Crime & Safety

Council Split, Postpones Fire District Budget Approval

With one councilman abstaining, vote split 2-2 on two separate resolutions.

With Council President Howard Norgalis recusing himself from the vote because of a personal conflict, the township council opted Monday to table the vote on the fire district No. 3 budget after achieving split votes on resolutions both to approve the budget as is and to reduce it by 2 percent.

Councilman Allen Kurdyla and Councilwoman Christine Henderson Rose maintained their votes to approve the budget as is, while councilmen Matthew Moench and Daniel Hayes said they would like to see some cuts made.

—of which $840,900 will be raised through taxes—in the February fire district elections by a vote of 80 to 71. The district includes the North Branch Volunteer Fire Co., the . and the .

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Letters had been circulated, requesting residents vote against the budget to send a message to the Green Knoll department that residents did not want a cell tower built there.

An application to build a . was first introduced in August, and has come back before the zoning board several times as testimony has continued.

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With the vote against the budget, Moench spoke with George Jones, treasurer for the fire district, to discuss the budget, which has to be approved by the council within 30 days of the vote.

A discussion about the budget was first held Monday, and three votes in favor of an adoption was required to pass the budget.

Norgalis recused himself from the discussions and vote because he was just re-elected as a commissioner in district No. 3.

Jones said he knows the budget is fiscally responsible as it has not changed in two years.

“We have proven our fiscal responsibility,” he said. “The budget does not fund any social activities. It pay for the equipment. I don’t feel any cuts are justified because we remain fiscally responsible.”

Jay Hennessey, of the North Branch Volunteer Fire Co., said the district itself takes care of the largest portion of the township, including a majority of the schools, three of the busiest highways and a large residential neighborhood.

“We are a fixed cost operation,” he said. “[If the budget is not approved], we will have to do more fundraising. And that takes time out of our contributing to the township because we have to reallocate time or give less.”

Other members of the North Branch Fire Co. encouraged the council to approve the budget as is and not necessarily follow the decision of the residents, who may have been misguided in thinking a vote against the budget was a vote against the proposed cell tower.

But some council members still believed a cut was necessary and not a huge detriment to the district.

Moench said he would support a 2 percent, or $16,828, cut in the budget that could come from capital reserves or other similar sections, particularly because that seems to be what the residents want.

“My moral obligation is to cut the budget,” he said. “What’s appropriate is to cut to respond to voters, but keep the services.”

Hayes said he understands that although it may have been a small number of voters who opposed the budget, there were some who did so.

“I am always amazed at the low turnout in the elections,” he said. “Nevertheless, some did vote.”

Hayes said he would be comfortable with a 2 percent cut in the budget, particularly because he has some questions about some of the spending.

For example, Hayes said, he believes there are some items in the capital reserves budget that could be put off for now, especially since the money was not going to be spent this year anyway.

“I do think items can be put off for a year while a vote clarification takes place,” he said.

“And I heard that there is fundraising in the budget,” he added. “But where is that in the budget?”

Kurdyla said the budget is a fully tax money budget, and fundraising is not accounted for in it. Fundraising is supplemented by the companies individually.

“They all send out fundraiser notices to fund activities not related to fire suppression,” he said. “That is the responsibility of the individual departments.”

Still, Hayes said, he did not see a problem with cutting from the budget where it would not impact the work the firefighters do to keep residents safe, and said he believed not doing so would be ignoring the wishes of the voters.

But Rose said she has a tough time with the voting because she believes it was misguided.

“These 80 people [who opposed] would be the first 80 people standing at the microphone if the Green Knoll Fire Department didn’t respond,” she said. “I don’t believe the voters voted it down because they thought it had fluff, and I will not do anything that jeopardizes fire safety in the community.”

Hayes said he would have been open initially to tabling the vote while the council received more information about the line items in the budget, but the council members opted to vote anyway out of concern for an approaching deadline required by the state to approve the budget.

And Rose said she would be concerned about voting down the budget and sending a message to volunteers about how they are valued in the community.

“You send a message to the volunteers when you do this,” she said to applause from the firefighters in the audience. “The ten votes is the difference of sending a message of appreciation.”

Kurdyla said he is already impressed that the district was able to keep its budget flat.

“I believe we have the ability to vote this evening,” he said. “The fact that they chose to keep it at a 0 percent increase, that was their cut.”

The council first saw a split 2-2 vote concerning approving the budget as is, followed by a split 2-2 vote on reducing it by 2 percent.

To fix the issue, the council decided to ask Norgalis if he would be willing to take part in the discussion and vote, despite the personal issue.

But Hayes said he would prefer to put the vote off until another meeting to allow for Norgalis to look through the discussion minutes so that he could be apprised of all comments from the public and the council.

“I want Mr. Norgalis to hear the discussion before voting,” he said. “It takes time between the meetings to allow him to catch up.”

To allow for Norgalis to prepare to possibly participate in the vote, the council unanimously decided to table the vote on the budget until March 17.


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