LONG BRANCH — City officials met with department heads on April 22 to gather input for the 2009 budget.

The $47.8 million spending plan proposed for 2009 was expected to be introduced during the April 28 City Council meeting.

Long Branch Finance Director Ronald Mehlhorn, Mayor Adam Schneider, BusinessAdministrator Howard Woolley Jr. and members of the City Council were at the meeting with various department heads, including Public Safety Director William Richards; Stan Dziuba, head of the Office of Emergency Management; Kevin Hayes, of the Building Department; Carl Jennings, Recreation Department; Fred Migliaccio, director of Public Works; David Roach, of the Health Department; Ingrid Bruck, director of the Long Branch Public Library; and Pat Krosnicki, director of the Senior Center.

According to Mehlhorn the proposed budget will be about $2.8 million over last year's approved $45 million budget

The tax rate would increase by 2 cents, to 59.6 cents per $100 of assessed valuation.

"That equates to about $100 more a year for the average home assessed at just under $500,000," Mehlhorn said.

Council President Michael DeStefano noted that most department budgets remain flat."

The majority of the operating budgets are either at last year's levels or lower than last year's levels," DeStefano said.

However, Councilman Brian Unger was not satisfied with that result and suggested some budget cuts for the council and Mehlhorn to consider before introducing the spending plan, most involving departmental overtime.

Unger recommended about $770,000 in cuts, including $130,000 in legal fees and $50,000 in travel and meeting expenditures for the mayor and council. He also suggested the mayor and council forgo their salaries.

The mayor is paid $8,000 a year and the five council members make $3,500 each, according to Unger.

"I'd like to go down another cent to a cent and a half," Unger said. "I think we need to look at things like the N.J. League of Municipalities membership and conferences. This is not a luxury year."

Mehlhorn reminded Unger that there would need to be a consensus among the council members in order for his proposed cuts to become part of the budget.

"This is the year where we should cut out as much as we can," Unger responded.

Schneider said that budget trimming should not include any layoffs.

"I'm trying very hard not to lay people off," Schneider said, "and I don't believe in furloughs. I think it's bad public policy."

Schneider added that the employees who generally get furloughed hold the lower paying positions and are less likely to be able to absorb the cut.

Among the cuts suggested by Unger are 50 hours of police overtime from the projected 330 hours of overtime.

Public Safety Director Richards disagreed.

"They are not arbitrary extensions of hours," Richards said. "For instance, if you have a major crime and an 'x' number of detectives, clearly you can't schedule without overtime."

Unger then suggested that another way to lower the budget would be to remove a clerk typist position from the police department staff. Richards again disagreed with this tactic.

"If you lose a clerk typist, it would degrade your ability to perform," Richards said. "Not mortally, perhaps, but our effort would suffer some."

"I wouldn't make the argument that those kinds of cuts would be fatal to your operation, but they definitely would degrade the operation," Richards added.

Mehlhorn mentioned that there are some open positions that would not be filled this coming year.

"Eight positions have never been filled," Mehlhorn said. "Four in the police department, two in public works, one in administration and one in finance have been cut out."

Schneider expects to lose more employees this year.

"I suspect from what we've seen that we will lose another six to eight people this year, without laying people off," Schneider said.

"I'm trying not to lay people off, because of the impact that these jobs have on our services," he added.

Not every department had a contested budget like the police department.

"We have remained at level funding from last year," Dziuba said.

"I cut $20,553, a little over 19 percent, from last year's approved budget," Hayes said.

Unger also suggested at the end of the meeting that another way to cut spending is for the City Council to forgo their salaries next year.

If introduced, the budget will have a public hearing and be up for approval sometime in late May or early June.

Contact Kenny Walter at

kwalter@gmnews.com.