Northport Village budget approval delayed, trustees ask for more time amid concerns

The 2024-2025 Northport Village budget approval was delayed at Tuesday night’s board meeting when trustees said they needed more time to review and ask questions about certain line items. The proposed budget is a 1.44% (or $202,451) increase over the previous year. 

Coming in at $13,637,520, the proposed budget includes expenditures such as contracted salary increases of 2.75% for all Village union workers, administrative staff, Village board members and police officers. It also continues funding the fire department LOSAP (volunteer retirement fund), fully funds the fire department equipment reserve account, allows for 24-hour paramedic services, adds part-time emergency medical technicians (EMTs), and funds the purchase of additional vehicles for the police, highway and sewer departments. 

Northport Village Treasurer Siohban Costello said the budget, which she called conservative, was worked on by the treasurer’s office, all department heads, and the Village board, including at three public budget workshops in November. The mayor and each trustee received the proposed budget at the December 19 Village board meeting for review. 

“This is the lowest tax increase that we’ve had in about 25 years. The Village needs to run efficiently and effectively to get things done,” Mayor Donna Koch said of the proposed budget. Village residents expect services from all departments, she added, which requires funding for their vehicles and other expenditures. 

Trustee Ernest Puciilo, however, is hoping to put forth a budget with a zero percent increase. Pucillo met with Costello prior to the meeting and went through the budget line by line. “When I left the meeting, I just didn’t feel – on a personal level – that I had done enough to really [justify] the tax increase,” he said. People are feeling so many financial burdens due to inflation, he continued, and the Village could do better to cut costs. Pucillo said that he didn’t have answers to some line items and he wanted more information on them before moving forward. “If there are any open-ended issues, that leaves me to believe that I haven’t done my job and haven’t analyzed sufficiently what we need to do,” he said. 

Pucillo noted “miscellaneous expenditures” from several departments as one of his concerns. He said that the budget should be more specific and perhaps some of these expenditures can be removed without hurting the departments. Costello said she had met with each department head when making these projections and the “miscellaneous” category serves as a catch-all for one-off costs such as a circuit breaker, crimp master hose, and a rechargeable LED headlight, for example. “You can’t have a specific line for all of these items,” she said. 

Senior Firehouse Attendant John McKenna and several other members of the Northport Fire Department were present at the meeting, attending after they were told that Pucillo had concerns about their budget. McKenna read off several miscellaneous items from his department’s budget, which are items that don’t fall under the New York State designated budget lines, he explained. He noted firefighter gear and gear maintenance, rescue squad sets, gloves and masks, among other items. 

While he thinks the Village is operating at a “great level” and the treasurer’s office and heads of departments have “done very well,” Pucillo said he’s concerned about “a lot of issues in the budget” and planned therefore to oppose the proposed budget if it were voted on at the Tuesday evening meeting.

Trustee Meghan Dolan, who spoke after Pucillo, asked what specific line items concerned him and should be addressed during the public hearing. She said that they discussed expenditures during their budget workshops, but if there were specific areas that Pucillo still wanted addressed, it could be done there, at the hearing where the treasurer and some department heads were present.

Pucillo did not state specifically which line items he found concerning; “I can’t do this here,” he said, asking that the board schedule additional workshops with department heads to go over expenditures.  

“This is an issue because we did have workshops,” where department heads were present, Costello said. “This has to be taken care of. If we don’t get this going, we’re not going to get our tax bills out on time.” To get the budget approved by the required date of February 1, the public hearing as begun on January 2 will now continue at the next Village board meeting on January 16. The budget, with or without changes, must then be approved via resolution. If that doesn’t happen, a special meeting will be scheduled or the budget as originally proposed will go into effect. 

Trustee Dave Weber agreed with many of Pucillo’s concerns. He said he was only able to attend one of the three budget workshops because they took place during the day when he was working. “But now you want me to make a decision,” he said, “so I’m going to listen to the other trustees to make that decision.” He said the boards needs to look at the “big picture” when creating the budget and “think outside the box” to come up with ways to improve Village employee salaries, something he said they’ve been asking for in addition to the 2.75% contractual raises. Department heads need to work more closely with the board, he added. 

Trustee Joe Sabia also echoed the concerns of Pucillo, noting the expense of new vehicles including a backhoe that was covered partially with CHIPS (Consolidated Local Street and Highway Improvement Program) funds, pickup trucks and a police car. 

“I’m willing to work with you, but I need feedback,” Costello said, voicing a concern with the timing of trustee disapproval when workshops began in November and the budget is due at the end of this month. 

Koch said she agrees with the 1.44% budget increase, but will continue the public hearing on January 16. Waiting to approve the budget, after three public workshops and trustees receiving the proposed numbers two weeks ago, she said, is delaying the entire budget process, which includes printing tax bills, making sure they are correct, preparing them and mailing them out to residents. 

The next board of trustees meeting will take place on January 16 at 6pm in Northport Village Hall. The tentative budget can be found here.