STONE HARBOR – Two sore points in the borough — lack of a new contract for police and looming municipal budget problems — prompted a police representative and several residents to speak out at the Feb. 18 meeting of the Borough Council.

Anthony Tirelli, an elected union representative in the Police Department, reminded the council that the police have been without a contract for 14 months. Fraternal Order of Police representatives who attended council meetings in November and January also spoke to the lack of a contract.

There has been no public discussion of the issue by council members at meetings. Part of the reason for that, according to the council’s solicitor, is that the matter involves labor contract negotiations.

Yet that is what Tirelli, the FOP representatives and several members of the public say is the problem, that there have been no contract negotiations.

Meanwhile, the contract for the borough’s Public Works employees has now expired as well.

Tirelli also spoke of the loss of a “highly qualified” officer to another area department because the officer did not wish to continue to live with the uncertainty in Stone Harbor.

The council also did not discuss the financial situation facing the borough in 2025, but council members did not challenge use of the term “crisis” by resident Geoffrey Woolery to describe it.

“We understand about the financial crisis you are dealing with,” Woolery said, and then went on to urge caution in the council’s looking into the outsourcing of functions and services within municipal government.

“We have people who know the town and who are committed to it. You cannot replace that with outsourcing,” he said.

He was joined by several others, some angrier and less friendly to the council. Joselyn Rich, a former member of the governing body, walked to the podium, saying first, “I am not smiling.” She declared herself embarrassed by the actions, or lack of them, by the council.

She defended public safety response times and service levels. Her remarks were greeted with absolute silence from the members of council, eliciting her final remark, “I feel sorry for every one of you.”

Tom Constantine followed, calling himself an “average citizen.” He argued that public safety needs to be the highest priority.

In August new Chief Financial Officer Cynthia Lindsay and the Administration and Finance Committee of the council arranged for a consulting project through the state Local Assistance Bureau to review borough operations and seek ways to improve efficiency and save money. The agency’s report is expected by late March.

So tight-lipped has the borough been about the level of financial distress and the timeframe for the state report that Lindsay actually cut off a statement by Council President Frank Dallahan, who seemed on the verge of giving a date for the report.

“We expect the report soon,” Lindsay broke in.

The silence from borough officials on some matters is viewed by some members of the public as regrettable. Former Police Chief Thomas Schutta retired after 30 years with the borough force, and at no public meeting of the governing body was he thanked for his service.

It is an issue that did not sit well with Rich, and Tirelli managed to work in a thank-you to his former chief, again to silence from the council.

Woolery spoke of Schutta and of the former recreation director, Shannon MacPherson, who quit her post and was never mentioned or thanked for her service by the council.

In August Michael Garcia, the borough’s external auditor, gave a public presentation to the mayor and council in which he focused on the significant problems the borough has with its next budget.

The state has two annual caps, one on the tax levy and one on spending. As Garcia explained it, the borough, with $5.3 billion in assessed value of real estate and $8.8 billion in true market value, has a problem with the state’s spending cap.

Garcia told the council that the borough could raise taxes, but the extra funds that resulted could not be spent because the borough was so close to its spending limit.

By the end of March, if that is when the Local Assistance Bureau’s report is released, it may be so close to the mandatory date for adoption of the 2025 budget that meaningful discussion about it becomes constrained.

The state requires the adoption of the budget by April 30, or the first scheduled council meeting after that date.

Tirelli reminded the council that the police officers were not the ones who made the decisions that precipitated the financial distress the borough finds itself in.

Contact the reporter, Vince Conti, at vconti@cmcherald.com.