Bellevue approves tax, fee increases

&emsp;&emsp;Bellevue residents will pay significantly more in taxes and fees in 2024, as council on Wednesday approved a budget, tax increase and garbage collection and sanitary sewer fee increases in a meeting filled with irregularities, unanswered questions, blank stares, misinformation and some curious explanations for questionable behavior.&emsp;&emsp; The meeting resembled a game of "Whack-a-Mole" for solicitor Matt Racunas, as he attempted to steer council through a series of violations of state and local law.&emsp;&emsp;As reported in last week's edition of The Citizen, Bellevue started the budget adoption process on shaky footing as director of administrative services (DAS) Cindy Bahn failed to advertise the mandated budget summary required by the home rule charter. She then denied access to the proposed budget to a number of residents, and, when the borough did respond to one request by borough treasurer Joe Scioscia Jr., sent him a copy of the original budget draft from October. Citizens did not learn until Wednesday that the budget council intended to adopt that night was from a significantly amended version dated Dec. 8, 2023. That version was not made available to residents who requested to view the budget until after the public hearing on the budget on Dec. 12. The legal ad for the budget and related hearing stated that the proposed final budget would be available Dec. 1, a week before the budget was actually ready.&emsp;&emsp;Citizens argued that because the Dec. 8 budget had not been reviewed by the public, council should be prohibited from adopting it, and instead, at best, should adopt the Oct. 24 draft that was given to the public, then re-open the budget in January after public inspection of the real budget by the public, as required by law. Racunas said that he could not allow council to adopt the Oct. 24 draft because of the many errors it contained, and said that Bellevue could simply adopt the Dec. 8 version and publish a summary of significant differences.&emsp;&emsp;Overlooked during the flurry of legal violations was one more infraction involving the state Sunshine Act, which now requires municipalities to publish on their web sites an agenda of an upcoming meeting at least 24 hours in advance of the start of the meeting. Although Bellevue postponed the regular meeting from Dec. 26 to Dec. 27 for the express purpose of allowing the administration to post that agenda after the Christmas holiday, the agenda was not available on the web site until Wednesday morning. &emsp;&emsp;Although several residents spoke at the public hearing on the 1 mill property tax increase, all in opposition, both the budget and the ordinance increasing the millage rate were adopted by council in 6-2 votes. Council members Dan McKelvey and Sean McAfee voted against both ordinances, while Jillian Edmondson was again absent. Voting in favor of adoption were council president Jodi Cerminara and members Amanda Sloane, Alicia Templeton, Tom Hrynda, Jeff Stuncard, and Jennie Denton.&emsp;&emsp;The 1-mill tax increase will result in property owners having to pay an additional $100 per $100,000 of assessed property value.&emsp;&emsp;Property taxes won't be the only thing going up in 2024. Council also adopted ordinances increasing the garbage collection fee and the sanitary sewer surcharge, although Cerminara denied that the increases were created by Bellevue, but instead were the result of fee increases by ALCOSAN and Waste Management.&emsp;&emsp;Council was, however, presented with evidence that although the service providers were increasing their rates in 2024, Bellevue also was tacking on fees. A resolution adopted by council in December of 2021 that entered the borough into a contract with Waste Management clearly stated the annual household fees for each of the five years of the contract. In 2024, the fee paid to WM is set at $237 per household. Bellevue Council adopted an ordinance Wednesday that will charge property owners $265 for 2024.&emsp;&emsp;As for the sewer surcharge that Cerminara maintained was the result of ALCOSAN fee increases, which also will occur by some 7 percent in 2024, the ordinance actually adopted by council on Wednesday was one specifically increasing the borough's own sewer surcharge, and makes no mention of ALCOSAN, although the borough is supposed to — but has not yet — incorporate ALCOSAN's rate structure so that all billing can be done by one company. The ordinance approved by council amends a 2021 ordinance that increased the surcharge paid by Bellevue property owners to $3 per 1,000 gallons of water used per quarter, and a quarterly administrative fee of $2.50 in 2022. The 2024 ordinance increases the surcharge to $3.25 per 1,000 gallons of water and the quarterly administrative fee to $2.75.&emsp;&emsp;The meeting also touched on a few other topics, among them the progress, or lack thereof, of asbestos testing on three abandoned properties that are supposed to be demolished primarily with state grant funds set to expire in June. At the pre-council meeting, the borough engineer reported that he had obtained several quotes from contractors, and that the deadline for all quotes was that Friday, Dec. 15. Questioned about whether a contractor had been chosen, Bahn said that bids had been received but not reviewed because "everyone has been on break."&emsp;&emsp;Bahn also addressed the blowback that occurred after several DPW employees unchained an antique president's chair owned by the volunteer fire company, and took it a local bar for use by Santa Claus and at least one borough employee. Bahn said that the chair had been abandoned in the borough hall by the VFC, which had failed to remove it after the company's decertification in March, a view she said was supported by the fact that although the chair was chained and locked in a closet along with other VFC property, the volunteers had left the combination to the lock posted on a nearby wall.&emsp;&emsp;Former VFC fire chief Rick Cummings said that volunteers had been threatened with arrest when they asked to enter the fire house to retrieve property, and that the lock combination had been left in case because the large, ornate chair had blocked access to an area of the closet that paid firefighters might need to reach.&emsp;&emsp;To say we don't care — we do," Cummings said. "That's our heritage."&emsp;&emsp;The meeting ended with a plea from resident Alisa Scioscia for council to stop "the lack of decorum, the lack of respect" shown residents who have invested in the community for decades and generations. She noted that while residents are speaking to council, officials are occupied on their phones or rolling their eyes.&emsp;&emsp;"I don't get that," she said. "Where is the honor, the integrity, the respect?"