Resident Questions Current Fund Transfers at Council Meeting

During an otherwise concise meeting of the Lakehurst Borough Council on Thursday night, Cedar Street resident Sue Barker took an opportunity to inquire to the governing body on transfers of funds in the current budget.

Barker initially asked about the town’s audit, which Mayor Timothy Borsetti explained is an annual process mandated by the state of New Jersey and conducted by an auditor for every municipality in the state.

“There are some monies needing to be transferred that are in dormant accounts,” Borsetti explained, though adding that he did not have a copy of the audit in his possession at the meeting. The mayor said that the borough’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) may be able to be of more assistance to her in this matter.

Barker further asked about the status of change orders for town construction which she claimed were not authorized by the governing body, leading Borsetti to reply that all change orders for work done in the borough are closely reviewed by borough professionals.

“If (the change orders) do not meet the proper criteria, we don’t approve them,” Borsetti said. “Those change orders could be outstanding, waiting for the contractors to give us more information or concise information.”

Barker later asked about another matter in that evening’s resolutions, a transfer of funds totaling $50,000 from the 2011 Current Operating Budget – taken from liability insurance, police salaries & wages plus tax collectors salaries & wages, and provided for road repair/other expenses, vehicle maintenance, accumulated leave and gasoline.

Specifically, Barker inquired why $15,000 was going from police salaries & wages to accumulated leave.

However, since the transfer of funds was taken from three line items and being distributed among four, Councilman Jim Davis described the transfer as one that was “not dollar-to-dollar.”

“It wouldn’t be fair to describe (the transfer) that way,” Davis explained.

The mayor contributed that in every municipal budget, there are surplus funds which are eligible to be transferred to other areas as need be.

“We’re not doing anything illegal,” Borsetti said.

Davis also mentioned that the borough was under the state mandated 2-percent cap for their budget. “Had Hurricane Irene been worse, that money likely would not have been there to transfer,” the councilman said.

Councilman Steven Oglesby pointed out that police overtime is given leeway by the state, insomuch as how to allot for it in the annual budget, and surplus in that area can be used for other purposes via a transfer of funds.

Barker continued by asking about $33,000 being credited to surplus through police salaries & wages in another of the council’s resolutions for the evening, to which Davis responded that it was another area where excess funds are allotted for contingency purposes, yet still remaining under the 2-percent cap.

The mayor said that in past years, a similar transfer was often conducted with funds allocated for snow removal, but that harsher winters in the last few years have directed the council to transfer funds from other areas instead.

“Last year, $95,000 came out of the police department and went into surplus. We also have $33,000 going into surplus this year, the bulk of that coming from the police department. For 16 months, we’ve been asking for a police officer – yet I see our money coming out of the police budget and going into other areas. That’s why I’m frustrated,” Barker said.

Davis continued that if those funds had been expended, they arguably would have gone towards hiring a police officer who would have been laid off in 2012 regardless.

“That position is not a sustainable position. During the time of the contract negotiations that Councilman Oglesby and I went through with the police association, those line items were gone through line item by line item,” Davis said. “The idea is not to put a guy on, and then not have money to pay him the next year.”

Borsetti interjected at that point and said that the police department was not being “shorted” in any way.

“The police department has a certain amount for budget, every department has a certain amount of budget,” the mayor said. “We can raise taxes above the 2-percent cap, which we have not. If we do, the state comes in and says we can’t, and we’d have to go to referendum.”

Barker reiterated her main point that she saw money coming out of the police department budget again, to which the mayor responded that the governing body was “not using it as a slush fund”.