how much they were going to miss Mr. Barker and his expertise, wisdom, and ability to work with residents.  Mr. Barker stated that he was just part of a very good team, and through the years the people who have come and gone represent the Village very well and he is proud to be one of them.

 

5. Finance, Tax/Parking

 

Bob Rooney, Village Chief Financial Officer, stated that the Finance budget is flat from last year.  The increases are primarily contractual.  His other expenses are slightly down from last year.  One line item he pointed out was #29, which is where he has his fixed asset system and the maintenance of tracking of vehicles.

Mr. Rooney stated that the Tax Collector is retiring August 1^st, so they have a decrease in the full time salary and wage line because his anticipation is to have a Tax Collector coming in with less experience and lower pay.  He has put money in there for compensated time, as she has been here 40 years, so she has significant vacation and sick time that will be paid out.  Other expenses are up slightly in the charge for mailings and postal fees.  Other than that, the budget has been flat.

Mr. Rooney stated that there are two items that he is requesting for this year, one is a scheduling system with time clocks, as he has spent the last several months working with the Police Department on their scheduling system.  They use a vendor called VCS which is compatible with the Edmunds software system and is used for Village payroll.  He is trying to find a way to use VCS with time clocks, and make it work for the Village.  In doing that, he came across the Kronos timekeeping system, which the Village had contacted several years ago.  Kronos seems to be more in line for the timekeeping system for the other Village Departments, as opposed to the Police Department.  He is going to come up with a happy medium and figure a way to do this.  The money budgeted will pay for the entire timekeeping system throughout the rest of the Village, which would be fingertip sensitive.  Employees will not be allowed to do any entries on their phones; however, they will be able to monitor their sick time, vacation time on their personal phones.  In addition, they are going with a paperless payroll this year where the 1099, W-2s, and paychecks will all be done electronically.

Mr. Rooney stated that the second thing is a revenue consolidation system.  Right now he has five or six different revenue sources for credit card usage.  He also has Departments that want to expand credit card usage, such as the Health Department and Municipal Court.  He has been looking at a system which is used at Parks and Recreation, called CapturePoint.  He attended a presentation with Mr. Sanzari several weeks ago in West Orange, where they implemented this throughout the town, and it runs smoothly and generates the reports that they need, with only one service vendor.  This would save the Village money and tighten controls, as far as collection of revenue outside of the Tax Department.  He added that he was still doing some research into the system as to any downfalls that may exist, and was in communication with the CFO in West Orange.

Mayor Hache asked about CapturePoint which provides a portal for payments, because he knows that they charge transaction fees, and wondered how much those fees would be.  Mr. Rooney stated that he would get that information, but he knows that it is cheaper than what he is paying now because they go through five different areas, and in looking at CapturePoint overall they were lower than the other ones. 

Mr. Rooney stated that there is also $50,000 budgeted, which is required to pay for 1/5^th of the Master Plan, which has been financed over five years.  The second tab under interlocal capital and debt service, contribution for Joint Meeting, $695,000 is for Northwest Bergen Central Dispatch, which is a slightly lower amount than was budgeted in 2018.  Maintenance of Board of Education vehicles, salaries and other expenses is budgeted at the same level as last year, which may increase but is offset by the exact amount in revenues, and it has no impact on taxes.  Capital improvements, have been raised to $275,000, which will be tied into the capital items that the Village Council is going to approve towards the end of their budget hearings.

Mr. Rooney stated that debt service for bonds, notes, interest on bonds and notes, and loan repayments, has been reduced $40,000 from last year. Mr. Rooney spoke about statutory expenditures, accumulated leave compensation, early retirement incentive, accounts for any retirees that are leaving this year for terminal pay.  They haven’t finalized what that termination number is, but it will be in the range of $400,000 to $500,000.  Salary negotiation costs are flat to last year, which are for the contractual union agreements.  Social Security is up about 10% from last year, in addition, Public Employee Retirement System and Police and Fire Retirement System costs are up about 10% over the last year.

Ms. Mailander asked if the Village Council wishes to expand the Wi-Fi past Memorial Park at Van Neste Square which is the next place that they were thinking about putting it.  If not, the money in the budget for this year could be taken out, because Mr. Hansen had Wi-Fi at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square in his budget last year.  If the Village Council wishes to expand the Wi-Fi, they would just have to figure out what other locations they would like to install public Wi-Fi.  Councilwoman Walsh asked about the Wi-Fi in the area of Village Hall and the Library. Mr. Hansen stated that the coverage right now is almost to the hockey rink area of The Stable, and at Graydon Pool, the Wi-Fi is available anywhere by the snack stand, and at one part of the beach area, up to the kiddy area. Village Hall guest Wi-Fi is anywhere in the building, as well as over by the Recycling Center.  Anywhere that Wi-Fi is currently available for the Village government will have capabilities for public Wi-Fi as well.  Mr. Hansen added that he would like to put another access point out by the Kasschau Memorial Shell as well, because then it will help the Signal Department with their sound equipment, which is used for the Kasschau Memorial Shell performances.  If there is someplace that they have to add fiber to install Wi-Fi, that is where the cost comes in.  A lot of parks don’t have fiber to them, so it would have to be added.

Mayor Hache stated that Van Neste Square is being chosen to attract more foot traffic into the downtown and have people there be able to do more things, which is why that location should be equipped with Wi-Fi first.  He added that it would be great to have the money to install public

Wi-Fi in all of the parks, but it makes sense to go to Memorial Park at Van Neste Square first.  Mr. Hansen added that they are looking to add Wi-Fi to the Hudson Street parking garage as well.  Ms. Mailander asked if they already had the money for Memorial Park at Van Neste Square in the budget from last year.  Mr. Hansen stated that they had used that money already in the other parks, so there is only a little bit of funding left over.  Ms. Mailander stated that if the Village Council was in agreement on installing public Wi-Fi at Memorial Park at Van Neste Square, that is where it will be installed in 2019 and then talk about other locations in future years. 

Mayor Hache asked when talking about another $4,000 to $5,000 to add other parks, and they spent $8,900 for Village Hall, Graydon and The Stable, why was Memorial Park at Van Neste Square going to cost $18,000.  Mr. Hansen stated to get the fiber up into that vicinity is a difficult run.  He pointed out that there was already fiber in Village Hall and there isn’t much fiber going up into the Central Business District (CBD).  Mayor Hache stated that Veterans Field and Maple Field might be easier to add then, Habernickel Park maybe not.  Mr. Hansen stated that there already is fiber up by Habernickel Park, so that would be easy to add.  Mayor Hache asked what would be a remote area.  Mr. Hansen stated that Memorial Park at Van Neste Square would be the furthest one away.

Councilwoman Walsh asked about the cellular tower that went up on the highway, and if the Village has any access to that.  Mr. Hansen stated that the only cellular tower that the Village has access to is located at the Water Pollution Control Facility.  Councilwoman Knudsen stated that she has Optimum internet Wi-Fi and everywhere she goes it connects, so she wondered whether other internet providers offer that same free Wi-Fi.  She imagines that a lot of people are on Optimum internet and it seems redundant to go out and spend $20,000 if people already get that free Wi-Fi on their phone, through their home’s internet provider.  Mr. Hansen stated that other people do have Fios internet or other internet providers and they don’t have the ability to jump onto the Optimum internet network.  Councilwoman Knudsen asked if they knew any other internet service providers that have free Wi-Fi.  Mr. Hansen stated that Optimum internet works with Spectrum internet, and they support each other to get a broader internet network.  The Verizon Fios wireless is a little different because their cell service offers Wi-Fi.

1. Wrap-up and Next Steps

 

Ms. Mailander stated that their next Budget Meeting is March 1, 2019 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. with Water, Recycling, Solid Waste and Yard Waste, Streets and Roads, Central Garage, Engineering, Planning, Traffic and Signal, Building Maintenance, Water Pollution Control Facility, and Zoning Board and Planning Board to be discussed.

1. COMMENTS FROM THE PUBLIC

There were no comments from the public.

1. ADJOURNMENT

There being no further business to come before the Village Council, on a motion by Councilman Sedon, seconded by Councilwoman Knudsen, and carried unanimously by voice vote, the Village Council’s Special Public Budget Meeting was adjourned at 9:16 P.M.

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                                                                                                      Ramon M. Hache, Sr.                              

Mayor