Letter to the State Concerning Hoboken’s Overspending

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Letter to the State Concerning Hoboken’s Overspending

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Posted by Michael Russo Civic Association on May 26, 2004 at 09:32:00:

City Council
City of Hoboken
94 Washington Street
Hoboken, NJ 07030

May 24, 2004

Theresa Castellano
Carol Marsh
Michael Russo
Anthony Soares

Director Susan Jacobucci
NJ Division of Local Government Services
101 South Broad Street
PO Box 800
Trenton, NJ 08625-0800

Dear Director Jacobucci:

We are in receipt of your letter of May 21, 2004 concerning Hoboken’s overspending. We welcome this exercise of your statutory oversight responsibility and applaud your desire to see this situation addressed. We are concerned however, that your letter presupposes that, if indeed there are over expenditures, the responsibility for this situation lies with the City Council rather than with the Administration.

We do not feel that early approval of either a line item transfer resolution or an emergency appropriation contributes to compliance with the City’s obligation to not overspend under N.J.S.A. 40A:4-57. In fact, doing so at this juncture would only serve to ratify the many actions of this Administration and thus to ‘paper over’ the very serious situation that currently exists.

We believe that if you were in full possession of the facts you would have come to a very different conclusion. Since we have not so far been afforded the opportunity to present our case to the Division, we write this letter in order to do so.

The signers of this letter represent the minority of the City Council, generally independent of the Administration. During fiscal year 2004 we have taken many opportunities to identify spending which might be contrary to the expressed will of the Governing Body and/or State Statute. Facts you may not know include:

During the budget process we repeatedly expressed the concern that the Administration was systematically under budgeting rather than acknowledging the true state of Hoboken finances. None of us voted for the budget that was adopted, for reasons that included the conviction that it did not fully fund City operations.
For many months we have been concerned that this Administration has been spending in excess of amounts appropriated by the council. We have expressed this concern on the record, repeatedly and in detail, going so far as to specifically identify the Group Health Insurance and Legal Services lines as serious problems.
To each of our concerns the Business Administrator has represented that the City is not overspending, and in fact will be fully able to fund our obligations (most recently at the meeting of May 19, 2004.) On May 22, 2004 the Chairman of the Council Finance Committee was quoted in the Jersey Journal as saying “we have enough funds on hand to pay all [our] bills and meet payroll”.
Despite our repeated requests, the part-time Interim CFO has not once been present to advise the council on these issues, nor has he expressed any advice in writing beyond the occasional certification of available funds.
At no time has this Administration presented this Council with an SFY 2004 emergency appropriation for a vote, nor has it presented backup information indicating the need for such an emergency appropriation.
At this point we have found no credible source of accurate information on Hoboken finances willing to advise the council on the full picture of Hoboken’s finances. Not the Business Administrator, not the CFO, not the Auditor. Even if we were prepared to approve an emergency appropriation, we would be in the dark as to how much was required.

There are very few powers granted by Statute to a four-vote minority on a nine member Council, regardless of the correctness of their cause. We cannot stop a Budget from being adopted, no matter how inadequate it is to the City’s needs. We cannot stop the spending that exceeds that Budget. We cannot require the Administration to provide us with accurate facts. We cannot even insure that our “independent” auditor is truly acting in an independent manner.

In fact, we are granted only one ‘check and balance’ to insure compliance with Statute. That one power is ability to withhold our consent – when appropriate – to preclude creating the necessary ‘two-thirds’ majority. In the current moment, withholding such consent may be appropriate, and lacking your intercession and immediate oversight this is what we may be compelled to do.

We, the independent minority of the Hoboken City Council, were not negligent in our oversight role, others were. We have not ignored State Statute, others did. We have repeatedly asked for only two things – a proper accounting and full accountability. Until and unless these both occur, we can imagine no circumstance under which we would support a line item transfer resolution or an emergency appropriation.

Again however, we do appreciate your involvement in this serious situation. We would request the attendance and involvement of you or your representative this Wednesday, in addition we would also request that you attend a public workshop along with the CFO, Business Administrator, City Council and Mayor to fully investigate Hoboken’s fiscal situation. Our goals are the same, fiscal prudence and compliance with State Statute.

Sincerely,

Theresa Castellano Carol Marsh
Hoboken City Councilwoman Hoboken City Councilwoman

Michael Russo Anthony Soares
Hoboken City Councilman Hoboken City Councilman

cc: Mayor David Roberts Hand Delivered
James Farina – City Clerk Hand Delivered
Ruben Ramos Jr, Council President Hand Delivered
Richard Del Boccio – 2^nd Ward Hand Delivered
Chris Campos – 4^th Ward Hand Delivered
Michael Cricco – 5^th Ward Hand Delivered
Nino Giacchi – 6^th Ward Hand Delivered
Louie Piccardo – Interim CFO Hand Delivered
Matty Cannorozzi – Comptroller Hand Delivered
Lou Roberts – Ernst & Young Metro Park 99Wood Avenue South, Iselin, NJ 08830-0471
Randy Nelson – RMA Ernst & Young Metro Park 99 Wood Avenue South, Iselin, NJ 08830-0471
Marc Pfeiffer – DLGS 101 South Broad Street, Trenton, NJ 08625-0800
Judith Tripodi – DLGS 101South Broad Street, Trenton, NJ 08625-0800
Susan Bass Levin – DCA Commissioner, 101 South Broad Street, Trenton, NJ 08625-0803
Mr. Charles Guhr – Commissioner 205 E. Syracuse Avenue, Wildwood Crest, NJ 08260
Mr. Richard F. Turner Commissioner 400 Park Avenue, Weehawken, NJ 07087
Ms. Charlotte DeFilippo Commissioner 65 King Street, Hillside NJ 07205
Mr. Scott R MacFadden Commissioner 401 Chambers Bridge Road, Brick NJ 08723
Honorable John H Ewing Commissioner P O Box 352, Bedminster, NJ 07921
Mr. James Harkness Commissioner 50 West State Street Suite 1010 Trenton, NJ 08608-1220
Mr. Ted Light Commissioner 22 Ocean Lane South Seaside Park, NJ 08752

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