The Hoboken City Council voted 6-3 to adopt an amendment to an ordinance up for second reading increasing personnel fees associated with event permits at last night’s meeting.
By Dan Israel/Hudson County View
Responding to questions from resident Manny Rivera Soler, Business Administrator Jennifer Gonzalez explained the ordinance is proposing an increase of $5 for fees associated with emergency management personnel and sanitation personnel.
She said this is to cover the current costs of the city providing those services to permittees for private events. In addition, it also proposes adding a fee for traffic and signal personnel in the Department of Transportation and Parking, Gonzalez added.
“We’re simply looking to provide an hourly rate that covers the cost of providing these services to the applicants, recoups the city’s cost. So the cost was $30 an hour and now it will be $35 an hour if this ordinance is approved by council,” she explained.
The city currently doesn’t charge for those services, however, last year alone, they expended about $57,000 on event-related overtime, according to Gonzalez.
Former mayoral candidate Pat Waiters opposed the increases.
“I don’t think it’s fair for residents that live here, to have their little private events or whatever … [to] have to pay … Everything lately in this city became about money,” she stated.
The ordinance states that fees for sanitation and emergency personnel have not been increased since 2022 and do not cover the city’s current costs for said personnel. Fees of transportation and parking personnel were not included in the prior ordinance.
According to the ordinance, the administration estimates that a minimum of $35 per hour per employee will cover the average employee cost to provide these services for non-city events.
As such, the ordinance is increasing fees for sanitation and emergency management personnel from $30 per hour to $35 per hour.
The ordinance also adds fees for transportation and parking personnel at $35 per hour.
Other changes in the measure including making the head of Cultural Affairs in charge of permits and related matters, changing it from the director of the Department of Parks, Recreation, and Public Works likely in tune with the recent City Hall reorganization.
Without expressing why, the City Council voted in a divided 6-3 split, with 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano, 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher, and 3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo opposing the measure.
However, at least Russo’s objection became clearer when looking at his concerns he raised at previous meetings.
At the February 9th council caucus meeting, Gonzalez further explained that this applies for private or non-profit events being held on public space.
She clarified that this would not apply to most facility reservations for recreation facilities.
“For example, when the non-profit comes in and reserves a gym, this would not apply because they don’t need emergency management personnel or sanitation personnel or traffic or signal personnel. So this has zero effect on them.”
Over the span of 40 events, the total cost of emergency management and sanitation personnel was about $11,000 each. Using these costs, the estimated financial impact to permitted would be between $25 and $40 per event depending on the services provided.
“The total estimated cost to the city that would be offset by this increase is close to $4,000. We’re simply looking to cover the existing cost of the employees providing the service to entities outside of the city,” noted Gonzalez.
She subsequently confirmed t Russo that the city determines the number of personnel they utilize based on what the event is. Responding further to his line of questioning on impacts to larger feasts and festivals in Hoboken, Gonzalez assured she would look into it.
“All of those events are very important to our community and every year there’s an increase in cost from the city side,” Russo said at the time.
He also noted he gets calls from organizations- old and new alike – every year, struggling to break even nevertheless make a profit, and the city is “eating into that.”
“We have some new festivals that have started … only a couple years in, and I know it’s been very difficult to make sure that they’re meeting … the overall cost, not even profit at that point,” Russo noted.
He again called for an assessment of the impacts of raising the fees on local organizations, also making it clear his support for the ordinance hinges on that.
“I think they’re really important to our community and I want to make sure that we continue to provide those events throughout the year,” Russo concluded at the caucus meeting.
Gonzalez quipped that “if this doesn’t go through, the city will be at a direct loss for those costs.”
Five dollars here, ten dollars there and pretty soon you’re talking about real money – thank you Everett Dirksen. The key to long term financial stability for the City and an affordable quality of life for residents is to spend less money on lawsuits, excessive overhead and political posturing. Fees actually hurt the middle class (to the extent that it even exists in Hoboken anymore) more than the uptown brownstone crowd. Every council meeting needs to begin with a reasonable proposal on how we can reduce costs in Hoboken
Fischer Russo and predizano constantly complain about taxes but they r so dumb they want the taxpayers to pay for private events
Absolute idiots