On the way to the gym every morning at 5:00-6:00 AM I see a City Hall Messenger car parked illegally in front of the police station on Erie and Bay. Last week he was actually parked in the crosswalk the day after it snowed. I saw a uniform cop getting in a car and I told him I liked the parking space. Instead of giving the car a ticket he told me to mind my own business. It seems JC PD forget about the Protect & Serve Motto. It is more like pay more property taxes so I can get better benefits is their motto. There are entirely too many older JC police that make fat checks and should have long ago retired but they stay because they are making so much money. You could rationalize it if they were cops on the street but you know most of those guys are just part of the administration.

I saw that crosswalk post that they make $31,000 a year. are you kidding me. That is a part time job. They should be hiring retired people/full time moms for that job and they should not be making $31,000 + benefits. I mean seriously what is this a a 20 hour a week hob. Plus I saw they get cars. what the hell do you need to give them cars for. That is such a waste of money. Look at it this way. This job is what 35 weeks a year. Assuming they work 4 hours a day, 5 days a week, that is around $45 a hour. You really think someone who holds up a stop sign so kids can cross the street should get $45 an hour. No wonder Jc is almost bankrupt.

I hope everyone will come to City Hall on Wednesday and voice these opinions for the record.

FGJCNJ1970, thanks for going over the budget in such detail. If our government can't do its job, it's up to us to do it for them until we can find and elect better politicians.

We are not far from bankruptcy in Jersey City, and we need to acknowledge that extraordinary measures are needed. We need to spread the pain, or else taxpayers will default, leave the city, small businesses will follow, and the dominoes will continue to fall.

We need programs that put people back to work, and we need to keep people safe. Beyond that, we need to choose wisely and think creatively.

We need good pay for Police, Firefighting, Teaching, to attract talented and committed people, but we all need to chip in. The people at or near the top, those that can most afford it, that should take the biggest hit. But the number of people in this category are far smaller than the rank and file, so the rank and file (in all walks of life), have to chip in, too.

We need to renegotiate abatements. Many of these companies are hurting financially, but we all have to help.

And the cycle of political patronage needs to stop, and no show jobs eradicated.

FGJCNJ1970's excellent suggestions will help us get there, but we need to make big changes if we are going to dig ourselves out of this hole.

Come to City Hall on Feb 24th at 6pm and show the City Council that we are paying attention, we have solutions in hand, and they must change this budget.

At least take a look at the police and fire budgets. Never a popular move, but it's been done nearby.

Hoboken lays off police, fire & city workers / Bayonne reduces fire captains 42 to 11

Hoboken proposes laying off police, fire & city employees

by Carly Baldwin/The Jersey Journal
Thursday March 19, 2009

In an attempt to save the city money and bring down the recently-passed $123.8 million budget, administration in Hoboken is calling for the layoffs of an undisclosed number of city employees in the police and fire departments, as well as elsewhere throughout the city.

===========================
LAYOFFS LOOM
State monitor targets Hoboken police, fire

Friday, March 20, 2009
By CARLY BALDWIN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

HOBOKEN - More layoffs are looming for Hoboken - and this time they'll be in the Police and Fire departments.

Hoboken's fiscal monitor Judy Tripodi filed a layoff plan with the state Department of Personnel on Wednesday that includes "a reduction in force of uniformed and non-uniformed personnel and demotions in public safety."

Tripodi declined to say exactly how many city workers - including police officers and firefighters - would be let go; or the exact amount of savings she expected.

But in an interview yesterday she said the plan to downsize would affect less than 10 percent of the city's workforce.

"We will be laying off the most nonessential, repetitive or duplicate positions anywhere," Tripodi said. "This is to create savings for the 2010 budget."

The budget for the fiscal year that ends June 30 is $123.8 million and Tripodi is bent on having next fiscal year's budget even lower.

News of the layoffs, and that firefighters and police officers could be included, apparently took several officials by surprise.

Public Safety Director Bill Bergin declined to comment yesterday, saying he hadn't seen the actual numbers of people to be laid off.

Vince Lombardi, president of the Hoboken Police Officers Benevolent Association, was "shocked."

"I am furious she (Tripodi) did this without consulting the union heads," Lombardi said.

"I plan to aggressively challenge her authority. Right now, we are understaffed 19 patrol officers. Any cuts or layoffs would seriously affect public safety in Hoboken. But she doesn't care," Lombardi added.

Coupled with the early retirements and the seven provisional employees who were laid off in January, these layoffs would bring Hoboken's municipal workforce to some of its lowest numbers in a long time, Tripodi said.

The layoffs and demotions are the result of a preliminary financial audit of the city's departments and entire workforce, she said.

Several council members have asked to see the result of that audit, but Tripodi said the audit is still in draft and anticipates it will be shared with the council on April 1 - the same day negotiations on new contracts are set to begin with the city's six labor unions.

Tripodi is now waiting on the state Department of Personnel to approve the plan. The DOP usually has 30 days to decide, but Tripodi requested the process be shortened to 15 days.

"The sooner the people leave, the greater the savings are," Tripodi said yesterday.

===========================================

Fire Dept. shakeup for savings

Friday, March 20, 2009
By MOLLY GRIFFIN
JOURNAL STAFF WRITER

To pare costs, Bayonne officials have announced plans to change the table of organization of the Fire Department.

The big changes reduce the number of captains from 42 to 11, eliminate one of four current deputy fire chief slots, and reinstate the rank of lieutenant, which was done away with in 2004 and which presumably several current captains would be lowered to.

The proposed changes - which would save the city an estimated $350,000 annually - are part of Mayor Mark Smith's effort to trim the Fire Department's $15.5 million budget by $2 million, in the face of the city's $33 million deficit, Business Administrator Peter Cresci told the City Council on Wednesday.

The new table of organization would allow for one fire chief, up to three deputy chiefs, no more than five battalion chiefs, up to 11 captains, 29 lieutenants and up to 140 firefighters.

Cresci told the council the change in the table of organization would avoid layoffs in the department and that the city is considering a similar plan for the Police Department.

Sixteen firefighters were included in a layoff plan the city recently submitted to the State Civil Service Commission. This plan could avoid those layoffs, Cresci said.

Fire Chief Gregory Rogers declined to comment on the plan, as did firefighter supervisors union president Brian McMonagle.

Although council members complained they were handed the ordinance late, they voted unanimously to introduce it.

"We're looking at everything," said Council President Vincent Lo Re. "That's what we must do."

Councilman Anthony Chiappone said the proposed ordinance crossed his desk just before the meeting.

"Given the implications it has on negotiations with the Fire Department as well as the budget, that's why we did allow it to be put on the agenda last night," Chiappone said yesterday.

The council is scheduled to vote on adoption of the ordinance at its next meeting on April 29.

Not going to post my entire letter that I sent to the Mayor and City Council... but here are the Other Expenses Thoughts and Revenue issues that I uncovered looking at the budget.

Here are my suggestions?. Starting with expenses first.

Health Care and Retirement Pension Plans.

These have to be addressed. The Health Care Insurance plan for the city should be sent out for re-bid from multiple insurance providers to ensure the city is getting the best deal. $69 million is INSANE. Stop offering expensive ?Cadillac? plans. Additionally, like the private sector, city employees should start to have to pay co-pays. $5/$10 co-pays for prescriptions and $20/$40 co-pays for doctor?s visits are not going to hurt anybody. Time for JC employees to start chipping in like the rest of us. The free ride for city employees has to stop. Retirement Pensions need to be looked at as well ? especially for police and fire as it?s now upwards of $34 million and growing. City employees need to start making more (and larger) contributions ? similar to employees in the private sector.


Accumulated Vacation and Sick Days.

This is on Sheet 3C. THIS IS INSANE! Jersey City employees have 265,942 days that they need to take and it?s costing us almost $74 million dollars in 2010. Negotiated through ?Approved Labor Agreements?. Time to re-think this big time. Many private sector employers have USE IT OR LOOSE IT vacation and sick day policies. Jersey City needs to follow suit. Other municipalities across the US have switched and Jersey City should too. Otherwise this will continue to be a big liability. Plus, sick days are supposed to be sick days ? 3 or 4 a year when sick. You should not be allowed to take extra sick days because you weren?t sick 5 years ago.


OTHER EXPSENSES

This line item appears over and over and over again in the budget. 54 TIMES to be exact. What are these OTHER EXPENSES? There needs to be more significant cuts in other expenses versus 2009. The Office of the City Clerk?s expenses went up $7,000. But there are some real whoppers. ?Other Expenses? for the Management and Budget Office (Sheet 13, line 256) went from $48,475 in 2009 to OVER $337,000. What?s going on here? That?s a huge increase. Cut here now.

Are there really over $1,284,000 in other expenses in the Engineering Office? REALLY? It?s down from 2009, but should be cut more.

Other expenses in Information Technology are $1,452,200. CUT THIS Big time. Hold off on computer purchases. Computers should last 3-4 years easily. I?m positive IT Other Expenses can be cut more. Check out the new Best Buy for sales. Renegotiate all IT contracts for cost savings.

Other Expenses in Collections is up about $16,000. And other expenses for the TAX ASSESSOR jumped by $146,100 versus 2009. How bout some BIG CUTS for the Tax Assessor?s office versus big tax increases.

The Law Department?s Other Expenses (Sheet 15A line 396) has swelled to $1,021,500. Up over $36,750. What are these new legal expenses? Take away their photocopier or whatever it is that is running up their costs.

Building and Street Maintenance. Yes, ?Other Expenses? are down here from 2009, however at $1,611,800, it?s still a big amount. Not sure we?re getting our money?s worth here either.

Automotive Services (Sheet 15C, Line 416). More cuts need to take place here. At $2,452,700 this is a big amount for ?Other Expenses? I have a suggestion, the City Council can start by turning in their cars. Also, limo / car services need to be cut. Also, older cars in the fleet should be gotten rid of and more fuel efficient cars obtained. But this could be cut more. Limit use of personal cars for city work. Buses, jitneys, PATH, Light Rail and walking all are acceptable options for transportation.

?Other Expenses? for Health (Sheet 15D, line 511) shot up by $55,000 to $666,091. What happened here? Are we really healthier?

?Other Expenses? for Fire at $1,415,700 and for Police at $2,589,400 while down slightly from 2009, still seem excessive. Can?t more cuts for non-essential ?other expense? take place?

In TOTAL (from sheet 25, line 60023-11) OTHER EXPENSES have jumped dramatically to $67,563, 374 up from $44,505,338. That?s a $23 million increase. Instead of raising our taxes, cut ?Other Expenses? back to 2009 levels.

OTHER AREAS THAT CAN BE CUT ? from Sheet 16 & 17

- ATM - Aid to Museum and AAM - Aid to African American Museum can be cut more
- 879 - Municipal Publicity has jumped to $64,000 from $30,000. Cut this back down.
- 880 ? Other Advertising ? cut more
- 881 ? Celebration of Public Events ? organizations need to cover more costs
- 884 ? Professional Affiliations ? Cut here. What are these affiliations anyway and what do we get?
- Ambulance Service ? jumped to over $3,540,000 from $3,344,000. Maybe send 3 ambulances instead of four? And shouldn?t accident insurance be covering some of this?
- Electricity ? turn off the lights, get motion sensors, switch light bulbs to energy saving CFLs or LED lights.
- 888 ? Gasoline ? take away personal cars, get rid of gas guzzling SUVs, renegotiate contracts.
- 887 ? Office Services, this jumped by $57,000 from 2009. Cut, cut cut.


Revenue Generation

Now, once the ?Other Expenses? category has been cut, the other side of the equation is that Jersey City needs to really focus on raising revenues through fees and other charges and levies?not through increased property taxes. Here are some thoughts as overall, revenues are flat or down in the FY 2010 budget.

- Issue more Alcoholic Beverage Licenses ? there are many restaurants without who I know want them. Make sure existing licenses are renewed.
- Lets get more people married.
- Cable TV Franchise Fees need to be increased for more revenue to the city
- Start Charging more in Advertising Ordinance Fees
- Why are there ZERO Demolition fees? Don?t permits have to be issued? I know demolition is going on all over the place.
- Increase Hotel Occupancy Taxes?. Many new hotels around
- Sewer and Street Opening Revenue is down yet development continues. Raise fees on developers.
- Vending Machine Licenses? I see vending machines all over the place, but we only get $23,688 in revenue?. Time to bump up fees and enforce.
- Food Establishment Licenses?. Make more available, but charge more also. Let the food carts operate wherever?. For a ?location? fee of course.
- Hotel and Motel Licenses ? Charge more
- Dine and Dance Permits. We only got $7,100 in 2009 and the same amount is budgeted for 2010. Hit up those nightclubs. Charge more for fees.
- Elevator inspection fees?. Up the fees?. And hit the downtown commercial and residential high-rise developments with lots of ?elevator inspections?
- Site Plan review fees. For FY 2009 we got $444,515, but are only now budgeting $300,000. Why? Increase fees here to adjust for lower volume.
- Increase Parking Lot License Fees, Street Parking Permit Fees and increase Parking Lot Taxes. We have great public transportation options. If you have a car, you can pay a little more for the privilege of parking it.
- Uniform Construction Code Fees also need to be increased.

Other items such as grants are missing (See Sheet 5). Jersey City is on track to be New Jersey?s largest city with the 2010 census, yet I see a big ZERO for the Municipal Homeland Security Assistance Aid. What? This could really help offset our bloated police and fire department budgets.

Additionally, we are receiving ZERO funding for the UEZ Police Program. Last year we got $1,345,045 in revenue from this. Also, no revenue for Neighborhood Preservation programs. What about revenue from NJDOT? In 2009 we got $1,250,997. 2010 is ZERO. (Sheet 9)

Why are we not getting a UEZ business relocation grant again this year? No Safe Routes to Schools money either. Last year we had $1 million and $250,000 respectively.

What happened to the $85,000 for seniors that came in in 2009. It?s gone for 2010.

In 2009, we got big money - $2,628,175 for the Urban Area Security Initiative Grant ? Fire. This year ZERO. We also have no money from the Metropolitan Medical Response System ? Fire. In 2009, we got $321,221.

No Safe and Secure Communities funding either. In 2009 we got $392,823. On Sheet 9C there is no revenue coming in for Senior Nutrition. The year prior we got $1,148,932. No Clean Communities Revenue either.

Apparently no one at City Hall is working to get all the Federal, State and other grant monies that are available. Why? WHY? WHY?

Why is revenue from Recycling Tonnage down significantly? Down over $117,000. I know you guys are inspecting for recycling violations? you cited everyone in my condo. So where is the money from recycling?

Revenue from fees to offices such as Harbor Plaza IV, and V and South pier are flat or down. Why? If anything these financial services companies should be charged more fees.


And, finally?. For all those who got 5, 10, 15 and 30 year sweetheart tax abatements (Sheets 10A ? 10G) and make Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILOTs), where money is diverted from our schools and the county. Lets create a new fee just for them? especially if they are sending their children to our public schools.

Call this new fee the ?Gold Coast & Luxury Living Educational Assessment Surcharge? This fee should be a percentage of the difference of what they are paying in their PILOTS and what they would pay normally in regular real estate taxes. It is unfair that those with abated ?luxury? properties don?t have to pay for our local schools and other services they receive from the City and County municipal governments.

no brainer . . . . . . fire Healy and his administration

How about enforcing traffic laws? Put a beat cop on Erie every morning during rush at stop signs. Failure to make a complete stop along with expired registrations will be a huge revenue stream as well as making our streets safer.

Quote:

NFPA 1710: Standard for Staffing
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Kay3VsEXDY

"if a fire captain on average manages 10 people in the US".

Show me where a first level officer manages 10 people. The Incident Command System requires that any single person's span of control should be between three and seven individuals, with five being ideal. For a company perspective that would be one officer per 5 firefighters on the apparatus. That would fill the six seats on the apparatus, but Jersey City runs with 4 members on the apparatus. (One officer and three firefighters) A Battalion Chief normally has command of 6 or 7 companies on the initial assignment. So the firefighters report to the Captain and the Captain reports to the Battalion Chief.

Suggestions:
1. Remove all Health Benefits from Part-Time Employees.
2. Remove Director Positions for Police and Fire Depts.
3. City Vehicles should only be used for essential departments. Reduce the fleet dramatically.
4. Evaluate Staff Positions in City Hall and eliminate wasteful positions.
5. Remove the 2 deputy mayor positions.
6. Move municipal elections to November.

I know these are small steps, but you need to start somewhere. The City needs to live within its means. With all of the development in the City over the past ten years; it is kind of sad that we are in this situation.

When Vega was arrested he was suspended from his county job and had to give up his county SUV. In order to kiss his boo-boo Healy gave him a city SUV. It pays to be a crook. Oh and the 1,000 miles a month is the trips to and fro his chalet in the Catskills. Nice work if you can get it.

I believe when Bret Shundler was mayor he substanially pared down the amount of city employees. It would be great if we could compare his employee population to the current. This may not be a totally fair comparison as the city has grown since then however, I don't think it would be that far off.

Given all the separate discussions on the budget, spending, etc. I thought I'd start a separate thread to propose and discuss achievable ways to cut the budget. I chose to start with cars provided to city employees, but there are many other possibilities. All of the information below was gathered through OPRA requests.

The City of Jersey City assigns a number of vehicles ?to individuals on a full time basis inclusive of weekends and holidays. Assignments in this category are made in consideration of an employee?s title (Department Director, Councilperson, etc) or the requirement of the position (monitor field work, respond to emergencies around the clock.) [1]

Recipients of these vehicles are eligible for fuel, maintenance, and insurance coverage provided by the City. The cost of the vehicle is treated as a taxable benefit and is deducted from the employees? paychecks.

As of 12/3/09 there were 33 such vehicles with a current blue book value of $234,375 but value at purchase far in excess of double that number. They are mostly SUVs (10 Ford Explorer, 10 Jeep Liberty, 6 Dodge Durangos). Two are 2007 model years, two 1997s, and the rest pretty well distributed 2002-2006. The purchase invoice for one vehicle, a 2004 Jeep Liberty shows a purchase price of $16,881. (If this is typical, the fleet of these vehicles cost the City over $500,000 to purchase.)

One odd detail among the city?s gratis fleet is the assignment of a Jeep Liberty to Councilman Mariano Vega on 9/5/09, six weeks after his arrest and one month before he stepped down as Council President. Councilman Vega had not previously been assigned a City vehicle, and has been putting 1,000 miles/month on it since then.[2] Three Council members do not have these vehicles: Brennan
(who has a car provided by the county), Flood (county car), and Fulop (none).

The car giveaway program raises other concerns:

The vehicles are only to be used for city business, commuting to and from work [in their capacity as City employees], and for personal stops incidental to their commute. There is no mechanism in place for the City to track this, nor does the City require vehicle users to account for their mileage in any way.

Vehicle users must sign an agreement acknowledging responsibility for following rules and procedures, but there is no defined penalty in the Automotive Policy Manual for violating this policy. Violations can only be discovered by observing unauthorized use; incidents (tickets, accidents, etc) which reveal unauthorized use; or inferred by mileage usage inconsistent with City business and commuting. (For example, Councilman Vega?s two block commute to his part-time job at City Hall from which he has frequently been absent seems inconsistent with 1,000 miles/month usage.)

One of the criteria is ?in consideration of an employee?s title.? Yet there is no list of authorized positions or criteria for what qualifies a title for this benefit. It is not clear who makes the decision about what positions qualify for the vehicles, or how a requisition to assign a vehicle to a specific person is initiated.

[1] ?Automotive Fleet Purchasing, Maintenance & Repair and Driving Policy Manual,? City of Jersey City Department of Public Works Division of Automotive Maintenance, undated (provided 2/17/10), p.5.

[2] ?Processed Fuel Transactions From 9/1/2009 To 2/15/2010? for Vehicle 9040.

70% of the budget is public safety. While I am not in favor of layoffs, the police overtime must be cut. The overtime happens during the summer when the police patrols the parades. Yes, the city does require the parade committee to hire cops but the bulk of officers are on the taxpayer's dime. Also, the city should stop giving out $5,000 of taxpayer's money to festivals. Some festivals come to Jersey City to get the grant money.

Quote:

+1 Ms. T.

To which I'd add: pass an ordinance that says if you are removed from office (or resign) due to circumstances involving legal or ethical breeches, you forfeit your pension.

Bravo! That's following the money, rather than office supplies and whatnot. It's the fat payroll and contracts that make our taxes disappear.

I recently saw the statistic that 60% of all unionized workers in the country work for the various levels of government. There's 2 classes of workers in this country now, government employees with fat pensions, benefits and lifelong tenure on our tax dollars, and everyone else whose contracts are defined by the market not by political horse trading.

Quote:

1. Stop the pension program for all new employees. Put it into some 401k like program where the cost is covered by the city but future liability is removed.

2. For any employees who have not earned the right to full pension payout and who have more than one pension with the city. Stop accrual on one of the pensions immediately.

3. Pass an ordinance that does not allow someone to draw a pension while receiving any employment, full or part time, from the city.

4. Pass an ordinance that no former city or county employee can hold a city contract position unless it goes through a bid process.

5. Redefine job titles based on nationwide standards. For example, if a fire captain on average manages 10 people in the US. Then that should become the ratio in JC. In that scenario, the rest of the captains can get some early retirement or can get downgraded.

6. Redefine job salaries based on nationwide standards, and then adjust for cost of living.

Look at the energy costs muni govt spends and move to more efficient sources, such as windmills.

I have a bunch of small ideas that can really add up:

Review all of the travel used by city employees - encourage the use of video conference instead of person to person meeting
Change the method of travel - encourage car pooling, cheaper hotels, flights out of certain airports that are cheaper
Lower the temperature to heat the office space by a couple degrees
Take out every other or every third light bulb in your overhead light fixtures; install energy efficient light bulbs
Double sided printing forced on all printers or better yet go to a paperless office
Don't print anything in color
Put a freeze on ordering supplies, gather up all supplies into a central repository - you would be surprised how many supplies people dont realize they are hording
Get rid of bottled water, install filtered water instead
Re-negotiate contracts for rent, maintenance etc.
Change the frequency of your maintenance contracts
Work with a deregulated energy supplier to reduce your cost per kilowatt hour
Challenge the operating expenses that are paid through your leases
Cancel any non-essential subscriptions

Okay thats all I have for now. Hope that helps.

Please share your ideas here on cost cutting and revenue generation to help match Jersey City's expenses with revenues in efforts to control our property taxes.

In addition to posting here, please do not hesitate to submit any and all ideas to the Mayor and/or City Council.

We have also started the same discussion topic titled - City Budget Suggestion Box- Cost Cutting and Revenue Generating Ideas on the One Jersey City Facebook group discussion board here:

http://www.facebook.com/topic.php?uid=37126317047&topic=11630

for ideas, see Citizens' Campaign's Platform for the People - Local Cost Cutting Measures: http://www.jointhecampaign.com/model- ... ces/model-ordinances.html

Thank you, Dan