good morning everyone we are on the record today is Tuesday the 5th day of December 2023 this is a budget hearing for the clerk's office Municipal council with the Jersey City municipal Council we had an 11 a.m. scheduled start time it is now 11:06 may I have a roll call for the commencement of this budget hearing council president okay we have one council member in attendance at 11:06 a.m. in addition at its time of preparation the notice of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Wednesday November 29 2023 at 4:15 p.m. and a reminder was sent out on Friday December 1st 2023 at 1:45 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrator Corporation Council and the local newspapers so I can certify as to the total compliance with the Sunshine Law at this time I'll turn the meeting over to the council president good morning everyone well um let's let's start this meeting um I'm quite sure some of the other Council people will join us but I'd really like to start on time okay so um let's start with the uh City Council Office first absolutely I'm gonna turn it over to uh Tammy good morning council president let's get started this is the office of the municipal Council overview the first page explains the responsibilities of both the city council members and the city council AIDS it's pretty self-explanatory any questions next we have our table of organization and at the top you'll see uh council president with her AIDS listed under her would be the councils at large with their AIDS and then all the remaining uh council members with their Respec AES there's also a part of the staff in the office set where you will see myself um who is Council administrator and Jessica Webster the council receptionist next we have our Council budget analysis and as you can see um really much has not changed also with the staff there's only been an addition of one next so our goals achieved and um that would be pay transparency the right to choose Sanctuary City legislation the women's Advisory Board of Jersey City legislation the establishment of the Cannabis board legislation right to council legislation New Jersey reparation task force act leg legislation our 2024 goals are the rent control legislation the public School partnership and the annual Harvest Fall Festival last but not least all the budget changes um for 2024 please take a look at each line item and if you have any questions please let me know do you have any questions Finance let me ask you a question I I see when it comes I don't see like a a line item maybe it's is grouped in other expenses maybe that's where it is for uh training so all the training funding is in Human Resources is in where Human Resources okay so all of the training go yeah there's an allocation for your office and all the departments in in HR okay so okay thank you I just want to make sure okay okay I guess the city clerk is up all right so going through our presentation the office of the city clerk overview for people at home that don't know the municipal clerk is the secretary to Municipal Council secretary to the municipality Keeper of the seal Chief election officer of the municipality and the individual responsible for records management of the city the office of the city clerk Handles open public records act requests or no also known as Opera request right now um as of uh sorry as of December 1st we have 4,852 requests that were filed um actually we're breaking a alltime record uh this year so who knows maybe we'll hit 5,000 hopefully not um the office of the city clerk pres processes applications for all Vital Records our office also handles city council agendas Municipal codebook landlord registration forms Municipal service application sound truck permits and all elections within the city of Jersey City going over our budget and staff totals as you can see our budget pretty much stood um even um I'm I am requesting the same amount of increases for certain staff members so that's why you see a little bit of an increase in 2024 um I've asked these asked for these increases for the last two years so it's the same thing going forward the employees headcount um I'm proud to say that since 2022 we've stood um the most employees in our office that I've been around I've been in the office of the city clerk since 1997 and we never had 15 employees total counting the clerk so I'm proud of that next is our table of organization this is pretty self-explanatory from the top down to all of the uh staff members next any questions so far okay next our our key performance indicators so we have our Orin is they're running steady um we have our marriage licenses that were issued again this is currently that's as of December 1st that number the opah request as you can see has grown and keeps growing and the death certificates pretty steady unfortunately and then next is the birth certificates so you'll see there's a Hu almost double the amount actually a little more than double the amount from 20 22 to current and that I believe is because we've changed our appointments from every half hour to every 15 minutes so we have a lot more people coming in for their birth certificates and obviously once the word got out that we're issuing birth certificates we've gotten more requests through the mail and in in person as well next is our budget changes I'm not going to go through every line item unless you guys have specific questions on any of the line items uh it's pretty self-explanatory and I'd like to thank ammani Brown for um all of her hard work putting the helping me put this together and the general and primary election budget changes so we always have to have this account opened and enough money in the account um for the fees that are charged by the county with the primary and the general elections in our respon responsibilities the municipal election uh budget changes so we always have to have some type of money in this account as well goab bid there's a vacancy or there's some type of um special election that has to happen we always have to have money in the account um and that's why you have that the amount in there the annual audit is moved to finance so we just wanted to show that again um don't know why we had the audit under us but you know now it's moved into the right department so it's that um and our budget changes in 2024 operational needs so same thing as in June the supply costs have increased due to a high volume of requests for birth marriage death as well as an increase of priced and certified copy paper so we've been really going through certified copy paper like water unfortunately and we always have to have at least three months worth of certified copy paper inhouse so that's why we're are spending with our supply I think that goes under supplies if I'm not mistaken our supplies have gone up a little bit because of the certified copy paper and plus the addition of having birth certificates for the second year um advertisement costs have increased due to advertising in multiple newspapers that includes the Jersey journal and El special our operational needs uh the city clerk's office will need to raise salaries of some non-management and management employees to promote two current employees to managerial positions as they already assumed managerial responsibilities um the office of the clerk will need to hire at least one employee for the record Center I'm looking to actually promote within um I know there's a couple of DPW uh workers that were inquiring and interested about the position to work on the Sydney Harris uh down at he's now down at Maran Gardens um I would prefer that um obviously we'll bring him in for an interview and I know that HR actually posted the um the title and we received a couple of resumees but we haven't brought anybody in yet because I really want Sydney Harris taken care of before I bring in someone because at this point he's making 48,000 and if I bring someone in a brand new employee making 42,500 I don't think that's very very fair to Sydney Harris who's doing two jobs for the price of one and it's a really low salary um I can't just promote sure could we just increase syney um salary in this way here because he's doing both jobs right so I mean if if we can't put him into a management position which is fine um I think the records manager title is a local 246 title so if we promote him to that I think we can give him uh the increase that I'm looking to give him and I think that would suffice and then we'll be able to bring in um another employee for for to him for help okay so it it it would that be a problem with anybody else in your office going to that title because I know sometime when I when I deal with these situations then because they got Union contracts then is problem I just want to make sure so I I I would work very closely with finance and also so human resources to make sure that we are following the rules as far as the union contracts I believe what the the whole point is if you want to promote somebody in a union you guys can correct me if I'm wrong that you have to um find a title that you can promote them to and then raise the salary because you just can't give a salary increase without a promot some type of promotion especially when they're in the union okay and in the others um Amanda bransky who is uh monitoring the meeting for us she's somebody who I want to promote into the second Deputy position um she handles vital records for us um this is the last two years I've been asking for the same thing for her to be promoted into a management position um also Marlene sand Camp who's been with me from day one since I took um over as being City Clerk and um she's responsible for all the appointments in the office um she worked with me hand inand during the pandemic and definitely deserves an increase and obviously the gentleman who is sitting next to me to my right and your left my Deputy city clerk John henin has taken on an additional responsibility with being the secretary to the ethical standards board so I wanted to give him a little stien so he can do those jobs because those meetings are at night just like our meetings at 6 PM um and most secretaries that do that type of work receive um an additional salary on top of what their daily Duties are and John takes care of all the other aspects of the uh office too any questions with that let me just ask U Finance so um there's only one position that's open in your department that you need covered so right now we're asking for the one for Sydney Harris but I do have two um vacancies that I would like to fill but not this year not even next year I'm looking probably 2025 um because we can always use the additional help for oper because opr is growing as you can see in our um key performance indicators um I would like to have more than half of my staff on Oprah but it's hard to do that because you know you have all the other aspects of the job that we handle but those two vacancies are not budgeted for that's why I'm saying not in a budget no don't want to I don't want to do that this year I'm more than looking to do that in 2025 let me ask some finance a question if the um titles are not budgeted are the increase budgeted like when you want to increase your staff is that in the budget too or no well when we when we initially draft the budget we'll have to include any new positions so when when the finance department presents the actual budget for 24 we would include those if it if it was approved uh by the administration in the orc chart I got you so they really not um the increases are not really in the budget they're not no we're we're yeah we're operating based on budget of last year okay till we introduce something for 24 or until we get a definitive directive from the administration on what to include in our draft for the council okay all right I just want to know how that works pretty much you know so you know each department actually makes requests and I think what Finance I don't want to speak for finance but what they do is they take in the request and they use it and they go through priorities and I actually um included a copy of our or chart um from our or chart meeting what the increases that I was looking for it's the third part of the handout um just so you guys know got you and our budget is there's a copy of our budget too if you have any questions what I requested and what um is uh what was budgeted for last year gotta let me ask uh finance's question um because of the cost of living has went up so in the city um are we are included in our budget this year like a cost of living raise across the board for all employees I I think that might be a a not at the moment prior years I believe two or three years ago we did do that for management but that was done towards the end of the year after know analysis that we'd have Surplus uh within salaries across city um currently we haven't gotten a directive to include that um in last year's budget we did present uh a budget with $2 million for salary adjustments which was then reduced down to a million just to cover uh specifically Union contracts that would require retroactive increases so we didn't plan anything for across the board management increases last year um and it's right now it's not the priority for us and next year because first we have to go through all of the existing uh liabilities with uh Union steps and we want to make sure that we balance the budget get to a point where there's no substantial you know tax uh change and then we start adding those um discretionary items in so uh it's something that we have to work with the administration on if that's a priority for them that across the board um but typically it's been spot promotions and filling vacancies where management employees have been receiving increases um over the last two budgets okay I just know um because of the cost of living I know I I receive so many calls because um it's affecting you know the employees too to be perfectly honest so that's why I was saying do we have a anything in place for a cost of living raise across the board because I mean if if people working if taxes increase you know they being ineffective one way or another so I'm just saying I mean we bonding for to get this fixed and that fixed and that we going because it's just going out for another loan at this point I I think we need to focus on um enforcement cuz I think we losing a lot of Revenue enforcement I think um our our cessor office need to focus on are we assessing property value right um that's just me looking at you know looking at some of the budget um items us keep going out for a loan I'm trying to figure out how can we just enforce what we have to see how much revenue we're bringing and then maybe this can help um some of the staff with a a cost of living too because I'm telling you it's really it's really hard it's very hard for people I I don't I I don't want to it's very hard and where're I think we're very conscious of that yeah um when I came over to finance there were things that we were put in put structure in order so human resources and finance have to work hand inand and so as you see here today or with the budget presentation all the directors put in requests right and all these requests are different in various stages right some directors are asking for a 3% cost increase one are doing two one are five so I I think I've said before is that we are preparing to do this compensation study for management but at the same time understanding the rolling requests that come in that is something that you know um ABA Chanel Robinson is hearing up and and spearheading in that regard so it's not that Finance isn't aware of it it's about what we can afford and how we can balance it we did do a cost of living increase about a year and a half ago not last bu the prior year budget so again I think once we realize what we can afford what are the priorities based on what the directors are saying as um Sean Gallagher said he was like I would like to staff now or in the future budgets but his priorities are making sure that his team is taken care of and so right that is something that we are measuring um in order to kind of sort of satisfy th those requests and bringing it back to the administration um when we do come back to introduce so okay thank you I I appreciate that director and um just so you know you know our office took on additional responsibility back in 2022 and actually this year as well so in 2022 you know birth certificates was the first big um over undertaking that we had to do and we did the job really well um if you ask me we have a great relationship with the state registra so um we're really um doing well well with that um no complaints I'll knock on wood when I say that um and if there were any complaints we um took took care of them inhouse um we have new election responsibilities um starting this year in the primary um the so the um pole workers are used to going to the county building to pick up their supplies and to drop it off now they do that here in in our caucus room which I'm sure you all have seen um all of the suitcases that are stacked you know most to the ceiling uh at this like the day before the election and then the day after the election they're restacked again so you know that was a lot of overtime because you know now we have to work on Election Day I bring in most of my staff so we're able to facilitate the pole workers bringing in the supplies again it's extra work with not many um employees that we have and I think we've done an an amazing job and I've always said this without a great staff you don't have a good leader and I'm very blessed to have a great staff and I have you know employees that have been here longer than myself and I have new employees and everybody seems to be you know working well and and the morale in my office is still good I'm just a little nervous that that morale is going to start to go down if I can't if I've been asking for the last two three years for increases for my staff and I'm not getting them um for whatever reason that is and understand the budget's tight and you know but when it's all said and done these individuals that I'm asking for have demonstrated excellent service to the community excellent service to you know customers that come in and they excel at their jobs and what they do I wouldn't be a looking to promote them if they weren't um the last thing in our operational needs I wanted to touch on this because uh my Deputy was uh the lead on this so the clerk's office has digitized the Board of alderman minute books from 1861 to 1913 so those are completed now the commission minute books are being worked on currently from 1913 to 1961 that should be completed by the end of 2024 I don't want to be held to that but more than likely it will and uh once completed depending how much money is left in the budget we will continue digitizing the remainder of the governing body minutes up to to 2020 when the city began using ey Compass so what that means council members is that eventually we're going to have on our website minutes from 1861 to present I don't think there's not a municipality that I can think of that has that kind of um information on their website so it's you guys should be proud of that as well as well as I am so I think it's fantastic and again John was definitely the lead on that and he I want him I want to put him on the mic because he's going to tell you a little bit more about the company that does the digitizing and they do such a great job and U and they're actually city runed um Jersey City based company hold on so the company that is digitizing our records is Hudson County Community Enterprises they're right here in Jersey City they're actually up to a few blocks away on Montgomery Street um they've been working on our records and the great thing about this company not only do they do great work but 90% of their employees aree City residents and most of their employees are uh folks with special needs so this is a company that is doing great work with great people for a great public service so um I think we can all be very happy that uh we're we're giving back to the community through this contract um a lot of times departments and divisions come here asking for money and it's going to a corporation and that money doesn't come back to the community that that's not the case here and it's it's it's a really to to to employ an overused phrase it's it's a win-win and so uh again as Sean mentioned um we are targeting hopefully 2025 to have everything digitized the challenge of course being that some books for whatever reason some are in better shape than others ironically the board of alderman book books because of the way they were bound held up better than some of the books from the 50s and 40s and uh and those pages are are deteriorating so um we were hoping to get some of this stuff done already but each book is a different uh experience some some books even within a decade series are in better shape than others so it is proving to be a bit of a challenge but uh they've met the challenge every single time so again this this will be a great resource uh not just for the public but even internally every every week we get requests from planning or or some Department asking from some or ordinance that was passed sometimes Generations ago and if they don't have the date that it was adopted it requires a great deal of manpower to go through all these books and and every time you go into these books you run the risk of creating more damage to the books that are already falling apart once we have this digitized it's searchable people will be able to just go online go into the link and then search for what they're looking for using keywords so it's going to expedite uh research for planning or Law Department whoever needs to use it and for members of the public who want to know what the council was doing uh decades ago so it's it's it's uh looking forward to seeing this wrap up but we will need your help to make sure that that happens thank you guys yeah Sean would you put it in your budget to get us we have a sync in the uh ccus room that empties into a bucket underneath the sink we need running water in there that's number one number two can we get our caucus room back I mean they took it away from us they remodeled in there they never came to any of us in the council and explained to us anything but it's an inconvenience to have to go downstairs to the basement to have a meeting there's no privacy at all in our council chambers so on the first your first request I think um what we can do is contact epw and find out why there's no Plumbing in in that in your sink and hopefully we can find um some type of Plumbing where they can go in and run the pipe to a drain and then you wouldn't have to have a bucket underneath there I didn't know that was occurring they couldn't do it they couldn't do it they couldn't do it they couldn't do it maybe maybe is there is there another way they can move the sink into another area this room over there and so if we could have moved out more they they could have done it I had asked that question myself okay and DBW said they could not do it so that you know that's not something that we would have to put in the budget it was it would be something it would be requests from DPW but it seems like that was already uh requested and unfortunately they couldn't um make that happen well there as far as I know there was running water before no it never was running water in there they made have been running water but there was never a drain in that area so I don't know I did I did not know that was even the case this the first time I'm hearing it and the other thing is you know like they took away our Board Room up here which that was a beautiful boardroom I think we should get it back and who's ever in there should get out of there and give us back our board so that is definitely Administration call that's beyond my scope um uh we have the caucus room downstairs on the ground floor but we only use that for um close sessions we do all our caucuses and council meeting meting here in the chambers um so I think it's a lot easier for the council members to be up here and a lot easier for the Departments and divisions that have to come for the caucuses and explain especially you know because we can spread out here and members of the public can also come which they do um downstairs is kind of confined if you ask me um but it is a beautiful room I understand your concerns councilman but again that is definitely an Administration call that's beyond my scope well I think we should go to the administration because I think they had some nerve taken away our boardroom up here where if you want to speak to somebody privately you know all the walls are open it's a joke so you gotta to the kitchen that kitchen area and hide yourself in there I understand your concerns councilman all right are there any other questions well I think I say it all the time Teamwork Makes a DreamWork but again I I have to thank um amanii Brown our fiscal officer the Department of Finance and the administration um hopefully my requests are fulfilled and I can help my staff out because they do a great job we do a lot of work with a little amount of people and uh I want to congratulate Tammy again on a great budget presentation and um thanks so much motion to adjourn at 11:36 a.m. motion made by council president Waterman seconded by seconded by council person priner all in favor of the motion please say I okay we are out of here at 1 uh 11:36 a.m. thank you and have a good day hey good afternoon everyone we are back on the record today is Tuesday the fifth day of December in the year 2023 this is a budget hearing for the Department of Finance with the Jersey City municipal Council we had a scheduled 12:00 pm start the clock on my cell phone is showing 12:08 p.m may I have a roll call for the commencement of this budget hearing council person Prince AR council person Bano yeah and council president wman here we have three council members in attendance at 12:08 p.m. in addition at its time of its preparation the notice of this meeting was similarly disseminated on Wednesday November 29th 2023 at 4:15 p.m. and a reminder was sent out on Friday December 1st 2023 at 1:45 p.m. to the mayor Municipal Council business administrative Corporation Council and the local newspapers so I can certify as their total compliance with the Sunshine Law council president I'm going to turn it over to you oh I'm sorry I'm going to turn it over to council person miror priner who is cheering this meeting you Sean um director if you'd like to go ahead um get started on your presentations then where it makes sense to pause we'll pause for questions okay great so um council members you will have with you a folder that says the Department of Finance um I've included some handouts and descriptions that I'll talk through my presentation for you in your packet you'll have the presentation that I'm going to go through um Page by Page and then the third item when we get into the actual budget details is separated um in the long forms with the organizational structure so we'll first start with the PowerPoint and then go through uh the materials so um the way I organized the presentation today uh the form of the agenda so we are going to talk about the introduction of who the Department of Finance is our results from last year specifically from the Department our team what's next and then we'll close it out um in discussions and what you may have specifically on the Department of Finance I will note that this is not um like in Prior years the status of the city's budget or the financials as we know that that will be prepared um next month as we're coming out to to the closeout but retrospectively if you had do have some questions here I do have assistant director Graves and director um Danny and a CFO to answer any type of questions as it relates to uh the status of the budget or the stat status of the city so the Department of Finance vision statement is to impower Excellence in finance through a commitment of highquality performance collaborative success uh expertise driven leadership our mission statement is to prioritize and Achieve Excellence by faulting a culture of Consciousness Improvement facilitating success of others the progress towards goals maintaining expertise in finance and delivering tangible results and embracing a new challenge uh effectively and solving problems I think in this past year and year and a half that I'm been in the position I've been really moving into that direction and FAL fostering and creating a culture of change our roles and responsibilities um again the Department of Finance is responsible for safeguarding all fiscal Integrity uh throughout the city and through the development of sound implementation of policy and procedures it is comprised of um various divisions budget om collections treasury debt management um accounts and control also known as the controller's office uh purchasing procurement area and Grant administrations um we're accountable for reporting the funds man the city's debt portfolio advancing policy development advancing agencies issues on certain cases and obtaining and monitoring um our insurance policies the next page on the slide deck is kind of sort of our process map so that you can see you know the what we have to do right we've got to close the books we've got to manage business performance we've got to manage the business Talent we have to comply with regulations um and provide decision support oftentimes we get asked in finance a lot of the times on things of performance or um actual operations of the city I think with Finance similar to our law departments we provide that guided expertise support so that we can make the city um often run going to the next page you see the little last year with about the little growth um slide in regards to all how we've been growing and and changing we're now going to be moving into our go our accomplishments and goals um throughout the department and we I have organized the slide deck in the area of um by different offices so with the director's office um we undertook many financial management updates we are currently undergoing an Erp system update in your folders you'll have a progress status report from Edmonds in regards to the roll out so we are expected hopefully by July of 2024 to have um all the implementation ready to go so I did ask Ed to provide you a status report it's in your folder any questions that you may have throughout the year um we do plan on scheduling training um overview and so on and so forth uh as it relates to to this this is probably one of the biggest um accomplishments I think that we have underway because this is a 25-year-old you know software that we're upgrading for the C so there is a lot of work to be done um in that regard um we achieved a credit rating upgrade from the last time that we spoke to now I think that's something that is credited to Testament to my team and how hard they work to turn it around normally moodies does not uh turn around and change a negative outlook but this time that they did and so they ra us um as stable and so that was a great uh accomplishment from last year um and this year regards to um our initiatives we developed a year of and this year was the year of Pop which was policy operations and procedures um we also and my team create a Spotify playlist of a song of related to um the the songs that related to every week I would ask in my staff mediums like give me a song and we'll add this this this to this playlist and so we were working on our greatest hits and we were working on improving the city and what we needed to do in finance we won't be sharing that that playlist but you can come to my office and uh there are some songs on there that I can not share people but we will be sharing next week in our holiday celebration and reviewing some of the songs um and so on and so forth I think one of the songs that Kyle had said to us earli this year um was um put five on it and that's how kind of sort of we got the fiveyear Outlook and so it was kind of sort of something we laughed about and so trying to have fun in finance I know we tend to be um in our offices crunching numbers all day but this is something something that I cared about creating a culture of and and a year of um with our budget and auditing I mean you saw this year that we submitted our budget um a budget much more timely than years prior and we submitted our audit um years prior again we have in front of you The Five-Year budget draft action plan so you guys have a five-year Outlook to at least of what we prepared and and start reviewing and summarizing and changes that you can start planning and and thinking about um and then you were now advancing the budget schedule I think that's a big accomplishment I've heard from many of the council members and some of the other public administrators that in their 20 year plus year they've never seen something like this so I think this is a big milestone for the Department of Finance and kudos to Danny Kyle John and others in the department that are not here today who really help push and Elevate this and get this done um collaborative initiatives we conducted a deep dive with our pilot and abatement portfolio with our finan advisers we implemented staff promotions enhanced um management practices and we successfully onboarded two interns one from Vanderbilt University and from Ruckers University and that was something uh post pandemic that I wanted to start introducing and cultivating and training um and getting interns um to help support um and learn um again we focused on community engagement um we through the Vista program we have a finance Community coordinator that's coming on board We join Harvard's procurement Excellence Network which is something that we've been working towards in changing and modifying some of our procurement efforts uh we worked on our strategic Partnerships year where uh we've talked about it in in many avails the compensation study that's coming we Foster new relationship with other banking institutions and other Financial institions to help guide us in our work um we've I've talked to Google public sector and just different initiatives of spending time outside of the office to try to see what else is out there um as it relates to improving what what we are doing next slide uh slide nine again I'll just go over you know just high level regard to what the CFO um is actively curious and working on as being the custodian of our public funds you know the accuracy of financial records improving in in those areas development of fiscal policies are the priorities from from who's been a long time Partners to the city and a public advocate for um a lot of these efforts that were undertaking compliance oversight development of fiscal policy so on and so forth um accomplishments by air by the Office of Management and budget they again collaborated with many departments to stay within their budget constraints and kudos to uh Danny for um being able to complete that we had timely completions of a lot of the priority projects that were underway they drafted over 2500 requisitions and assisted with over 500 resolutions and 41 ordinances this year so um a very busy area and division um in working in om technology integration we're working on with our quesa software to update and track our capital projects um and ensuring cost developments and the savings St budgets and and on the employee front we achieved Milestones by promoting seven minority fiscal officers five including females and he promoted three om staff members to the fiscal officers so those are definitely Great accomplishments within the year in Department of Finance in the area of collections our tax collector's office we recovered $6.6 million through a large scale pilot in the audit um we maintained a 98% collection rate as of November 30th um and that will hopefully to increase operation improvements they they rectified all the 2017 tax lean sales implemented a new filing tax system for files and ledgers and then under the employee side They promoted uh one employee who obtained their tax assessors um sorry Tax Collectors uh license and two others are enrolled in class so you're seeing uh growth historically when I took over the department a lot of our employees were not in the certified um courses and so we're really actively caring about promotional growth um the controller's office uh our controller created a business intelligence tool to help streamline in reviewing research um he's working on agile planning and automated the journal entry reviews for to support mapping uh he's standardized controls and standardize the templates for journal entries he's improved the uh cash side controls and receivables and then he's directed and worked on prior closings in helping to mitigate and lessen our audit issues moving on to slide 14 accomplishments by area by the division of purchasing and procurement they processed over 300 bid proposals rfps and rfqs from vendors they issued 75 bids rfps they digitized public records and contracts um I'm very proud of Raquel she told me she threw away her typewriter which is a huge accomplishment um and she was typing things in digital form so she's embracing the culture change as a you know um as we're looking to reform the procurement areas um they conducted Citywide training for employees we'd had a training in September October earlier this year where we're constantly training and reviewing and assessing um the areas of work in your pockets you'll see a policy and procedures manuals for purchasing and you'll also should see a quick guide so even when you guys have questions that you can share with your AIDS and research you have that that available and this will all be emailed to you um as well um she and the purchasing Team U joined 18 nationalized Cooperative purchasing programs and as always they're always looking to improve the doing business with uh the Jersey City Workshop again they processed over 500 5,000 requisitions and issued 4,000 purchase orders including to enclose 450 contractual resolution and contracts um Grant Administration by area so they have been working last if last year we had a team of one we've been able to add two additional members um they've worked on their policy and procedures manual again you have a copy of of that manual in your packets you'll see kind of sort of what um a lot of questions have been asked from other other um hearings about grants and you'll see the grant inquiry form in your in your packet so you'll see that we will be cultivating questions as it relates to projects programs and areas as it relates to Grant development um uh City Citywide so uh We've created a dashboard you have an example of the Grant's dashboard that we're going to be using the grant inquiring form and that's all going to be tied into a system that um collectively uh the areas will be able to to work together in in in those results um they also did a Citywide training we did a two-day Grant Training for not only for us but for for other employees so they can get familiar with the grant process um I will say in regards to I talked about the grant setup for and um they've worked on fiscal management and techn Technology advances they have reconciled grants from 2014 and through 2019 to address any system errors and so those are kind of sort of our goals or sorry our accomplishments for for this year now we're going to move into our team structure and our organizational uh structure so you see here um the faces of the Department of Finance um John Mercer and his assistant with his cat she's unpaid as he says but ultimately um this is who heads up the Department of Finance and our our teams I put their pict FL deck because I told them they didn't need to come today they'll probably they will becoming the status of the budget when you want to know about deeper Dives and purchasing and collection this is purely on on the department and so the next slide on 15 or sorry 19 is a summary of salary and wages and what we introduced and so we adopted 6.1 in 2023 for 2024 we're asking it's an increase of 7.8 million so an additional increase of 1.6 and so calls here to move into the handout the other handouts that have our or chart and the items and so what I did is you'll see the Excel spreadsheet and the or chart right behind it and so um I highlighted the request as per the or chart um and the areas and so if you have any questions as it relates to that you know happy to just continue to go through it or we'll go back through it so the first um the first area with the director's office there are some vacancies that I would like to fulfill in regards to getting a fiscal analyst um getting someone to do our this data processing coordinator that's Civil Service CED but it's more of a data fiscal analyst um and then the all of the cmfo will be moved into the director's office next page is the Office of Management and budget you'll see the organizational structure what you'll see here is funded vacancies requested position and promotional title changes corresponding to that Excel street is you'll see the requested position so this is what's been reflected um and what's been already proposed to the the administration I had my meeting last week uh Thursday I believe and we are just waiting to see what gets approved and and finalized none of this is final but this is these are my requests the next page is um organizational structure is the division of purchasing oh this came out a little small so um you'll see here in the division of purchasing we're looking to add more staff um and uh promote others um there's a new position that we're looking to um address which is the fixed assets um manager position this is something that's been in our audit for several years and trying to assess it and I did present it to the administration on why we need this role and what is applicable for it um whether it lives here in purchasing or somewhere else that's you know still open up for discussion but it's something that I will be drafting a job description for and um taking steps to addressing some of those things um that is really important and valuable kind of sort of to the city you'll see some notes here as to like what's happening purchasing where is the volume does the operation meet the demand or what what are we we missing and where can we strengthen um in in different areas and so these are the requests as presented um for the division of purchasing Treasury and debt management so when I took over the department um in 2021 um we did not have a director for this division um I think that the vacancy for this position is something that we're going to post for so that we have direct a little bit more direct management um when it comes to our JY and debt management and looking to either reform modify or address some things because those are these are two big areas you've got Treasury and you've got debt and Capital Management which I think are distinctive but historically municipalities have grouped them together and so my goal is to hire a director that would oversee and kind of sort of fulfill this operational plan as work with um some of the modification works with treasury um and debt management the next division I'm going to talk about is Grant Administration we've got um some changes there we're requesting for a another grant program manager and an area of compliance Grant manager and a accounting specifically based on grant-based accounting grant-based accounting is distinctive in its nature and we need someone working and is supporting um these areas and last well actually not last two more um accounts and control so we hear if you look at the budget requests and the vacancy and assistant um accounting assistance that are being requested um often times uh this area also too needs additional support because as we set the budget through OMB and as we buy things we still have that for things and this is an area where our current team uh is under staff with the you know Billion Dollar City that we are between the municipal budget and the capital budget that has to be reconciled for and so um yes I would have money in for overtime but I think if we tically staff um and get us to the appropriate efficiencies this the new director the new compol will be able to successfully manage some of the areas um a little bit more um better and then you'll see less audit findings that I think historically the we've just had um because we haven't been properly at the properly supported at the Staffing levels and last is the division of collections um last year we spent some time in Staffing up the position this year we just had one retirement so we're looking to replace um that retirement um and keep the division as where it is the current tax collector did a lot of restructuring and management and where you see this kind of s the results that you're seeing in the division of collect so so I'll stop here if you um before I continue with my presentation or if you have any questions on the specifics okay so um if you were to support some of the requests that we we're making our goals for next year again is to continue to work on professional development and employee opportunities I want to cross Trin a lot of the the employees in the department and just not having one person having a cmfo um I want someone to get their qpa people to start working on all areas of Finance so we all collectively know that uh again you know with the technology advancement with the edms and successfully getting that underway um policy and procedures so this year I did stop to um have policy procedures manuals for each of all my divisions I've successfully done that three um we still three need the others and I think that the accounting the tax collection and treasury debt management a little bit more technical than something writing something in house and so we'll be looking to um solicit or procure someone else to help us write some of those Frameworks and also two with the change with the edmin system all that kind of consider going to be changed so those things with the year of Pop um and still working on those procedures my goal is to extend the additionals into 2024 so that the entire department will have standard Sops standard operating procedures and that we can train to that and train others uh Citywide uh as the the collective um budget construction and budget control I think that by empowering these areas and supporting this area we'll be able to collaborate more address some of our deficiencies I think that we're getting to par but we still don't know what we don't know and we're not studying like our Revenue policies we're not looking at other consistent uh revenues other areas that um I think we should do should be looking at and supporting some of those um uh those requests looking to close out a lot of Prior audit findings that I think um that can be accomplished as I review the report we just need the support of the staff to be able to um do some of that work um with purchasing and compliance I I think you know they want to digitize their W9 forms they want to keep departments and divisions ahead of the public um La contracts they want to digitize partial payment vouchers and SE vouchers and and change orders um they want to maintain a near-perfect audit and so those are all great accom goals for for for those areas uh Grant Administration they want to reconcile all grant grant accounts to date they want to enhance collaboration and communication internals controls um they want to digitize the work and develop um Grant models and for analytics to integrate Grant Gap with our Financial systems um Treasury and debt management they want to fulfill compliance and future audits strive for to eliminate reconciling items issue um reconcile the issues between payroll and treasury often times there's some areas that we need to address there um and then again I think overall in 2024 we would enhance our training and skills developments or where it's going to be the year of data and finance for us um it's going to be the year of efficiency and um and timely submission and so overall um we have our goals and and summarizing we're heading into transformational year in finance we're going to get our work done we're going to be working on collaborations and efficiency and compliance and that we're leaders and that we want to be the trusted experts as we navigate the city's uh finances through and through slide 25 talks about the next steps um as it relates to where we are so as you'll see in September of this year we did our budget kickoff meeting we had our budget preparation and began our closeout process we began doing the financial analysis in compar in comparison to the fiveyear Outlook in November and December our fourth quarter taxes were collected on began the collections on 111 we've had our budget workshops we're in our middle of our budget hearings we're preparing our Revenue projections um our Accelerated Tax sales next week um the 15th sorry yeah the 15th um for our accelery tax sale we're reviewing our expenses the outlook for January to March is we'll have a hearing or meeting on the status of the budgets we'll if there are any amendments um we'll work on an amendments and then we'll have our public hearings we're looking to approve the budget late February early March March and then what's going to happen march to September is that we'll have budget management implementation we'll have a midyear review between June and July we'll start our end of year of assessment and then September of next year we'll be rolling out the 2025 budget process so um that in a nutshell is what the Department of Finance is working on our goals or accomplishments um our our projections and so you know thank you to the council for hearing us out and then open up the floor for any questions that you may have so specifically on um on the Department of Finance oh I will say that I am going to change the presentation for next year hence hence uh uh what you saw it's been you know we had it for a couple years and KY and I have been talking about it and I said you know what let me I'll start with me I'm not gonna wait till next year I'll do it this year so it looks kind of sort of gives you the idea of the direction that we're we're heading into great um so are there are there any questions no okay thank you yeah very thorough thank you director yeah thank you I like your pictures I also have a couple of cat assistants so I appreciate that as well there's some of my confidential AIDS thank you not forget to um uh direct it was a good presentation but I know that you are bringing a finance department um on the level that the city should be you know and I I I really want to say thank you just people don't realize it because I've been in this office for quite some time now and just for us to do a budget he hearing early you know and I know it had to come also with the finance director you know working to get that done so I really wanted to let you know I really do appreciate that I'm quite sure the public appreciate that and this way here we can really in our budget process because a lot of times when we have a budget process afterwards it's not much that we can have an input in the budget people don't realize that but if we have a budget process beforehand then the council do have some type of input in the process itself and so I know that comes with the finance uh division also so I want to say thank you for that and um I know the divisions that are under you appreciate it too because you bringing them to the next level which I believe in in a city that we all should go to the next level uh we should our skill set should get improved and I see that you have the training and you don't see what I like about your presentation what you said is not like one staff member knowing one thing you know is everybody being equipped to do the job just in case somebody else is not there and going forward I hope other departments take that lead too uh because we are in a time that we should be um multifaceted skill sets I think that's important I don't think people realize that I know when we worked the hospital when I worked the hospital years ago we had to be cross trained in so many different departments because it had to function and so as a city we need to be cross trained in so many different departments especially if you all under Finance purchasing and all that because if something happens then you can always pull staff to make sure staff that the operation itself continue to function and that's what you know any organization should be about but a lot of times they don't see uh government organization as like a organization in itself they just keep saying government like they don't look at us like uh part as a private sector that with skill sets and things like that so I do appreciate that U with your presentation you counc okay so if there's no further questions or comments can I entertain a motion to adjourn motion made by council president and seconded by uh council president prinari okay motion to adjourn at 12:39 PM all in favor any opposed any extensions okay we are closed at 12:39 p.m. believe our next hearing is at 1 is that correct oh no actually no it's it's tomorrow I think so all right so uh good night everybody so long take care