When Will The City Pay $450,000 in Outstanding Bills?

It's unclear when the city will pay $450,000 in outstanding bills from last year, after a line item transfer wasn't passed during Wednesday night's bi-monthly council meeting. 

The resolution failed in a 5-4 vote, with council minority members Theresa Castellano, Beth Mason, Tim Occhipinti and Michael Russo voting "no."

A large chunk of money is owed to several law firms, including Hollenbeck and Scarinci as well as Weiner Lesniak. This also means that bills owed to the city's Corporation Counsel Mark Tabakin—who works at Weiner Lesniak—can't be paid. 

During the meeting Russo asked why the bills in question weren't paid, saying he wants to launch a "full investigation" into what happened. 

"Was it a mistake," Russo said, "or deliberately?"   

After Wednesday's meeting, Tabakin said he wasn't sure what the next step would be or when the bills would be paid.

The money would be taken from line items with excess funds in the 2011 budget. In a memo to the council, Mayor Dawn Zimmer wrote that the line item transfer would not "raise taxes or total appropriations."

"We have an obligation to pay the people who work for us," Zimmer wrote also, "so I hope you will approve of this routine transfer. The reserve budget of $5.3 million would fully cover these cost."

It's unclear what the next step will be, but a special meeting could be called to approve the transfer before the end of the month.