Budget vote comes as surprise to some
Council puts off adoption of tab with $150 avg. tax hike
BY CHRIS MURINO Staff Writer

SAYREVILLE — A municipal budget amendment that would have reduced the tax rate hike from 12.8 cents to 10.4 cents was shot down at last week's Borough Council meeting.

The amendment was proposed after the borough found out it would receive $125,000 in state extraordinary aid, Chief Financial Officer Wayne Kronowski said. Other changes were a $100,000 reduction in the down payment for capital improvements, and the use of $300,000 more in surplus funds. The town had been using $2.9 million in surplus, and that number was increased to $3.2 million.

The current proposal would raise the average municipal tax bill by $150, instead of by $184, as was initially proposed.

At the council's Aug. 4 meeting, Kronowski talked about the amendment having to be adopted with the proposed tax increase.

"Unless we get some revenue windfall from somewhere, we're just not going to be able to do any more moving with this budget," he said. "I'm not sure we can put this off much longer."

However, the council did put it off. After Borough Clerk Theresa Farbaniec read the amendment aloud, Democratic Councilman Rory Zach moved to adopt the amendment. At first, no one responded to second it, not even Councilman David Kaiserman or Councilwoman Paula Siarkiewicz, Republicans who worked with Zach on the Administrative and Finance Committee.

Democratic Councilwoman Kathy Makowski eventually seconded it.

When roll call began, Democratic Councilman Stanley Drwal voted no. He said he had just gotten a chance to see the amendment and could not vote on something he was not well versed in. After Kaiserman also voted no, Makowski rescinded her seconding of the motion, saying that if the members of the budget committee don't even support it, then she could not agree to it.

Zach was agitated by the events that unfolded.

"You need to come back with very specific recommendations on what we need to do with the budget," Zach told Siarkiewicz. "This is absolutely ridiculous. I will not attend any more [committee] meetings. It's a waste of my time."

Zach said he could not understand why Siarkiewicz and Kaiserman did not raise their concerns previously.

"I had no idea they were going to do what they did," he said.

Zach also wondered aloud, at the meeting, whether party politics had anything to do with it.

"The Republicans don't want anyone to say 'They raised the budget,' " Zach said. "Let's not mince words here."

Zach was not the only one who was shocked by the amendment not passing.

"After I met with the Administration and Finance Committee, I understood that it was going to be voted through, since there was a reduction in the [amount of the] tax rate [increase]," Kronowski said.

Siarkiewicz, however, said she had made her problems with the budget known, especially her belief that the borough spends too much money on legal fees.

The town's legal bills have been a point of contention at several public meetings over the past year, with Republican Mayor Kennedy O'Brien also calling them into question. In January, O'Brien refused to reappoint Borough Attorney Brian Hak, of Weiner Lesniak, Parsippany, the Democrats' choice. In March, the council voted 3-2, along party lines, to approve the firm.

Hak has defended the legal bills during public discussions, saying they are "more than reasonable," and that Sayreville has an inordinate amount of litigation for a municipality its size.

Still, Republicans remain unwilling to support the costs in this year's budget.

"There was no way I could vote for something like that," Siarkiewicz said. "Legal fees are in excess of a half million dollars [for the year]."

Siarkiewicz said she knew that the borough could have saved about a quarter million dollars in legal fees.

"The number-one priority is to be fiscally responsible, and this would not be fiscally responsible," she said.

Kaiserman said in an e-mail to the Suburban that he has concerns about the legal bills and noted that he sought unsuccessfully to switch to a new law firm earlier this year. He also said the borough is in an unfortunate situation because of heavy spending in prior years, and too much use of surplus funds to hold the line on past budgets. The surplus fund, he said, was wrongly "gutted" by past councils.

"A surplus is like a savings account," Kaiserman said. "It is not wise to financially deplete your savings, and as any homeowner or businessman will tell you, you always need money in your savings for that rainy day." He said the Administration and Finance Committee is working "to undo the problems" created by past decisions.

Zach was also angry because it was not the actual budget the council was voting on last week.

"We weren't setting the budget," he said. "All we did was the amendment. We could've taken the budget and still made adjustments. I have no idea what they were thinking."

Zach said he was unable to attend the next meeting of the committee because he is on vacation, but that he e-mailed Siarkiewicz to send him any recommended changes. Zach said he would not agree to any of the changes unless Kronowski and Business Administrator Jeffrey Bertrand agreed to those changes.

The next council meeting where any action can take place will be held Aug. 18.