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WILKES-BARRE — Council on Thursday signaled its support for the incoming Mayor George Brown’s proposed 2020 budget by failing to get behind the spending plan presented for its approval by outgoing Mayor Tony George.
The ordinance to adopt George’s $52.6 million balanced general fund budget never made it to the first of two readings as none of the other four council members acted on chairman Mike Belusko’s motion to advance it to a vote.
Councilman Tony Brooks offered a blunt explanation for his silence on not advancing the mayor’s budget that includes a $2.5 million revenue line item for three major development projects downtown.
“But my impression, and I want to share it with my colleagues that I think I might have some similar views with you, that the budget was based on a house of cards. And I really don’t think we could rely upon a project that may be there,” Brooks spoke up.
There was no property tax increase proposed, but that was not enough to earn Brooks’ vote. “But I really want to give to Mayor-elect George Brown and work with you sir to come up with a realistic budget for us in 2020,” he told Brown who attended the public meeting.
Councilwoman Beth Gilbert McBride, the only other council member to comment, said she agreed with Brooks on working with Brown.
“I believe he deserves the opportunity first to be able to balance the budget appropriately according to your goals for your administration,” Gilbert McBride said.
Afterward, Brown said he will introduce his own budget by Feb. 15, the deadline permitted in the city charter. “I’m putting some things together now,” he said.
Still, Brown left it up the George to try again.
“I’m hoping the mayor takes the effort and the time to submit a second budget,” Brown said.
If the second budget fails to pass, the first one automatically goes into effect on the first of the year, Brown added.
Brown acknowledged he’s facing challenges right off the bat. He asked for help from the public, from council and from City Controller Darren Snyder who suggested reactivating the sewer authority as an alternative to selling the sewer lines to a private utility company for tens of millions of dollars to prop up the underfunded pension plans and avoid financial disaster in the future. George did not balance his budget on the sewer proposal.
“I’ll do my best to give you a budget that hopefully is acceptable,” Brown promised.
Some residents were upset that representatives of PFM Financial Advisors LLC, the Philadelphia-based firm working with the city to stabilize its finances and handling the proposed sewer sale, weren’t at the meeting. PFM addressed council during its work session Tuesday. Council asked them to get additional information and return next month. PFM took that to mean they didn’t have to attend the Thursday night meeting, said City Attorney Tim Henry.
City Clerk Jim Ryan ended the meeting with a call for cooperation and problem solving to move the city forward.
“What I’m basically saying is all of us shouldn’t only criticize just for the sake of criticism without understanding the topics and researching viable real solutions also,” Ryan said.