Tension boils as residents get estimated taxes

BRADLEY BEACH — As residents of Bradley Beach begin to receive their estimated tax bills, tensions boiled over to the July 10 borough council meeting, when the budget introduction yet again failed to pass.

According to Mayor Larry Fox, since the council has yet to successfully pass a budget residents received estimated tax bills.

“We don’t have a finalized budget so you estimate… the estimated taxes are fairly close to the bills you’ll get,” Mayor Fox told a member of the public.

For the seventh consecutive meeting, the budget failed to pass and residents are continuing to take their frustrations to the podium at council meetings. Mayor Fox and the council fielded a series of questions regarding the estimated tax bills and the current state of the budget.

In a 3-2 vote, the introduction of the budget was tabled by the borough council due to a confusion regarding the matter of an executive session at the end of the meeting. That didn’t stop select members on the dais from criticizing the proposed budget.

“We don’t understand the budget. I have very serious concerns. I could describe them all now, but no one here, I’m sure including the mayor, could answer my questions and because of that… it’s impossible for me as a person with a financial background to approve this budget,” Councilman Al Gubitosi said after the budget was tabled.

Acting Borough Administrator Meredith DeMarco was absent from the meeting to answer questions regarding the financial state of the borough.

Councilwoman Kristen Mahoney pointed out several issues with the answers to questions posed by the council before stating, “This is why we need access to the CFO because our numbers simply don’t add up, the information we have is incorrect and we are being sent to look for our own answers on spreadsheets that do not correlate using very, very simple mathematics.”

Throughout the unsuccessful budget process, the council has raised complaints regarding the involvement, or lack thereof, from CFO Ricky Gartz. He attended the budget presentation meeting in April, however, the council has yet to privately meet with Gartz to discuss their queries of the proposed budget.

According to Mayor Fox, “The council was invited to meet with the CFO on the third of April and they declined… A week later we had an introductory meeting that the CFO attended and asked if questions were there. The council wanted to meet with the CFO privately and the CFO declined.”

Councilwoman Mahoney clarified that the council declined to meet with the CFO because “the numbers we were provided were not complete and didn’t add up.”

Mayor Fox stated, “So as I said the CFO declined, it’s not a question of me providing access or approving access, the CFO has made that decision that I provided the opportunity to meet twice.”

Mayor Fox confirmed that the CFO has declined to meet with the council privately, in turn the council’s stance on the budget has remained unchanged. While the budget wasn’t voted down, the tabling of the introduction further delays the council’s mandatory obligation as threats of the involvement of the Department of Consumer Affairs (DCA) begin to linger.

According to Councilman Gubitosi, “The ax is about to drop because the mayor did forward us an email a couple of weeks ago telling us that the DCA is ready to swoop in and begin fining the council, all five of us, $25 a day. I don’t know if that will happen… it was contingent on us introducing the budget tonight and if we didn’t this was going to be a potential outcome.”

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