of city hall. Written objections, if any, should be made to city clerk. Rise for the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it
stands. One nation under God, indivisible, justice for all. Call >> Mr. Clark. >> Got it. Council President. Uh, Councilman Cohen >> here. >> Councilman Firestone >> here.
>> Councilwoman Fischer >> here. >> Councilwoman Imus >> here. >> Councilwoman Le >> here. >> Councilman Preszano >> present. >> Coun Councilman Cano >> present. >> Councilman Russo >> present.
>> And council president Ramos Jr. >> present. >> Present. Any members of the public, Jerry have to read? Um, >> yeah, I just got to read the uh the notes real quick. Please be advised that council president
of the city of Hoboken hereby call a special meeting of the governing body for Thursday, June 11, 2026 to begin promptly at 7 p.m. via Zoom for the following purpose. Public hearing for the CY 2026 budget amendment, followed
by two resolutions. a resolution to adopt the calendar year 2026 amended budget. And the second resolution is authorizing the tax collector to prepare and mail estimate tax bills in accordance with P.L194, C-72.
And that is all in public portion. So we may begin >> public. We have any members of public side to speak J or in the waiting room to speak? >> Yep. We have a couple hands. Uh, let's see.
>> Um, any members of the public, you'll have five minutes to speak with regards to the budget. keep the time and Mr. Clerk, please give them notification when there are 15 seconds remaining in their time, please. >> Got it.
Oh, wait. Uh, >> members of the public will get an additional 30 seconds if they say Nixon 5. >> Hello. Can you hear me? >> Yes. Hey, Denny. >> Oh, thank you. [laughter] I was I had my hand raised but nobody was noticing so I got a little nervous.
>> No, I see. We see you. >> Okay. Wonderful. Wonderful. Um what I want to say today is um this budget that you're going to vote on is really a missed opportunity. A crisis that could have been a catalyst to make big changes
is getting wasted today. I I just don't know how useful it is to rearrange the debt chairs on the Titanic because that's what's happening today. What you're doing today repeats every year. You know this. Every year the mayor suggests a tax increase. Council wants to show that it cares for lower
taxes. So it starts with an exercise of projecting higher revenue, projecting lower spending, take more from the parking. All of you will say that big cost debt service and employee benefits. But I doubt if the budget you're going to pass
today addresses any of those. You should be doing something about those things. Address big expenses like healthcare costs which you all know is going out of control. Last year the taxes were went up 4.5%.
This year it's going up 11.5%. What better evidence that what you have been doing every year is just not working. It's making things worse. There's a fine line between compromise and capitulation. and what you're doing today is capitulating.
>> Imagine if five of you found the courage to not support the budget, but give the mayor ammunition she could take to the unions and say, "I don't have council support for massive tax increases." So, you have two choices. You can give us give up on your Cadillac health plans
and pay deductibles like the rest of her book does, or we don't pass the budget, state takes over, and then layoffs will begin. So, which one's going to be? But you're taking that opportunity away from her. You've you've seen many public hearings
and you know people are angry. You are our representation. So be angry with us. Channel our anger. Anger doesn't always burn things down. It often creates a glow, a radiance. So don't be afraid. None of you are on the ballot this year.
So this is the time to be bold. And if you can't be bold, just don't run next year. Make space for someone else who will. Thank you. >> Thank you. Uh, next member of public, Mr. Clerk. >> Hello.
>> Can you hear me? >> Yes. Yes, we can. >> Okay. Sorry. Um, I just have a couple of things to say about the I read the budget and I see that the city council salaries increased by $18,000. Um, curious, did you give yourself raises?
It doesn't say health benefits, it says salaries. The health department increased in salaries of 183,000. Division of public engagement increased by 245,000. ABC board listed $26,000 for salary. I thought it was a volunteer. public
safety director. $150,000 for World Cup. Why am I paying for this? I'm being inconvenient. So the bars can make money. Let them pay for it. Not sure if this or the increase in council salaries is my favorite. How much is it going to cost the taxpayers for overtime during
FIFA? Again, the city makes nothing. The residents don't make anything. The bars do. How much are they paying for all of this? Most of the other line items have a decrease in salaries but have an increase in other expenses. So, it seems like all smoke and mirrors to me. It all balances out to the same amount. Seems
to me more work could have been done on this budget, but it's easy to say, "Look, we brought it down." Personally, I believe the budget was always at 12%. But now, you know, the city claimed, "Oh, 20% increase. Boy, look at we brought it down to 12. You look like heroes." Not in my opinion, but in some.
As a small landlord under rent control, I am only allowed an increase of the CPI and rent, but you can do whatever you want. And then you take landlords not under rent control to court for raising their rents above the CPI. I call that hypocrisy. Shake my head. I really can't believe any of this. I have never given
my tenants search charges, but you, the council administration and mayor, have forced this on them. I will tell them to come see you when they complain and I hand it to them. Hobok and home of the rich. And in closing, business alliance tax. I get no benefits. Can't pass it
along. Stealing my money. School tax, which is outrageous. I have no children, nor will there be any in my building. No benefits. Again, here we go. Now, we have a 12% tax increase. I see no additional benefits for me or my property or my tenants, and all I seem
to be doing doing is taking care of an employment agency. Great job, people. Thank you. >> Thank you, Rose. But the city council did not receive a any salary increases this year for the city council members. >> No, it's listed on the budget. That's
why I brought it up. Yeah, that >> I think that's not accurate though. >> It just >> Okay, [laughter] just what I read. >> I know. It's okay. >> Thank you. >> You're welcome. Thank you. Have a good night. >> You too.
>> Okay. The next speaker is Manuel Rivera Solair. Manny can hear us. >> Uh yes. Good evening, council president, members of the council and everyone because president obviously obviously when you make a temptation like that of
course Nixon five come on now. Um so >> you're you're negative 15 seconds Manny. It's okay. [laughter] >> I appreciate that. No, I'm not. But I appreciate that. Anyway, back to the the issue at hand. Council president, I also like to understand on F2. Are we able to speak on that now as well or or is that
something extra? Uh, I think just the five minutes for this item. If you have a vote on F2, that's a different item. So, >> okay. All right. Then then I'm wasting time here. So, anyway, what I would like to say is that being that members of the public were following this from the beginning. Um if if council president
and council members I know that that it it must pain you to to continue to explain these things, but can um tonight can um when you make this final vote or when you make this final decision, can you before you do that, explain to members of the public um what what what
got you to this last um point um what changes did you accept each and every one of you if you're going to vote yes or no? Um again, as a member of the public mentioned, um please make sure and clarify that there is no um since you were all fighting in regards to most
of you were fighting in regards to top heavy that you're not you're not accepting any raises of any sorts. Um also um and you also let members of the public understand what is the um the
amount of funds that will be um used from the um reserve meaning the rainy day fund um because as I always say um it feels like the temporal sare uh so that means that uh the storm is uh approaching so we we might need that
rainy day fund pretty soon so I hope that it doesn't get affected too much Um, Mr. President, I know that this has been belated for a long time and many members of the public will not be happy no matter what because any raise, whether it be one point or 12 points is
going to affect people's um u bottom line as well as it does um what's happening nationally. So, so by you explaining to members of the public the fine points again um great points were made by the prior member of the public. Let us know um what you reached through
what what what was your outcome? what was everybody happy with and um or not happy with. So, this is important. Members of the public need to understand what is the tax levy um the final tax levy and what was taken out and what was left in. And council president, I know
that uh I have those extra 30 seconds, but I will hopefully not need them. So, I'll if you could answer any of that, I I would hopefully yield back or or I'll stay online and let you know that uh that wasn't clear. But if any clarity can be given tonight in the in this last
version of this budget would be greatly appreciated for members of the public. Thank you all. Thank you, Council President. God bless you. >> Thank you, Manny. Appreciate it, buddy. >> Next uh speaker, Mr. Trisha waiters, >> unmute your mic, please.
Pat, can you hear us? Please unmute your microphone. >> Hello. >> Yep, we can hear you now. Pat, >> y'all can hear me. >> Yep, we can hear you now. >> Y'all be playing when it come to my name. I know that because I had my hand hung up. I'm speaking on uh Hold up. I'm
speaking on the budget. Am I right? >> Yes. >> I pull over because I'm driving and better not tell the cop I don't want a ticket. Anyway, I just want to say one thing. Wait, Mike, stop laughing. I'm serious. I want to say one thing cuz I I wasn't on in the very beginning. Is you guys are going to vote for this tonight
or is this just a proposal so the members of the public? >> We'll be voting tonight. We'll be voting tonight. >> The final vote. >> Yes. >> Okay. So, now it's up to you guys to you owe us an explanation. I heard just a little bit of what Manny's saying that
what brought us here. But the thing that I don't understand, somebody just said something about the World Cups and all of that other stuff, that should not be included in the budget. That's a one-time event that's happening. You know what I'm saying? The budget should be based upon the whole yearly court or
whatever. So, I just want to know what brought you to the 12%. And I tonight, I want some of Manny's questions to be answered because I have the same exact questions. What brought us here? And I hope you guys will be supporting this. Not because it's good, because we drank.
So support the budget and vote yes. >> Thank you, Pat. Uh, next speaker, Mr. Clerk. >> We have no speakers right now currently for the public hearing. So >> motion close public portion.
>> Second. >> All in favor? I >> I >> I council president, can we just clarify the one thing about council salaries because I've just gotten two texts. The council salary last year was lower because we
only had eight council members for 10 months of the year. So this year it's backed up back up to a budget for nine council members. Um and we've not gotten any uh raises. I just want to clarify that. Thank you very much, Councilwoman.
Any other members of the council? Mr. President Zano. Yeah. Um, >> uh, hang on. Just just bear with me one second. Sorry, it's bedtime here and uh we're on
the same floor. Um, the To me, this battle's lost, but there's still a war to win. Um, and I I use that just as an example. I think Hoboken residents are going to pay an 11.5%
increase because it has the votes tonight. Um, I'm going to vote no because I can't support placing that burden on the people who already work hard to live here. And I think tonight you'll hear some of
some of you, my colleagues, call this the victory because they negotiate at the lowest possible rate. And I absolutely disagree. Our job uh isn't to negotiate the smallest tax increase. Our job is to solve the problems that created it. And
I think Deie said it best in the beginning. Those are very two different things. And an 11.5% tax increase isn't a solution. It's just a delay. It kicks the can down the road. And it guarantees, and if I can quote Councilman Cohen, we'll be back here
next year probably doing the same things. During this whole process, during the negotiations, um, I was asked whether I wanted to give the mayor and her her council team a political victory.
And I didn't answer that question. And I with a yes or no. I answered it with my answer was different. I will not vote for a double-digit tax increase or anything close to it. It was simple. I drew the line in the sand.
We and I or I and and the rest of you were elected not to make easy decisions. We were elected to make the right decisions. And I guess right in this instance, it means something different for all of us. But to me, the right decision means
making those uh structural changes, cutting the waste, I think that many of us can admit. Um addressing the spending habits of the last eight years or last 20 years, we can call it whatever we want. And and yet
we don't address the long-term problems and we just keep relying on the taxpayers to fix it. getting a win out of this doesn't doesn't pay a tax bill. It it just you
need reform. Reform gets that done. And after I looked at the second amendment to the budget, um some I reating what I said, some I do agree, but there's a lot of tweaks and smokes and mirrors and
there wasn't many meaningful cuts and no serious effort to fix structural problems. Now, I appreciate that some of the stuff that was suggested by Councilman Russo and I were included. Uh, but those barely even scratched the
surface. It was more like just to kind of say we listened to Paul and Mike and I think more was needed to be done. So, sounds like I'm sitting here running for reelection right now, but I'm choosing to stand with the public and the
residents and not politics. I'm choosing to protect their hard-earned money, which they asked us to do when they voted us in. And even if that means tonight that I'm in the minority, which I probably will be, this will pass tonight 63.
Um, I strongly disagree with the outcome. Uh and but I do want to point out something positive and for the first time in a very long time since I've actually been paying attention uh to the political scene in
Hoboken uh you my colleagues have actually devoted real time effort towards the budget and I applaud you for that and you know I'm not one to pat people on the back but the budget is the the single most important thing that we do and the level level of engagement
that we had this year should be the standard and literally not the exception. So, I do want to end that kind of in a in a positive light in all of this that I do appreciate everybody taking the time and look for it, looking at the budget and giving input and I
hope a lot of us uh uh continue that next year. Now, the results going to be um disappointing tonight. Um, but I think taking another positive out of this, it showed something important when everybody kind of is willing to dig into
the numbers. There were tough questions that were asked and that was great because we started to challenge the status quo. We didn't exactly get to the ending that I wanted to see, but it did show that there are better solutions and they are possible.
It's just we need to do our job and make those difficult decisions going forward. I'm going to continue doing that and I ask all my colleagues to continue to do the same with the effort that you put in it. Um because we can't deliver another year of um
I don't want to say excuses or temporary fixes or borrow from here taken from there. We really need to make structural changes to how the city government is run. And that's going to take strong leadership
from us, what we were asked to do when we were elected to these offices. And it's only going to happen when we're willing to actually fix the problem instead of kicking the can down the road. I will be voting no tonight. And
hopefully next year we're not in this when we come next year and we make the very difficult decisions that we're going to that we're pushing off for another year that my colleagues will join me in supporting something of that nature where there are structural cuts. Thank you.
>> Thank you. Any other members of council? Uh Councilman Contra and Council. >> Oh yeah. Thanks. Uh thanks Council President. I just wanted to one I I I'll agree with Councilman President Zano on one thing. We are pushing some things off for a year for a reason. So, I'm going to kind of explain that in a
second. Uh but one thing I do want to ask is let's stop calling this a win. No one who's voted yes first time around said this was a win. We said this was a compromise. We said this is what we have to do. We also said none of us are really happy with this including the administration. Right? So, um it was a
compromise. Uh, and it's a compromise because I think, and I'll, you know, I read Councilwoman, uh, Fischer's, uh, newsletter, and I would actually recommend, I wouldn't do this normally, take a look at it. Uh, I think she had a pretty good analysis as to where we got
with this, which was, um, some of the proposals, the structural cuts, some of those deep things, which are conceptually good ideas to look at, were just not feasible this year. uh open re uh opening um contracts,
renegotiating with um uh unions. Good idea, not plausible to happen within the couple of months that we have left. Right? In years past, we were having these conversations in August. We'll have this opportunity now to begin
planning for next year in earnest. So, I agree that there are things we need to look at. There's a new administration. There's a new council. We have an opportunity now to do things in a different way. Unfortunately, how the budget works out in the season, we already start off behind the eight-ball,
right? And so part of these negotiations is we had a conversation. We made a commitment to each other to work on this and begin working on this right away. Begin working at new new revenue streams and new uh areas where we can find efficiencies and and and expense cuts. And we're going to begin that next week,
frankly. So uh so my vote here on yes was because we got to a place where I found it to be acceptable not desirable. Uh I made compromises with respect to what I think we should be taking from
surplus certain assumptions because I have faith that we can work together on identifying the path forward for 2027 and getting us to tread water this year. I think something's got to work out for us, but
I have faith that we can identify some things to put us in a better structural position next year. I look forward to working with all of you on this. This is what we got paid for. This is what we get paid for. This is what we got elected for. So, I'll vote yes uh on this and I hope uh I hope everyone joins
me, but I respect it if you don't. >> Thank you, Council Gero. Council Russo. >> Thank you, Council President. Uh a couple things. First, um it's always disappointing to me that we have these um these budget hearings on a Zoom call.
Uh I I always think it's really warranted that we have uh a public meeting so people could attend. Uh whether it's well attended or not is not the point. The point is that I never want us as a council to to look like we're trying to do this in in you know
secret, right? And we'll get some of that criticism. Um so I just wish that we were doing it in in in person rather than doing it over Zoom. Um, but that that being said, you know, we had a public speaker who who talked about, you
know, what she thought this council should do and this administration should do. And I agree with a lot of the things that she said and and I think it all boils down to people taking responsibility, right? We're elected to take responsibility and
make decisions. Um, I disagree with the sentiment that a lot of these things that were presented couldn't be done this year. They couldn't be done within those people who were making that claims tolerance.
That's the difference. So, council members who who continue to say they couldn't be done this year is because they can't tolerate making that decision at that level. And that's okay. That's why we have nine nine members of the council and collectively we'll make a
decision. Um but again it's about taking responsibility, right? Um you funny enough before our meeting we had a flag ceremony, right, that the Elks run every year. It was a great ceremony. Mayor was there. Uh county
commissioner uh Romano was there. and and he and I always have this banter back and forth about um you know just teasing each other and I made a comment to him about his properties in Hoboken and and he made a comment back to me that you know he's broke because taxes
are going up and the way we were situated right the mayor was sitting between both he and I and of course her she heard the the entire thing but I guess jokingly she turned to to commissioner Romano and said well it's the school ball's for fault right like,
well, yeah, they have culpability in this as well. The school board hit us with a big tax increase, but so did the city of Hoboken and the county also hit us with a tax increase. Everybody needs to take responsibility. And in that responsibility, we need to
really talk about what our tolerance is. My tolerance is much higher for making bigger and deeper cuts into this budget, but I don't get to make that final decision as to where that money is cut. I've given my my suggestions. I thought
there were ways to do it in a way there where there were not massive reductions in staffing, massive reductions in services. The the council and the administration took those ideas and they didn't agree
and and that's okay. But again, we have to be really honest about all of us taking our responsibility to heart. My responsibility is to save the taxpayers as much money as physically possible while providing services. Not not all
the wants, but the actual needs. There are wants that we have in this budget. We could have eliminated some of them. We could have made tough decisions. We could have decided not to have beautiful floral arrangements along
Washington Street and paying an outside contractor to maintain them. We could have made that decision. We could have made decisions about reducing salaries for our directors. The same directors that by the way were
part of the Bala administration that that this administration now wants to point to for putting us in the situation we're in. As a matter of fact, this administration brought back some of those directors. We know factually that the mayor
immediately emailed Jason Freeman to have a conversation with him about the budget once Councilman President Zano and I uh submitted our our uh amendments. We know that. We know that the mayor reached out to council members for
strategy sessions pertaining to the budget. We know that wasn't with me, wasn't with Councilman President Zano, I don't think it was with Councilwoman Fischer, I don't think it was with Councilwoman Imus. I don't
even think it was with Councilman Ramos. We know that that occurred because we have those emails. You can't point the finger to the last administration and run away from the last administration
and then employ or include the entire structure of the last administration to come up with a budget plan. It just doesn't work. We need to look at things from fresh eyes. Councilman President and I presented fresh eyes on that.
Councilwoman Fischer and Imus and Ramos presented fresh eyes in a different way. We today got a memo from our uh business administrator laying out exactly why the administration does not want this budget
amendment to pass. They're concerned and rightfully so. But the only way to satisfy their concerns about taking surplus and not regenerating surplus, the only way for
us to do that is to make those deeper cuts that Councilman President Zano and I suggested and even others. We all need to take responsibility for our choices. I in no way, shape, or form could
support a 13% tax increase for our residents. I can't do it. I beg my colleagues, do not vote for this budget. Go back to the table, make additional cuts, make some really tough
decisions, and do the job we were all elected to do to support our residents. Thank you, Council President. >> Thank you. Thank you for your words. Appreciate it. Uh, any other council members? Seeing none, Mr. Clark, please. Uh,
Councilman Cohen. >> Thank you, Council President. Um, I want to thank all my colleagues for the work that went into this process. I know that there were difficult conversations and I appreciate that everyone came to the table to try and find common ground and the challenging year. Uh, I know that I
presented a uh budget amendment with uh Councilman Fantero and and we all put in time and energy to try and find what we thought was in the best interest of the city on on again a difficult year. I I want to commend Mayor Jabor for taking
on the hard work of resetting our budget, about being honest about the structural fiscal deficit that we inherited and trying to correct the problems caused by underfunded budgets, which were years in the making. Uh yesterday while I was watching the
Knicks game, which had a very happy ending, but it was still in the earlier part of the game, uh I was forwarded uh Councilwoman Fischer's email about this budget amendment that Councilman Cano referenced, and she had a few sentences about me in it. Uh she suggested that my
concerns that prompted me to vote no on this budget last week were based on my personal beef with her and also claimed that I failed to understand the budget based on questions that I asked during the budget negotiations. So I want to be clear I don't take these
comments personally but since they're false I wanted to address them. Uh I'm a lawyer by training. When someone asks me a question about a specific issue about the law that I don't know the answer to, I do my homework and then I respond with
the best advice that I can provide. When it comes to municipal budgets, questions about reserves and credit ratings, I think we need to go to the same touchstone that guides all of us on the budget and that is the institution that's responsible for issuing ratings
for our financial status. that institution >> is S&P uh or standard and pores. S&P is Hoboken's municipal ratings agency that issues Hoboken's credit ratings which is currently AA plus.
Just a few months ago in February, S&P gave Hoboken a negative ratings outlook and that should matter and I think it does matter to every single council member. Now SNP isn't looking for a campaign contribution. They aren't looking to satisfy an unrealistic campaign promise.
They don't issue political newsletters or press releases that label folks who disagree with them as quote wanting to raise your taxes. S&P looks at the cold hard numbers, not the spin, and the economic environment, and then issues ratings in accordance with its
recognized methodology based on the data. S&P's methodology makes clear that reserve ratios are a major factor in how they evaluate municipal credit. A reserve ratio above 15% is considered
excellent or tier 1 by S&P. A reserve ratio of 8 to 15% is the next tier, the second tier, and a 4 to 8% reserve ratio is the tier below that. S&P has told us this year after years of
warnings and expressed concerns that our reserves and the depleted trend of those reserves are a problem for Hoboken and that is why Hoboken received S&P's negative rating watch guidance in February.
So let's be clear about where we are with this amendment. We are at the bottom end of the second [snorts] tier of reserve ratios that S&P recommends and we're leaning closer to the third tier and that is exactly where we sit if
every assumption in this amendment breaks exactly the way the sponsors hope that it will and that we will land at an 8.4% reserve ratio. And that is not my number. That's not my analysis. That is Councilwoman Fischer's analysis and the
summary that she shared with the council. An 8.4% reserve ratio is at the bottom of S&P's second tier. Now, I know that the votes are here for this tonight as a number of people mentioned and it passed 63 last week.
And I also understand that I may sound like a negative voice on this budget, but this budget keeps making the same mistakes that we've been making for years. robbing Peter to pay Paul and not Councilman Paul.
We continue to take more surplus to make ourselves feel better, but shrinking the city's margins and making next year's budget even harder. So, it may make us feel better, but it's making our lives worse. There's no question that we're being
more responsible this year than last year, but this budget still does not do enough to set us up for f for future success and address built-in rising costs, including our contractual obligations to public safety, which make
up more than twothirds of our personnel expenses for the city, and the continued shrinking of our margins. My bottom line on the budget is this. A responsible budget requires the city's recurring revenues to cover the city's
recurring expenses. Let me just say it again. A responsible budget requires the city's recurring revenues to cover the city's recurring expenses. And this budget fails that fundamental test. And I want to be clear about one other
thing. The answer to this problem is not to wildly lay off employees or demand that our directors take lower salaries. As a council, we were presented with hard numbers that showed that the city hall staffing is less today than it was 10 years ago, despite the fact that the
city's been growing at a rate of 20% over the last decade. Plus, this council has voted to increase the salaries of our directors to ensure that we can attract and retain talent. Our residents expect and deserve excellent services and those services
need to be managed by outstanding directors like our business administrator, Director Gonzalez. Directors who are empowered to work, hear and manage their leanly staffed and hardworking employees so they can deliver critical services to our
community every day. The real challenge is whether we are willing to honestly assess what it costs to run this city. As I said at our last council meeting, Hoboken has the lowest municipal tax rate in Hudson County and the highest median income in Hudson County. And this
makes no sense. To deliver a message that we need such a budget and crafting that budget takes real political courage. It requires treating our taxpayers like adults who can handle the truth even when the truth is hard to hear. I commend Mayor Jabbor for being
willing to share these hard truths with our community when she originally shared the facts that the city was facing a 24% budget gap. Clearly not the message she wanted to send a month after she was elected mayor and then she found ways to reduce it to
18.9% before introducing that budget to the council in April. So again, I commend everyone who worked to find common ground. I commend Mayor Jabbor for trying to reset this budget and fix previous mistakes, but we are not there yet. I worry that next year we will be
right back here where we're debating what critical services we need to cut instead of agreeing to pay for what it takes to run this city responsibly. For these reasons, I remain a no vote. Thank you, Council President.
>> Thank you. Any other members of the council? >> Council President. >> Uh Council Fischer. >> Yep. I'll try and not be as lengthy as uh as Phil, but um you know, this this
budget process involved a lot of new voices, a lot of people that were new to the process, especially within the administration. Um really didn't have anyone in the administration that had worked in detail on a budget before
except our CFO, Chris Baldwin. Um, we have new council members on the city council that, you know, the budget process is new to them. And we have, you know, council members that have varying degrees of uh involvement and um time
spent on the budget over the years. And with that in mind, I think a big positive was, as a number of people have alluded to, is we tried to we tried to get input from everyone
along the way and and everyone had input into this and everyone had, I would say, the shared view that we need to make sure that our reserves are, you know, in a better place. we don't want to be downgraded. Um I think everyone wanted
to make sure that we were maintaining services. Um and I think everyone wanted to try recognize affordability as a concern in Hoboken and um wanted to
at least attempt to bring the tax rate down. But we all had different views on what the that the thresholds were. We had some people that thought we need to if we use the, you know, uh I I commend
my council uh colleague Cohen for his ability to read the S&P criteria for ratings, that's great. Um we have we are we've been in tier 2 the entire time uh the 8 to 15%. We've never been above I
think 11 or 12. Last year we were down to 7.3. And we spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get back into that range. We don't have to solve for a high end of a range in one year and burden taxpayers with that. We don't
need to overinsure um and pay for that extra insurance, have taxpayers pay for that extra insurance. We just have to demonstrate a trajectory and we have to demonstrate the right story for our city. The city is not the sky is not falling for Hoboken. We have so much
strength within the the our ability to generate, you know, tax revenue to pay our bills to be able to increase rates along the way. If we need to lay off, if we need to, you know, make the city more efficient, we have the ability to do that. We were not able to do that all
within this quarter. And it's great that Councilman Russo, Councilman, um, President Zano really made this, you know, a big part of what they wanted to see deliver. Unfortunately, there were no detailed numbers behind it that we were able to put in this budget, but we
all want to as as council um Councilman Quantero said, this is going to be a major focus going into um into next year. The thing that is frustrating um to me in this process, someone who kind of held the pen on the um the
financial modeling is when People use words like rating the surplus and don't know what that means when they don't understand the levers and how the various pieces
work. Council, you know, Councilman Cohen just mentioned that he and Joe put up a an amendment um that, you know, they were comfortable with and as Joe is aware, we had a back and forth on it. they they they didn't
they didn't effectively use a tool um or they made a change that wasn't the change that they were looking um to make. And so although I appreciate Councilman Cohen coming in and pretending to be an expert on this process, I will just tell you that in a
call that we had, he very specifically said, "I don't know the levers. I don't know the math behind the budget." And so Diane was on the call, Steve Firestone was on the call, we all heard it. And and and that's okay. Not everyone has to do it. There are things that I know and there are things that I don't know. But
in the interest of just kind of level setting this conversation, the positives were everyone had a seat at this table. None of us are happy that we are inching forward with the budget that we have because someone want this. Someone want
some want taxpayers to fund additional insurance to increase our reserves much faster. Others want to see structural cuts that we just don't think can happen, you know, immediately. And this is where we landed kind of a, you know, greatest good, best case scenario that
we could get to five votes. But but in the last meeting, Councilman Cano said, "I want to make sure everyone is committed to focusing on how we generate revenues this next year and how we focus on making the city more efficient and if
we need to make cuts, whether it's healthcare, whether it's changes to our union contracts, that we start right away." And we have that meeting set up, you know, next next week. and we have all of this year to come and prepare going into next year's budget that we
definitely are in a much better place than than we are right now. Do we have increased costs next year? Absolutely. We have those crazy contracts that were approved not by me, not by Councilman um uh President Zano, but by everyone else who was here last year, crazy labor
contracts increases um going into next year. But you know what we also have going into next year? We already have the benefit of a $4 million haircut to our surplus this year that will roll into next year. We won't have a a need
for to fill a $4 million gap in our budget like we did this year because um we needed to reduce our surplus. We will have replenished. We will have sustained and we will have generated more revenues in water utility and parking parking utility that are sustainable that will
help us offset increased costs next year. We will have more ratables next year. But we do have to to find additional revenues, additional expense cuts, but we are in a great position going into next year. And that should be the message that we should be focused
on, but we should all be working hard to make it even better. so that next year instead of having a low single a low a high singledigit increase maybe six or seven let's try and get that that down to two or three and I 100% I'm confident we're going to be able to do that next
year. So with that I hope everyone supports us. I am grateful to everyone's um input um because this budget reflected input from every single council member and um we couldn't have even gotten this far without the input
from everyone and I'm appreciative of that. >> That's it. Sorry. >> Thank you, Councilwoman. Any other members of the council? >> Council council. >> Thank you. Thank you. Um, so I just want to uh reiterate uh something Councilman
Quantero said and this is absolutely not a victory. It is a compromise and compromise means that no one is 100% happy with what they walk away with, right? That's a compromise. Um, and it was certainly not easy to get to. So,
um, you know, this was my first budget uh going through this. I've been involved in in the management of of large budgets in my prior life and uh you know this was this was challenging uh and and for me I think the biggest
the biggest objective was to get to something that looks more like a multi-year plan right uh and and it was really gratifying to see that there were models built that shows the reserve growing from 8.4 4 to 9 to 10% uh over
the over the next three years. And um the other thing I want to add here, you know, again, a lot of the ideas thrown out can be achieved, but just not yet, right? So hugely important that the financial planning and the budget planning starts
significantly earlier. It should start in the fall. there should be the framework already out there by January uh so that we are not in this position again. Um and you know I did take a quick look at the the memo that we
received from the administration about the budget just uh before the meeting and and you know what it is tough to get these these bombs dropped you know literally an hour before you're here. Um, but what I will say is that the
administration has every tool at their disposal also to make additional cuts and to make even harder decisions as well uh to ensure that our surpluses are adequately funded. Um because by no
means is 11 12% a small tax increase. It's a big increase and and it's there because we incurred significant debt and those bills are due as Councilman uh Ramos alluded to last uh meeting. So, I
am supportive of this budget, which is tough for me to say because I am just jacking up my own taxes. Uh that they're skyrocketing and it's not easy for for anyone and I know that. Um, but the bills are due and I really believe that
this was the best place that we could have possibly gotten to that laid the foundation for careful planning, bigger cuts, efficiencies, attrition, everything has to be on the table for for next year. So, uh, thank you to everyone for participating, for bearing
with, uh, the newbies who may not have, you know, it took a little bit longer for us to to really understand how things were coming together, but uh, you know, I'm confident that, you know, we have a team that can work together and we really should should be doing this for the people, for our residents. So,
thank you. >> Thank you, Councilman. Uh, anyone else? Any members of council? Council President, just a brief a brief comment if I may. >> Sure. Councilman Cohen. >> Thank you, Council President. Uh just a one brief thing. Council uh woman
referred to the memorandum that we received from the business business administrator this afternoon uh regarding this amendment. And I just wanted to read for the public's benefit the third paragraph of the first page, which is basically a conclusion.
uh while the amendment lowers the projected municipal tax increase from 24.5% which is the number I mentioned in my presentation that was identified by mayor Jabor's administration as the structural deficit uh which is the real cost inherited from
the BA administration before budget workshops and 18.9% as introduced to approximately 11.5%. It does so primarily by utilizing additional surplus and utility transfers that otherwise would help stabilize
future budgets. As a result, the amendment shields the taxpayer from the true cost of operating the city in 2026 and increases the risk of future budget deficits, limits surplus regeneration, and may require larger tax increases or
service reductions in future years. Thank you, Council President. That's all. Thank you. Uh, anyone else? All right. So, I want to thank everyone for for being involved as they were in this process. Uh, as much different uh this
year than prior years. Obviously, none of us are satisfied with where it ended up, but I think in I think we've seen uh our our federal government, the way it's operated over the last number of years, the way we've operated as a council the
last number of years. I thought it was important for us uh as leaders in our city to to come with a compromise and and to come uh open-minded to this process. So, I'm grateful that everyone participated. Uh there's elements of
every every council member's uh opinions uh as part of this uh budget process. I know none of us are satisfied where we landed, but that's that's leadership and that's and leadership takes compromise sometimes and and I think that Hoboken is looking for for that portion of this
as well. Uh I I know that you know the affordability this is going to cause uh issues of affordability that we'll have to help people challenge but I think this does put us in a better place uh going into next year. In prior years we've adapted our budgets in July,
August and September. I think we're in a much better place with that portion uh moving our city forward uh from that perspective and starting with meetings next week to try and get us in a better place for 2027. And I think we're going to do that. Uh, call a vote, Mr. Clark.
>> You're on mute. >> Oh, >> thank you guys. Uh, so we're just voting on F1 and F2 or you want to just do F1? >> F1 and F2, please. >> You got it. On F1, F2. Councilman Cohen, >> no.
>> Councilman Firestone, >> yes. >> Councilwoman Fischer, >> yes. Councilwoman, >> yes. >> Councilman Lac, >> yes. >> Councilman Pranzano, >> big no.
>> Councilman Cano, >> I. >> Councilman Russo, >> no chance. No. >> Council President Ramos, >> I. >> Public portion. >> Anyone there? Motion to close.
>> All in favor portion. >> I >> I >> I >> Motion. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I >> Thank you everyone. Have a good night. >> Good night. >> Good night. >> Good night.