PARSIPPANY — The Township of Parsippany-Troy Hills was scheduled to hold the first reading of the 2022 Township Budget at the Township Council meeting on Tuesday, June 21.
Upon receiving and publishing the agenda (Click here to read the related article), the budget was not mentioned as one of the items on the agenda.
Parsippany Focus sent an email to Mayor James Barberio and the Township council asking:
- Why isn’t the budget on the agenda?
- Will it be introduced? If not why?
“The budget can’t be introduced until it’s certified by the Township Auditor,” said Council President Michael dePierro. The auditor recommended changes to be incorporated into the budget and will be reviewed by the finance committee. The committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday and consists of Mayor James Barberio, Councilman Frank Neglia, Council Vice President Loretta Gragnani, Business Administrator Fred Carr, and Chief Financial Officer Juan Uribe. (Parsippany’s Chief Financial Officer Juan Uribe is on vacation in the Dominican Republic until July 5.)
“When I left office at the end of 2017, incoming Mayor Soriano inherited $23 million in surpluses. When I returned to the office on January 1 of this year, I was left with virtually no surpluses. Mayor Soriano’s fiscal mismanagement of our Township’s finances has set Parsippany way back – and it’s going to take some time to put our fiscal house back in order and that is why it has taken so long to introduce the budget,” said Mayor James Barberio.
“It was planned to be introduced at the June 21, 2022 meeting. After further review, I and the Township Auditor agreed to have one more Budget Committee meeting to strategize and put forth the best budget not only for 2022 but for the future budgets,” continued Mayor Barberio.
Councilman Justin Musella stated “Council President dePierro has indicated a budget that is not certified by our Township auditor will not be put on the agenda. Our Township auditor has not yet certified the budget proposed to them.”Musella said, “I’m hopeful that the administration will satisfy the objections of the auditor in order for a legal budget to be presented to us to review.”
Most likely the budget will not be heard until Chief Financial Officer Juan Uribe returns from vacation on July 5. The next regularly scheduled Council meeting is on Tuesday, July 5. The Council President can call for an emergency Council meeting so the budget can be heard once reviewed by the CFO.
Note: At the time this article was published we did not hear from Councilman Frank Neglia, Councilman Paul Carifi, Jr., or Council Vice President Loretta Gragnani.
