COLUMBIA SPY

Sunday, January 11, 2015

What I Saw - Sunday, January 11, 2015

Weis Markets grand re-opening

A look down Locust Street

Progress on the Route 441 bypass project

A pair of immense trapezoidal monoliths has appeared recently at the Route 441 bypass construction site near the Route 441 overpass.

Girls on ice

Shortly after noon today, emergency personnel responded to a call involving two girls walking on the ice on the Susquehanna River, just north of the Veterans Memorial Bridge. The girls began walking back to shore after Columbia Borough Police sounded a siren and motioned for them to return. Neither was injured, and no charges appear to have been filed.

Councillor sets the record straight on Columbia budget

A recap of last Wednesday's borough council meeting:

All seven council members voted to override Mayor Lutz's veto of the borough's 2015 budget at a special Columbia Borough Council meeting last Wednesday night. Surprisingly, the mayor supported an override of the veto.

"I would suggest you override my veto, so that we can get on with the budget. The purpose of my veto is to have the discussion that we're having here now," Lutz said, citing the need for transparency in the budget process. He suggested that council have separate budget meetings in which residents can comment, because the borough "owes it to the taxpayers." Lutz also pointed out changes made to the budget without his input as another example of why increased transparency is needed.

An update:

Councillor Kelly Murphy, chairman of the finance committee, offered a timeline at Wednesday's meeting and disputed allegations regarding the lack of budget meetings and transparency:

August 2014 Meeting of the Whole: First draft budget was submitted and discussed.

September 2014 Meeting of the Whole: Second draft budget was submitted; a lot of input from all department managers was received. During this meeting, then-Borough Manager Sam Sulkosky said he had not yet looked at the budget and council subsequently took action with the him, asking him to review the draft budget.

October 2014 Meeting of the Whole: The borough manager presented council with a budget calling for the elimination of positions (personnel decisions that council was unaware of) within borough departments. Since these were personnel issues, a second meeting was held with department managers.

November 2014 Meeting of the Whole: The final draft, which council members, the mayor, and others had in advance, was presented for review. The goal was to review the draft and return with any final concerns or issues so that at December 2014 regular council meeting the budget could be advertised.

December 2014 Meeting of the Whole: Council convened to pass the budget. Murphy said he had not received any additional comments during that time, until the mayor's decision regarding the police cruiser.

Murphy said that as new drafts were developed, they were provided to council members and the mayor for comments. Any comments received were addressed. He named three criteria by which the budget was crafted: must have, like/need to have, and wish list. Wish list items were the ones scrutinized most closely. "You have to look at things from a business-like philosophy," he said. Murphy reminded council that this year is going to be "trying" due to borough projects, and ongoing negotiations with the police and LASA, among other issues. He assured everyone present that council was transparent during the budget process, opportunities were given for people to speak, and nothing was done in secret.

Murphy also referenced the borough's $3.2 million reserve. He said he believes that the best plan for the money would be to invest it in the development of the town to make it more desirable to live in and bring businesses here. He also reminded those present that the reserve would be "knocked down" to $2.5 million next year, even if everything falls into place. The issue facing council was whether to raise taxes or take $700,000 from the reserve. He said that if they hadn't worked so hard over the last eight years to get the reserve to this point, they would have had no choice but to raise taxes this year. Murphy recounted how the reserve stood at only $424,000 when he was elected to council in 2008, and council at that time needed to borrow money to pay bills, including payroll.

Murphy admonished anyone seeking unnecessary items for their department. "I'm tired of hearing about this 'Just because it's there, departments or folks or people in here think they're entitled to some of that money,'" Murphy said. "That money was hard-earned by being very responsible with our budgets, being very prudent with what we spent, and didn't get there without a lot of pain. I feel it's the best budget we could get."