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ROBBINSVILLE: Municipal budget discussions continue

by James McEvoy, Managing Editor
   ROBBINSVILLE — In advance of formally adopting a municipal budget for the 2013-14 fiscal year, Police Chief Martin P. Masseroni lamented the potential impact on his department.
   During budget discussions at the March 14 meeting, Chief Masseroni said they may have difficulty operating within the budget. “I think the budget’s going to be difficult to work with, but I think that I can do the job and I just want you to know that,” Chief Masseroni said.
   The department, which typically staffs 27 officers, has been operating with 24 due to two officers being on sick leave and a third out due to personal issues.
   ”We’re doing the best we can with what we have,” added Lt. Michael Polaski.
   Several other departments discussed their budget needs with the council during the meeting. Under the proposed $21.9 million budget, taxpayers would get a 2-cent cut in the municipal tax rate that would save them approximately $76 in their municipal tax bills.
   The decrease would bring the municipal tax rate to 52.2 cents per $100 of assessed home value. This means owners of homes assessed at $381,000 would pay $1,981 in municipal taxes. Residents haven’t seen a tax cut since 2007 when the township took over the fire district.
   Officials attribute much of the decrease due to reaching a multi-million dollar agreement with Amazon.com in January.
   Since the 22-acre farmland will be converted to commercial property, the township was eligible to receive $650,000 in rollback taxes. Under state law, once farmland converts to commercial property, the township can collect three years’ worth of taxes based on what the land would have been assessed at had it always been a commercial property.
   The proposed budget also includes a $500,000 reduction in long-term debt. Mayor Dave Fried named debt reduction as a goal so the township could eventually spend more money on services.
   Chief Masseroni said he is also prioritizing the purchase of ammunition, noting he was concerned about availability.
   ”Ammunition costs are going up,” he said, noting that a portion of a recent department purchase was backordered.
   Another significant portion of the police budget is the purchase/lease of three vehicles. Chief Masseroni noted he had initially sought five. Mr. Fried also said he was hoping for a bailiff position to be through the police budget for the municipal clerk’s office in light on ongoing concerns regarding a resident, who officials would not name.
   Mr. Fried said the resident was apparently unhappy with a decision rendered by the township and in response has been filing “an inordinate amount” of Open Public Records Act requests.
   ”This is not something that Michele (Seigfried, township clerk) is doing or causing,” he said. “This person has made staff uncomfortable. We’ve had multiple complaints from multiple members of the staff.
   ”We are taking measures for security, we are going to be looking at the possibly of having a bailiff at the window,” he added, noting the resident had given the indication they would continue until officials changed their mind.
   ”We’re not going to be intimidated,” he said. “We make a decision, we stand by our decision.”
   During the various department budget discussions, members of council pointed out some cases where certain line items include dollars that have been consistently budgeted in previous years, but not always used.
   ”(We should) look historically at what we actually spend and bring the budget more in line with what’s actually spent,” said Councilwoman Sheree McGowan.
   Other costs discussed include data processing increases tied to the township’s use of the Cloud to supplement e-mail servers, which have been crashing regularly, according to officials.
   Mr. Fried noted the Cloud would also benefit information storage in the event of a power outage, specifically referring to outages experienced during Hurricane Sandy.
   Another new cost would be the hire of Paul Adezio as an in-house attorney to serve two days a week to deal with affordable housing issues and provide other immediate services.
   Mark Roselli, township attorney, said Adezio is experienced and has served as Hamilton Township attorney.
   Budget discussions are likely to continue at the April 3 council meeting. A public hearing is currently scheduled to take place at the April 11 meeting, after which the council may formally adopt, the budget.