Special City Council Meeting September 14th Recap

I attended the special City Council Meeting on the topic of the 2006 Hoboken Municipal budget.
All from City Council were in attendance except for City Councilman Chris Campos who had a death in the family and was not present. The 2005 Corrective action plan for the budget was not discussed even though it was on the Mayor's initial memo calling the meeting.

The meeting was short, about 30 minutes and sparsely attended. After a presentation by Mayor David Roberts the City Council approved 8-0 to present the budget at the October 19th City Council meeting. They said they would submit the budget to the Jersey Journal on October 3rd.

Highlights from the Mayor's presentation included the following statements in no particular order:

• W hotel to break ground in 2005.
• Budget will be 67 million down from 71 million.
• negotiating all 6 munipal union contracts to hold increases to 2%.
• Strong cost cutting measures for every department.
• Consolidation and Privatization of services without a reduction in services
• The Mayor Cited Senator Kenney as a key for Hoboken to get appropriations prioritized from Trenton
• Mayor listed Board of education Budget as a key concern.
• Other concerns were Health Care and Fuel costs.

Other notable comments from City Council:

Council woman Terry LaBruno suggested a Quality of Life Committee to be headed up by citizens.

Council man Mike Russo stated that while he had been a big critic of the Administration in the past, he was proud to see this Budget presented much earlier than the past and with the reduction in spending that was necessary. (Not an exact quote).

After the 8-0 vote to present the budget on 19th of October the meeting was adjourned.