Tracking Budget Votes in 140 Characters or Less

After two and a half hours of public comment, the Lower Merion Board of Commissioners , albeit over another four and a half hours, at the second public hearing on the budget on Wednesday, Dec. 1.

Below is a brief summary of the commissioner's debate, first published on the Ardmore-Merion-Wynnewood Patch twitter feed @ArdmorePatch. A twitter summary of the public comment is also available – .

• Commissioners making opening statements, Gelber and Gordon express interest reducing tax increase, along with Republicans (9:55 p.m.)
• Should mention, all of the tweets during the public comment period are now printed on Patch here: http://patch.com/A-cw58 (9:56)
• Gordon says he is in favor of reducing the fund balance (surplus funds) and township employee benefits (10:07)
• Brown said her research shows Lower Merion collects the most tax dollars per capita than all 12 "comparable" townships in Cleland's budget (10:16)
• Rogan says that the township should discuss implementing an earned income tax in addition to a real estate tax (to adjust tax burden) (10:31)
• Several members of the board have gone out of their way to praise Twp Manager Cleland after he received heavy criticism (10:34)
• Big eruption from Reed and Taylor when audience member started arguing with them, things have calmed down but shouts were exchanged (10:42)
• First motion at 11 pm, Gould suggests eliminating non-contractual longevity bonuses (money paid each year based on length of service) (11:03)
• Total amount saved would be $346,000 in 2011 according to township CFO, average bonus per employee is in the range of $3,000-$4,000 (11:13)
• Correction: CFO says $409,000 per year, original figure did not include police management; Motion fails on party lines 9-4 (11:19)
• Gelber, new motion, cap longevity bonus payments at 20-years, no "step" above that level, but they continue to get 20-year bonus each year (11:20)
• Motion fails 7-6, Gordon and Gelber join Republicans (11:27)
• Taylor motion: same as Gelber, 20-yr cap on longevity bonuses, but would not affect people already over 20 yrs, they get grandfathered in (11:30)
• Gould Motion: take the Ardmore Transit Project of the proposed Capital Improvement Program (11:42)
• Several commissioners including Rosenzweig and Zelov say contractually can't kill the project at this time, Brown and Gould vote yes–rest no (11:45)
• Gordon Motion: cap opt out healthcare benefit payments for non-contractual employees to $2,500, seconded by Brown (11:46)
• Motion fails 7-6, Gelber and Gordon join Republicans again (11:56)
• Gelber Motion: change summer playground program to recover costs (program currently free) previously voted on at a past meeting (11:57)
• Here is the Patch article on the original discussion of moving to a pay-to-play program–http://patch.com/A-XSg includes low-income exception (11:58)
• Motion passes: all in favor except Taylor, Reed and Rogan (12:03)
• Money saved from last motion: $36,218, first reduction in spending this budget process (12:04)
• Motion's by Rosenzweig, reduce fund balance to 15% fails, then reduce to 16% passes (12:05)
• Rapid fire motions, freeze non-contractual salaries for 2 years, make non-contractual employees pay 1/3 healthcare costs–fail on party lines (12:10)
• Didn't get to expound on the 16% vote because of quick motions, Gelber, Gordon and Manos joined Republicans to get it to pass (12:21)
• More healthcare motions fail, Gelber and Gordon join Republicans, Rosenzweig tried paying 20% or 10% of cost, both failed (12:22)
• Motions coming faster after midnight, most failing, I'll tweet any that pass (12:28)
• Motions coming faster after midnight, most failing, I'll tweet any that pass (12:28)
• Biggest motion of the night? Gelber suggests, and passes, instruction for Twp Manager to create an alternative budget with 5% tax increase (12:39)
• The motion won't require the board to accept the alternative budget, but Cleland will have to prepare it for review (12:42)
• Another motion passes, Zelov's request to have Cleland prepare a plan to reduce township staff vehicle fleet to only those necessary (12:46)
• Gelber, Gordon, Churchill join Republicans to pass previous vote (12:49)
• I'm shutting down, don't want to flood you're feed any more than I already have, send me a message if you like or dislike the live tweets (1:00)

The meeting adjourned at 1:10 a.m. Commissioner Taylor made a motion to approve the township's capital improvement program, which was rejected by a 7-6 vote so the commissioners would have more time to review individual projects. Commissioners Gelber, Gordon and Churchill joined Brown, Zelov, Gould and Rosenzweig in opposition to passing the plan.