Full Notification

Municipal Budget Update

In a previous update, I let you know how serious our budget challenge is this year.  We’re looking at the loss of $500,000 in federal funding, NJ mandated increases to pension and benefit costs, a substantial increase in debt service costs, inflationary headwinds and county mandated costs to prepare for a revaluation in 2025.  Many of our large cost items are baked into the budget in advance and are hard costs.  For example, our Police Department pension contributions (what we pay for our current police department members pensions) is about $1 million annually.  As we add officers we increase our required pension contribution load and this is in addition to officer salaries and insurance benefits.  Another substantial cost is what we pay for sanitary sewer flow processing.  This is another $1 million.  These large ticket required expenditures add up quickly.  

The Finance Committee under the capable leadership of Council President Christoph Hesterbrink has been hard at work with our Borough Administrator Marisa Mesropian, CFO Issa Abbasi and all of our department heads to achieve the best budget possible – an optimum balance of managing costs, revenues and tax load.  On Monday, March 25th at 7:30 pm, we will host a Town Hall session in the Senior Center to present our town’s municipal budget proposal.  If you’re interested in the budget, please consider attending.  

Here’s what the budget situation looks like right now.  A little context will help set the stage… Last year, we had a 5.5% increase in the municipal budget despite having that additional $500,000 in federal funding.  In 2024, we are putting forward an operating budget that has a 2.98% municipal tax increase which is less than this year’s inflation rate of 3.4% despite losing $500,00 in federal funds, having to pay more for pensions and benefits, more in debt load, more for the 2025 revaluation etc.    

I believe we have to run the municipality like a business and treat you, the taxpayer, like an investor. That’s what we’re doing.   We took a fine tooth comb to every single budget line item across all municipal departments and demanded sensible but meaningful cuts which will trim our expenditures and force greater efficiencies. 

Every department’s spending is reduced including the DPW, Rec, Police Department, Library, etc.  All department heads are being asked to do more with less.  Cutting budgets is hard, uncomfortable and involves sacrifices.  But it is the only way to manage what otherwise would have been a far larger tax increase.   

As investors in Leonia, you deserve no less than this level of budget scrutiny and stewardship.   Striking the right balance between services, taxes and greater efficiency is both art and science.  I have complete confidence in the ability of all of our department heads to operate their services more efficiently and to rise to the challenge that this year represents.  

Planning ahead, I want to make one last point as it relates not to this year’s budget but our next municipal budget in 2025.   It will be impossible to continue to cut funding at the rate which we have proposed this year for next year as well.  Unless we solve the systemic issue of more revenues with greater revenue diversification, we will start to chip away at what makes Leonia special and this is not in any of our best interests.  While we are making some fairly substantial cuts this year, I’m telling you now we won’t be able to do the same next go around without sacrificing key aspects of our safety/security and quality of life.  We must reduce the 93% taxpayer burden currently on homeowners by inviting in more commercial and retail elements, and I’m pleased our neighbors on the Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Revitalization are focussed on this substantial challenge right now.  Our next Town Hall after the Budget Town Hall on March 25th will, not surprisingly, be about redevelopment and revitalization scheduled for late April/May.  

Traffic Safety

With 30,000 trucks alone using the GWB on a daily basis and the fact Routes 1, 4, 9, 46, 80 and 95 all merge together just before the bridge squeezing 17 lanes of traffic into 9, we know any hiccups before, on or after the GWB spells big traffic troubles for all Leonians. While we might not be able to control the cause of our traffic problems, we had better do everything we can to mitigate the symptoms to ease the impact on our quality of life.  

The Mayor’s Advisory Committee on Pedestrian Safety and Transportation, under the leadership of Chairman George Giacquinto, has been busy focusing on traffic, pedestrian safety, bike safety and transit improvements.  

They are working directly with both our Chief of Police, Scott Tamagny and our Police Commissioner, Councilman Scott Fisher.  

Even though budget times are tough, we have purchased some speed humps to be deployed in the Spring at least on Park Avenue and Grandview Terrace.  We hope these speed humps will help us slow traffic and, based on our experience, we will consider buying more.  They aren’t cheap but, if they work, it will be well worth it.  Just prior to the snow season, we will remove all the speed humps to facilitate plowing operations and replace them again in the Spring.  Willow Tree Road will also see some speed humps installed that are being paid for, not by our municipality, but by Kulite Industries (partnering with us) out of concern for their employees safety.  

As you may have heard, we’ve had several serious bicycle accidents involving vehicles and cyclists colliding on upper Fort Lee Road recently.   The Pedestrian Safety and Transportation committee will be making recommendations to the Mayor and Council which, at minimum, will likely include better signage on the blocks feeding Ft Lee Road to help motorists be more aware of bicycle traffic and potentially raising crosswalks from these side streets to slow traffic.  When you pull onto Fort Lee Road in your car, please don’t just look for other cars, but cyclists too.  

Fort Lee Road is a main corridor for commuters to the GWB and this now includes, according to reliable estimates, hundreds of cyclists daily.   The average number of cyclists using Fort Lee Road for their commute into NYC is also increasing monthly, consistent with the rising popularity of cycling as an effective commuting option.  We need to make Fort Lee Road as safe as possible for all means of transportation and the borough is committed to doing this.  

Leonia Girl Scouts have proposed a new way to make the Irving Street crosswalk safer by placing flags in a container on each side of Fort Lee Road at Irving Street for pedestrians to use when crossing which makes a pedestrian’s presence more visible when crossing.  This flag system has worked very well in other municipalities and is worth a try here too.  Our Police Department will work with the Girl Scouts to implement this new system there.  If this approach works well, we can consider expanding to other crosswalks in Leonia too.  

Affordable Housing

I really didn’t think on the heels of my last update that I would need to write about affordable housing again so quickly.  However, on Monday, March 18th the NJ Senate is scheduled to vote on bill S50.  It is being “railroaded” through the legislative branch in a fast tracked effort to minimize the likelihood people will become wise to the serious flaws and codification of developer interests contained within before it is quickly and quietly approved by a majority of state legislators who have most likely not even read it and/or have been effectively bought by developer lobbyists and campaign donations.  S50 like its Assembly counterpart A4 are both anathema to municipalities.  

Coming out of my second Mayor’s meeting just yesterday, I can report there wasn’t one Mayor in attendance (among approximately 30 from Bergen County-- Democrats and Republicans alike) who supported S50.  All Mayors including myself were very concerned about the future of our municipalities if approved as is without amendments. All the Mayors, like myself, are also proponents of affordable housing.  

Rather than repeat the details of what I already covered in a previous update as this is a very complicated issue, I refer you to these two letters: Template and Letter.  The first is a template for you to use in contacting our state legislators.  I hope you are so inclined.   Please email this letter or another of your own drafting to our Leonia Assembly representatives, Assemblywoman Shama Haider ([email protected]) and Assemblywoman Ellen J. Park ([email protected]) to help compel a more deliberate and fair hearing of these bills before being acted on.  Senator Gordon Johnson, who represents Leonia in the NJ Senate, is a strong opponent of the bill and, to his credit, has read the fine print. 

The other is a letter I’ve sent outlining my objections and recommendations to the Governor and select NJ legislative leaders responsible for fast tracking A4 and S50.  It refers to my support for affordable housing and outlines why these bills are deeply flawed while proposing a path forward which is much more reasonable, balanced and supportive of affordable housing.  I include it for your background information.  

If S50 and A4 are enacted into law, we will be dealing with adverse consequences for decades and these consequences not only include exorbitant legal fees, significant time and effort expended but also a likely material overall negative economic and quality of life impact.  Perhaps worst of all, I believe the bills will not help establish more affordable housing as they are intended.   I’m not so optimistic as to think we can stop this juggernaut but I am hopeful there will be at least a few changes before it is voted in to make it more palatable.  Please do consider contacting the state legislators before Monday’s vote.  Your voice may be the difference here. 

Sewer Grant Received

A big thank you to Congressman Josh Gottheimer for his successful efforts on Leonia’s behalf to secure a $720,000 straight federal grant (no matching component) for our Sanitary Source System Infiltration Inflow and Rehabilitation. It might not sound glamorous but it is important because Leonia’s sewer system is over 100 years old.  We pay an enormous amount of money each year in our municipal budget (mentioned above at $1 million annually) to the county to process our sanitary sewer flow.  As each year goes by we have more and more storm water that infiltrates the sanitary sewer system through cracks/breaks and we pay for that extraneous flow too.  

This grant allows us to identify infiltration areas, correct the problem and save the $ associated with what we previously paid as part of our sanitary sewer load.  If we curtail just 10% of the current infiltration, and my hope is we will do even better than that, it translates into a $100,000 a year savings for Leonia taxpayers.  

Here is a link to my comments thanking Congressman Gottheimer at his press conference for his work on our behalf and explaining more about what this grant for Leonia helps us address.  Rep. Gottheimer Leonia Grant.   

Next Mayor and Council Meeting is Monday, March 18th

At this meeting in addition to normal business, the governing body will receive a presentation from the Environmental Commission about starting a food composting program in Leonia.  We will also receive an update presentation from Eagle Scout candidate Christian Choi about his Eagle project to deploy veteran banners on Broad Avenue.  Without giving away too much, I will tell you there is a lot of good news about what Christian has accomplished so far.   Please feel free to stop by the Senior Center for this meeting at 7:30 pm or tune in live.  The more public presence at these meetings, the better!

I will close by saying how proud I am of the large number of Leonians who so far have heeded the call to become a volunteer and help our town thrive. Volunteerism has been and will continue to be the backbone of Leonia.  It is one of the critical attributes that makes our town so special.   If you haven’t yet considered the volunteer opportunities available including service on our Leonia Fire Department, please check out all the volunteer offerings on the volunteer page on the borough website at www.leonianj.gov.  There is a place for everyone who is interested to apply their talents on behalf of Leonia, and as I’ve said before, you can make new friends in the process.  

Kind regards, 

Bill