What is happening to the South Orange budget?

Here we are almost half way through July and the SO Board of Trustees is finally going to introduce the budget for 2015. On the surface and most likely in the detail about which residents do not know anything, this is a sad state of affairs. Of particular note is the fact that we do not know anything about how much SOPAC will hold us up for this year.

More than one year ago, the minions who run this money pit promised to hold a public meeting to discuss its finances. They have finally posted a grand plan which tells taxpayers absolutely nothing about the finances of this organization. The BOT has promised to wean SOPAC off the public teat; yet nothing has been done about this except for a small cut in the annual subsidy last year. Will they follow this up with another cut in 2015? I for one doubt it.

We continue to be told about all the benefits of this entity to South Orange; yet how many of the local eating and drinking establishments have become members and significant donors?

Some residents may like the array of offerings but others hopefully agree that performances should stand on their own feet. If the box office take can not cover the full out of pocket cost of the event, it should not be held.

We have heard a lot about grants; yet no figures have been provided. I for one would much rather see some of the funding provided to SOPAC allocated to an animal shelter but that choice has not been offered.

In short, this situation has reached the point of total absurdity. If we are lucky, we may once again be told that a plan is in the works but no specifics.

Before those who disagree get started, let me state that SOPAC should bill the Village for the cost of services provided, including rent on the auditorium and the summer concerts. In turn, SOPAC should be charged rent on the building and the cost of other services provided by SO. My guess is that the true cost of this subsidy nets to well over $500 thousand per year or far more than the budget will show. Will any BOT member speak up and state that it is time to come clean?

Answer: Probably not.

I am the Board Secretary of SOPAC. While I am not the CFO or Treasurer, I would be happy to discuss SOPAC's finances and the structure of the Village ownership of the building and annual subsidy with anyone who is interested. It is not a secret. All of it has been discussed openly in BOT meetings and voted on publicly by the BOT. The BOT has certainly "come clean" on this issue.

The truth is that it is simply not possible for SOPAC to cover its costs through ticket sales alone. The costs are covered through a combination of earned revenue, plus contributions from foundations, corporations, individuals, and government. This is how all non-profit organizations work.

If you want to lay blame here, put it on Bill Calabrese and the administration that built SOPAC without a solid financial plan. Don't lay it on the dedicated and hard working board members, staff, and volunteers who are trying very hard to make it a success. Mark Packer and team are turning it around. Earned revenue is about twice what it was 3 years ago. The house is now lit about 1/3 or all nights and that does not include the nights that are used for Village government functions. Three years ago, we were lucky to have 3 or 4 shows a month. It is now a great asset to South Orange, bringing in people from the region who may have dinner in our restaurants, etc.

To your other point, in my other role as Co-Chair of the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee, I was never consulted on this year's budget, and have no idea what is in it.

Rob_Sandow said:

To your other point, in my other role as Co-Chair of the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee, I was never consulted on this year's budget, and have no idea what is in it.

WHAT??? This is not good.

Rob Sandow has done a masterful job of ignoring the issue with regard to the cost of SOPAC to SO taxpayers. He has not told us how much it will cost us this year or anything about the so-called financial plan that has yet to see the light of day. He can make grandiose offers to discuss SOPACs finances but I am not sure that he has a clue about their so-called secret plan to reduce their demands on our taxpayers.

Since he is on the board of SOPAC, I would ask why it has not held a public meeting to discuss its finances. I would ask "what happened to the much ballyhooed plan to obtain large amounts of grants.

As much as I would like to join the blame game, it is time to stop blaming Bill Calabrese for this fiasco. Agreed, that he was behind it but a succession of Boards of Trustees has done nothing to improve the situation.

I would ask him in his role on the CBAC why he has stood by and not raised a fuss about the lack of any role for that group in the budget process this year. At a minimum, he should be totally embarrassed to admit the failure of this group to function and announced publicly his resignation.

I can only conclude that Mr. Sandow has no clue about the net cost of SOPAC to Village taxpayers this year and that he will say nothing when the budget is finally discussed. What makes me even more disgusted is that I wrote in his name in the recent election and urged others to do so. Shame on me.

Jesus festus. You ask someone to comment, he then actually does comment in a public forum, and then you apply some narrow criteria of what's acceptable to you and burn him to the ground. You are either spiteful or naive about how things work in the world, and especially when it comes to serving on volunteer committees. But you surely aren't being very constructive here.

So, festus, tell me: who exactly ARE YOU, and what have YOU done to try an turn things around?

(ETA: Rob is my friend, we make music together, and I helped him run for BOT a few years ago. Erik van de Pol is my name, and my picture is a -flattering- representation of what I actually look like in real life).

evandepol said:
You are either spiteful or naive about how things work in the world

Going out on a limb and I'm gonna choose option #1

Evandepol and Eric H have tried valiantly to obscufate the point of my posts about the SO budget and the cost of SOPAC to taxpayers. I asked why no information about the budget has been made available to taxpayers six and one half months into the year and was told that Rob Sandow is the chair of the budget advisory committee but that committee has never received any information about the budget. I would ask then what does it mean to be the co-chair of that committee?

I raised a question about how much the net cost of SOPAC to the Village is and all I got was a statement that it all can be blamed on Bill Calabrese and that Mr. Sandow is willing to discuss SOPACs finances. Why has the SOPAC chair or the BOT provided this information to taxpayers. I do not believe that the BOT is willing to come out and provide a figure for the net cost of SOPAC to taxpayers because that figure would probably be shocking. In simple terms, the cost of SOPAC to tax payers is the sum of the debt service to us on the building plus the annual subsidy less the amount that the Village should pay for services provided including the use of the auditorium for meetings and the management of concerts in the park.

I do not regard my comments and questions as being naïve or spiteful but simply requests of various entities for answers. I am sorry that Rob Sandow took my points personally but rest assured they were no intended to be.

festus said:

I am sorry that Rob Sandow took my points personally but rest assured they were no intended to be.

Festus,

My response to your comments were not in any way personal. I simply responded to some insinuations that were not true. I offered to discuss SOPAC's finances with anyone who was interested. I also responded to your statement that SOPAC shows should cover their costs. This is not how non-profit organizations work, as I described.

As far as the Village budget goes, I did in fact have that discussion with the new Village President recently, and the role I thought the CBAC should play. The fact that we were excluded this year will not be the standard operating procedure going forward.

I appreciate your past support and hope that you will do so again in the future.

michaelgoldberg said:

Rob_Sandow said:

To your other point, in my other role as Co-Chair of the Citizens' Budget Advisory Committee, I was never consulted on this year's budget, and have no idea what is in it.

WHAT??? This is not good.

Not good at all. I discussed this with Sheena since her election and I think it will be handled better in the future.

From Twitter:

South Orange preliminary 2015 budget looking at 1.6 percent levy increase

https://twitter.com/VillageGreenNJ1/status/620760611752923136

Pardon my ignorance of using twitter but where is the detail of the budget?

http://villagegreennj.com/towns/government/south-orange-introduces-33-5-million-budget-2015/

Lewis also noted that several initiatives of former Village President Alex Torpey had been removed from the budget. Instead, some initiatives favored by new Village President Sheena Collum had been added. These included a budget allocation for the completion of the Master Plan process as well as money for matching grants for facade improvements for businesses in town.

Anyone know if the $5000 survey tool to tell us what browser 17 people are using made the cut?

I'd love to know what was removed

Why can't the BOT post the detail of the budget. Without that, taxpayers can not possibly come to any conclusions about it.

@festus - Looks like it is now posted at http://www.southorange.org/budget/budget.asp

(along with the silly $3000 line graph tool)