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Niles council skewers Scarnecchia over latest recovery plan
By Jordan Cohen
NILES
The majority of city council has little or no use for Mayor Thomas Scarnecchia’s latest recovery plan from fiscal emergency – the sixth such version.
Angered over what several complained was a last-minute presentation by the mayor and unhappy with some of the document’s contents, council refused to pass the plan as an emergency measure in a special meeting Wednesday and would only approve it as a first reading in a split vote. Councilmen Steve Mientkiewicz, D-2nd, and Frank Pezzano, D-1st, voted against it.
Contained in the plan were proposals from the mayor for two $5 increases in the city’s license plate tax that would have generated $180,000 for street resurfacing. They went nowhere. A motion on the first tax died because no one would second the motion. The ordinance for the second tax was tabled unanimously.
“There’s no adjusting the budget and all this is doing is passing the buck to the taxpayers,” Mientkiewicz said.
Mientkiewicz and other council members were unhappy that the taxes were introduced in a special meeting where public participation is prohibited.
“This is what you get with last minute,” said Robert Marino, council president in pointed comments directed at the mayor. “We’re running a $70 million company like a neighborhood grocery store.”
Law Director Terry Swauger said the city has until July 1 to submit the tax increases to the Bureau of Motor Vehicles for them to go into effect in 2018.
The mayor and council have to approve the amended plan in time for next Wednesday’s meeting of the Financial Planning and Supervision Commission, which oversees spending during fiscal emergency. Chairman Quentin Potter had canceled the commission’s March meeting to allow the mayor more time to complete the latest version.
State law requires financial recovery plans to maintain positive financial balances for five years. Niles has been in fiscal emergency since October 2014.
Another reason for amending the plan involves the money-losing Wellness Center. The current plan contained a provision to lease the facility, which would have saved the city $160,000 annually, but no one bid on the facility. In his latest amended plan, Scarnecchia did not offer an alternative despite a previous admonition from council to do so.
“You needed a Plan B, it’s two months later and I can’t vote in good conscience for a plan that doesn’t address the Wellness Center,” said Ryan McNaughton, D-at large.
“We’re still working on it,” responded the mayor.
Marino advised Scarnecchia to contact the commission chairman to discuss the situation. Potter has demanded that a viable plan be presented at the commission’s April 19 meeting.
The mayor has asked for two special council meetings Monday and Tuesday to finish voting on the plan.
“It’s going to put Niles in better financial shape than ever in the next five years,” Scarnecchia said to audible groans from spectators. Marino did not appear to agree.
“We look very foolish,” he said.