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Township Council members found themselves in an unusual position at their March 11 meeting: deciding on a fire district budget that had been rejected by voters.
The district in question was Fire District 4 in Kingston, which shares coverage with South Brunswick Fire District 3. Voters rejected the proposed $85,395 budget, which meant the Council had to review it, recommend any changes, and approve it.
The task to review the rejected budget fell to Deputy Mayor Ed Potosnak. After a detailed discussion of how he came to the final number – involving equalized property valuations and percentages of the total South Brunswick budget – Potosnak said the “fair” Fire District 4 contribution was $48,573.66.
The budget still has to be accepted by South Brunswick’s Fire District 3, which contracts With FD 4 to provide firefighting services, at its March 18 meeting.
And if the reaction by Steve Manobianco, chairman of the Fire District 3 Commissioners, is any indication, that acceptance is not guaranteed.
Manobianco lost no time in challenging Potosnak’s analysis, saying that his use of calculating 10 percent of the total budget was not correct because that method has since been replaced by a set figure.
Manobianco also said that the district did not charge Dire District 4 for other expenses, such as those associated with a radio system.
“We don’t believe it’s fair for our taxpayers to subsidize folks outside our district,” he said.
Manobianco’s insistence that Potosnak’s calculation of 10 percent of teh South Brunswick budget was soon met with exasperation from the Deputy Mayor.
“You’re taking things out of this equation and going back to 10 percent,” Manobianco said. “There is no 10 percent.”
“These are numbers you provided,” Potosnak said. “That 10 percent equals $48,000.”
“These are your numbers, and I just pulled them from there with the help of the manager to proofread it, and the mayor,” Potosnak said later. “You used 10 percent in the spreadsheet. That’s why I referred to it.”
Manobianco argued that the contract between the two fire districts should control, and that there is no mention of a 10 percent share for FD 3 in the contract.
Township attorney Lou Rainone also entered the fray.
“All due respect, I don’t really care what the contract says,” Rainone said. “What you did in your budget is, you allocated it.”
“I am an attorney, I’m a pretty good attorney because I can understand this math,” he said. “If your budget allocated it 90-10 and the contract had a narrative about how you were going to allocate it, I’m not sure what that means. But your budget allocated it 90-10. We’re only here to worry about the budget. If you tell me that the contract doesn’t have a percentage in it, that’s fine. But the budget does have a percentage. It’s 90-10.”
At one point, Township Manager Robert Vornlocker stepped down from the dais with his laptop computer to go over the spreadsheet with Manobianco.
In the end, the Council accepted Potosnak’s analysis and approved the Fire District 4 budget at $48,573.66.
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