SOUTH RIVER — Residents will not see an increase in their municipal taxes this year, thanks to a budget amendment introduced May 13 by the Borough Council.
Borough Chief Financial Officer Joseph Zanga told the council that officials reduced each municipal department’s budget by 10 percent in order to avoid a tax increase.
“Each department submitted where they would like to see 10 percent [cut],” he said.
Rather than discussing the budget at the May 13 meeting, the council talked about the dissemination of information by the business administrator. Councilman Jim Jones said he had requested information about an undisclosed department, and Business Administrator Frederick Carr responded to his request, but copied the rest of the council on his reply.
“Everybody else gets to know what Jimmy Jones wants to know about a particular situation,” Jones said.
Meanwhile, he said, requests for information by other councilmen, particularly Councilman Shawn Haussermann, did not involve a reply to the whole council.
“I want to know why we’re picking and choosing,” Jones said.
Carr responded that he had replied to Haussermann with a document, but wanted to confirm that it was the material Haussermann was looking for before sharing it with the others.
“Your request, sir, was very specific,” he told Jones.
Haussermann supported Jones’ position, so Mayor John Krenzel asked Carr for his criteria in sharing information.
Carr said he makes those decisions based on whether the material would be useful to other councilmen, saying that if one councilman had a question, it was likely others might as well. But he also wants to limit unnecessary emails, particularly those with large attachments. He said he is mindful of open government laws and aims to comply with them.
“I try very hard to treat everyone the same,” he said, and apologized to Jones.
Haussermann said that councilmen should have the right to request materials privately.
Ultimately, Carr agreed to Jones’ request not to copy the rest of the council on emailed requests for information.
In addition, Carr confirmed after the meeting that Lincoln School would go back up for bid next month. Carr said when the property was put up for bid in April, none of the handful of interested bidders met the $400,000 minimum to purchase the site.
The council will hold a public hearing on the amendment to the budget on May 28.