By Bill Cleary

Gloucester City residents are facing a .37 cent hike per $100 of assessed valuation in the local purpose tax said Councilman Nick Marchese, Finance Chairman in a recent telephone interview.

Marchese said the City applied for Extraordinary Aid Funding from the State to offset the increase.

\”If we received the aid then the rate will go down. Otherwise a property owner assessed at the average of $70,000 would pay an estimated $259 more in local taxes in the fiscal year of 2007-08.\”

The 2007 budget ($15,540,300) was introduced at the March 22 council meeting and approved by a 4-3 vote. The total amount is $320,867, less than last year\’s figure of $15,86,167.

Those in favor included Marchese, Councilmen Jay Brophy and Bill Hagan along with Mayor William James. Opposed were the incumbent members Council persons Elsie Loebell, Jean Kaye and Rocky Kormann.

The threesome said they hadn\’t had time to review the budget since copies were not released to them until March 21, the day before the meeting. Mayor James said this budget was released in the same time frame last year, but there were no complaints.

Marchese said some of the delay in getting the budget finished was because the finance committee had to deal with the budget and the lack of information without the help of Paul Kain, City Administrator.

Kain has been out of work on sick leave since the beginning of March, and it is not known when he will return.

Marchese, James and Brophy were elected this past November. Since January the newly elected Council members have been finding numerous signs of mismanagement that they inherited from the previous administration.

For example at the March 22 meeting it was pointed out by Marchese and Brophy that the City has kept in place the practice of longevity pay increases and vacation bonuses for supervisors. Brophy said when he asked the County and other Municipalities about the costly practice he was told it was done away with years ago by the majority of the municipalities in the state.

\”Under this system there were supervisors in our City getting longevity and vacation bonuses from 4 to 9 percent,\” he said.

Marchese said the finance committee was also capping buying back accumulative sick leave. \”It should be used when an employee is really sick. Sick leave wasn\’t meant to be used as a bank account for the employee. It is to be used to pay the person when he/she is ill.\”

This is only for non represented employees, Contractual employees negotiate their contracts.

He gave an example of how expensive it would be if the City\’s buyback practice wasn\’t done away. \”If all 110 City employees resigned tomorrow it would cost taxpayers $2 million dollars to buy back the sick leave and vacation time from them.\”

The incumbents argued during the meeting the finance committee\’s proposal was a violation of state law. Marchese said he would look at the law cited by Kaye.

And added, \”If you don\’t vote for this budget tonight, the City taxpayers will lose the chance to apply for Extraordinary Aid.\”

During Friday\’s interview Marchese mentioned the reason why a payment to Jim Maley\’s former law firm of Parker and McCay wasn\’t being paid this month for legal work it billed the city in conjunction with a lawsuit that was recently settled. Maley was the City Solicitor under the previous administration. Marchese said from what he has been able to decipher the company doing the work on the City Marina (Mobile Dredging) was delayed in completing the job on time because of poor engineering design. The company filed a lawsuit and received $260,000 judgment. The attorney fees cost taxpayers $300,000.

\”I have only been able to trace the legal fees for three years,\” Marchese said. \”There are two years missing. The lawyer fees for Mr. Maley\’s work on this lawsuit may even be higher. We are asking Parker McCay to produce those records. Until they do the final payment will be withheld.\”

See Story on Parker McCay

Other factors contributing to a higher tax rate said Marchese include the mismanagement of the City\’s Bond debt which is presently $13 million. Add the $10 million needed for the construction of a new water treatment plant and you have a figure that is too high. \”The City needs this water treatment plant so we must move ahead with it.\”

Another item he pointed out was the lack of oversight on the 30 grants the City has received which total $3 million. For example he referred to a $600,000 Small Cities Grant that was not approved for 2007 due to the fact that we were not utilizing the existing grants we presently have now. Because of the mistakes made the City will lose $900,000 in grants this year.

Appropriations that were brought inside the cap were 8.3 cents. Deferred charges were up $114,000. Increases in landfill charges were up $ 45,000. Trash collection up $ 35,000. Insurance up $ 86,000. Police Salary up $ 190,000. Fire salaries up $113,000. Street and roads salaries up $ 106,000. Police and Fire pension are in the fourth round and are at $ 228,000.

Councilman Brophy mentioned the 28 full-time employees Fire Department has become costly to the taxpayers to operate. He mentioned the line item cost each taxpayer six cents of every $100 of home assessed valuation. In other words a home owner assessed at $100,000 is paying $600 in taxes just for operation of the paid fire department. \”Some firemen are making $21,000 annually in overtime. Something has to be done; it has gotten out of hand.\”

Marchese said the City needs a new street sweeper, trash truck, and additional police cars. More equipment for the water & sewer department is still needed.

Marchese added the main capital improvement is the water treatment plant. \”The future infrastructure will cost the City hundreds of thousands of dollars in order to complete our new housing construction.\”

See more stories on Gloucester City

Hank received the story below about Karla Comfort from a friend and is asking everyone to pass it on. He and his wife Keiko reside in Kitakyushu City, Japan. Hank is a former resident of Gloucester City

The Millers have two sons, Lucas a PFC with the U.S. Army 25th Division is stationed in Honolulu, Hawaii will be deployed to Iraq on May 31. Their other son, Max is a L/CPL in the U.S. Marines stationed at Camp Schwab, Okinawa. Max has been deployed to Iraq for one tour of duty already and will be deployed to Afghanistan sometime in June.

\”I\’m asking for prayers to bring them both home to us safely. God Bless All our Troops.\”

Hank and Keiko Miller

The Karla Comfort story:
 

 

CAMP PENDLETON, Calif. ( March 2, 2006)Karla Comfort received a lot of looks and even some salutes from people when she drove from Benton, Ark., to Camp Pendleton, Calif., in her newly-painted, custom Hummer H3 March 2. The vehicle is adorned with the likeness of her son, 20-year-old Lance Cpl. John M. Holmason, and nine other Marines with F Company, 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division who where all killed by the same improvised explosive device blast in Fallujah, Iraq, in December.

For Karla Comfort, having the vehicle air brushed with the image of the 10 Marines was a way to pay homage to her hero and his fellow comrades who fell on Iraq\’s urban battlefield

\”I wanted to let people know (Marines) are doing their jobs honorably, and some of them die,\” said the 39-year-old from Portland, OR \”I don\’t want people to forget the sacrifices that my son and the other Marines made.\”

Leading up to her son\’s death, Karla Comfort had received several letters from him prior to his return. He had been deployed for five months, and Comfort \”worried everyday he was gone until she got the letters and found out the date he was coming home,\” she said.

Marines knocked on the front door of her home in Farmington, Mich., at 3 am with the dreadful news.

\”I let my guard down when I found out he was coming home,\” she said. \”There are times that I still cannot believe it happened. It\’s very hard to deal with.\”

Karla Comfort came up with the idea for the rolling memorial when she and her two other sons attended John\’s funeral in Portland, Oregon.

\”I saw a Vietnam (War) memorial on a car, and I said to my son Josh, \’we should do something like that for John,\’ she recalled.\”He loved Hummers.\”

She purchased the vehicle in January and immediately took it to Airbrush Guy & Co. in Benton, Ark., where artist Robert Powell went to work on changing the plain, black vehicle into a decorative, mobile, art piece.

Two hundred and fifty man-hours later, Powell had completed the vehicle. The custom job would have cost $25,000 Out of respect for Karla Comfort\’s loss and the sacrifices the Marines made, Airbrush Guy & Co. did it for free. Comfort only had to purchase the paint, which cost $3,000.

\”I love it,\” she said. \”I\’m really impressed with it, and I think John would be happy with the vehicle. He would have a big smile on his face because he loved Hummers.\”

Karla Comfort gave Powell basic instructions on what to include in the paint job. But in addition to the image of her son in Dress Blues and the faces of the nine other Marines, there were several surprises. \”He put a lot more on than I expected,\” she said \”I think my favorite part is the heaven scene.\”

On the left side of the vehicle, a detail of Marines are depicted carrying their fallen comrades through the clouds to their final resting place. The American flag drapes across the hood, the words, \”Semper Fi\” crowns the front windshield and the spare tire cover carries the same Eagle Globe and Anchor design that her son had tattooed on his back.

\”All the support I have been getting is wonderful,\” she said.

Karla Comfort decided to move back to her hometown of Portland, and making the cross-country trip from Arkansas was a way for her to share her son\’s story. It\’s also her way of coping with the loss.

\”Along the way I got nothing but positive feedback from people,\” she said \”What got to me was when people would salute the guys (Marines). It\’s hard to look at his picture. I still cry and try to get used to the idea, but it\’s hard to grasp the idea that he\’s really gone.\”

Let\’s get this Hummer going around the world, we won\’t forget, pass it on.