Friday, March 22, 2013
The township council spent two hours Thursday night trying to figure out who authorized a policy change in 2012 that caused overtime costs to jump $187K
The Mahwah Township Council voted in front of a packed audience Thursday night to cut $100,000 from the 2013 police overtime budget, effectively reversing a policy decision that required police officers to be present at Tuesday night court proceedings. A large part of the budget hearing on Thursday night was spent trying to determine who authorized a policy change in January 2012 that required police officers to attend court proceedings on Tuesday nights for the tickets they write out. During several rounds of questioning from council members, Police Chief Jim Batelli, Municipal Prosecutor Dennis Harraka, and Mayor Bill Laforet all denied approving the policy switch. Laforet said that in a contract negotiation with the PBA in late 2011, he…
Monday, March 18, 2013
The police chief, prosecutor and municipal judge are expected to appear at a Thursday night budget hearing
Confusion over why police overtime costs in Mahwah jumped to about $500,000 in 2012 will “hopefully,” be answered when the Police Chief, Municipal Prosecutor and Township Judge appear before the town council during a budget hearing Thursday, Mahwah officials said at the last town council meeting. At the meeting, council members questioned who OK’d a policy apparently reinstituted last year which required Mahwah police officers to appear in court for summonses they issued. Previously, officers were not required to be in court, council members said. Last month, police chief Jim Batelli attributed the rule change to the prosecutor, and the spike in overtime costs between 2011 and 2012 to a rise in tickets written last year. According to …
Tuesday, March 5, 2013
The township will receive nearly $5M from Trenton
For the third year in a row, state aid to the township will remain the same, the state Department of Community Affairs announced Monday. Mahwah will get $4,913,416 from Trenton this year, the same amount it received in 2011 and 2012, the DCA announced Monday afternoon. According to a DCA release, the aid to every town in Bergen County will remain flat in 2013. “This preserved funding means no town in Bergen County will see a decrease in formula municipal aid for the upcoming year,” Christie said in the release. “It also demonstrates that providing stable, predictable levels of municipal aid to support local governments and taxpayers is a core priority of my Administration.” The nearly $5M figure is a drop of over $1M from the aid figure …
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Town council members said they are willing to ‘compromise’ on a $6,000 reduction to the township’s senior center budget for running exercise and other classes
A group of over 100 township senior citizens say a $6,000 cut to the Mahwah Senior Center’s proposed 2013 budget is unfair, and asked town council members to reconsider the cut. The crowd gathered at town hall Wednesday morning for a Senior Center Advisory Committee meeting at which they explained to council members why the cut would compromise one of the services they love most about Mahwah. “It is very important for our health and happiness to be able to come here and participate in line dancing or Zumba,” resident Carol Mayberry said. “We moved to Mahwah for the senior center,” resident Felicia Fox added. According to a statement from Senior Center Director Suzanne Small, the $6,000 reduction to the professional services portion of the …
Tuesday, February 12, 2013
The township council voted to cut the Mahwah Senior Center budget for 2013 by $6,000, which the organization's director said will likely lead to fewer classes for seniors
Mahwah senior citizens will likely have fewer classes to choose from at the township’s senior center this year, thanks to a $6,000 reduction in funding that will likely be part of Mahwah’s final municipal budget this year. At a hearing on the proposed 2013 budget last week, Councilman John Roth suggested reducing the Senior Center’s budget for professional services from the requested $36,000 to $30,000 for the year. The money is used to pay class instructors. The cut “is not a reflection on the senior center…but we need to start making reductions [to the budget] without doing severe damage,” to services offered by the township, Roth said. According to Roth, the Senior Center hasn’t actually spent $36,000 on teachers for senior center …
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
Government officials say Mahwah has not needed to raise fees to make up for budget gaps, as other towns reportedly have done
In the past two years, Mahwah residents have not had to pay more for dog licenses, zoning permits, or to participate in township rec programs. Water and sewer rates have also stayed the same in 2011 and 2012. “In the past two years, we have only raised one fee in the township. The pool fees went up for 2012,” Mahwah’s Business Administrator Brian Campion told Patch in an interview Monday. The town council voted earlier this year to raise pool fees in an attempt to cover some of the costs of operating the facility. According to Campion, Mahwah has not needed to raise or add fees to make up for revenue lost as a result of the state-mandated two percent tax levy cap. Other towns in Bergen County and across the state have been making headlines…
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Residents would pay an average of $27 more than they did last year under proposed budget
Mahwah residents may pay a municipal tax bill this year that is 1.75 percent more than it was last year. According to Mahwah’s administration, that increase would be the lowest actual increase the township has seen in 11 years. At Tuesday night’s final budget meeting of the advisory ‘Blue Ribbon Panel’ of Mahwah residents, Mayor Bill Laforet presented the 2012 township operating budget that will be before the town council to amend and adopt for this year. According to Business Administrator Brian Campion, who put together the budget with Laforet at township CFO Ken Sesholtz, the proposed budget comes in about $215,000 shy of the state mandated two-percent tax levy cap. For the average home in Mahwah with an assessed value of around $450,…
Wednesday, January 18, 2012
Mayor’s advisory panel suggests it is possible to reduce actual raise in 2012 tax rate
Mahwah will likely meet the state mandated two percent tax levy cap, Mahwah Business Administrator Brian Campion said at a meeting of the Mayor’s Blue Ribbon Budget Advisory Panel Tuesday night. Campion said over the next week, he and township Chief Finance Officer Ken Sesholtz will be working to chip away about $200K in operating expenses tentatively budgeted for the new year in order to meet the cap. At the first meeting of the group at the close of last year, Campion said about $800K needed to be cut from the budget in order to meet the state cap. He said Tuesday that several “year-end expenditure figures” were lower than anticipated, which helped close the gap. Campion said he is confident “we will be able to deliver a budget that is …
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
Advisory committee gets low down of town’s economic condition at its first meeting
A fourteen-member panel of Mahwah residents with strong business backgrounds will make recommendations to the mayor on how his budget can meet a state-mandated two-percent tax cap. The ‘Blue Ribbon’ Advisory Panel held its first meeting Tuesday night. According to new Mayor Bill Laforet, he assembled the panel so that it could make recommendations as to what items could be cut from the town’s budget, or how the town could pull in additional revenue in 2012, to help control tax rates. According to a presentation by Township Business Administrator Brian Campion and Chief Financial Officer Ken Sesholtz, Mahwah is allowed to raise its tax levy by a total of $20.1M in 2012, in order to be in compliance with a state-mandated cap on municipal tax…
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Provident Bank VP will lead "Blue Ribbon Panel"
Mahwah’s new Mayor Bill Laforet says a “Blue Ribbon Panel” of business leaders from Mahwah he is compiling will help put together this year’s township budget. "We have people in our community who are CEO's, CFO's and very successful and accomplished businesspeople,” Laforet said in a release Tuesday. "We ask members of our community to contribute as volunteers in so many ways, but not from a business perspective. I see an opportunity for our entire community to benefit from the extra set of ideas that these folks will provide for us." According to the release, CPA David Bagatelle, a Walsh Drive resident and the Executive Vice President and New York City Market President at Provident Bank, will lead the panel. He and the others who serve on…
karen costanzo
5:21 am on Saturday, March 30, 2013
Well said Ralph! I'm sure the ticket writing has decreased a lot esp over st patricks day weekend, only 2 or 3 tickets were written over the entire weekend. Wonder if the council has a clue about that? I know if I didn't perform my job, I would be out the door!! more ›