County budget hearings to begin this Saturday, gee who knew?
By Tina Renna | February 19, 2009According to the Westfield Leader the county budget hearings will start this Saturday. There is no information about the budget hearings on the county’s website under their extensive fluff press release section or on their county calendar. Incidentally freeholder meetings aren’t posted on their calendar either. A citizen has to feel left out.
The county has proposed to do away with the entire engineering department, and funnel this work through contractors, and to close down a golf course, in an effort to save some money yet they still support an extensive Public Information department, something that most counties do without. Despite a hiring freeze, that no-one is quite sure when it actually went into effect, the county added Star-Ledger Reporter Gabe Gluck a few weeks ago to the payroll.
All spin and no real information is propaganda and the county has an endless pot of our tax dollars devoted to this.
The Union County Watchdog Association has fought to have these budget hearings taped and we purchase copies from the county and upload them to the Internet for free public access. There is no public participation at the budget hearings, no questions are answered and public comment isn’t allowed. It amounts to each department delivering an infomercial to the freeholders because they are required by law to do so.
Public Budget Meetings
The Union County Board of Chosen Freeholders Fiscal Affairs Committee has scheduled meetings to discuss the proposed $449.3-million budget. That comes to spending $1,370,000.00 per day every day including Sunday and holidays. The meetings are open to the public; however there is no public participation. Questions are not answered and there is no public comment.
The meetings will be held in the Freeholder Conference Room, 6th floor of the administration building in Elizabeth.
On Saturday, February 21, the department of parks and community renewal (they are responsible for the Musicfest and other concerts) will appear before the panel at 9 a.m. followed by the prosecutor’s office at 10 a.m., the surrogate’s office at 11 a.m. and the county clerk at 11:30 a.m. The human services department will present their budget at 5:30 p.m. followed by the department of corrections at 6:30 p.m., the department of public safety at 7 p.m., the county sheriff at 7:30 p.m. and the office of county counsel at 8 p.m.
On Wednesday, March 4, the engineering and public works department will be before the committee at 5:30 p.m. with the finance department following at 6:30 p.m., Runnells Specialized Hospital at 7 p.m. and the department of administrative services at 7:30 p.m.
The committee is chaired by Freeholder Angel Estrada and includes Freeholders Bette Jane Kowalski, Vice-Chairman Daniel Sullivan and Rayland Van Blake. There are 9 freeholders who are paid approximately $30,000 for their part-time positions.