Emotions flare over Niles finances at council meeting

NILES

Preoccupied with its fiscal emergency and faced with a $1.5 million general fund deficit, city council Wednesday tabled a motion that would have approved a tentative labor agreement with the police department’s ranking officers.

The decision, which followed a lengthy executive session, came as a surprise since council, at its previous regular meeting, had moved the agreement to a second reading.

“The hour we spent in the back was productive [with] conflict and an exchange of ideas,” said Barry Steffey, D-4th, finance chairman, in his public comments at the end of the council meeting.

“Please be patient with us,” he asked the large crowd that had turned out for the meeting.

Council unanimously approved spending $15,000 to pay for an impound lot for towed cars, but looming over the meeting was the fate of the March 15 election vote on the 0.5 percent income tax hike that would generate $2 million annually for police and fire. Council members and Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia again called on residents to approve the increase.

“We are in terrible financial shape,” Scarnecchia said. “To even comprehend how we are going to operate [if the issue fails] is a mystery.”

The tax increase was not the only issue to draw an emotional response. After one resident made critical comments over the 1-mill replacement levy for the parks department that will also appear on the March 15 ballot., Carmen Vivolo, parks director, launched into a lengthy and heated response.

“If the park levy does not pass, there will not be a parks department,” Vivolo said.

Read more about the meeting in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.