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Adjourned Village Board budget hearing
Friday, January 15, at 5:30 pj.
FreeportBaldwinLeader.com
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|sth Year, No. 2 Freeport, \^ 11520
The Comtnunity fNl spaper
Thursday, jf ary 14, 2010
THIS MINIATURE CITY was just one of the many exhibits at Sunday's Train Show at the Freeport Recreation Center.
Leader photos by Paul Laursen
layoffs, budget donf nate fractNHis
by Jim Golding
Last April's vote by the new administration to raise their salaries at the start of their term came back to haunt the mayor and two trustees at Monday's raucous pubUc hearing on the proposed 2010-11 budget when it was revealed there would be four employee layoffs, a 5.5 percent tax hike, and there was $3 million less in the 2009 budget than originally thought.
An overflow crowd of Village employees, mosdy CSEA union members, and other residents at Village Hall vented their anger at the trustees for nearly four hours over the layoffs, their spending policies and the budget process over the past several months.
As the meeting wound down and the smoke cleared, at the instigation of trustee Carmen Pineyro, the board gave back the raises and reinstated the salaries in place when they took office. They took no action on the budget, other than to agree to continue negotiations with the employees union
and attempt to make further cuts. The Board set another public hearing, originally for January 20, but later changed to Friday, January 15 at 5:30 p.m. By state law, the budget must be adopted by February 1 or the tentative budget would automatically take effect.
In a departure from the boisterous public comments that centered primarily on the budget, representatives of the Freeport Memorial Library Board presented an "inventory of problems" vvitfi the facility, including water leaks in the Children's Room, electrical problems and other building damage.
Board President Darleyne Mayers urged the board to replace the library's entire roof. (See related story on page 11.)
Noisy beginning
Following a 6 p.m. protest on the steps of Village Hall (see related story on page 11), CSEA members and other citizens packed the second floor meeting room for the 7:30 meeting. As the clock read 7:45, and the
meeting had not yet begun, the union's bargaining unit leader, Peter Reinke, led the room in loudly yelling "Come on out" repeatedly Jor about two minutes.
Village Attorney Howard Colton entered the dais and was soundly booed, but veteran trustees William White Jr., and Jorge Martinez received sustained enthusiastic applause.
As the three new board members entered. Mayor Andrew Hardwick, Deputy Mayor Robert Kennedy and tiTistee Pineyro entered they, too, were greeted by boos.
Budget consultant David Tanner of Liberty Capital Services, who discussed the budget at die board's December 20 meeting, explained tiiat "cuts were made in several areas." Since that meeting the tax levy increase had been reduced from 13 percent initially to 5.5 percent and spending would increase by an additional $2 million.
The proposed budget was $62.4 million and included a $1 million increase in health insurance payments, an additional $1 million
to the employees' state retirement fund and $1 million to pay for "recurring expenditures."
He also reported an enormous drop in the amount of estimated interest income. The previous year's budget overestimated the revenue at $410,000, when the realistic figure is about $10,000, he said.
Mr. Tanner called it "a good budget, although it doesn't accomplish everything it needs to."
Layoffs challenged
Mr. Reinke led off die protests, charging that Mayor Hardwick "had never given an indication" there would be any layoffs "until four days before Christmas."
He said die CSEA "implores you 'no layoffs.' "
In his reply, Mayor Hardwick charged that "not one concession has been made" (by die union). "We started with 14 poten-tid layoffs and we went against ourselves and brought it down to four," he stated.
(continued on page 3)
Arrest in
Baldwin burglaries
page 2
Club Freeport debuts!
pages
CSEA protest page 11
Freeport library woes page 11
•i-
Object Description
| Rating | |
| Title | The-Leader_2010-01-14 |
| Subject | Newspaper |
| Description | This is a Newspaper distributed locally within the Village of Freeport and Baldwin. |
| Creator | Linda Toscano |
| Publisher | L&M Publications, Inc. |
| Contributors | Scanned by Imaging & Microfilm Access, Inc. (Bohemia, NY 11716) |
| Date | 2010 |
| Type | Periodical |
| Format | PDF; TIFF |
| Source | Freeport Memorial Library |
| Language | English |
| Coverage | United States |
| Rights | This digital image may be freely used for educational uses, as long as it is not altered in any way. No commercial reproduction or distribution of this image is permitted without written permission of the Freeport Memorial Library, 144 W. Merrick Road, Freeport, NY 11520 or email: frreference@freeportlibrary.info |
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