June
22, 2010
Minutes
of a Special Council Meeting of the
Borough
Council held at 7:30 P.M. on
Tuesday,
June 22, 2010, in the Council
Chamber,
The
meeting was called to order by
Mayor
Arnowitz who led the Salute
To
the Flag.
ANNOUNCEMENT OF MEETING
This Special
Meeting of the Borough Council of the Borough of Hillsdale was called pursuant
to the provisions of the Open Public Meetings Act. In addition, copies of the notice were posted
on the bulletin board in the
The fire exits are located through the double doors to
your left. Proceed through the lobby and
exit the building either right or left. Please
silence all cell phones and pagers.
ROLL CALL:
Mayor Arnowitz
called the roll those present
being as follows: Councilmembers DeJoseph, Giancarlo, Hanlon,
Schiavone and Weinstein.
APPOINTMENT: Council
Member
Mayor Arnowitz
said the first order of business is to fill his seat on Council from which he
resigned to become Mayor. The Seat is
for the rest of this year and the individual chosen will have to run for
re-election in November.
We received a letter from the
MOTION:
Motion to appoint Douglas Frank as Council Member was
made by Councilmember Weinstein, seconded by Councilmember DeJoseph.
Councilmember Schiavone thanked the Candidates we had,
we had very productive interviews and it was an extremely decision as they had
wonderful qualifications.
Councilmember Weinstein expressed his pleasure in seeing
candidates who haven’t participated in this way before and it is refreshing to
bring people in.
Councilmember Giancarlo said he believed this is the way
things should transpire.
Councilmember Hanlon agreed with everything that was said
tonight. It was a difficult
situation. It is good to see fresh faces
come forward.
Mayor Arnowitz thanked the
ROLL CALL:
Ayes:
Councilmembers DeJoseph, Giancarlo, Hanlon, Schiavone
And Weinstein
Nays: None
OATH OF OFFICE:
Mayor Arnowitz administered the Oath of Office to
Councilmember Douglas Frank.
OPEN PUBLIC MEETING:
Councilmember Frank thanked the Council for the
selection and looks forward to working with everyone.
RESOLUTION:
Resolution to Amend Budget, Amendment #2.
Motion to approve the Amendment was made by
Councilmember DeJoseph, seconded by Councilmember Schiavone.
ROLL CALL VOTE:
Ayes:
Councilmembers DeJoseph, Frank, Giancarlo, Hanlon,
Schiavone and Weinstein
Nays: None
(SEE COPY OF RESOLUTION AFFIXED HERETO)
ADOPTION OF BUDGET:
Resolution adopting the 2010 Municipal Budget for the
Borough of Hillsdale for the year 2010.
Councilmember DeJoseph said we were able to get this
budget completed but based on the situation of removal state aid and decreasing
revenues, we were able to do this without layoffs, without furloughs.
Mayor Arnowitz said this budget is extremely tight. We used a lot of surplus and the
Administrator has already notified the department heads that we will be
freezing 10% of everyone’s budget. That
is a positive role.
OPEN PUBLIC HEARING
Mayor Arnowitz opened the meeting to the public for
comments about the budget.
Michael Brinzey,
He said the increase in the budget is unacceptable. Whenever you have a deficit, the first thing
the Council should have done is freeze the salaries. He did
not hear of a hard choice budget, he only heard picking on the departments and
what could be done to save it. That is
where a mistake was made and you could have come up with a reasonable budget
this year. You were talking about
peanuts rather than freezing the salaries for the year.
Mayor Arnowitz said we froze all non-contractual
salaries for this year and there were no increases for non-union
employees. We had the Open Space debt
and the cut in state aid. This Council
did their work diligently in a very difficult time and he is very proud of
everyone. We did our work, it is not
simple to just lay people off.
Philip Krey,
People in Hillsdale voted down the school budgets for
the local and regional schools. How can
the council justify a 5.1% increase in operating expenses over the last
year. He had no increase in his pension
or Social Security. We have to do our part to turn the economy around and help
our fellow Americans. Why should
residents who get no salary increases be required to support the increase in
salaries and other operating expenses in our local government?
Alfred J. Murphy, Jr.,
The increase proposed in today’s economy is
unacceptable. The salary and wage line
item is over 5%. He said reductions can
be accomplished with furloughs and that is taking place in surrounding
communities. There are residents who
don’t have jobs and have tax payments and mortgage payments due. It is not fair. You have to make changes perhaps in pickup of
garbage and recycling. Harder changes
have to be made; if you don’t get concessions in the negotiation process, force
the issue with furloughs or layoffs.
Councilmember DeJoseph said our appropriation from the
year before was about 1% increase in our total appropriation. We had a large savings in the health
insurance and our problem was decrease in revenue and decrease in state aid.
Beverly Rosenstein,
We can cut back on services, our garbage pickup is a
luxury in Hillsdale, being picked up twice a week.
Mayor Arnowitz closed the public portion of the meeting
at this time.
Mayor Arnowitz said Waste Management was willing to talk
to us about the feasibility of changing a 10 year contract; we are in the fifth
year. When leaf recycling and transfer
at their station came up, the discussion with Waste Management stopped. Unless they are willing to negotiate, we
would have to wait until the contract is ended.
It is not a simple matter of saying we are going to change the
contract.
MOTION
A motion to approve the 2010 Municipal Budget was made
by Councilmember DeJoseph, seconded by Councilmember Weinstein.
ROLL CALL VOTE:
Ayes:
Councilmembers DeJoseph, Frank, Giancarlo, Hanlon,
Schiavone and Weinstein
Nays: None
(SEE COPY OF 2010 MUNICIPAL BUDGET AFFIXED HERETO)
GENERAL PUBLIC HEARING:
Mayor Arnowitz opened the meeting to the public and
invited comment from the audience.
Beverly Rosenstein,
She said Waste Management’s service could be looked
into. She said receptacles for recycling
are left on the road and many times they are in the middle of the road. They are not 100% efficient and the
containers in the middle of the road are a traffic hazard.
Sonya Kinzler,
She asked the Council to review the key figures of the
municipal budget after the amendment and asked the increase for the average
home.
Alfred J. Murphy, Jr.,
Regarding the introduction of the ordinance and sale of
Borough property, he asked what property.
After a discussion with the Council, the public portion
of the meeting was closed.
ORDINANCES:
Ord. 10-09 At the Mayor’s request, Administrator
(Introduction) Polce
read by title only proposed Ordinance
Authorize No.
10-09 as follows:
The
Borough AUTHORIZE
THE
Property INTENDED
FOR PUBLIC USE, BLOCK 2101,
MOTION:
Motion to approve the Introduction of Ordinance No.
10-09 was made by Councilmember Hanlon, seconded by Councilmember Weinstein.
Following is the result of the roll call vote on the
foregoing Ordinance No. 10-09:
Ayes:
Councilmembers DeJoseph, Frank, Giancarlo, Hanlon,
Schiavone and weinstein
Nays: None
(SEE COPY OF THE AFORESAID ORIGINAL RESOLUTION AFFIXED
HERETO)
RESOLUTIONS:
Mayor Arnowitz read the Consent Agenda of Resolutions.
Councilmember DeJoseph recused himself from Resolution
10083.
10083 Authorizing
Settlement of a Tax Appeal for
10086 Designating
Official Signatures was introduced by Councilmember Giancarlo, seconded by
Councilmember Frank.
10087 Liquor
License Plenary Retail Distribution Renewal was introduced by Councilmember
Giancarlo, seconded by Councilmember Frank.
10088 Liquor License Plenary Retail Consumption Renewal
was introduced by Councilmember Giancarlo, seconded by Councilmember Frank.
Following is the result of the roll call vote on the
foregoing Resolutions:
Ayes:
Councilmembers DeJoseph, Frank, Giancarlo, Hanlon,
Schiavone
and Weinstein.
Nays: None
10083 Authorizing
Settlement of a Tax Appeal for
Following is the result of the roll call vote on
Resolution 10083:
Ayes:
Councilmembers Frank, Giancarlo, Hanlon, Schiavone and
Weinstein
Nays: None
Abstain: Councilmember DeJoseph.
(SEE COPIES OF THE AFORESAID ORIGINAL RESOLUTIONS
AFFIXED HERETO)
LAST GO ROUND
Councilmember Giancarlo welcomed Councilmember Frank.
Councilmember Hanlon also welcomed Councilmember Frank.
Councilmember Weinstein said two weeks ago the Regional
Board of Ed voted with regard to a referendum which would be a reallocation of
the tax formula for the regional high school distributed among four towns. The only dissenting vote was Mr. Alfred
Murphy so the vote did pass which means there will be a referendum on September
28, essentially giving the Board of Ed to reallocate the revenues as collected
by the funding formula. He and Mayor
Arnowitz attended a meeting at River Vale last week and together with River
Vale we are looking to educate the residents in River Vale and Hillsdale as to
what the real issues are and the implications.
We are assembling a team to help us do that and he wanted to begin
talking about it now because over time people will understand the most
important thing we can do on September 28 is come out and vote our opinion,
“No.” The financial implications to
Hillsdale and River Vale would be catastrophic.
The formula has been in effect since the ‘70’s, it is the same formula
used throughout the state. Trying to
readjust it doesn’t make it right. We
will be talking about this more and more as we get details, educate the
public. It is the single biggest issue
facing us over the next several months.
Councilmember DeJoseph congratulated Councilmember
Frank. In July we are looking for input
from any resident with regard to possible cell tower on borough-owned
property.
Now that we are fully seated on the Council, the Finance
Committee could sit down with the Citizens Budget Advisory Committee for
discussions. He spoke of a possible
reassessment for our taxes depending on how the economy goes. June 10 was a vote in Senate of S-1 which was
a third vote, it passed with pretty good results which is COAH reform which
could be beneficial for Hillsdale. It
was sent to the Assembly and it is now in committee.
Mayor Arnowitz congratulated our newest
Councilmember. He asked Councilmember to
take over Liaisons; he had a list and everywhere Mayor Arnowitz was listed, it
is now changed to Councilmember Frank.
For the July meeting, he asked the Vaccaro-Bergholtz
property on the agenda as we have to finalize it. They want the borough to buy the property in
the flood zone through Green Acre or Blue Acre funds. Personally, he is not in favor of it but the
Council must make the decision.
The Sign Ordinance which Councilmember Schiavone worked
diligently on it, either we drop it or we move forward. We cannot let it flounder. The Chamber of Commerce received copies, they
have questions, and he would invite them.
Our existing sign ordinance is not being enforced. The Chamber of Commerce should be notified
and a definite date set up.
Councilmember Weinstein wanted an official invitation to
the Chamber to come here and talk about it.
With regard to the school referendum, this town cannot
expend tax dollars to push our agenda to get people to vote “No.” We will plead with the residents, ask them to
talk to their friends
and neighbors and get the message out. He is asking key people in every area,
seniors, fire, ambulance, people on the street to talk it up. He strongly recommended that people get
absentee ballots when available and vote.
You can vote absentee if there is a possibility you cannot get to the
polls. It is your right but more
importantly, it is your pocket book.
Councilmember Weinstein said the way this referendum
works is that if any single town votes it down, the referendum is voted
down. Any single town that has one more
negative vote than positive vote the referendum goes down. It is important that Hillsdale vote it down.
Mayor Arnowitz wanted a massive vote in both towns. The Mayor of Woodcliff Lake said they are
going to
He will be meeting with Councilmember Weinstein tomorrow
evening and he is allowed to bring an additional Councilmember. Councilmember Giancarlo will be there at 7:30
PM. Ms. Cron has agreed to help with
this endeavor.
He distributed to the Council a letter from Planning
Board Attorney Ritvo; he is recommending in Closed Session a discussion on
this. It is state mandated housing that
we are to build in town and we are to pay for it. This is the type of thing that goes on behind
the scenes. Unfunded mandate.
ADJOURNMENT
A motion to adjourn was made by Councilmember Giancarlo,
seconded by Councilmember Hanlon, and unanimously carried.
6-22-10
________________________
Robert P. Sandt,
RMC
Borough Clerk
APPROVED AS
PRESENTED
________________________
Robert P. Sandt,
RMC
Borough Clerk