Mayor and Council Review Capital Budget Expenses

The mayor and council moved along in the budget review process Monday night by agreeing to authorize the preparation of an ordinance for the capital budget in the amount of $859,850.  

The capital expenses for all departments, originally totaling $1.8 million, were reviewed and trimmed to $859,850 with many expenses being reduced in scope or completely eliminated.

A common theme throughout the evening was the Democratic councilmembers looking to make further cuts to the capital budget and the Republican councilmembers trying to determine the safety implications of some of the cuts and the fact that many of the proposed cuts must be funded at some future point. 

Councilman Austin Ashley said that given the current economic climate, he was not comfortable authorizing capital expenses that were near $900,000. Councilwoman Randi Duffie echoed his sentiments while questioning the line items in the capital budget.

Cut from the budget is the purchase of police radios, leaving the borough one year to complete the state issued conversion to narrow band width. Councilman Dominic Colucci said that this is a cost that is not going away and must be included in next year's budget in order for the police department to be in compliance.

The council did approved Chief Frank Papapietro's request for a radio repeater. A repeater is an electronic device that receives a signal and retransmits it at a higher level or higher power, or onto the other side of an obstruction, so that the signal can cover longer distances.The repeater is necessary because the current communications system does not get any reception at the middle school. 

Also cut from the capital budget were streets that had been scheduled for paving and repair, specifically Trotta Drive and William Street. 

The DPW requests of two new dump trucks to replace the one from 1982 that Mike Calamari, DPW Department Head, said is unfixable, and the other from 1985, was reduced to one truck to be purchased at a cost below $100,000 after Ashley asked Calamari if one new truck was sufficient to see the department through the year. 

As the Democratic members of the council debated the necessity of some of the proposed capital expenses of the Police Department and DPW, Rebublican councilmembers began to question whether they were sacrificing safety for cost savings. 

In addition to issues of safety, council president Howard Berner expressed concern regarding how the cuts will also affect efficiency. "If we don't replace these things we infringe on the efficiency of our employees if they have to keep repairing [equipment] or if they're working with equipment that's not reparable." 

Colucci said that replacing parts on some of these pieces of equipment might be problematic.

"Plus if the machinery isn't efficient we pay for it in overtime costs," Colucci said. "It takes longer to plow with one truck and if you're fixing machinery there's downtime."

Councilman Diego Robalino said, "These are old machines; we have to provide safe equipment for our employees."  

"We also have to consider that if an employee gets injured our insurance premiums go up," he added. 

Berner said, "Money is tough, but we still have to provide services."

The council will continue to review the operational expenses included in the budget at next Monday's work session.

The budget will be introduced to the public at the April 23 meeting of the mayor and council.