Apple >> even if I get out of line. >> Okay. Okay. Uh w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w w to the the burrow council budget presentation meeting. Uh we could have the clerk read the statement of uh
compliance, please. >> This meeting is being held in accordance with the open public meeting law duly announced, advertised, and posted in the municipal building. The meeting will adjourn no later than 10 p.m. unless a majority of the council members that are present vote to extend the tie.
>> Uh, could we rise for a pledge of allegiance and a moment of silence afterwards? >> I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and
justice for all. Please be seated. I have to leave seven for CPR certification. >> Okay. Uh could we get the roll call? >> Council President Talanini >> here. >> Council member Eert >> here.
>> Councilman Pigmentatelli >> here. >> Councilwoman Rose >> here. >> Councilman Saliani should probably come in late. Mayor Camala is on vacation. So, >> do we need a motion to excuse both of them? >> Yep. Well, is is Steve coming? Did
anybody hear from him? >> I haven't heard from him, but >> Well, he >> Okay, >> I'll make a motion to excuse both of them if they one shows up. >> Okay, >> he can just say >> second. >> That was you, Bill. >> Yes. >> All in favor? >> I
>> All right. Um, and just in case you were wondering, I was going to mention the the mayor is on vacation and uh I'm the council president, so I'm be sitting in for a couple meetings. Um, all right. Can we get a motion to open the public to the open the meeting to the public?
>> So move. >> Second. >> All in favor? >> I. >> Anyone uh the public? No. Mo motion to close. >> So moved. >> Second. >> All in favor? Hi. Hi. >> Um, I'd like also just like to mention
that we have um council elect uh Matt Dumpford sitting here um uh until um he's he's here uh he's participating but uh he really can't uh well contribute to anything because uh the certified the election hasn't been certified yet but
we're just making sure he hits the ground running. So uh thank you. So, um, all right. We're going to turn the meeting over to our professionals and let's let's see what you got. Okay. Uh, Council President, thank you very much.
>> Uh, so I'm Richard Co. I'm the Burough Administrator. David Young, our our CFO. Um, so this is the first of two scheduled budget presentations. Tonight you'll hear call the main presentation giving you an overview uh of the budget
uh and our finances uh and also hear from Peter Hobble from the library. Apologies that the schedule was supposed to be a little bit more balanced. Ariel Presiato, the senior center director, could not be here this evening due to some family issues. Uh so on Wednesday
you'll hear from uh the senior center, police, fire, and first aid. So that one could be What's that? >> Not first aid DPW. >> Sorry, DPW. My apologies. Um, you know, I I always say those as like it's all first responders. Uh, that one could be,
you know, rather lengthy, but um, we'll do our best to get through it. So, uh, with that, I'll get started. Uh, first, I'm just going to give you a little bit of a background. Our budget process starts in September when I send out budget packages. Uh, those are usually due in October. We then proceed to have
meetings with the various departments and agency heads where we review their proposals in detail. Uh literally go line item by line item, look at history, look at trend uh and eventually that goes into an overall document where we
then consider uh you know sort of the overall priorities and where we think they need to be. Uh we then meet with the finance committee uh review everything with with them, [clears throat] get their feedback, uh look at where where they think we need to be, uh and put together a final
package to discuss with everybody collectively, which is what we're doing now. Um I can tell you that, you know, things change, things can change between tonight and final adoption. Things changed as recently as this morning. Uh we were we were making some some
adjustments. So with that, I do want to express my appreciation to the department heads and to our agency heads. You know, the instructions that I give them every year are to give me uh you know, budget proposals that they think are required
to, you know, fulfill their obligations to the to the burough residents in terms of meeting services and and delivering quality programs. Uh and I think that after doing this for so many years, uh we we really have a very good process in place. uh and they're very responsible
with their requests. Um and that helps make it a little bit easier on our end too when we go through. Uh and that's not to say that there aren't times when you know cuts get made from things that they request. Uh but you know the starting point is usually very solid to
be to begin with. Okay. So, uh, with that, uh, I will say on behalf of the finance committee, we hereby respectfully submit to the mayor and borrow council the preliminary 2026 municipal budget for the bureau of Oakland. Funding for the current fund, including the library, is presented at
27,16,000 and there's an additional 3.7 million and 600,000 respectively for the water and sewer utilities. And you'll hear more about those budgets on Wednesday when uh you meet with the DPW. The municipal tax levy required to
support the budget uh excluding the library would be slightly over $18 million and that represents a 3.49% increase over 2025. Uh importantly, uh for some reasons we'll get into uh this budget would be
compliant with both the appropriation and levy caps. So, as proposed, this budget will maintain all current levels of service uh while also providing some uh enhancements in the area of senior services, including with the senior
transportation program, and you'll hear more about that on Wednesday. Uh when we get into capital, you'll see we're continuing our commitment to uh try to improve the downtown. There's streetscape money in there, as well as funding for uh our routine replacement programs and infrastructure maintenance
programs as well. When we take a look at at the budget, we're not just budgeting for this year. We take a look at, you know, we project out, we take a look ahead several years. Um because more I I say more than ever as if there were new
things. Um but you councils used to have more flexibility before the levy cap came into being. Okay, the appropriation cap and levy cap. You always have to keep that in mind as you're looking into future years so that you don't negatively impact services by doing something this year that you know can
cause an a cap problem in the subsequent years. So we're we're always looking at that as well when we're formulating the budget and where we need to be not just on the appropriation side um but where we um think we need to be with non- tax revenues as well. Okay. Um,
so if you see anything as we go through here, just uh type up, ask a question. Uh, that that's fine. You may find a typo or two uh despite our best efforts to uh to proofread this today. And uh with that, I think we can get going to
the tax levy. David, would you like to talk about the tax levy distribution? >> Um, sure. Just to make sure everybody's reminded of the fact that the total tax le the bill that Ana sends out to all the residents every year um we collect for the town uh we collect for open
space uh the regional school the local school and the county. Uh what we're talking about tonight is the 25% that you have direct control over and the library which you don't have direct control over but it's still included as part of what we consider the municipal
levy. Um, and that 25% is pretty standard. It's what we've seen here since I've been here 7 years now. Um, it's what you see in the other towns that I work with. That 25% is about normal for what you have in terms of the municipal levy. Uh, numbers for the
municipal and the library that you see there in open space are actuals. Uh, we'll estimate the county, region, and school levies until we get them. We'll probably get them shortly after, maybe shortly before we do a final adoption. Okay, let's uh talk at a very high level
about appropriations. Uh as I'd mentioned, uh budgets are broken down between inside cap and outside cap expenses. I won't get too much into the weeds with that right now. Um the inside cap expenses are up about
2.66%. Uh while outside cap expenses are up about 4.44. Uh grants you're going to see there are down 50% but just a reminder there. Grants get booked into the budget as they become awarded throughout the year.
So it's routine to see a starting number less. Uh that'll this number will undoubtedly change as the year goes goes by. Uh you're going to see there at Oakland Public Library an 11.55% increase. Uh that is set by statute. uh
and by that I mean there is a formula uh that the state applies in determining the tax levy for each library in the state. Okay, that's nothing that we have discretion over. You can provide additional funding, you cannot reduce that levy amount. Okay. Uh this budget
does not provide any supple any supplemental funding for the library this year. And then you have the reserve for uncollected taxes which is what we call a non-spending appropriation. uh that is basically money that we need to appropriate because we're the
collection agent for all of the taxing entities, the schools in the county. And once their levy is certified, they get 100% of their levy. We get what is left over. So, this is a mechanism that the state uh makes us employ to make sure that they can get made whole and we're
actually collecting enough tax revenue. That's a a formula for that or are you just uh based on last year's or >> it's it's a formula based on the last three years that we have to be compliant to. We do an accelerated tax sale here. So we collect all of our tax money in the calendar year. We don't wait till
next year to collect taxes. So our rut actually is fairly low considering the size of our our total budgets for the the town and and the schools. U but it's by formula we have to comply with. >> Thank you. Okay. Uh so when you just compare amended budget to proposed
budget uh total numbers uh appropriations are up 2.7%. And I want to point out a couple of things with that. If you exclude grants and you excuse exclude library and you just look at what's driving the current fund um it's it's a couple of things.
Police salaries simply because you know when we get into that you'll see on a percentage basis it's fine. It's just it's a large budget. It's a large item of expenditure. Uh really the issue this year is on health insurance. Uh that's up $440,000
about 16%. That alone represents about 60% of the increase in appropriation. Right? So we would be up something less than 2% um overall if it was not for that. >> And and luckily we're not in the state
health insurance, right? >> So we'll talk more about it, but yes, we look good. I say we look good by comparison. >> Okay. >> Okay. Uh overall state health for towns in the state health benefits program their increases were 36% and up depending on the mix of plan designs
that a particular town was utilizing. Uh I think in Hillsdale it was >> 42% >> 42% >> $655,000 increase and we're about 65% the size of Oakland. So it's it's >> it's significant out there in terms of the impact that that has. >> 16%. >> Yeah.
>> Yeah. Yeah. Thank you. [laughter] It's only 16%. >> Right. Well, and I'll tell you it that really there was a a rather prolonged period of time where our healthcare premiums were
increasing at the rate of inflation or even below probably a good five six year period. So to have if we were having this conversation three years ago, uh I think everyone would be in shock over these numbers, but this is the second year now where you have these really elevated percentage increases. Um
>> this is health insurance for employees. >> This is health insurance for employees. >> Employees and retirees. >> Yeah. >> Retirees is starting to be a fairly significant chunk of that that expenditure. Not quite 50/50 yet, but it be it'll be there in a couple years. >> Yep.
Excellent. Uh Rich mentioned the caps that we have to uh be compliant to. There is a levy cap law. Uh it's based upon the previous year's levy plus a 2% increase. There are exceptions for things like debt, capital, pension, and insurance. Uh
we're also allowed to bank. So if we don't use our full allowable amount, we are allowed to bank it for three years on the levy side. Um and we are compliant um to the to the levy cap. Uh, in fact, if you want, you could spend another $900,000 and we would still be
compliant. So, you see anything you want to increase, CFO salaries, [laughter] anything like that, just just let us know and we we'll be happy to help you out with that. >> On the uh on the appropriation side, it's a three and a half% cap that we can
do and you pass the cola resolution to allow us to do that. um we can bank that for two years and similar things are excluded in terms of insurance and LOAP and library and grants and capital again we're compliant um so we don't have any
any issues on the cap side >> so when you say uh 2% levy cap >> yes >> as a a 2% on the amount that we can increase our budget >> no tax levy >> amount that we can increase >> tax levy the tax >> bill or whatever to the
>> with exceptions [clears throat] Okay. Yeah, >> that's how we can manage to be at 3.4 on the tax levy with a 2% cap because the biggest increase, Rich said, on the insurance is considered outside of okay cap >> because we have no control of that.
>> But it's based on a formula in terms of where the state increase is. So as long as we're better than the state increase, most of the insurance increase goes goes outside of cap. >> Okay. Distribution of expenditures. uh just want to this this helps you give
you some sense of where the money goes sort of in what buckets and there's any number of ways to slice up the buckets there's another slide we have behind this where we do it in a different way um but I think this is instructive if you take a look at salaries and wages and pension and insurance altogether
personnel costs represent about 57% of the budget uh you primarily control that uh through labor negotiations u so on a year-to-year basis uh you don't have direct control over a lot of that expenditure because you've already
committed to certain uh cost of living adjustments for a number of years out. Um what you know you basically control that through through headcount. Okay. Uh and this budget has um you know fully fully staffed. We're not proposing any you
know any cuts anywhere in this budget. >> One more item. uh this uh distribution of expenditures pie chart is this what we publish to the residents we've done it in the past >> well we we we typically point out the tax levby distribution one uh but this
entire presentation will be on the website thank you okay um and then you can see what our operating expenses are our our departmental budgets how much solid waste makes up uh you know as a percentage of the overall budget and
when we focus on that and then you know capital and debt which collectively is you know maintaining our infrastructure so that comes in a little over 16%. David, anything there you want? No. >> Good. Okay. And here's just a different way of sort of conceptualizing how we
how we spend our money. Uh a little over a third, 36% on public safety. Uh almost 20% on public works. Uh that's operating costs for public works. And then another 16% on again on on all manner of capital
items. That's projects, that's roads, that's storm water infrastructure, that's replacing vehicles, maintaining our IT systems. Uh it it's all of that. Uh core government and finance is about 10%. You can see the distribution from
there regarding uh senior services, library, land use, etc. >> Thank you. That makes a nice presentation there. all the fun stuff. >> Okay. Right. So, so the the next three slides are kind of the meat and potatoes.
Uh so just bear with me. >> This is like Thanksgiving. We got meat and potatoes. We got pies. [laughter] >> Yes, I know. I know. And after the meal, you're all going to be tired [laughter] because it's a lot of numbers. [clears throat] >> We just need coffee and donuts. >> Um but I'm going to take you through
each of these that give you an overview of what's changing and and why. Okay. Uh so the first slide, this is all of our salary and wage budgets. Topline number there, taking everything into account, salary and wage budgets are up about 3.4% over 2025.
Uh again, the library you really can affect and they're really not going up. Uh we were able to starting at the bottom and then I'll go back up to the top and work on my way down. Uh accumulated absences is uh an appropriation we do every year that we
put into a reserve uh to fund employee uh payouts of accumulated time when they retire. Um we've taken you've done the analysis now a couple of times uh and taken this out probably the next >> take it out five years >> who's likely to retire and what's their likely payout going to be and make sure
we are fully funded. >> Right. So based on that analysis, um you know, it was higher a few years ago, uh when we had a number of police retirees with large payouts. Um based on the current 5-year projection, we feel comfortable reducing that amount based
on the amount that we already have in that reserve. >> Actually, when I came on the council in 2005 six, any payout came right out of the general budget. So it was a heavy hit. Sometimes >> couple of hundreds of thousands of
dollars. And that's how the reserve started. Basically, I I I there was one year where there was a large payout and the next year we just said, "All right, well, we're going to keep funding this. It's there already, but we're going to start reserving the money and putting it away so we don't have that." >> It's like a savings account that we
have. All of our trust funds are like savings accounts. >> We put money [clears throat] aside so that when the bill comes due, we pay cash rather than having to float a bond. >> Right. Right. So, you exclude that, too. Uh, and it gives you a little bit of a truer picture. Um on a current fund,
salaries and wages are up 4.1%. Uh which again is roughly in line with uh colas which are at three and a half%. Um on the white and blue and non uh blue collar and non-union workforce it's um 3 and a
half% or I think it's 2400 this year whichever is is greater. So that bumps it up a little bit too. Um, so going through, we sort of put this into different categories by function. Uh, so if you look at the general government overall, that's things like the clerk's
budget and the mayor and council and my office. Uh, overall that's up 1.1%. For finance, that includes finance, uh, tax collection and tax assessment, uh, is up 10.8%, 8% but want to point out uh
almost half of that is due to a new shared service agreement we have with Pompton Lakes for tax collector services. As you remember we entered into that at the beginning of the year. Uh so that is outside cap but uh it's the number there is reflected in that
increase. It's offset with revenue that we're anticipating from Lakes uh pursuant to the terms of the shared service agreement. So there's really no tax impact on that. >> It's really not anticipating it's revenue we're owed based on the share services. >> Yes. >> Yes.
>> It's just when we collect it. >> We've been staring at the budget and that's called anticipated revenue. >> That's the official word. >> We know we're [laughter] getting it because we know where Michael lives. >> Yes. >> Just make sure we're clear about these anticipated. We're getting it. >> Yes, we are. We are right. And that's
that's one of these terms like do you say surplus? Do you say fund balance? Anticipated revenue is just the state term for non- tax revenue. >> I know we've discussed it in the last news, but if people are watching, they don't understand. >> No, we got it. [snorts]
>> Okay. Uh land use, that's planning board, zoning board, environmental commission, and code enforcement uh is up 9%. Uh that's sort of a temporary, if you will, increase for code enforcement. A lot of that is driven by uh the LAR project and
proper staffing for that. both inspectors uh and some impacts on the office staff as well to keep up with the processing workload of all of that. Um you'll see that come down in another couple years uh when that level of inspection activity declines because the
project will be completed at that point. >> We just have we'll just use it for another project. >> Well, depending on what's in the pipeline, right? Uh but the way we have it structured in terms of uh people that existing staff that can work more hours uh or we can bring in outside inspectors
if we need we can be flexible enough to accommodate the needs because there are uh there are deadlines for inspections and plan review set forth in state regulations that we have to comply with. Okay. So, it's not like we can say,
"Well, we're not uh going to provide a heightened level of service and you're just going to have to wait for your permits." No, you got to do plan interviews in 20 days. You have to do inspections. I think it's within 72 hours. Uh so, there's a certain service level there that the state wants towns
to provide. Uh and this is in order to remain compliant. the the fees that we're getting for, you know, permits and stuff like that, does that help towards the the or I mean, are we >> absolutely that that's we anticipate that revenue? [laughter]
>> Um, and right now it is actually feeding surplus because we're getting in more fees than we'll anticipate because we know over time we're not going to have that peak where we're at with LAR. So, right now that peak is feeding fund balance uh which we can then anticipate
in surplus down the road. Um but there is a full offset. We have to report annually on UCCC revenues and expenditures and the state wants them to be within a certain range and they also understand the occasional ones where it's going to be way out of whack. Correct. >> Yes.
>> Short answer, Russ. Yes. [laughter] [snorts] >> Okay. uh public safety, that's police, uh the shared service agreements that we have with the schools for special law enforcement officers, uh OEM, flood control, uh and the fire department as
well. And the uh salaries and wages there are up about 2.6% overall. uh the police department uh salaries and wages accounts uh for basically all known uh
personnel movements. Uh we had a police captain retire uh police chief retiring later this year. We have another ranking officer that is likely retiring. Uh so we've we've anticipated that. We funded replacements in here as well to keep
staffing headcount uh the same. Uh although the number of effective officers will vary throughout the year depending on who's in the academy, when they come out, when they complete field training and the like uh as well. Uh and that also encapsulates any required step
movements, longevity increases, all of that is is built into that number for the fire department. Uh the increase there is kind of twofold. Uh one is an increase to the clothing allowance line. I think we anticipated more people being
eligible for that. uh for for this year uh and also a potential increase in the uh fireatic officer stipens uh which has not increased in some number of years. Now unlike most positions this is something I think
where you may need to uh adjust the salary ordinance which isn't a problem. Um but as part of your deliberations here uh and coming out of that you guys can make a decision whether to you know increase them this year or or not. That's a just kind of a a follow-up discussion we need to have. Uh we built
in some money here in case you wanted to do that. >> Well, also I mean might be conversation on the time. So we're increasing as needed. Are there towns who actually increase it on a yearly basis due to cola or people do people plan that way >> for fire department? I I really don't know.
>> I I haven't seen that or experience. It wouldn't surprise me. I mean it makes makes some kind of sense to to >> You're always planning for it's not a surprise, right? And it's a way to track more personnel, >> right? >> I mean, that's a that's a discussion we can have in the public safety committee
and and you know, bring something back for full counsel discussion. >> Okay. Okay. Uh DPW, this is several several divisions uh streets and roads, snow removal, vehicle maintenance, buildings and grounds, storm water
management, and solid waste and recycling. Again, water and sewer are part of DPW, but they are funded separately. They're not part of the current fund. Uh, and again, we'll get into more detail on those particular budgets on on Wednesday. Their budgets
are up 5%. Uh, and this accounts for DPW being fully staffed. Uh, again, with any planned, you know, promotions or anything like that taken into account as well as the contractual colas. Uh this also includes a $15,000 increase for
snow removal uh salary costs, mostly overtime costs. Um you know, if you take a look at the long-term history, our snow removal budget is relatively flat. We have this storms uh storm response reserve where there's a balance every
year. We sweep that into the reserve to fund years like this. Um but it's been some time since we've sort of incrementally increased snow removal budget. Uh, and I think based on uh expenses this year, I think it's it's time to start doing that. Um, I don't think we need to catch up all in one
year, but I think incrementally we need to sort of reset what that level amount of funding is for the snow removal budget. >> We're not going to have a big snowfall for another 10 years, though. >> Just 206 260. >> You just jinxed us, Pat. >> We we now we're going to have one
tomorrow. >> Yeah. Right. >> We significantly used our reserves >> this >> this year. I mean, we we hit that really hard um salt, you know, as as well as the the overtime and we use a good portion of this year's budget already as
well. So, we won't be replenishing a whole lot of that into the next year. So, it is kind of important that we we increase this one because I think we're going to need to get that back up because it's not just snow, you know, I'm not going to say the f- word, but if you have a flood, that comes out of
there as well. Correct. Um, so correct. >> And we also used it >> F word. >> I didn't want anybody to think I was using a different f word. >> Well, and I'll I'll use the P word pandemic. We we we used the storm response reserve and the state let you uh use that uh to cover any COVID
related costs as well. And having that and having it well funded uh enabled us to avoid doing special emergency appropriations the way a lot of other towns had to do. So again, having those sort of separate savings account helped us manage through that uh without any
sort of additional negative effects on the >> So we're still calling them trust funds or no? >> Yeah, it's a reserve. >> It's a trust. Yes, dedicated dedication by writer trust that you guys have approved. And the and the the um problem with not having that whatever uh uh debt
you incur goes right into your next year's budget as as as an expense >> before you have a special emergency that gets funded inside inside cap next year. >> Yep. >> So it's great that we have these trust funds. >> It is.
>> Yep. And so the plan is just to the next couple years incrementally increase it so back to where we've comfortable with it. >> I think we'll have a better handle once the season's finally over, >> right? >> Uh and can do a longer term analysis, but it was pretty clear uh from what we
were seeing that we should start now and do it in a way where again it isn't a huge cost driver, but it's something that we can >> we can build in over a few years, you know, possibly. So, >> okay. Uh next section uh covers health w
senior services uh wreck salary and wages up uh basically there was a promotion that you gave to an employee last year on a partial year basis that you know in addition to a cola there's a you know you're picking up the second half of that uh in this year's budget
[snorts] and for senior services uh big chunk of that increase as you'll hear from Ariel tomorrow night is a proposed ex f I'll say further expansion of our transportation program. Okay. Last year, uh you agreed to fund some additional
money for that. Uh and based on the response and the demand, uh we think an additional expansion uh would be wellreceived by the community and really it's we think it's needed. >> Great. That one question really good service. Yep.
>> Okay. We're a third of the way through. Okay. All right. Uh this is the call it the department departmental OE budget. Uh this is other expense. You
can think of it as operating expense. So this is where the money goes for all of the consumables and supplies and services and contracts that we utilize in providing services to residents. All right. Uh general government here includes you know things like
administrator communications commission general services uh which is a variety of things related to you know office expense lines and copier costs and and the like. Uh mayor and council oe budget clerk and elections. Uh the the the big
there's two items I want to hit on here both related to the clerk. >> Sorry. [laughter] Uh the the big one uh is for the the special election that was just held. Uh the final costs are not in quite yet. We
do have some invoices. We've been able to estimate out what the personnel costs are going to be. Uh there's $35,000 there to cover all of those costs of that election. Um as the saying goes, that is what it is. Those are the costs that we're responsible for. Um unless we
have a tie in November again, uh this will be a one-time allocation that we'll be able to remove from the budget next year. Okay. >> You continue order to flip a coin instead of doing >> Yeah. Right. [laughter] >> I I'll give I'll supply the coin. Okay. >> Um and and I think that there probably
was some benefit in being able to have it the same day as the other referendums in the county. Um because the original estimates we were getting were 50 60 you know something thousand dollar. So um I think probably about a quarter of the
cost was right I think four way >> it's yeah but we still have to pay for all of our own pole workers and Okay and things like that. Okay. >> Uh and then the clerk OE is up 4700. Um, but there's actually another one-time
expenditure we'd like to uh cover this year. Uh, it was something we deferred last year. Uh, and that is to engage our codification company to really undertake a full comprehensive review of the burough code. Uh, they go through it and
look for any outdated language for compliance with statutes. Um, so we don't have, you know, things that are no longer compliant with state law or federal law. Um, and maybe they'll flag things that are just not used anymore.
You know, we do things like regulate licensing of bicycles and we have a horseman's advisory committee still on the book. You know, just and and let unique to here. Every town uh unless you've done a cotification very recently, you you have these vestigages
of the past sort of that stay there. Um, >> no more slaughtering of pigs in downtown. >> No, no, no. But that's about $9,000. >> When was the last time we did this? >> We have not undertaken that level of of a review since I've been here. Uh,
>> that's 20 years. >> 18. A matter of fact, >> excuse [laughter] me, I ran it off. >> 18 in a couple weeks. So So, so yes, it's it's been a while. >> It would be money well spent, I think, to be able to do that. So, so there's
money in there. >> So, the money to do that is there actions that it cost money. So, once we get that done, obviously there's going to be actions. So, there'll be additional costs. This is just for review additional cost to implement any changes >> there. There would likely be codification costs. We already have some
of that built into the clerk's budget normally. Anyway, okay. Uh whether we did that oneonone or sort of sort of an omnibus ordinance that cleaned up a whole bunch of provisions, I think that'll depend on how substantive versus how technical >> some of the changes are.
>> This seems like an AI kind of thing. Um is is there like would we be able to purchase software that could do something like this or or is it you know that the company has to do this? And >> the proposal that we got was from
general code. Now whether they're using any AI tools uh to aid them in that they may be at this point. Um but you know they have experts on their staff that are first in this stuff. Um and you if you've worked with AI you know you have to check AI.
>> You need somebody that has the knowledge to be able to check things like that to make sure it's correct. >> U so I'm not sure that that's something we want to undertake on our own. >> Okay. >> Throw the chat at GBT and see what happens. >> Yeah. [laughter] >> Yeah. Your parameters are wrong, the
algorithms would be wrong. >> Right. >> Okay. Uh finance, it's pretty much almost flat amongst everything there. Uh land use, two things I want to point out here as
well. Planning board is up by $30,000. That is another uh one time or what I'll call a periodic cost. uh that is to fund a um the planning services related to a redo of the land use element of the master plan. Uh so that's to engage the
planner to be able to undertake that effort this year. >> That's something we must do though, right? >> Periodically you have to reexamine your master plan. It's time. >> It's been some time especially with you know you just did the housing element and it's you know there's it's been it's been a number of years now I think since
it was last done right uh construction code enforcement uh OE can be reduced by almost $40,000. We had actually amended the budget towards the end of last year. We switched uh software for code enforcement moving from a company called SDL to go pilot. Uh basically we had to
advance the contracting and the licensing of that. Uh so last year actually picked up kind of like two years in one year. Um but since this is against the amended budget, that money comes out now. Uh just the normal annual cost is actually in the IT budget.
So public safety covers again police, 911, uh OEM, flood control, first aid, LOAP, fire department, all of those budgets. Uh many of them are staying the same. Uh police OE is up by 33,500.
The bulk of that, uh it'll be interesting to hear from our IT coordinator on Wednesday night. the bulk of that is IT related and he can get into the weeds with you about what all of those items are. uh E911 system. Uh the police and I
police department and I started discussing last year uh whether it made sense to move our reverse not our reverse on our emergency 911 system uh from its current provider which is Central Dispatch that's Rididgewood and Glenrock uh over to the county because
the county doesn't charge. Uh so the police chief looked at it and is proposing that we move over. Uh this is that reduction basically reflects um moving over by the end of the third quarter. Uh I think it was time to properly do that. Um there would be
further uh cost reductions in the 27 budget as the rest of that would be able to be removed. >> And that's that's just 911. That's not dispatch. >> Correct. Correct. That's not right. That's 911 dispatch. >> This is already that was just killing mama. >> Correct.
And we had looked at it once before, but it didn't work or for whatever reason, we didn't uh that >> I'm not sure that >> not for 911. I don't think we did looked at that county we talked about last year, Russ, but there was a timing issue that
>> No, I I thought maybe before last year. Um, yeah. I mean, because when we had we had gone on a tour of the the county facility and we were talking about moving things, but we just never did. I don't know. >> Yeah. I'm not sure if at that point or not, it was free. >> Okay.
>> That may have played into it as well. >> All right. >> It may have been. I just I don't recall exactly. >> I I remember going on the trip. That's all. >> That's true. >> It It's an impressive facility. >> Yeah. It's like War Games. War Games
movie for those [laughter] of those of us old enough to remember the movie, you know. >> Well, they do rerun it. Every once in a while, [laughter] >> forunately, everyone here understands that >> understands that. Yes. >> That doesn't happen to you.
>> Okay. uh public works. Big story here is the reduction in the solid waste budget of $24,000 uh by virtue of our uh new shared service agreement with Pompton Lakes that starts in the middle of the year. Uh so that has halfyear funding
basically at the rate we're paying in 25. uh then the reduced rate funding for 2026. When you put when you take that into account um and other changes in the solid waste budget, it nets out to a
$24,000 reduction. So the solid waste budgets, you know, it doesn't only cover collection, it also covers uh operation of our compost facility uh principally money for tub grinding material and permits and the like. Uh and also disposal costs as well. Uh and there was
a $6 per ton increase uh in the cost of disposal. That's by contract. Uh we have a shared service contract, a co-op contract with uh Woff and Franklin Leaks. Uh GADA is our disposal company and that runs through 2027 and there are
just planned increases in that contract. So I think we have another similar type increase in 2027 as well, but it nets out to uh a reduction of $24,000 for the year. Okay. And then sort of under the social
services component uh of of our funding, health, recreation, access for all, senior citizen services. Um there's been uh proposed increases for senior center program and again that uh Ariel will get into with you on on Wednesday.
>> The uh wreck decrease when we moved it off budget and onto the trust last year. Uh we did put some money in last year's budget so we could make sure there was no tales or anything that we needed to fund as they worked being a trust where they get to spend as they go as opposed to being on budgets. That's why you're
seeing that 6,000 come out there. It was something we put in as a one time make sure they were okay and now we're just taking it back out. I the net net on the the OE if you take out solid waste and library we're
>> talking 1% um $48,000 increase in in a time where we're looking at significant you know year-over-year cola increases or CBI increases depending on what metric you're going to use. Also, I think the departments did a really really good job of looking at the budgets, finding places where they can
save >> save money and do things differently um to come in at that kind of number. >> Yeah, that's really pretty tight in terms of budgeting. >> That's a very good point, Dave. People don't realize the library cost that's mandated
hits their bill and we'll get questions as as council people when the tax bill comes out and there's an allocation for library formula. appreciate you are calling that out >> and and Peter Peter does a really good job in terms of using those funds. Um the library building I think is
technically something that we're you know also required to maintain, but he does a good job of using any kind of money he can to fix the air conditioning, do the do those type things. So he's a really good partner in terms of spending that money. Well,
>> we won't steal any more of his funding. He'll be here in >> Wednesday, right? >> Yep. >> Okay. Now, we have we call the non-dep departmental O8 or miscellaneous expenses, which seems like a throwaway,
but there's a lot of there's a lot of budget cost here in these items. Um, so the they represent about 69% of total OE spending. All right. Uh so again taking it from the top uh information
technology is seeing an increase. Um but there's a couple things going on there. Again there is a little bit more cost for the code enforcement software compared to uh what we had previously. Uh however that has some nice features there uh that when they're fully implemented will be able allow us to
better serve the public. Uh there's a payment module that'll facilitate uh purely online permitting uh which we weren't capable of doing with the old software. Uh there's also a GIS component to that software that will give us an in-house GIS solution which
we haven't previously had or haven't really been able to procure in in sort of a cost-effective way. So those are things that we're looking to you know uh sort of build out and implement uh as the year goes on. Uh the other thing with it is um we've
invested in some software through our finance system through admins uh to better manage escrow. So uh there's a module cost that gets built in. Uh and there's also I think $3,000 of one time startup cost for that module as well. Uh
and then there's some one-time costs uh as well as we transition everything over to.gov uh for for security purposes. Um, and I know David's a big fan because of everything that all the changes we're going to have to make on that, but um,
but again, another onetime cost there that, you know, you shouldn't see next year. Uh, legal OE is down $15,000 uh from the 2025 amended budget. Um, this was one of the line items we were
>> still sort of looking and tweaking as early as this morning. Um, but I I think we're pretty comfortable at that $235,000 number. Understanding that um despite adopting the ordinances that we needed
to uh to preserve our immunity last week, there will still be ongoing uh legal costs related to affordable housing uh and you know various incendry other issues, labor labor costs and the like as as well.
And moving on, the big number insurance. So, uh, property and liability, uh, that's actually up sort of a trend or an inflationary consistent 3% after being a cost driver the last couple of years, uh, due to changes in the
marketplace when it comes and and in the regulatory sphere when it comes to workers, things like workers comp and property damage due to storms and the like. U, but then the last couple years it's been health insurance. So, uh, this year the budget would go from
approximately 2.6 million to about $3 million, uh, for and that's the current fund net cost, right? Because there are charge offs to the water utility and the library as as well. Uh, and that's $422,000.
I do want to point out that um originally the fee increase, the assessment increase was going to be about 21%. Right? There's always outside of the assessment change. Uh there's always
some changes due to uh is somebody single and they're getting married? Are they married? Are they having a child? Uh are you replacing somebody who's retiring now? Are they going on retiree benefits? is the person you're replacing them with waving coverage because they're still under parents coverage. So, there's some of that normal sort of
churn that affects this too. Um, but the assessment, the rates themselves were poised to go up 21%. Uh, the changes that we made as part of our contract negotiations with the employees uh going to uh more cost-effective plans uh
actually helped shave about 5% off of that increase. And that's why you're seeing a net there of about 16%. >> If I may for a second, um how do we ensure that um deceased people are not on our insurance any longer?
Because I know that happened in one town I worked in, which will remain anonymous. Uh uh someone had died five, six years earlier and they were still paying for the health insurance. >> We we check that fairly regularly. how
>> um you can Google we we actually ask for updates uh as part of the open enrollment process every year. >> Okay. >> Uh so we endeavor to make sure that we have a current accurate list of of >> employees. Okay. Thank you.
>> Okay. uh utilities. We are able to uh effectuate some nice savings on the telephone budget now that we're fully implemented uh with Ring Central. Um that's just lower cost than the system we've been using previously.
Uh street lights are up about 8% just pretty much based on trend. >> Um and our overall electricity is up we we project up about 4%. Um, you know, there was an increase last year too, I think. Right when there was the bigger >> last year they had the rate increase.
This year we're being hit with the service line. >> Service line increase of all of that. >> Three quarters of the bill, it seems like, >> right? Uh, and vehicle fuels uh are up, we project 7%. That $150,000 number
originally was 175 last year. Uh, when we did a budget transfer, we had reduced it to 150. looking to put some of that money back in. Um simply because of one, our fuel usage this winter has been higher than it has been the last several
years. Uh just more road miles driven uh with heavy equipment. Uh as well as the recent unrest, we'll call it in the Middle East driving up fuel prices. Uh that will have a budget effect on us and a more pronounced budget effect the longer the prices remain elevated.
And the the street lights, have we continued to work on with with the uh orange and rockland uh to replace the the old ones with with LEDs and whatever? We just Yeah. >> Yep. >> Uh what what we've seen is that there
really is not much of a savings. It's not to say that you don't do it, that it isn't environmentally friendlier um that they aren't longerlasting. Um but if you look at the the actual pricing uh what you save in electricity [snorts]
consumption, you're paying more on service fees. >> And you know, it's it's funny you notice when uh if if there is a problem with the LEDs, they tend to flash. And so now they're more annoying than just being out than being out. Now it's a now it's
a strobe and it's Yeah. >> Yep. So >> Okay. Uh next section of the budget is um pension and social security. Uh this is actually a good news story for this year. A couple years this was up by like what 10%.
>> As recently as a year or two ago uh this year it's up uh 1 to 2% overall very manageable. Um and again the way you control your pension obligations ultimately is to control you know
headcount. um because it's also set by formula if you will by the state uh uh actuaries in the in the treasury. Every year they uh you know the employee rates are consistent in terms of what you pay as a percentage of salary. The variable part of that comes into what the
municipalities have to pay. So that you know in increases or decreases a little bit each year. Um, and fortunately there wasn't much of a cost generative effect on that for uh for 2026.
Moving on to capital. Uh, capital improvement fund has a 1% increase in it of $25,000. We'll talk a little bit more about capital shortly. Um, ideally we would have liked to have been able to increase this somewhat more to keep pace
with inflation. Um but given where we are with everything else in the budget uh and taking the direction from the finance committee as well um you know we we felt that we could substantially um accomplish our capital plan with keeping it to this and utilizing some of
our capital reserve as well. Right. Uh bond principle and bond interest. We have no short-term debt. So there's no note interest, no note um principle to be paid. Um, our bond principle uh matures fully in 2029.
>> 2029 will be the last year of that. Uh, and principal and interest account for about $2.2 million in spending. And that's pretty consistent as you can see there year-over-year. Uh, the special 5-year emergency. 5 years ago, we did the revaluation. A
little bit different than the annual reassessment. The annual reassessments that we do are an outgrowth of doing the full revaluation. Uh so there are annual reassessment costs in the tax assessment OE budget. Um but because a full reval
is somewhat more more costly upfront, we were able to it's one of the items that the state lets you spread out over 5 years. They call it a special emergency. Um but it's basically just saying, okay, you have 5 years to to pay off that cost in your budget >> that drops off next year. >> Yep. This 40,000 will be the last
payment of that. And then we have reserve for tax appeals. Again, one of the things um that we've been seeing a bit with doing the uh annual assessment uh program is it's decreasing the number of of tax appeals and the number and the amount of
tax appeal judgments that we're getting. It's not to say that we don't have any uh you know, you you engage a professional, you engage a tax appeal attorney. Uh there are expenses there to defend the burrow in litigation especially on the state to tax court matters involving commercial properties.
Um but overall our tax appeal reserve is well funded. Um [clears throat] and given the ongoing cost and what we see right now as our exposure to being uh we felt that we could cut this back a little bit uh as we've done from 55 to $35,000 a year.
>> And that's really with the whole rebal process, right? I mean, because we're we're revaling every everything. >> You're doing you're keeping up with your assessments. >> You're keeping up. So So nobody's really >> being shocked. >> I have to excuse myself. I have that a mandatory training CPR at the first aid
uh squad. So >> I will go through the rest of this at home and if I have any questions, I'll stop and speak to either. >> Please. >> We'll see you Wednesday night. >> Yeah. >> Yes. >> You thought you'd catch me, didn't you?
Yeah, I can see it in your eye. >> Just a point of order. Uh we never recognized that uh Councilman Saliani entered the meeting. Just >> Okay. Thank you. >> 602. We I run a tight ship. I'm not like that
Camala guy. [laughter] >> Anyway, [laughter] >> all right. So miscellaneous OE again driven uh largely by uh health insurance is up 4 a.5% uh total OE is up by 3%
again a little bit under a trend for inflation over the past year. So um you know all in all not a bad result given the overall economic circumstances. Next slide capital. Okay. So, this two you're going to see broken into a bunch of different sections. We
will have time to get into this in as much detail as you want. Um either as part of a budget hearing or because you will be doing a capital ordinance, as part of a discussion uh at a regular council meeting as well as we go through the budget process. Okay? So, we don't
feel like we have to dig into all of this all of this tonight. Um want Peter to be here by seven. So, he is. and get going. Um, but what you see there is a a variety of things there. Um, I'll
take it not going to go through every single one tonight, but I'll I'll hit on some highlights uh under admin equipment and improvements. There are upgrades there for certain tech items. uh what we'll call a service life extension for
our network um computers uh uh some network switch replacements, some security cameras. Uh the big item there uh would be a complete um really move away from having low band
radio infrastructure in the town. Uh we were able to secure uh an assistance to firefighters grant program. It's an AFG grant through the federal government uh for about $335,000 that funds a portion of this uh really it it funds the radios for the fire
department. That component of it, there's other pieces to this. Um but the nice thing here is $1.1 million between the grant what we're proposing to fully fund. We would not incur any debt by transitioning that that radio infrastructure. All right. And that includes new pagers for the fire
department as well. uh the senior center camera project. Uh we have a grant in right now with AARP uh to help fund that up to the allowable amount of that grant which is $15,000. If we get that, we'd like to fund the rest of it through the capital program.
This is a this is a request that's been deferred a number of times as we've sought grants repeatedly for this. Uh but the idea here is that much like we have a camera system in this room, we would have a dedicated camera system in the senior center. Uh so that when we do
special meetings, uh like if we had that, we could have done the planning board meeting in their normal meeting space in the senior center. Um we've had other public presentations there. It would allow uh generalized recording of senior programs, too. So if you have
homebound seniors um you know it provides them even if they don't have the internet if they have cable TV you could broadcast it on uh these these be like fixed cameras I mean we wouldn't need a whole uh room like we >> No it would it would be tied in remotely
here uh there would be things like this like pan and zoom type cameras and the like >> it make it more easier to do too because right now when we do do that we have to move cameras back and forth >> right you're setting up equipment we've used iPhones Sometimes the audio quality isn't what you want it to be. So,
>> so that's something we're looking to do. >> You have town hall meetings there, >> right? >> Right. But, but the OC would still be running the meeting from here. >> That's my understanding. >> Yes. >> Yes. All the control stuff would come back. Um,
>> I'm sure somebody I'm sure Ryan can can [laughter] >> let you know about that for sure. >> Okay. Again, that's a a benefit of the fiber optic that we did over the last few years at allow. >> No, that was be able to use. >> Yeah, that was good planning. >> We actually had some affordable housing
meetings last year at the senior center which were able to be able to broadcast. >> Right. Right. >> Uh Great Oak Park basketball courts. That is our latest grant. So, if you look there, it says grants and aid, other funds, $300,000. That would be $150,000
uh grant from Bergen County which we've secured. Uh and we would look to use the open space trust fund for the other 150. So we could accomplish that project without using any general capital money at all. Uh which would be a nice thing to be able to do.
Uh then a bunch of say standard sort of equipment stuff >> for the fire department. >> Great Oak Park is still running through Wreck. Is that it's always going to run through Wreck? It's uh I mean is that >> that that's the plan. I mean, obviously the arts committee also uses it and
coordinates. Um, but as we sort of transition, uh, now we no longer have the Greater Oak Park Committee, >> right? >> Uh, so, you know, when it comes to projects now, it's sort of looked at in the same vein as upgrades to the main complex, okay, or Truman Field Lights or
or the like when we're talking about what amenities to add, uh, where to add them, things of that nature. >> Okay. >> Okay. One thing I want to point out there with the fire department equipment um is an increase or proposed increase if we can
swing it uh to the replacement of fire apparatus. As you know, we try to preund the purchase of our fire engines. Um for years now, it's been $200,000 a year. Uh I wish that the equipment itself was
flat in price year-over-year, but it's not. Uh, and if you've, uh, heard us talk about this, uh, you know, over a year ago when, if you recall, we um, placed an order for a piece of fire apparatus at the end of 2024 to avoid a
$75,000 hit, which would have been a 10% cost increase. Uh New York Times has run um stories on this too about consolidation in the fire apparatus industry that's driven up prices as well as well as lengthened lead times because they haven't uh increased capacity uh to
match. Um long term we need to start increasing that $200,000 to something that uh as you project out is going to again meet your funding needs. So, uh, this is sort of the start of that that you're seeing by saying, "All right, we're going to jump up from 200 to 250."
I think there's more work to do on the analysis and getting current pricing and where we think the trends are uh in order to project out where we may need to be over the next several years, but um, you know, it's clear from what we're seeing the $200,000 a year isn't going to be sufficient going forward. I think
I remember reading like it it was similar to our garbage contracts that like there's only one companies that's making fire equipment. >> It it was there's been a lot of consolidation. So before you had um small f small I mean there you're making
fire apparatus, right? But but familyowned type businesses uh small privately held businesses. A lot of those have uh been bought out by private equity firms consolidated. you may have one uh holding company now uh that you know controls three or four different
brands in the industry. >> So yeah, there's there's less effective competition there than there used to be as well. >> Okay. Uh DPW equipment we can get into um but we typically replace two pickup
trucks a year. Uh and then uh the dump truck salt spreader, we have the full allocation in there of 230,000. Uh, we're also looking at the cost to refurbish the unit, basically do a frame up, frame off restoration. Um, so that cost may come down. That's sort of a
high-end price assuming that we buy a whole new unit. Uh, and then the annual road improvement program. Um, this we would uh use the the D word debt. we would incur debt for this uh which we think we have a long
term we have a long-term plan to take care of this in the short term uh meaning to extinguish this debt in the near term as soon as we're done paying off the bond. Uh and we're we're working on a couple of things or hopefully in 27 and 28 we wouldn't need to incur debt
for the road program but that's the what it looks like it's going to be for this year. Um, so you you have a modest road program. Uh, and we're also funding $300,000 worth of downtown improvements to extend the uh streetscape
rehabilitation, uh, sidewalks, standard lighting, and other things you've specified in uh, you know, your uh, streetscape ordinance that uh, we adopted a couple years ago. Uh, so all of that would result in
almost $1.2 million of of bonding. So you would see something that a couple of you have never seen which is an actual bond ordinance if if we do this right. We've done fully funded capital ordinances be a separate capital ordinance. There be a separate bond ordinance as well.
>> You okay? >> Sure. [laughter] >> We won't we will not do long-term debt on this. We will retire that debt within the next four years. >> So we've got we've got a plan. We're waiting for money to come back from the government on Patriots Waybridge. When
that comes back, it'll go into the reserve for debt service, which will allow us to retire retire debt. So, we're [sighs] >> I feel Yes, we have we have some debt on the books this year. Um, but I expect it to be the last time that you put that on the books.
>> I' I'd have the angst, too, if I didn't know that we had a plan to retire it in the short term. So, um, because I think that we've been very good about finding ways to fully fund these road programs over the last several years.
>> Uh, and then the other >> cutting back the service on road program. Usually 1.1 million. >> Uh, this is a bit smaller of a road program. Now, we do have $100,000 or so left over from last year. Uh, that'll be used to supplement as well. Um, and if you sort of look at it holistically with
the downtown improvements and stuff, it's not that far off. But in terms of actual lane miles, it's a little bit less than what we've been doing. Yes. And >> but also when you take into account what the county's done, what PACG has done in doing, you look at the overall mileage,
it's getting repaved. >> Well, I think we can cut back a little bit this year. >> Has has there been uh have we done an evaluation? I mean, like, was the winter as bad to our roads as I would think it was?
>> Uh, I haven't seen an evaluation yet. Um, I I know the crews, I think, have already been out, you know, well, cold patch. I'm not sure that we're doing hot patch yet, but um that this is this is pothole season. This is, >> you know, when we go out. And of course, keeping up on your road repaving
reduces your OE expenditures or keeps a lid on your OE expenditures because you need to do less pothole filling and patching. So, uh the other thing I want to point out there is with the storm sewer and drainage improvements, uh that's a bit
of an increase compared to prior years as well. Um again when you start taking a look at the cost per linear foot of let's say replacing pipe and then uh we have a number of head walls and outlets uh that need repair to conform with the
storm water management permit requirements. Uh this is also something where we try to fund it annually and sort of look at our storm water system like roads something that needs to be maintained regularly. Um but it's also
apparent that we need to increase that amount of funding per year uh in order to to keep up. Now the areas that we've been working on um have been within the CDBG eligible area. So we've been very uh aggressive and very fortunate to get grants every
year through the CDBG program that uh has offset a lot of our own cost for that. Uh matter of fact, I'm in discussions right now with the CDBG office about another unallocated funds grant from leftover money that they have uh that would allow us to accelerate
finishing the pleasureland area a year earlier than scheduled. Um so, you know, we're trying to take advantage of those sources. Um but there's a lot of need out there in terms of there was a lot of corrugated pipe put in this ground and after
uh 40 50 years the bottom's all rot out. So all has to be replaced. Again, head walls have to be maintained. So there's a lot of infrastructure there to keep up with. Uh and then for police, the main thing there are the patrol vehicles and that
is the uh funding proposed there is for the standard uh replacement of two vehicles to keep the fleet current. Um and we're proposing to replace a solar powered speed trailer that was actually >> damaging and destroyed. Uh yes.
And we did it a while ago. We got some insurance money back plus the uh you know deductible on that. So okay. Uh so overall the total projected gross cost of the capital pro projected capital program subject to further conversation
of course is $4,260,500. Total cash required is 2,413,500. Uh, and about 253,000 of that would come from our existing capital fund balance, which is healthy, 1.1 million, it would still leave 800, you know, close to $850,000 in there. Uh, should you have
some sort of an emergency, again, we've seen that in the past with, let's say, Alerman Brookke, a storm comes in, does a lot of damage, you do an emergency um u procurement there to effectuate the repairs. It provides a fund there again so that you're not impacting your budget
in a subsequent year. >> Now, this is a separate fund from other funds that we've discussed, >> correct? >> Okay. >> Okay. Um and now I'm going to turn it over to to David. We're going to talk about the revenue section a little bit and the analysis of revenues and
surplus. David. >> Uh yeah. So basically we fund our budget through surplus miscellaneous revenue uh not too much in terms of delinquent tax um and then the full tax levy uh and you
can see how they proportion out. Uh if you go back 13 years to 2013 about 76% of the budget actually was funded by taxes. We're now funding just 72% of the budget through taxes. Uh that biggest change there is on the surplus
utilization. We're we're at a peak right now and there is risk there um when you fund that much of the budget there because you have to be able to replenish it. Uh we've had some good years in terms of replenishment with a couple different you know revenues that we didn't anticipate or couldn't anticipate
because the way the state restricts you from doing those. Um revenues again um we're in very good shape. uh looking out the next couple of years, we've got to bring surplus down a little bit. Um now we have a surplus policy that's in place
that guides us guides us through that uh revenue >> and and it the utilization of surplus in this budget is compliant with that policy. Um again, it sort of sets a minimum and a maximum uh based on a percentage of prior year appropriations.
Uh the idea there being that you don't want your surplus to fall too low uh that it doesn't provide sufficient cash flow uh or reserves in for for emergencies and you don't want it to grow too large either and let it sit
there uh when it should be utilized to fund projects reduce tax impacts where possible. So it sort of pro, you know, provides a range there where we say, yeah, below that is too low, above that is too high. We sort of want to be in this zone. The amount in this year's
budget is literally like right in the middle of that. So it's really a matter of what you're using your surplus to fund, right? So um it is something that we keep an eye on in terms of regeneration and where we think regeneration is going to be 2 3 4 5
years out. Um, and I think we'll be good the next couple years as Lunar builds out. Um, but we do want to keep an eye on that and pro and, you know, to the best of our ability, I think start scaling back the use of um, of surplus
as we move forward after this year. >> And maybe one of the things we end up utilizing at some point to reduce that debt, you know, you looking at surplus, you may say, okay, let's let's use more than the the average. Um, and you can use that to offset debt as we go.
>> And the the policy that's our policy, right? Is it correct? It's it's is it is there a state recommended? Is there you know >> um there there is nothing from the state different you know GFAO is my
organization. They want you to have one. They they want you to manage it and look at it. Uh some will use just a straight percentage. They won't use a range. Um the one that we use I think is pretty good in terms of giving you some guidelines and how to manage it. >> Yeah. I mean I you know it's it's it's
definitely been working. I mean since I'm I'm on you know we I'm I'm happy that we have this that you know it just >> it keeps us honest and it does and yeah >> I can I can tell you looking at uh other towns that when I've asked this question
in the past you know what do what do you do? How do you do it? Um because I think we were there were there were a whole bunch of towns that did it all once kind of this was a best practice question probably >> 13 years ago now maybe uh because they
wanted towns to focus on this as a fiscal management tool and a lot of towns weren't um especially with the advent of the levy cap it became more important to do that uh and so we were one of the first towns I think to come up with a policy And I know some other
towns that modeled theirs off of off of ours. Uh because I think it it sort of struck a nice balance. Uh and so the towns that that I know of are generally the same within a few percentage points. Uh and if you look at, you know, you can kind of Google
what other towns do. Uh you know, nationwide. Again, it's it's it's a range, but you know, I think we're sort of right right there where we need to be. >> Thank you. And this just a a picture over time. Um
you know we try to keep a keep an ongoing look at what the impact to the residents have been in terms of their tax bill and the the levy increase and you can see what the high points are. Um for for a while there we had accumulated a lot of debt. Uh we were paying it off
in terms of the minimum payment on our notes. Now, finally, they came due and you see that fairly significant increase uh back in 2020 uh to make that that bond payment. Um that goes away in 2030. That was a 15-year bond. Uh and then you can see
again we had uh some increases significant from solid waste, insurance, and pension um in 22 and 23. Uh we were fortunate that we had the reassessment shift some of that burden to commercial during a couple of those years. So you
can see the difference between the levy and the residential tax bill wasn't wasn't as bad as it as it could have been if we hadn't been doing that ongoing reassessment. And then back down in 24 and then popped up again in 25 and 26 mostly based on insurance and the
pension kick there. Uh so you can see where it's been doing over the last few years. Over the last 15 or so um it's been at about 2.2. Uh that's the average if you net out all of those increases over that same time. The last time we
looked last year, um CPI was a little bit under three. Uh so we were doing better than CPI and we continue to do better than uh CPI for for the last four or five years even. Uh that's just kind of an ongoing picture of what the
revenues have been doing. I talked about surplus. This is our surplus policy. It tells us where we should be. um in terms of replenishing fund balance, you can see the things that drive it, excess revenues, um when we
lapse prior year appropriations. And so this this is kind of something again that Rich and I look at uh we know what we lapsed this year so we have an idea what we'll lapse at the end of the following year and we can see where surplus regen regeneration is going to
be. uh miscellaneous uh revenues uh they've been driven by a couple different things. This past year it was LAR and permit fees being higher. Uh two three years ago it was actually interest our interest that we earned was down to like a quarter of a percent. Uh we can
only anticipate what you realize the prior year according to the state following year the interest rates went back up to four. We had a nice about $800,000 windfill windfall. So that's been kind of feeding our fund balance, allowing us to re reutilize that surplus
back into following year bud budgets and keep our tax tax rate impact as low as possible. >> And just when you say lapse, what's the what's the >> So our our budget is a two-year budget on the appropriation side. You have the current year. This is right now we're working on a 2026 budget. At the end of
the year that'll become the reserve. uh you can't incur new expenses against that, but you'll pay down um any open POS or any things that you know roll from professionals into the following year. At the end of the second year, anything that you haven't spent lapses to fund balance
>> um revenues when you exceed your revenues, that goes the current year. So, as soon as this year is over, if we bring in more money than we anticipated, it immediately goes to surplus and fund balance. and what does it mean to our residents?
Um, this is something we've been, you know, doing for the past 10 or 12 years. I can see what it's been looking like. Uh, this year we've got a slight increase in the 11 to 3 and a half. The library is up by 11, almost 11 and a half. Everything else we're estimating
at about 4 and a half. We don't know what the impacts are going to be until their budget gets finalized and they send us something over, but I imagine a school is going to be hit by the same thing we are in terms of health insurance. Um, and those costs are pretty significant for them as well. Net
impact to the resident uh municipal portion only is going to be this budget around $111 uh for the average assessed home. uh library be another 23 uh for a total of about 134 to the average home.
Average home this year being about $678,000. So house is worth a little bit more, your increase be a little bit higher, a little bit less increase will be lower. >> And uh the county have they struck their >> county has not struck anything? Um
>> they usually wind up being the last they will be what we're waiting for. We will again plan on doing an estimated tax bill this year so we can keep our cash flow coming in. You know, our residents like getting their tax bills and paying us in in August that money. >> Sometimes we had some issues. Wrong
people get the wrong bills or something with the estimated tax bills. Sometimes there's >> Oh, they didn't get the wrong bills. No. Um, but the bills change. >> Okay. you know, cuz uh whatever we estimate, >> you know, will you guesstimate and when the final bills come out a couple years
ago, we did not have all of the budgets in by the time we estimated. So there was some fourth quarter was a little bit higher than we had originally thought it was going to be. >> Okay. >> We might have to include some verbiage in the tax bill if we can about what the estimated bill is going to be again to remind people.
>> I think that might help >> solve some of the communications. Everyone run to Facebook. Yep. We're on we're on year three, year four of the estimators. >> It doesn't mean Oh, at least four. >> Yeah. But we we get many fewer questions the last couple years than the first year we did. First year we had lots and
lots. >> Um but that's come down a little bit. >> More people understand it. >> Yeah. Okay. >> Yeah. >> Uh that's our story. So before we move on to uh Peter uh to talk about the library budget uh and library operations uh does
anybody have any questions or anything they'd like to touch upon before we move on? Uh just on couple I mean we'll we'll talk to the both chiefs on the fire and police just making sure everything's you know appropriate with what they need to
support the residents right things are changing going on um the uh the vehicle costs uh and replacement make sure everything's just on schedule as needed that's all >> I I was just wondering the the LOAP do we get any money from the state or is LOAP all on us
>> lowap on us okay >> and is this golden doesn't change if the state budget changes. >> Well, you know, >> we doing this again. >> So, so, so what was it a couple of days after our finance committee meeting? Uh,
I I go to a meeting of my fellow Northwest Bergen administrators and we hear that, well, there's word coming out of DCA to brace for for uh cuts in in state aid. Fortunately, in the governor's budget proposal, none of that materialized.
Uh so as of today uh and we do have a statutory deadline on when we have to introduce the budget. Uh there's the um stated revenue is flat. There's according to the governor's budget it's proposed to be no change. >> I have not seen anything official yet
from the local finance. >> Nothing from the local finance board or DCA >> and and tells us what that's going to be but we don't we don't think it's going to change. So, >> please remind us when we have to introduce by. >> Statutoily, uh, it has to be by the
first meeting after the end of March. Um, we're shooting to introduce at the last meeting in March on the 24th. That would put us in a position to adopt the second meeting in April. >> All good. >> Okay. Uh, is that Peter? Would you like
to come up? Hi everybody. Hello back here. Thank you. You want to say anything before I get going? No, >> please. >> Okay. So, I just want to start by reminding people that the library board
of trustees manages the library and trust and that they have public meetings that are open to everybody. It's the second Thursday of every month at 7:00 on the lower level of the library. If you're interested, you can come by and uh you'll have this one for the meeting or you can give your input. Um to the people at home that maybe
aren't familiar with how library funding works in the state of New Jersey, you may be wondering why libraries funded at the rate that it's funded at, which is a fair question. So, according to the statute of the state of New Jersey, our budget is based off of the equalized valuation of our municipality. I think
um our CFO just said that the value is up. So, as the value rises, so does our budget. And as the value falls, so does our budget. We've been on a pretty steady pretty steady incline, I think, over the last bunch of years. Uh valuation keeps increasing, so our budget keeps
increasing. So that's why you see the amount reflected in your bill that you see for the public library. That's how that works. It's unique in that regard that it's a formula. So if I can just talk a little bit about what the library did in 2025, uh we had over 6,300 registered borrowers. We circulated more
than 115,000 items, which is an increase from the previous year. Uh we hosted a whole bunch of programs. We do that every year. We're better at doing that now since the building has been renovated not that long ago. We had over 52,000 visitors, which was also an increase from the year prior. We offer
museum passes, library of things, digital services. I'll get into that in a moment. We have a lot of things there. The library besides just books. Uh it's a safe building. It's a clean building. It's comfortable and there's a lot of space for the patrons to take advantage of and nonprofits as well. Uh, we also
just completed a room on the lower level that used to be a storage closet that really wasn't getting used very much and we turned it into a classroom that we're going to be using through our new initiative which is the OPL Academy which will be geared at educational courses for children and for adults when we line up the right um instructors for
that. So, I'll talk more about that as well. If you flip to the next sheet, you can see how our budget has changed year-over-year from 2025 to 2026. Uh full-time, you can see is a little bit of an increase. The permanent part-time's actually gone down a little
bit. For those who are interested, uh part-time employment at the library es and flows depending on both our need and also on the people that we hire. Sometimes we hire somebody, we expect them to stay all year, they leave after 3 months. That's just sort of the way that it goes. Um general funds is the one that has the biggest discrepancy,
and that's the one I'll talk about last. Um if you look at the other ones, liability, insurance, utilities, electric, natural gas, per social security, most of those costs are built in. Um you know, they they reflect uh the people that are working there, the cost of of the
utilities and that sort of thing. Well, if you look at the on the right hand side where everything is itemized, you can see how the values have changed and obviously the largest increase for us is the general funds. It's where the money that's left over goes. That's the money that the library board of trustees takes direct control of and then manages. So
if you proceed to the next slide, what are the general funds? What do we use them for? What do we do with them? So that pizza there, lack of a better word, that perhap um gives you a visual display of where we put the money. And then on the right hand side there, we
have language that corresponds with that. Um so the largest slice is materials and that's where we try to spend as much money as we can. So, when we're talking about materials, what are we talking about? Yes, we still buy books. Yes, people still read books. Um,
Oakland, pretty good circulation in terms of the physical materials. That's for adults. That's for children. That's for young adults. We also have uh movies on DVD. You know, not everybody is up on streaming. Not everybody agrees with the model of streaming. They don't want to pay every month. So, they still take out
DVDs. When people stop borrowing DVDs, we will stop buying DVDs. But to date, people still borrow them. music. Believe it or not, people in Oakland still get CDs. Again, it's one of those mediums that's died in some other places. It has not died in Oakland. So, again, as long as people want them, we will meet that
demand. We also buy video games, which are quite popular, actually. They're getting more and more expensive. I think that uh people appreciate that we buy them so that they don't have to buy them for their kids. So, we have those in the young adult room. Uh we have audio books that are still on CD, believe it or not,
which again we do have um some older residents who really prefer a CD versus the new digital offerings, which I'll get into in a moment. Um we have a lot of resources that are web- based now. Okay, so we're talking
about ebooks, downloadable audio books, movies, music, tutoring services, language service. That's all available for free with your library card. Anybody who has a Audible subscription, we have a better deal at the library. It's free. It's 10 automatic downloads a month.
Every month you can take them with you through an app called Hoopla. You can travel with them. Again, it's 10 a month every month. You can frontload them. You can do them all at once. You can do them when you want them. You can take them with you on vacation. It's all free with the cost of your library card. Uh we also have Overdrive. Overdrive is the juggernaut in e resources, specifically
ebooks. I think they have 90 or 92% market share. We do work with them as well. there's a much much broader uh breath of collection there, but there's often a wait time, which any of you who are Abid Libby users understand that sometimes you have to wait a little bit longer, and that's because you're sharing that specific resource with all
of Burton County. That being said, the Oakland Public Library allocates money for just our own collection of digital materials through Libby, which is based almost exclusively off of the holds list. So, when I look at a holds list, I look at the people in Oakland who want something and then I purchase to
alleviate the hold list. So we purchase additional copies that go to our patrons first. We also take advantage of a cost per serve model which means if you want it you check it out and we get charged a flat fee for every circulation. It's not the best model and we get taken advantage of a little bit. Public
libraries by specifically by Overdrive and that's something that you know library community as a whole have tried to confront maybe through some legislation or something. How to get Overdrive to sort of stop kind of price gouging public libraries. But it's a it's if if we see and we do growth in
use, the largest growth is among e-materials. So people are using more and more e- materials every year and they want more. So we fund it more. Uh we also purchase museum passes. I don't know if people don't know that we have museum passes.
They're free. You come in, you grab it, you use it, you bring it back the next day. We have Museum of Natural History vouchers that you can purchase for $7 each that get you admission to both museum and the special exhibit. Those are totally worth it if you've ever gone to the Museum of Natural History. The special exhibits alone are fabulous. You
get into those with the pass. Um we also have uh the Intrepid, Storm King, Guggenheim, Morris Museum. I might be forgetting one, but they're all on our website. So if you go on our website, you'll see everything that we have there.
Um, so that's what we purchased with the materials. Fun. As we move along, Buckles. So Buckles is 78 member libraries, right? So any of you who are library users understand that you can walk into any Buckles library with your open library card and borrow anything that they have on the shelf. If you want something and we don't have it, you ask
for it, it gets shipped to us. Few years ago, Buckles built their own delivery system outside of the state delivery system. when the state delivery system stopped running during COVID and there was no delivery for 9 months or whatever. Our system is a lot faster and more efficient than the system that everybody else in the state uses and we
pay for that but you'll often get your materials the next day or two days depending on where it's coming from. So uh if you haven't been taking advantage of that I encourage you to try it. It's a great resource. Programming which is the green slice there. So programming is something that has grown exponentially in the 11 years that I've been the
director there for a couple of reasons. When I started there in 2015, we didn't really have any space to put programs. Those of you who were there or who were, you know, here and understood what the library looked like then, it was a completely different building. Since we've renovated and we have all the spaces that we have, we really literally
do hold hundreds of programs every year. I mean, we have them on the stage, we have them on the lower level, we have them in the maker space. Any of you are involved in scouting probably taking advantage of that. to those of you at home who are never seen the rooms or never taken advantage of them. Uh they're free to
use for patrons as long as you're not conducting a business in there. And they're free to use for nonprofits. So if you want a room, uh just contact the library. There's a form on our website where you can fill it out. If you're an individual, you don't need the form. You just call us. You say, "I'd like to use a room." And we set the room aside for you. We have a quiet study room. We have
a local history room that does have local history materials in it for those of you who are interested in that. Um and a couple of other spaces that the public is allowed to use. So, um, take advantage of that if you're interested. If you don't know what programs we have, um, I recommend just asking that we add
you to the newsletter. It's a monthly newsletter. You also get some of that content if you're on the burough newsletter, which we appreciate. Thank you. Um, otherwise, as we work through the through the pizza, we've got the building cost. So, those are the costs to to heat, to clean, to cool, to
maintain. Uh, I love that building. It's an old building. It has a slate roof. It has a terrible HVAC system, you know, uh it's just it's got plaster and lab in the original building. So, you know, sometimes repairs on a building and maintenance are a little bit expensive,
but um we try very hard now that we have the funding to keep the maintenance going so that we don't run into issues where something is a catastrophic failure and then we're asking you guys to bond for something. Um I did get ahead of myself. Oh, I didn't get ahead
of myself. Not yet. Um, oh, we also group into that cost. We also get audited annually. Uh, occasionally we have legal fees. We pay for our postage and copers and those types of mundane things that we pay for so we can do business day of the day. Uh, the last slice in the pizza renovation. So, this
is not present every year. This reflects the cost uh to turn the closet into the STEM lab. If you're familiar with the library, you're going to see that room. It looks a lot nicer downstairs now. You can see through. It's quite beautiful. uh it will be a cornerstone of our new educational initiative. Um we
self-funded that. We didn't ask the bottom of bond for it. We budgeted our money. We saved, right? And and we allocated because we knew we were having a good year. And also the new friends of the Oakland Public Library, who those of you at home, you're going to see the mailer and those of you in this room as well, you know, their fundraising or our fundraising arm. They helped us to pay
for that also. They do a incredible amount of work to help us pay for things like that as well as furniture if we need it, as well as the book page magazine that we give away as well. They help us supplement the bestsellers and they also help us supplement with the um some of the museum passes. So, the New
Friends of the Oakland Public Library is a terrific organization and every penny every penny right comes back to the library and goes back to the to the residents in some form or another. Um does anybody have any questions about anything that I've said?
>> No, but a follow up. I think you'll get there. Is there anything you need? >> No. Right. >> I I'm extremely lucky. I want to say obviously um the library board of trustees year-to-year uh we try to be very careful with the money even though we are in a place that's very good right
now. We're always cautious. We understand that again our budget being unlike other budgets has the potential to go right back down again and it has historically it's done this. So you know we're never in a position where we're going to overextend ourselves. Um we don't want to we don't want to create a situation where we're back here in a few
years saying well we can't pay our bills. We need your help. We try very hard to avoid ever getting to that point. That is a point that we were at when the budget was terrible. Um we just don't want to end up there again. So we try to be very careful about the decisions that we make. Um I do want to while I have a moment in everybody's
ear, I want to just point out that every municipal department in this town helps us. Okay, everybody. I'm blessed to have the cooperation that I have. And a special shout out to the DPW who are incredible when it comes to the public library. I need something. They do it in
and in many other towns. They got to call us out and pay. I mean, the amount of work that they do for us and maintaining that building, it's it it is very appreciated by us. We're very grateful to them for what they do. But really, everybody in town helps the library. They support us. We are
extremely lucky. We need for nothing right now. We're we're lucky. If if if I could ask something of the public, it would be if we're not doing something that you want, I I would like you to tell us because it is our job to do that. So, you know, if you come and you
say, "Hey, I think you should be doing this." That's a good thing. Uh like it's a suggestion box, right? I'm a suggestion box. Just suggest it to me, email me, come see me, or tell somebody at the library, "We would like to see this." And we will see if it's something that we can do as long as we determine it to be reasonable. You you had
mentioned uh copers with in the in the stuff. Do you get that through the town or do you guys >> No, we have our own contract. Although in the past I think we've used the same company. We're not using the same company now, but we may use the same company going forward to get a better rate. >> That's what I was going to say. It just seems, you know, >> redundant, right? Yeah. I think uh the
timing of us actually even having a decent we didn't even have really a good photocopier and when we got ours it was out of sync. But going forward, yeah, something to think about. Yeah. And anything you guys want to add? No. Think no Peter. Okay. Uh, thank you all
for having me here. And if you have questions that you didn't ask and you want to ask me, um, you know, where I am at the library and thanks for being home for your support field. >> Thank you. All right. Thank you all. >> See you, Peter. Thank you, Peter.
>> All right. >> Uh, yes, that's what we have for this evening. And apologies. I think Wednesday is going to be a little bit uh heavier. There's some scheduling issues. Uh but we'll uh kick off on Wednesday with uh senior center. Uh as you go
through this uh in your in your own time reviewing these materials, uh if you have questions uh if you want to sit down with us of course as well to supplement uh anything you want to dig into further, just give us a call and we'll be happy to do that.
Um, in the meantime, if there's no other questions, there's something further than I have this evening. >> All right. Well, uh, thank you guys for everything you did tonight and, uh, we'll we'll see you on Wednesday. Um, I want to wish everybody a happy St. Patrick's Day and I got my tie on and
I need a motion to adjurnn. >> Second. >> We need a first. >> [laughter] [laughter] >> All in favor? >> I >> next meeting will be on Wednesday. >> Thank you. >> Thank you.