The Town of North Hempstead board approved a 2014 town general fund budget of $125.3 million in a 4-2 party-line vote on Tuesday, with Republican board members voting in opposition.
The vote followed a heated exchange between interim town Supervisor John Riordan and Frank Moroney, the chairman of the North Hempstead Republican Party, who objected to the timing of the vote and the possible use of contingency funds in the budget for pay hikes for council members and other town officials.
“The spending of this contingency fund is inappropriate without the new board,” Moroney said.
He said any decision regarding salaries should not be made until town Supervisor-elect Judi Bosworth takes office in January and someone is appointed to take the place of Town Councilman Thomas Dwyer, the 2nd district representative who announced his resignation last week.
Riordan, who proposed the pay hikes last week just weeks before turning over the reins to Bosworth, initially objected to Moroney’s discussion of the town officials’ salaries.
“The only thing before the board tonight is the budget,” Riordan said.
Riordan relented after Moroney argued that the contingency funds were part of the budget.
Moroney had already issued a formal statement this week objecting to pay increases proposed by Riordan of $40,000 to $55,000 for town council members, $90,000 to $115,000 for the receiver of taxes, $85,000 to $105,000 for the town clerk and a smaller $5,000 raise to $138,000 for the town supervisor.
Moroney said also Riordan should have given public notice if he intended to use money in the budget for pay raises.
“To do anything to that contingency fund outside this budget is dishonest and lacks integrity. If there was a plan to use this contingency fund that you are going to pass tonight in this budget for salary increases, that should have been put out there before this budget vote tonight,” Moroney said, calling the board’s prospective budget vote “outrageous.”
“I’m cutting you off,” Riordan said, raising his voice. “You’re going off on something that’s not before the board.”
“You have an obligation as a public official to answer a question form the public,” Moroney shouted back.
Republican town Councilwoman Dina DeGiorgio, who lost to Bosworth in a bid for town supervisor, asked that Moroney be permitted to continue to speak. Riordan relented, allowing him more time to finish.
Moroney said the Dec. 10 hearing the council was planning to hold to discuss the salaries should be part of the budget process.
“You need to do this in the light of day, when people can come out and discuss this,” Moroney said, objecting to timing of the hearing between Hanukkah and Christmas.
DeGiorgio and town Councilman Angelo Ferrara voted against adoption of the town budget general fund without comment.
DeGiorgio and Ferrara had argued during the recent campaign that the budget should have been voted before the November election.
The 2014 budget of $125,283,073 represents a 1.98 percent increase of $2,435,635 over the 2013 budget of $122,847,383, and calls for 72,045,552 tax levy, a 1.65 percent increase of $1,167,532 over the 2013 tax levy of $70,878,020. The tax levy is within the 1.66 percent increase mandated by the state comptroller’s office.
Republicans including De Giorgio had alleged that Riordan’s appointment following the departure of former Town Supervisor Jon Kaiman (D-Great Neck) was a move to give Democrats the supermajority needed to exceed the state tax cap.
DeGiorgio also objected to the Dec. 10 hearing date on the proposed salary increases.
“I think we do ourselves a disservice by setting this for a public hearing on Dec. 10. We’re getting a new administration. We’re filling an empty board seat. If we go ahead with this proposal, we’re confirming all the negative things that the public thinks about government officials,” DeGiorgio said.
Ferrara joined DeGiorgio in voting against the Dec. 10 hearing date, saying, “I also would have wanted to do this with the new administration in place.”
“This is the way it’s always been done. We set a date for a hearing. I see no reason to deviate,” Riordan said.
Town clerk Leslie Gross, a Democrat who unsuccessfully ran for re-election on the Republican line against Nassau County Legislator Wayne Wink, said proposed salary increases in past budgets had been published prior to the budget hearings
“This is a point for the town attorney’s office, not the clerk’s office. Please confine yourself to your duties,” Riordan said.
The other parts of the town budget, including special districts, were adopted unanimously without comment prior to the vote on the general fund budget
