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Liberty trustees will wait on borrowing money for township operations
By SAMANTHA PHILLIPS
LIBERTY
Township trustees Monday tabled a motion that would authorize the township to take a $400,000 bank loan for township operations in January, to be paid back once tax revenues are received in March.
It will be up to the newly elected trustees, along with returning Trustee Jodi Stoyak, to approve or disapprove of the motion. Greg Cizmar and Arnie Clebone were elected to the board and will replace Stan Nudell and Jason Rubin, who both served two terms.
Township fiscal officer Steve Shelton said the township takes out the loan every year, and typically it’s paid back before June of the same year.
He said the loan is only necessary because the police department operates beyond its budget.
Shelton said in the future, he would like to see the police department cut its expenditure by $300,000 to $400,000. He said doing so would eliminate the need for a loan.
But a loan will be the only option for 2018, as there are no additional funds coming in before January.
Police Chief Richard Tisone said Shelton didn’t take into account during the meeting that the police department contributed $114,000 to the general fund over the last year so the township would no longer operate at a deficit. The money the department generated for the general fund came from towing and traffic cameras.
“It’s ridiculous,” Tisone said. “Why he chose to bring that up and make it an issue, I don’t understand.”
The police chief, who has worked as an officer in Liberty for the past 30 years, said the township regularly uses a loan to provide the police department with operating funds.
Tisone was taken aback by Shelton’s statements that laying off staff might be a solution to budget problems.
“He’s only been doing this a couple years,” Tisone said, referring to Shelton. “He seems to believe that since you ran out of money that you need to lay people off. The money was generated in the first place through the staff’s hard work and efforts.”
The board also approved a motion to appropriate $200,000 into the police fund, $100,000 into the general fund and $75,000 into the fire fund. The increase is a result of additional revenue coming into the township.
This group of trustees has one more meeting before the new trustees begin their terms. Dec. 11 will be the last meeting with Nudell and Rubin on the board.