BOROUGH OF RAMSEY

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6. Madeline Thumondo, Administrative Assistant, Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, 30 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ letter dated May 13, 2005, forwarding a resolution concerning a sewer extension permit. 7. Steven Miller, Steering Committee, Bergen Bike Tour, 64 Passaic Street, Hackensack, NJ.letter dated June 16, 2005, regarding Bike Tour on Sunday, September 25, 2005 from 7:30 am until 1:00 pm. 8. Madeline Thumundo, Secretary, Northwest Bergen County Utilities Authority, 30 Wyckoff Ave, Waldwick, NJ letter dated May 16, 2005 copy of the approved Minutes of NBCUA Meetings. 9. Alex Stecyna, 39 Shuart Lane, Ramey, NJ letter dated June 15, 2005, requesting to hold a block party on Sunday, July 3, 2005 from 1:00 p.m. until 9:30 p.m. Councilwoman O’Brien stated that she agrees with Mr. Iannarelli, in letter #1 and with regard to letter #4, she thought that the library contract had been executed sometime ago. Councilman Heller stated that letter #4 is a commentary on the sad status of labor and management relations currently existing in the Borough. It expresses the frustration of the employees as being targeted as solutions to any economic problems the Borough may have. We genuinely need to move back to having employees treated as assets and not liabilities. Councilman Bisaillon stated that with regard to letter #1 the Police Chief would like to add additional officers and I think there was a questions with regard to the process in time for the July training class. I think he is going to put together a business case that arrives at the appropriate number of officers for this town. Councilman Ratto stated that he is also in support of letter #1. At this point, the Police Department is high in morale but not replacing those retired officers will affect that morale as well as future negotiating contracts with the Police Department. Councilman Botta stated we cannot just have a knee jerk reaction when an officer retires. We need to do due diligence. I think Mr. Iannarelli does state the obvious but we have to look at the financial due diligence. Mayor Muti…With regard to letter #4, yes, there was a delay between the execution of a memorandum of understanding with the Library Union until the final signing of the contract which occurred today. That memorandum of understanding was executed I believe in March and there were some questions that were put forth and an attempt was made to resolve them. We finally saw some movement on the part of the union representative for the Library, Kathleen Hernandez,CWA Local 1031, AFL/CIO, when our attorney, Mark Ruderman, e-mailed a letter to her on June 8. The letter states: “On May 24, 2005, I e-mailed to you a typographical error on Page 16 dealing with Retiree Health Benefits. Previous to that time, I had e-mailed you a complete draft on May 19, 2
2005, as well as correspondence on May 18, May 16, and April 12, concerning the above matter. A major component of this mediation agreement was the implementation of insurance changes by July 1, 2005. The failure of the union to sign this contract this week could very well put this changeover in danger and jeopardize the entire settlement. Your immediate attention to this matter is sincerely appreciated.” This letter went out on June 8, after numerous phone calls and attempts with correspondence to get Ms. Hernandez to respond to the contract proposal that memorialized the memorandum of understanding. She responded on June 9 and since then we have been working out some discrepancies and details, some additional things that the library group wanted that were not contained in the memorandum of understanding. We finally reached that resolution today. The delay in large measure I believe is due to the procrastination of the executive vice-president of the library union. With regard to letter #1, from Mr. Iannarelli…Under no circumstances, will I support the replacement of retiring police officers who are leaving the force this year or who have left the force this year. When I became Mayor, we were down to 30 police officers. During the first 2 years of my tenure as Mayor, I hired (with the support of the Council) seven additional police officers to build up the staff of our department. Now, we have three officers retiring and now circumstances have changed with regard to the finances of the State, and the events that we may be facing in our financial future. The hiring of a police officer represents a commitment by a Borough of at least $3.5 million dollars per officer over a 25 year career, not counting inflation. If you throw inflation into the mix, each police officer you hire would likely cost Ramsey taxpayers in the future $5 million over the term of his or her career. Anyone who reads the newspapers knows that there is a great deal of uncertainty with regard to the future financial health of this state. One need only look at the Record, the Star Ledger, with regard to the deficits that the state faces. I am sure that most of the people in this room who read the Record have seen the pension fund deficit that the state faces is $27 billion dollars. Where do we think we are going to get the money to pay for that? They are going to put that burden on municipalities to make up that deficit. We already are burdened with making up short falls, immediate shortfalls, in the pension system thanks to shenanigans of both Republican and Democratic administrations in borrowing, using the pension trust funds to borrow, and skipping payments that were due to the pension trust fund. Just this year, we saw an increase of our retirement costs of over $100,000.00 that we have to pay into pension systems. It likely will increase over the next couple years. Once the need to satisfy this $27 billion shortfall hits, we could be talking to the tune of $200,000 to $300,000 a year for additional charges that the State will impose upon us and we will have no alternative but to pay it. It will be based on the number of employees that we have who are members of that system. If we add employees now at a time when there is such uncertainty, it could be horrendous for this municipality. With all of the problems that the State faces, it would not be beyond the realm of likelihood for us to see a cut in our municipal aid, if not next year certainly within the next couple of years, when these chickens come home to roost. Just last month in the Star Ledger, a column by Tom Moran entitled “A Voice Crying in the Benefits Wilderness”, stated the following; “John McCormac, the treasurer of the State of New Jersey, sat serenely in his wood paneled office on Monday while the protesters yelled, “Hey, Hey, Ho, Ho, John McCormac’s got to go”. Roughly, 5,000 souls had gathered and it seemed like all they wanted McCormac to know was they thought of him as pond scum. His sin was to suggest that New Jersey scale back the health and pension benefits of retired workers. A sober look at the numbers shows why he’s worried.” This is the Treasurer of the State of New Jersey. In 5 years, those benefits will devour 20% of the State budget, up from 8% now. McCormac’s conclusion is that a brick is about to fall on our heads and it is time we stepped out of the way. An editorial in the Star Ledger: “The budget lesson of the l990’s is clear – don’t rely on one-time revenue gimmicks. The 3
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BOROUGH OF RAMSEY

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