The Hoboken City Council held a budget hearing focused on their departments of parks, recreation, & public works, transportation and parking, and community development, last night, about 24 hours after they approved a preliminary municipal spending plan.
By Daniel Ulloa/Hudson County View
Department of Parks, Recreation, and Public Works Director Diana Aviles outlined her budget, which oversees 26 parks across the city. She said her operations account for about 10 percent of the $144,253,164.85 budget.
Councilman-at-Large Jim Doyle inquired about part-time positions, to which Aviles explained they are seasonal jobs that last for six months at most.
“It’s never 40 hours a week?” Doyle asked, to which Aviles said that is correct, since the jobs go by the four seasons.
“We’ve RFP’ed (request for proposaled) a lot of the recreation [programs] I’ve seen. How is it that we’re now adding someone as a coach?” 1st Ward Councilman Paul Presinzano asked.
“Our current goal is to make sure our programs are managed in-house,” Aviles replied, to which Presinzano asked for an overview of her job duties.
Aviles said the job is to oversee recreational overall, not the scheduling details, hence the new position to lead recreational programs.
Presinzano continued that the recreational soccer program had issues last year over a $180,000 contract and he didn’t want to see that happen again.
“There’s a little bit of a misconception. We essentially had a contract that was never approved by the city council. They were paid by the city. We had never done that (RFP) process properly. It’s kind of a mixed bag,” explained Business Administrator Jason Freeman.
3rd Ward Councilman Mike Russo complained that Aviles didn’t have requested salary information.
“Far too many times have I sat in these budget meetings where directors don’t have that information. When it comes to salaries, when it comes to wage s… that’s what we’re here for. We also want to know what it costs the city,” he began, also noting that her predecessor managed the department without any deputies or sub-directors.
“I’m struggling to understand why there’s three different positions for the rec department to schedule field space.
Without mentioning his name, Aviles said that reforms were needed after the tenure of Health and Human Services director Leo Pellegrini, who resigned just under a year ago, ended.
“We have identified past practices were not the best. There was mismanagement of funds and operations. We’ve seen a significant increase in participants,” Aviles argued, continuing that 9,000 local kids participate in all of their sports programs.
“Could there be one kid playing baseball, tennis, and lacrosse?” Hoboken Council President Jen Giattino asked, to which Aviles said they believe 9,000 people participate in their programs across the board (meaning without overlap).
“Our rec program has grown significantly over the last two years. The head of recreation shouldn’t be in the weeds doing these tasks,” Aviles asserted.
From there, Russo noted in the public works program, they have 212 vehicles in their fleet and questioned why only a staff os six is running it.
“Are we outsourcing any of that work?” Russo questioned.
Aviles said they do try to outsource at times, but mostly keep it in-house, adding that the 212 vehicles include the police and fire vehicles, as well as garbage trucks.
Later, Councilwoman-at-Large Emily Jabour said the rec department is a significant government contact for many people in the city, therefore trained coaches who have passed background checks and have insurance are important.
“It has taken a significant amount of work to get that to that baseline. It doesn’t look good on your slide deck, but it’s important to note,” she said.
“Is it a better choice to own our vehicles from an interest perspective?” Presinzano asked.
Aviles said they lease vehicles so they are easily replaceable. She added they get rebates for electrifying their fleet.
Russo noted the city maintains the athletic fields while the money doesn’t come out from fees.
“We’re paying for that out of the city budget?” he asked.
“Yes. We would be more than happy to revisit the events ordinance. We’re trying to keep those costs low for organizations like nonprofits,” Freeman replied.
“We should be providing those services rather than outsourcing those services. We might as all pay for all of it,” Russo said.
“If there’s a huge relevance on revenues to offset costs, I’d like to understand that,” 2nd Ward Councilwoman Tiffanie Fisher said.
Community Development Director Chris Brown then explained their work related to the city’s economic development, including affordable housing and overseeing the planning board.
They only have a staff of 13 and makeup about 1 percent of the city budget, he said, with a budget that is nearly identical to last years. The budget is nearly the same this year as last year, he said.
Brown further explained that lawsuits related to housing, development, and cannabis have increased costs.
“Most of these costs are legal?” Fisher asked.
“Correct,” Brown said.
“What is the overall cost of legal work in your department?” Russo asked, to which Brown said legal work is covered by escrow.
Presinzano was curious about rent calculations, to which Brown said many landlords are trying to be exempted from rent control, which is leading to legal action.
“Are you understaffed?” Presinzano asked.
“If we’re not able to make this new hire, yeah, we’re understaffed,” Brown replied.
Russo asked if any lawsuits were close to settling, to which Brown said the budget has some settlements factored in.
Finally, Transportation and Parking Director Ryan Sharp went over the $21.3 million transportation budget, about the same amount they received last year.
Like other departments, healthcare is the main driver of the increase in costs, he said, indicating that he wants to add three people to the department while getting rid of certain administrators.
“Our operating expenses are mostly aligned with inflation,” Sharp added.
“I’m still baffled on this accounting. I’m going to call it a trick. I’ve never seen anything like this in my entire life … that salaries from administration and the council are kind of pushed into yours. I find it very strange. This doesn’t seem correct to me,” Presinzano declared.
“It’s not a trick. The parking utility is a utility onto itself. The water utility and the parking utility are separate budgets. If you look at salaries … 80 percent of them are in the general fund. There’s technically separate budgets,” Freeman explained.
Presinzano said he understood, but said he didn’t like it, and asked why the department’s revenues were record breaking in the past year.
“None of that revenue is ticket revenue. This is a good thing. It means we are being efficient with our operation,” Sharp answered.
“We raised the meter rate. Why only 6.5 transfer?” Presinzano asked.
“Almost 60 percent of our budget is non-discretionary. A lot of our assets are kind of coming due to major, major maintenance. Our debt service numbers are coming way down.”
The hearing, which was nearly four hours, overlapped with the Hoboken Board of Education meeting, where an an amended preliminary $83,269,737 budget with a 14.99 percent tax increase was unanimously approved (9-0), as HCV first reported.
