The 2019 pay of Logan-Charles as deputy supervisor jumps to $70,000 under the updated budget

Supervisor Michael Specht's salary bumps to $165,000, up $20,000 under the new budget

Highway superintendent Fred Brinn will be paid $160,000, up from $144,000

Tax hike estimated to be 1.59 percent more in 2019 budget

RAMAPO - Town Board members gave themselves raises of $17,000 to $20,000 in a revised 2019 budget that also increases property taxes, funds a "litter control" unit and potentially close or lease one of the town's public swimming pools to save money.

The annual raises and some other spending decisions were not part of town Supervisor Michael Specht's original $120.2 million budget unveiled in October and followed by a public hearing.

The town still faces an estimated $8.5 million deficit in the spending plan adopted last week, but has dedicated $3.5 million to slash it some. The independent audits from 2015 to 2017 have not been completed to determine a precise estimate of the town's fiscal woes.

Specht said he leaned against raises but voted for the budget with Deputy Supervisor Brendel Logan-Charles, and councilmen Yehuda Weissmandl and Michael Rossman. Councilman David Wanounou was absent at a family wedding, he said.

2019 ADOPTED-PROPOSED BUDGET: Read it here

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BUDGET MESSAGE: Supervisor Michael Specht's budget message

Specht, who won election in November after decades as a town lawyer, said Logan-Charles pressed for the raises, arguing the part-time board members had not received an increase in a decade. Weissmandl and Wanounu won election in November. Rossman won election in 2016.

"This was a Town Board request and they expressed frustration the salaries of the board members had not been increased in a decade," he said. "Brendel brought this up last year."

Under the budget:

The 2019 pay of Logan-Charles as deputy supervisor jumps to $70,000, including $18,000 for her post.

Three board members see $17,000 raises to $53,000. The salaries don't include medical and other benefits.

Specht's pay rises $20,000 to $165,000.

Newly elected Highway Superintendent Fred Brinn will be paid $160,000, up from $144,000.

Finance Director John Lynch gets a pay raise to $161,000, from $144,942.

Specht's top aide, Mona Montal, the town's purchasing director, saw a pay increase from $157,957 to $168,620.

Tax Assessor Scott Schedler got raise from $154,910 to $164,550.

Assistant town Attorney Dennis Lynch's pay went part-time $66, 512 to $166,000 fulltime.

Personnel Administrator Linda Condon got a raise from $166,733 to $170,484

Other administrators saw raises of $2,000 to $4,000 that mirrored those increases for employees covered by the CSEA contract, officials said.

Justification: more time working

Specht justified the salary hikes by arguing the board members are committed to spending more time attending meetings and working for the public. He said Logan-Charles is trying to turn the post into a full-time job, including doing constituent out-reach for which she got extra pay in 2018.

Logan-Charles didn't return inquiries seeking comment.

Her husband, Bernard Charles, lost his town parks job after failing a civil service exam and a non-civil service position of soliciting clients during the summer for the town ballpark ended without much success, Specht said.

The town paid him $15,000. He's an elected Spring Valley trustee until December and a member of the East Ramapo Board of Education, a non-paying position.

William Weber,who lost the supervisor's race to Specht, took a harsh view of the pay raises and the board's financial priorities, saying, "If you think that things could not get worse in Ramapo, they just did."

"The adopted budget is a massive insult to the hardworking taxpayers of Ramapo," he said. "To get under the tax cap, the Town, in my opinion, has overestimated some revenues and has also reduced its expense contingency ... "

An accountant and chief financial officer for Turco Golf in Suffern, Weber noted the town's baseball stadium will lose $1.87 million and will continue to lose money until 2022.

Weber said he believes the town is looking to close public pools and has allocated $400,000 in revenues, as well as $60,000 from the tennis center seemingly being closed, according to the budget

Weber said the town has not budgeted revenue for the Cultural Arts Center in Spring Valley or the Equestrian Center, which has been controversial and potentially among the properties the town is considering selling.

He said he's concerned the town is budgeting without the final audits.

"We can also infer that these town assets will be the ones that will eventually be declared as surplus property and be sold," Weber said. "My concern is the amount being spent and for what? Is this a backdoor way to hire people that couldn't ordinarily be hired as employees of the Town?"

Specht and Montal said the town is considering contracting with an operator to run the Saddle River Pool and return the Spring Valley pool to village control. The Spook Rock Pool would remain open under town operation.

Specht said the town could close the Rustic Tennis Center, which has about 85 members and loses money. He said the town has formed a committee to go over such facilities and see which one the town maintains or leases to a contractor to operate.

Specht and Montal said the town is on the mark for sales tax revenues and mortgage taxes, contending Weber is analyzing a budget without all the facts.

Buoyed by $4 million from surplus funds, they said the 2019 budget raises property taxes by 1.59 percent overall, more than the less than 1 percent decrease of .77 in Specht's initial budget. The town's state-approved tax cap is 2.4 percent, officials said.

In Ramapo, unlike other communities, a property owner's overall tax bill depends on whether their property is located in the unincorporated portion of the town or one of its villages that receive town services such as police.

Suffern and Spring Valley residents live in full-service villages that provide police, building inspections and highway, while other villages depend on the town police and other services.

The overall town budget estimates raising $87.1 million in property taxes, compared to $90.2 million in 2018. The $4 million surplus from funds for the police and other services, brings the total to $90.29 million.

Specht said the town's still digging out of the fiscal policies of former Supervisor Christopher St. Lawrence, who ran the town from 2000 until being forced out by a May 2017 federal corruption conviction. He's serving a 30 month federal sentence for bond fraud to finance the stadium, a housing development called Ramapo Commons and other infrastructure improvements.

St. Lawrence moved money into the general fund to show a fund balance in an effort to get lower interest rates on bonds, including the $25 million borrowing toward the nearly $60 million baseball stadium.

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The budget also creates the position of litter control director at $100,000 and deputy director for $80,000. Officials said the salary and unit's name could change.

The deputy will speak Yiddish. Montal and Specht said the other personnel will be added to the unit, though the name remains in flux. They said the concept is to educate residents in non-village Ramapo and encourage cleaner streets, with the potential for fines.

"Unfortunately, the financial practices of the past eroded the fund balance of the general fund, the key indicator of the town's financial strength," Specht said. "Our current imperative is to restore the financial health of the town and to adopt and monitor practices that will ensure long term structured balance and financial accountability."

PREVIOUS: The 2017 Ramapo budget

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