Okay. Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. We're about to get started. So, if we can silence our cell phones as I'm doing and close the side doors. Back door is
closed already. Appreciate that. All right. Good afternoon, everyone. We are on the record. Today is Monday, the 16th day of June in the year 2025. This is a budget hearing for revenues and unclassified items with the Jersey City Municipal Council. We had a scheduled
300 p.m. start. The clock on my cell phone is showing 3:10. May we have a roll call for the commencement of this budget hearing. Council person Ridley here. Council person Huings is not here. Council person Bajiano is not here.
Council person here. Council person Solomon. Council person Gilmore is not here. Council person de Jace here. Council person Rever here and council president Waterman. We have six council members in
attendance at 3:10 p.m. In addition, at the time of its preparation, the notice of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Wednesday, June 11th, 2025 at 10:16 p.m. to the mayor, municipal council, business administrator, corporation council, and the local newspapers so I can certify as
to our total compliance with the sunshine law. Council President, I'm going to turn it over to you. Good afternoon. Um, so we'll just prefer you can just follow your presentations and if we have questions at the end, we'll ask. Okay. Thank you. Just have to turn it on.
Good afternoon, council members. I am Carmen Gandola, finance director for the city of city. With me today, I have my staff and CFO representing also the business administrator's office to discuss the budget that was introduced in April and to have a assessment of
year-to- date on where we're at. So, can't hear me. Can't hear you. If you take it off the the board, just bring it closely up. All right. Stinger. Um, so we're here to uh I'll do it again. Cormandalo, director of finance,
here to have a conversation with you to all today regarding the calendar year budget that was introduced in the April meeting. Today we are having our budget hearing. Subsequently, we will have a public hearing um next month. And with me today, I'll introduce my team that is
here, the CFO, John Mercer, Kyle Grace is director, and Danny Celindra, um the director of budget and operations. Okay. So, council members, going through
the first um page of the presentation, you will see the total city staffing totals. We have 20 2,856 full-time employees and through 309 part-time employees uh for this year's
budget. Next page you will see from budget source sheet 11 the anticipated summary of revenues for this year which is 700 744 million about $75 million in
anticipated local revenues uh for this upcoming fiscal year. Next page, we discussed and described the summary revenues. And on this page, you'll see that we are discussing our surplus and fund balance. You'll see in
the chart on the right that we started with close to about $71 million and we ended with a cash surplus about 27 close to $28 million in this year's um uh budget. And this information can be found on sheet 21 of the introduced
budget that we had submitted to you. um in April. The next page is the summary of revenues and it'll go through section A through section G that goes through local revenues, licenses, fees, permits, cost.
Section B is state aid um and ending with other special items um of revenue. Under section A under local revenue, you'll see in the chart that's highlighted here that we have approximately 48,25879
of local revenue that has been anticipated in section A from this year's budget. Summary of revenues for BNC, which includes state aid and our construction. You'll see that the state aid is about $65 million. Construction is about 8.53.
Uh we did include from 24 to 25 um so that you can see a comparison um under these budget sheets. Does that mean um hold on construction code fees that mean that there's less construction happening now? Um because I
see it dropped like 18%. I mean, as for the construction going, I not sure entirely uh how you would measure the volume of construction going on, but this is just the anticipated amount we're allowed to in this year's budget based on the the cash receipts
from the prior year. That somewhat answers your question. It's a combination of different types of permits. So, uh, the construction code office is probably better to explain to you what that, uh, is comprised of. There's a
report that goes to the state, has a little more detail, uh, and you'll be able to see the exact drop off in what fees, uh, from last year to this year. Got it. All right, I'll ask them. Next page is summary revenues section G
of special items. You'll see that we had about 19 termination of pilots um that increased our net valuation to conventional taxes. We had an additional $10 million more in the amended franchise agreement and about 20 million
deferred in from the JCMUA in 2026. Do we know the exact number between the um how many pilots were terminated versus expired? you can get that exact uh breakdown of
that, but most of them are expirations only. Got it. Um I would say the majority of the 19 that are off the books this year are uh expirations. And um do you know like a estimate of when they
were put in place? Like I'm guessing 30 years ago or like no more? They all vary but we can definitely get you like a detail that breakdown from got it selector. And moving on to the next page in
regards to uh local summaries and local tax purposes. The city saw a tax net valuation increase of $1.6 6 billion from October 2023 to October 2024, which is factored into our new levy. So you'll see on this page the amount that is set
to projected to be collected uh for this year for local purposes. And then the next page talks about our levy cap calculation and you'll see the walk through how we broke down the levy cap calculation in regards to maintaining it within or under. So if
you see here, we started at 368,302, 28309. Um, and then the maximum allowable amount to be raised for this year is 40 409 803 443 or 30. So if you look at where it says under or must be within
the 2% of the levy cap, we're definitely under that amount. So that is the explanation of the levy cap calculation. And then the summary of appropriations. Moving on to what we plan to do with our funds or where we're going to be spending our money for this uh fiscal
year. Most of our budget is going to be tied into salary and wages, um employee health insurance, other u making sure that we're fully funding our pension and contributions um in the library, and making sure that we're keeping um public safety and um
um the municipal levy in in line with what we had proposed. So, this kind of sort of concludes the presentation that we had. Oh, no, sorry. Oh, I'm keeping going. I order. So, this kind of sort of
um when it goes to the summary appropriation calculation towards page 13 that talks about where we're allocating funds and how this budget message was explained. So turning it over to the council
members if they have questions or in support to this presentation or anything from our team regarding this year's introduced budget. I saw that the health uh insurance employee health insurance keeps going up
year after year. Um what do we what can we do as a city to mitigate that? because it seems like it's like a runaway train. I'm sorry. Are there programs for employees to make them healthier? Like
what's the do we know why it keeps going up? Is it just like statewide? Is it just, you know? So, it's a combination of like kind of sort of all those things in regards to healthcare costs. And, um, I know I do know that our HR department does put in efforts and programs, you
know, um, and initiatives for employees to live a healthier lifestyle, but at the same time, costs are going up and costs did go up not just in Jersey City, but statewide. Um, oftent times, you know, we do look for grants to offset
some of those costs. Um and while we do still have grants in place, some things are are changing that we are out of our control. Um what we can do to prepare and what we have done is we go out for
special financing at the you know later half the year to cover those costs cuz I mean I saw that the headcount went down lightly but um you know the costs keep going up so I'm trying to understand it.
I mean, we're we're self-insured, so it's based on volume of claims and obviously the services that employees are getting, family members. Uh, but we also have a huge increase in prescription drug costs. Um, I mean, the especially over the last two years, but
I will say we're trending at a less aggressive pace than the state health benefit plan. Um, as far as options on affordability for the city, you'd have to do that through collective bargaining, getting some givebacks from uh from the from the new contracts where
employees go on like the public safety, all the police and fire go on the Omnia plan which is which is saving us uh on that front. civilians still have the option for some of the more expensive plans, but a lot of a lot of the give backs are done in in in bargaining and
um but it's just the nature of the health industry right now is costs everywhere across not just the state but the the country are are exorbitant and and we're we're bearing that in the budget. Do you think there's anything the state could do in terms of like
negotiating for certain prescription drugs that um you know statewide to cap the price or do you have information on that or would you be privy to that? not not
privy to it, but I know we do have some uh language where employees get generic drugs uh generic brand drugs over, you know, the more prominent uh providers. But the it is a problem and it's
something that we'd have to talk to our health department and not health department resources uh department about. And the excess uh surplus is this uh one time um surplus or
and if so how long do you think um we have the surplus for like if this is on page four? Yeah, this the surplus and the budget is is cash surplus. So our our fund balance is higher but you have to account for any liabilities that the
city may have deferred charges um and other reserves that we don't have the cash on hand. So that's the just the calculation of it and we have essentially what we do is re regenerate the cash surplus every year. Um the last
few years we've used the majority of our cash surplus to stabilize the tax impact and it's really a result of how this year goes. If our fund balance increases and our liabilities are taken care of and they come off our books, our our cash balance will be higher at the end
of the year and we'll have the ability to either use the maximum or just use what we need to get to the the budget uh in a stable position. Yeah. Sure. A couple questions. Um, just going to
start with the revenue side. Um, parking meter revenue is down by about 150,000. Uh, do you have a sense of why parking meter revenue is down? Oh, I mean we have been monitoring that
over the last few years and the initial decline in parking meters was I would say back in 2022. Um I don't it we introduced park mobile in 2021 as well which we thought would help uh parking meter uh collections
when people would be more more willing to pay the meter through their phone or whatever the case may be. But that number's been decreasing year-over-year. Um, we're not sure if it's a lack of enforcement or people are just smarter
than us, but um, there is also the possibility that more tickets are being issued and going to the court for not paying the meters. So, we don't necessarily have that exact uh analysis at the moment, but it is something we've been questioning the public safety
department on. And I mean, can the public safety tell us how many meter tickets they issued? Yeah, I think that'd be great to ask them. Yeah, we can get that number. Great. Thank you. Um I I see also um vacant property registrations were down
by uh about 400 350,000. Um, do we have this is one of these items that reg I believe these payments are due um I don't know if they're by annually but it's just a matter of when the cash receipts are done. So if
they're due in December and for some reason we didn't book it until January. Okay. It's it's impacting our prior year collections. But if we, it's just the way the accounting works for the budget, unfortunately, that if you don't get all of your cash in and all of your registrations
uh done in December and they're done in January, we can't we can't use that revenue in this year's budget, right? But u we're trying to figure out better way to um organize that where it doesn't have an impact on the budget. You'll probably see next year it'll be a bigger
increase. But we could start taking the average, you know, if if this year's number is much higher, which it will be due to the that that lag. What we should do as from the budget side is budget a little less than what we got last year, knowing that that accounts for a little bit more from the prior year. Okay. And
then, you know, looks like there are a couple of things that just we had fees for in 24 that that aren't here in 25. And just I'm just focusing on the ones above 100K. Uh but those are tax sale fees, elevator inspections, fuel reimbursements, interstate waste,
rental reimbursements, um PV sewage rebate, metalands tax charge, cable TV. So yeah. So with we're currently in the process of rolling out admins as the council knows and what we did is we expanded on the uh chart of
accounts. So while going through that process, we created additional uh revenue items which you don't see in this year's budget, you'll see next year. Um kind of detailing the chapter of the municipal code a little more. And in doing so, you know, I realized a few
of these items are miscellaneous reimbursements where it's kind of hard to identify what exactly you're going to get year-over-year. And I saw that as a good opportunity to kind of start building back some surplus. So that's why you see some of those tax collector
fees, rebates, uh scrap metal fees off of the budget this year. It wasn't substantial enough that it was going to hurt the budget and the metallance tax share cable uh franchise fee, those items were moved to section G special
items with other agreements. So when you go through that detail, you'll see those are new there, but they're not they're not those ones aren't cut. It's just those miscellaneous rebates and things are just going to be Got it. Okay. Surplus. So, the the kind of the biggest thing I appreciate those answers, but
the biggest thing I'm just sort of noticing, right, is is we're budgeting 41 million for the sale of municipal properties. Could you break down first just what what the sale is? So, the the large part of that sale is the sale of the Jersey Medical Center.
So, that was a $75 million sale that's been executed. The city is receiving 34 million uh from that sale. The other portion is going to the JCA and the additional land sale in our budget is uh
an offset for debt service which is for for Bayfront. So JCA will write us the cash, we'll pay the debt service. So that portion is just a direct offset and the rest of it is strictly one one land sale. Okay. So
basically it's to summarize it's what you're saying is some of that's the debt service which is the offset. So really it's 34 million. Is that accurate? Yeah, that's strictly revenue. Yeah, I understand that. I guess my concern then is then we're basically you know we're using 34 million in this budget and then
what are we doing next year? Yeah, I mean if if you go back to our plan from the couple years prior, this particular sale wasn't necessarily on our radar to use in this year's budget. There were some smaller items that we thought would be closer to that
number um that weren't executed this year. Um the expectation is going to next year's budget. Those several land sales will will take place and we'll have we'll be able to pull from different sales rather than just one. Um the exact dollar amount is yet to be
determined, but we we were look we were thinking like 10 to20 million dollars this year initially in in those land sales and we could get you those those properties. Sure. That'd be great. But I was like at some point we're going to run out of land to sell, you know. So we might have some next year but I know two
to three years down and you know you know you sort of when we use the land sales to plug the operating deficit we you know you're just some point in the future the problem's going to going to hit you know you can you can only do it for so long. I mean that's that's
correct and that's why we try to plan ahead a couple years and know when those things are coming off the books. The same thing with the pilots. We know our pilots are steadily going to decrease year-over-year and we know we're only going to get a portion that in um in taxation. So, we have to figure out
other ways to offset that. Whether it's regenerating uh additional fund balance or cutting operations a little bit year-over-year or just not increasing it as much as you see year-over-year. So, it's again, it's always just one piece of of the pie and
as long as we're aware of what's going on and what's what the our financial position is going to be in a couple years, we should have a plan to to address the shortfall. And then, um, what's just the the timing on the budget amendment right now? What's your hope and what are what are your thoughts
there? Well, we sent it to the state, so I mean, we'll hear back from them hopefully within a couple weeks. Um and then we have a public hearing potentially in July which we have to advertise still and if there's no we don't anticipate any substantial amendments that would require another
public hearing. So hopefully the day we do that public hearing in July we'll have final approval from the state and we could adopt but that's again we have to wait. Okay. So, I have a question. Um, with regards to public safety, just to bring it back
a little bit, um, the traffic division, um, it was, uh, it would generate some revenue to the city, but I don't want to say it's dismantled, but it's kind of like faded away, right? So, you know, that type of revenue I I
want to say it's kind of missed, right? Is there is there any way we could uh maybe commit to like uh maybe entertaining you know putting pressure on u the director so that we can bring back that traffic safety division so I
can bring back some positive uh revenue amongst other things but we're just talking about revenue with finance man we're here to support all those departments I think from a performance and operations perspective we do need to speak to the business administrator on how to support and meet
with that director with their plan. I mean um you know you guys heard their budget presentation earlier on this year and what was proposed and what we were going to do. Now we have the results of our financial statements. We have the results of what we can afford and so the reshifting of the budget and the priorities have to kind of sort of come
in line. So if there are things in the budget right now that you want to look at and shift over from one area to another, now's the time to do it. But ultimately, I would take this conversation, your request back to the VA um and the director in regards to what they need and what needs to be
proposed because I I'd like to see that that the uh restructuring of the traffic division, you know, in the budget when we see it. I also brought up during the budget hearings how the Department of
Infrastructure is in need of more funding for staffing, more funding for I don't think they have a speed hump contract. Um, I'd really appreciate if we can make sure that they have the tools necessary in order for us
to, you know, um, make sure that the corners and the streets are safe. Yes. So, there should be an audience coming to council hopefully next meeting for uh, repurposing of some old capital dollars. I believe it's going to be $13
million and that's going to touch back to early 2000 ordinances 2010 like just we did a complete uh review of everything and identify what projects have been completed which projects aren't going to move forward. So, when we bring that to the council, you'll see
all a a bulk of that money is going to infrastructure um outside of some dollars for parks. Um but most of it is building improvements, street improvements on just general infrastructure. So, all their any contract needs that they may have, they'll it'll be covered in in that
repurposing. And I know you guys have been working on it and it's just really unfortunate, you know, what happened. It's just um but definitely want to use whatever money we can to you know fix this as much as we possibly can.
A couple more. Um to that point you talked about that that being a repurposing of the c of capital funds. Is there an intention for a new capital offering in 2025? didn't no we didn't plan for it for this year. Just want to make sure and then
you know connected to the budget and this is more an administration question but um you know I received reports on Friday of notices of layoffs in the city uh and I wanted to know if uh based on this budget that's anticipated and uh if so what the scope of that would be.
So when we prepared and introduced a budget we introduced with the staffing totals that you you saw. I think as we're coming out of Q1 and going into Q2 and given some of the constraints that we're having at the federal level and now at the local level, if a job posting
was posted and they were grant funded, unfortunately those were tough decisions that were going to be going to be made. Um we have worked with the directors in regards to helping them reshape their budget, but ultimately if there are going to be any other additional changes, it will have
to come from business administrator. um as we look to tighten up some of the impacts to the budget um we were given a message to keep this budget very tight considering that this administration is winding down and so ultimately um there are things that we do have to measure
and the reality I think what it is in the fall when you think about the city's cash position I gave you a snapshot where we landed with page four hold on cash we had about 87 million what it Right.
If you look at sheet four, right, we ended with uh a balance of about $71 million and we have $27 million in cash surplus. The impact that we have with the grant fund is that it's we it's it's on our records, right? Like we have significant balance that we need to
regenerate and if something gets cancelled and canceled and canceled and I can't predict that's the reality of it. So there's nothing official, but if it was related to um tied to grant or some other areas, there was a decision
to just sort of tighten that up there. Okay. And and are there any things in this budget that are replacing lost federal grants? So anything where there was a position or a program where we think the feds are not funding it, but we chose to supplement and and continue the program or was anything that we lost
we said we're not going to be able to continue. really the grants budget when you look at the city's overall grants budget to the city's budget. It's it kind of sort of augments some things and we did make a decision last year not to create anything new and so we did tell directors um with their programs is and
working with our uh grant consultant was to look at what we had. You haven't seen anything like new award or anything of the of the sort. So uh it supported it didn't kind of sort of replace it if that gives you you know a clear answer. Okay. Thank you.
comment, we are on the um five-year plan track that you presented a year ago because I know you had to present in a five-year plan with the state. So, when we did the co and co financing a few years ago, um we did work with the state
in regards to put putting together a five-year uh plan and projection. They can't legally hold us to it because we have to go through the legal process. But it was a plan and so they have always given us a window to revisit that plan and to go back and review some of
the items that we are proposed. So we'll be hearing comments from them over the next couple weeks as it relates to this budget and what they're willing to accept and not accept. Um, it was never like a public document of a five-year plan. Almost like what I did, you know, I mirrored what I did in community development when I would meet with you
guys and say, "Here's our five-year plan." That was a federal requirement. That's not a state requirement. I just tried to paint a picture for us at that time because we just didn't know what direction we were going into and we were so late and other things and you know having human resource capital. So I made
it a point in 2022 and 23 to give you a road map that gave us a sense of ease of what was possible. but the state never officially accepted it because this is the legal process year-over-year. Um, we haven't received a overtime report in a really long time. I just,
you know, you can after this meeting if you could put that as an action item. Just want to make sure see what we're working with. Definitely get you that. the the grants decreasing from 6.1 to 1.5.
um those the federal grants or is that just like uh this is page 11 do you know which department they primarily impact or um so page 11 is just the uh those
percentage are the percentage of the budget it makes up that's not the total amount of uh grant revenue that we're receiving this year. And so far, anything in the anticipated uh introduced budget, we're only allowed to put in the budget anything we have awards and set up uh forms for. So, you
obviously have the rest of the year to uh set up new grants, which will happen, and that number will continually change meeting by meeting. Uh but last year I believe we ended with uh having if you look at the actual budget document on
sheet 11 there coincidentally it'll have the total budget I'll just read it out to you. So last year we ended with $44.3 million in grant revenue and at the time of introduction we had 10 million. So
trendwise, yes, it seems like we're at a slower pace and that presumably has things to do with the federal government uh grant freezes, but that number can grow exponentially if we set up one grant for $5 million. So you kind of have to see where you end at the end of
the year. Um our grants director um is staying on top of things. is we have a new contract with uh grant right for uh just uh seeking grants and everything on the city's behalf. So that number will grow. It's just yet to be determined how much
we'll actually receive and what prior year programs are going to continue to be cut. Thank you. motion. Okay, I have a motion to adjourn this
budget hearing at 3:41 p.m. made by Council Person So Cle. May I have a second? Second by Council President Waterman. All in favor of the motion to adjourn at 3:41 p.m. All council members present by acclamation,
please say I. We are out of here at 3:41 p.m. Thank you so much everyone present and everyone watching at home. Remember teamwork makes the dream work. Have a great night. Stay safe. Still have one patch on.