Emotions Run High at West Deptford Budget Hearing

As heated as discussions of municipal finances can get, the 2013 West Deptford municipal budget remarks hit notes both emotional and political Thursday, with elected officials attacking township employees, reprimanding one another, and eventually being chastised by one resident for behaving like teenagers.

Technically, the talk was meant to be confined to the 9¢ municipal budget adjourned June 20—and not on the proposed amendment to flatten taxes via a $3.6 million surplus spend-down that followed on July 2—but the content of the discussion was almost entirely political rhetoric.

Surplus spending, five-year forecast

Committeeman Sam Cianfarini again defended his proposal to flatten the budget, citing conversations with West Deptford township auditor Michael Holt that he said proved that surplus usage wasn’t “disallowed as a result of best practices.

“A New Jersey municipality may use up to its cash surplus limit per sheet 21 of the annual financial statement,” Cianfarini said. 

“Keeping money in the taxpayers’ and businesses pockets is a good thing for them. They have some relief now in difficult times.”

But voting on surplus spending without a five- or even three-year financial forecast of its impact isn’t in keeping with the best practices guidelines for municipal budgets outlined by the state of New Jersey, said Committeewoman Denice DiCarlo.

“What the state asks you to do is if you’re going to use that fund balance, [is] a projection for three or five years to make sure that everyone on your committee understands the long-term impact,” DiCarlo said.

DiCarlo and Commiteewoman Donna Szymborski both pressed West Deptford CFO Brenda Sprigman to present such a forecast, which Sprigman said she would do for the July 25 committee meeting, so that the committee could explore its potential long-term impact.

In the public comment portion of the meeting, DiCarlo characterized the 2013 budgeting process as “a math exercise…to get to zero” per Cianfarini’s request. 

“To me, that’s purposefully underfunding a budget,” she said. “Services will be cut. If this amended budget goes through, we will not have enough money at the end of the year.”

DiCarlo further cautioned that spending down the surplus could cost the town “a lot more money” if its bond rating fails and West Deptford is pressed to borrow to address an emergency need.

Putting ‘some religion’ into the finances

Cianfarini countered that West Deptford had been facing a 6-percent devaluation when the budgeting process began in March, and he asked for department heads to come in with flat budgets for 2013.

After the meeting, Cianfarini produced a summary trend prepared by DiCarlo that indicated the Department of Public Works “has a history of not spending their full budget and sending funds to surplus and transferring out to other departments.”

“Because we’ve got a mess in our finance department in this town, we have people that make a budget by taking your money and keeping it in their coffers because they have no idea how to budget,” Cianfarini told the audience.

“In 2007, when we hardly had any surplus at all, there were no comments from [township administrator] Mr. [Eric] Campo and from the financial advisor,” he continued. “And yet we get labeled as politically wrangling this budget.

“Not until the Republican administration comes in here and starts to put some religion into the finances of this community [do things start to change],” Cianfarini finished, to applause from half the room. 

When the noise died down, DiCarlo challenged Cianfarini to “cut the solicitor’s extra $200,000 you had put in there and put $70 grand back into the roads.

“You all are going to have to take a really hard look at what we have cut and what we are telling these residents we are not going to do at the end of this year,” she said. 

“Our advisor is telling us…don’t be pennywise and pound-foolish,” DiCarlo said.

‘Spending is not out of control’

Campo later took on Cianfarini’s claim that he was unconcerned with the lack of a budget surplus in 2007, and with no small degree of umbrage.

“I don’t know how Mr. Cianfarini would be aware of that since he was not here in ’07,” Campo retorted. “I was complaining about [the lack of a surplus] since I started.” 

Campo said that he’s made it a departmental priority to regenerate the municipal surplus in the past half-decade, so “to say that I was not concerned about surplus in prior years is just completely not true.”

He further rankled at Cianfarini’s accusation that “there were perhaps scare tactics being delivered with respect to the credit rating.” 

“I stand on my comments prior and reiterate them tonight that this will certainly have a negative effect on the credit rating,” Campo said.

“I am also not sure who Mr. Cianfarini is referring to when he says that people are very highly paid and have no idea how to budget, although I think I have some idea who he’s referring to.

“In the six years of experience I have passing budgets, I started out with no less than seven-figure deficits every year,” Campo said. “We have passed budgets in some of the hardest times that West Deptford has gone through and managed to not miss a bond payment…and in fact regenerate a surplus.

“Spending is not out of control,” Campo said. “Spending on both salary and operating expenses has been flat in the entire time period I’ve been here.

"The ironic part of this is that you talk about using surplus, and we have to get spending under control; taking a large part of the remaining surplus is not getting spending under control," he said. "How do you intend to replace the $4.7 million that you’re using in this year’s budget next year?

“I don’t take it kindly when someone insults my commitment or my competence,” Campo said. “If you disagree it is your right to do that. You don’t have to resort to insulting somebody.” 

But the fireworks didn’t end there.

‘It’s a dog-and-pony show’

After a heated and sometimes disorderly public comment period, during which Committeewoman Donna Szymborski was reprimanded by Chintall for speaking out of order, the Democratic committeewoman took a shot at the audience.

“It’s well-rehearsed on the left side [of the room] here, and when people come up to the mic, it’s a dog-and-pony show,” Szymborski said. “Let’s get business done and let’s stop calling it ‘the Sam show’.”

DiCarlo then accused Chintall of allowing Szymborski’s critics to hammer away at her; Chintall, in turn told DiCarlo that he wasn’t “her mayor,” since she didn’t vote for him, a remark he chalked up to frustration after the meeting.

Residents’ comments were no less emotional.

“I’d rather have that money in my pocket than let it burn a hole in the government’s pocket,” said Ken Vogt, past treasurer of the West Deptford Republican Club and operator of the Westwood Golf Course. 

Resident Ernest Kraus, who owns a travel consultancy in town, told the committee, “For those that do not want to take advantage of the tax cut, I’m quite sure that the township would be happy to accept their check for whatever that extra tax would be that they’re saving. 

“Make your check out to the township and it can go to the general fund,” he said.

Resident Tim Patterson, who said that his family has nearly lost its home in the down economy “would love a flat tax.” 

But he was fearful that without a surplus, the township would be endangered in the event of unforeseen circumstances like Hurricane Sandy or the vinyl chloride chemical spill in nearby Paulsboro. 

Patterson also expressed frustration with the nature of the exchanges among committee members.

“You guys have got to come to some kind of compromise,” Patterson said. “It’s like high school girls. I’m sorry if there’s any high school girls here, but I’ve raised high school girls and this is what it’s like. It’s gotta stop.”

“There’s just utter disrespect,” added resident David Sileo. 

‘We need to stop being hyper-political’

After the meeting, Cianfarini seemed likewise worn by the nearly two-hour exchange.

He didn’t back off his criticism of Campo’s framing of the surplus argument, but stated that he took exception to the budget discussions being played out in the media instead of privately, between the two of them.

“I think the people on this dais as well as the employees of this township need to stop being hyperpolitical,” Cianfarini said. “I’m really trying to bring the best solutions to this committee, to this community.”

When asked for his opinion on how well private-sector financial experience parlays into municipal budgeting effectiveness—a comparison several township residents looked to make during the proceedings—Cianfarini remarked that “it’s moving a lot slower than it would in a business environment because everything’s done by committee.

“Municipal accounting is a whole animal unto itself,” Cianfarini said, but “budgeting is budgeting.”

“You’ve got to be in some level of in line with what you spent last year,” he said.