BY KATHY BARATTA
Staff Writer
Howell Township Manager Bruce Davis said this week he has been working to set up a billing system that could allow municipal officials to retain Howell’s Youth and Family Services Department.
The Township Council recently announced a decision that calls for the elimination of the entire department and other positions from the municipal budget, effective July 1.
The council has proposed a $36.7 million budget that will raise the municipal tax rate by 5 cents per $100 of assessed valuation. Retaining all of the targeted cuts would result in a tax increase of 6.5 cents per $100, according to municipal officials.
A public hearing and adoption of the 2005 municipal budget is scheduled for the council’s June 14 meeting.
With a 5-cent increase in place, the owner of a home assessed at $200,000 would pay $100 more in municipal taxes in 2005 than in 2004. With a 6.5-cent increase, the 2005 tax hike would amount to $130.
The owner of a home assessed at $300,000 will pay $150 more in municipal taxes in 2005 than in 2004 with a 5-cent increase in place. A 6.5-cent increase would have resulted in a $195 increase in 2005.
With a 5-cent increase in place, the owner of a home assessed at $400,000 would pay $200 more in municipal taxes in 2005 than in 2004. With a 6.5-cent increase, the tax hike would amount to $260.
The total payroll for the Youth and Family Services Department, which consists of six treatment personnel, one administrative assistant and director Holli Toline, is $393,468. The cost of operating the Youth and Family Services Department works out to about $15 per household per year, according to township officials.
After maintaining through the course of three public and extremely contentious meetings that cutting Toline’s department was necessary if the tax increase was to be reduced from 6.5 to 5 cents, the council heard from Davis at a May 25 meeting. The manager said he was working to come up with a billing system that could make Toline’s department self-sustaining.
The threat of eliminating the 20-year-old department and the other jobs brought noisy demonstrations from union employees and affiliates who picketed the three successive council meetings that followed the announced cuts.
They were joined by residents who said they had never used the Youth and Family Services Department’s resources, but thought them necessary, as well as present and former clients who relinquished their anonymity in order to stand up for the department’s preservation.
Although having never previously mentioned or publicly discussed instituting a billing system that would save Youth and Family services from the budget ax, Mayor Joseph M. DiBella said after Davis’ presentation that it had been the council’s intention to try and save the department in this manner since the cuts had been announced.
It was confirmed at the May 25 special budget hearing that housing inspector Patricia Hoover’s employment would not be terminated along with the other jobs slated for elimination by the mayor and council.
The decision to cut Hoover’s position had been criticized by many as having a potentially negative effect on housing standards. Some claimed that without the position, homeowner abuses such as illegal rental conversions in residential basements and garages would occur.
The announced cuts had also been slated to include three employees at the senior citizens center. Davis said two of those jobs at the senior center will also be saved through the use of a trust account already in place that is funded through donations.
Also, a basin maintenance account may be used to offset the salaries of public works employees who would be used to perform maintenance at all 53 retention and detention basins in the community.
Using the basin maintenance account was the idea of two enterprising municipal employees, Christopher Chiana from the Department of Public Works and Joseph Aebi of the Parks Department. Both men gave a presentation to the mayor and council at the May 25 meeting that detailed how the township’s builder-funded basin account could be used to offset the salaries of workers needed to maintain all of the basins.
Following their presentation, DiBella said if the two men were correct about the funds being available the money would be used to save jobs.
Other intended staff cuts include one person from recreation; seven employees from parks, recreation and grounds; two employees from the public works department; and one employee from the municipal clerk’s office.