Comptroller Ryan Thompson presents budget update to City Council Finance Committee

The City of Jamestown finished 2021 with a $1.7 million surplus.

Comptroller Ryan Thompson presented on year end financials for 2021 to Jamestown City Council members Monday night at their work session.

He said budgeted revenues for 2021 were $35,124,000 with budgeted expenditures at $35,560,000 for an anticipated deficit of $436,000, “The actual results, here at the bottom, you can see our revenues were $37,358,000; which was $2.2 million above the original budget. And then from an expenditure standpoint, we were pretty much flat at $35.6 million, $69,000 higher than what was originally budgeted, so pretty flat there. So from that standpoint, we end up with a surplus of $1.7 million.”

Thompson cited sales tax revenues of $7.96 million being 18.5% over budget, state aid was over budget by $114,456 or 2.6%, state highway aid over budget by $1 million, and health and dental insurance under budget by $1 million dollars as the highlights.

He said parking meters, lots, and parking violations revenues were down 42%, or $197,000, from what was budgeted. Thompson said Police and Fire salaries were over budget $300,000 due to contract raises.

Thompson said the city’s fund balance is now at $7.7 million dollars with the unassigned fund balance at $5.7 million dollars, “The New York State GFOA, Government Finance Officers Association, they recommend that you have your unassigned fund balance at two months of expenditures and that’s for us about $6.4 million. So we’re not quite there yet, but we’re certainly headed in the right direction. The only other caveat I want to mention on this is we have received over the last six or seven years an additional $1 million from New York State. Without that, we wouldn’t have the fund balance that we have now.”

Thompson said the city did not receive that $1 million from the state in 2021.

Thompson said there haven’t been any surprises for the first quarter financials for 2022. He said the Board of Public Utilities‘ PILOT revenues for electric, water, sewer, and solid waste are up 3% from budget. He said parking lots and ramps are still not generating enough revenue to cover expenses with net losses for the first three months of 2022 coming in at $9,622.

Thompson said with the new EMS billing in the fire department, the city is running ahead of budget, “We’ve already received 68% of what we budgeted in 2022. For the first four months, we’re averaging about $28,000 a month. And if you annualize that out, that’s roughly $335,000. We only budgeted $164,000, so that’s certainly a plus there. We could end up $171,000 over budget.”

Thompson said he expects to receive the first quarter sales tax payment this week and will report on that at the May 16 work session.

On the expenditure side, he said he expects gas expenses to be $130 to 150-thousand dollars over budget for the year, which he hopes will be offset by sales tax revenues. Thompson added that road salt expenses are in line with what had been expended at this time in the last two years and the city should be in good shape for the fall-winter season.

Jamestown City Council President Tony Dolce talks with WRFA to give an update on some issues and initiatives facing the city and council.

Tony Dolce

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist offers gives us an update on COVID-19 and its impact on city operations, as well as his reaction to the state’s highest court deciding not to hear an appeal from the city focusing on the Police Union Arbitration case. Plus he offers thoughts on the city’s precarious financial position and some of the things that can be done to help address it.

The Jamestown City Council during its special voting session to override the mayor’s budget vetoes, held on Dec. 14, 2020.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council held a special meeting Monday night and voted to override two budget vetoes that were issued by Mayor Eddie Sundquist last week.

On Nov. 30, the council approved a $35.5 million city budget that included several amendments to the spending plan originally presented by Sundquist in October. Among the amendments was a decision to cut the city recreation coordinator position out of the budget, a move that would save the city nearly $55,000 next year.

Sundquist vetoed that cut, explaining the city relies on the position for more than just coordinating recreation activities – including helping with communications as well as grant writing.

However, during last night’s vote, the council stoop firm on its decision, voting 8 to 1 in favor of the veto override. City Council finance chair Kim Ecklund and explained it was due to COVID-19 and no activities planned for next year.

“The decisions of the council regarding the furlough of the recreation director position is not permanent and is not personal,” Ecklund said. “The mayor’s executive budget had little-to-no funding for any events in 2021, but yet still had some revenue projected and that to me, alone, was very concerning. This action forced the council to make the decision to furlough this position until it is safe to have and schedule any city sponsored events in Jamestown until 2021.”

Because the mayor wanted to restore the position through the veto process, he also had to introduce a second veto involving use of the city fund balance, in order to balance the budget. The council also overrode that veto with a unanimous vote.

On Nov. 30, the council approved a $35.5 million city budget that included several amendments to the spending plan originally presented by Sundquistd in October. Among the amendments was a decision to cut the city recreation coordinator position out of the budget, a move that would save the city nearly $55,000 next year.

In voting for the cut, the council offered no discussion or explanation on the move. However, during the Dec. 7 work session, over two dozen members of the public voiced disapproval of the cut, with members of the council then explaining they cut the position due to little to no recreation programming in next year’s budget, and also said it was not a permanent cut.

Sundquist vetoed the cut, explaining the city relies on the position for more than just coordinating recreation activities – including helping with communications as well as grant writing.

The council will meet at 7 p.m. to consider the veto and vote on an override. At least six of the nine council members need to approve an override for it to go into effect.

The meeting will be held remotely due to COVID-19 and will be streamed live at the city website.

The Jamestown City Council and Staff participate in a virtual work session on Monday, Dec. 7, 2020.

JAMESTOWN – Mayor Eddie Sundquist has issued two vetoes to the Jamestown City Council’s amended 2021 city budget that was approved last week. The $35.5 million spending plan included 16 different amendments to the initial executive budget that was presented by Sundquist in October.

One of Sundquist’s vetoes involves the restoration of the position of the City Recreation Coordinator, which was removed by the council prior to last week’s budget vote. When presenting the amendment last week, there was little public discussion on the matter, nor any discussion or questions regarding what impact it may have on city operations. The council voted 8 to 1 in favor of the amendment, with only councilman Brent Sheldon voting against it.

In his veto message, Sundquist acknowledged that the position may see a lighter workload to start the year due to COVID-19, but that would likely change once the virus starts to subside.

“While COVID-19 and the ensuing cancellations of events both this past year and next have given the Parks and Recreation Coordinator position less to do, it is with little foresight that the council cut this position,” Sundquist explained. “If, as anticipated, there is a wide and effective COVID-19 vaccine roll out next year, events may be able to resume as they would in a normal year, and suddenly we would have no one to plan, coordinate, and administer these events.”

Sundquist also said the position does more than just plan and coordinate events and activities.

“This year alone, we worked with the related Parks Union to retool the position to a Communications Coordinator and Grant Writing position. The employee in this particular position has allowed the city to grow its social media presence, streamline better communications to residents, and work with City departments on grant opportunities each department may have been missing out on,” Sundquist said.

The elimination of the position was also brought into focus during Monday’s council work session, when 28 members of the public wrote letters to the council objecting to the cut, including those involved with various events and activities that take place in the city, like the Summer Concert Series at Allen Park.

But despite the mayor’s veto message and the calls from the public to restore the position, it appears the council is digging in and staying with its decision, with four of the nine council members on Monday defending the move, including Council President Tony Dolce.

“This is a temporary, stop-gap financial measure for the reason that there was nothing that happened last year. And let’s be honest, right now [COVID-19] is going in the wrong direction. There’s a very good chance that by the beginning or middle of January, we’re going to be in worse situation than we are right now,” Dolce said. “We don’t want to cut these programs, but there’s no sense in funding a budget for events that are not going to occur.”

Other council members who defended cutting the position were finance committee chair Kim Ecklund, former council president Marie Carrubba, and councilwoman Tamu Graham-Reinhardt. Both Carrubba and Ecklund also were critical of a Facebook post by the current recreation coordinator, Julia Ciesla-Hanley, that she shared over the weekend. That post outlined all the responsibilities of the position and also asked anyone who wanted to maintain public services to support putting the position back in the budget. Carrubba and Ecklund both said it was misleading and didn’t provide all the details.

“I’m sadly disappointing at some of the comments and I’ve expressed my concern to not only the constituents who’ve called me but also to the mayor,” Ecklund said. “Julia has every right to fight for her position and speak her mind and I don’t begrudge anyone for that. My problem is that there is a lot of inaccurate or incomplete information out there. All these letters have read as if we are in charge of cutting these events and are making these decisions. I’m sad to say that COVID is still here and still prevalent. The mayor placed in his executive budget no money to have any of these events. That being a large portion of this position’s job, it was decided to furlough that position, not eliminate it.”

“I’m frustrated as well that some misinformation got out there and we’ve been accused of many things that are not true,” Carrubba said, while also pointing out that the city parks didn’t even have enough funding this year to keep public bathrooms open, nor to remove trash.

While much of the discussion was on the special events and parks activities that the position is responsible for overseeing, it also is responsible for scheduling and taking minutes for the City Parks Commission meetings, something that is spelled out in the job functions for the position. It remains to be seen if any other city employee would be willing, or even contractually permitted, to fill in for some of those tasks that are required to continue even during the pandemic.

If the cut remains in place, the city will save approximately $54,000 in next year’s budget.

The second veto from Sundquist adjusts the Fund Balance appropriation to cover the cost of restoring the rec recreation coordinator position.

The council has until Dec. 15 to override the vetoes, with six of the nine members needed to vote for the override in order for it to take place. That vote will likely occur next Monday, Dec. 14. If their is no override, the budget will go into effect with the mayor’s two vetoes included.

The amended budget included 16 approved amendments to the initial executive budget that was presented by Sundquist in October.

Last week during an interview on WRFA, Sundquist had indicated that he would be reviewing the amendments and if there were going to be any vetoes, they would likely come forward by the end of the day Monday.

“Some of the amendments were incredibly reasonable. I think there are some others that we need to have a critical look at as it turns the operations of the city. So my staff and I will take a look at each amendment and we’ll decide if a veto is going to be issued,” Sundquist said during his interview.

Among the major changes to the executive budget was removing a $1 million savings involving shifting retired city employees to a new healthcare provider. That proposal was met with significant resistance by the city’s unions and so the council cut it out of the budget. To offset the $1 million that was added back into the budget, the council proposed using $500,000 from the city’s fund balance, while also boosting sales tax projections and keeping the property tax rate the same as the current year.

The council also approved an amendment to eliminate the city’s recreation coordinator position for next year, resulting in one layoff in the city’s workforce. The vote was 8 to 1, with only republican councilman Brent Sheldon voting against it. The move would cut $53,000 from the city budget.

Sundquist admitted he was concerned with that move because the position does more than just deal with youth activities in city parks.

“What we use for our Recreation Coordinator is much different than the people think. That person is helping and assisting the parks department. The parks have actually been used more than ever this year, especially with the coronavirus… to have that individual and that position be cut is difficult,” Sundquist said, who also added the coordinator has been helping with writing grants for various other departments in city government.

Despite the recreation coordinator position cut being part of the budget process, the council did not discuss the matter during any of its public meetings and instead discussed it in executive session.

Under state open meeting law, the council should only enter executive session only to discuss matters which will imperil the public safety; discussions regarding litigation; contract negotiations; confidential information regarding a particular person; or matters leading to the appointment, employment, promotion, demotion, discipline, suspension, dismissal or removal of a particular person.  Because the likely discussion regarding the recreation coordinator position centered on eliminating a specific position and not removing a person from the position, the council should have discussed the matter publicly, but it did not. As a result, there is no record of which council member proposed the move, nor the reasons that were given for cutting the position.

The position is currently held by Julia Ciesla-Hanley, who made a public post on her personal social media page over the weekend asking anyone who was concerned by the position cut to send an email to the City Council through the City Clerk’s Office, requesting the position be restored.

According to Ciesla-Hanley, the Recreation Coordinator is a civil-service, tested, union position. She said that means the job duties cannot be reassigned unless it’s to another person who has passed the test for the job title and who also is in my union. She said currently there is no one else in city government who’s passed the required exam, meaning no one else can assume the duties for that position.

Without a Recreation Coordinator, Ciesla-Hanley said the community would lose several public services, including:

• Reserving a pavilion for safer, outdoor gatherings
• No City-sponsored events like Easter Egg Hunt, Halloween Fun Fest, or Labor Day Fest
• No Juneteenth or other events in Jackson-Taylor Park.
• No groups or individual reservation of any park facility
• No City-run summer sport leagues like the adult softball leagues and City Youth Recreation Baseball league. And other organizations like Babe Ruth Baseball and JAYS Soccer would not be able to reserve fields for games or tournaments
• And The free Summer Playground Program for kids ages 5-13, which has existed since the 1960s, will not take place. This means no free lunch program in the parks as well.

If the mayor does issue any budget amendment vetoes, the council would have to vote on overriding them on or before Dec. 15. A two-thirds vote would be required for any veto override. If the council is unable to override the veto, the amendment(s) would then be removed from next year’s budget.

A quick note of transparency: Ciesla-Hanley is also a volunteer member of the WRFA Community Advisory Board, a panel that is charged with offering programming guidance here at WRFA Radio. 

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist offers his thoughts on the 2021 city budget that was approved by the Jamestown City Council on Monday, Nov. 30. The budget included 16 different changes to the initial spending plan presented by Sundquist in October.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council has approved a $36 million 2021 budget, but the vote only came after 17 different amendments were considered – with all but one being approved.

During Monday night’s virtual council meeting, the council presented, discussed and voted on the 17 changes to mayor Eddie Sundquist’s original $34.9 million executive budget that was presented in October. A complete list of amendments is provided at the end of this article.

Many of the amendments were fleshed out during last week’s budget work session, including the removal of the mayor’s proposal to change the healthcare provider for a group of retirees, which resulted in several current and retired city workers picketing in front of city hall on Nov. 16. The change by the council resulted in $1 million in expenses being added back into the budget, meaning the council had to identify other revenue or expense adjustments to offset the retiree insurance cost. The vote on that amendment wasn’t unanimous, with freshman councilman Grant Olson (R-Ward 5) voting against it.

The biggest adjustment came by way of using $436,000 from the city fund balance, which was also discussed last week.  Another change came from increasing projected sales tax revenue by $200,000. And the council opted not to pursue a slight property tax decrease, which provided another $115,000 on the revenue side. Both of those items were also discussed during last week’s work session.

But one item that wasn’t discussed last week and which was approved as an amendment on Monday night with no public discussion was the elimination of the city Recreation Coordinator Position, which would remove $54,000 in expenses off the ledger. The decision would lead to a layoff of a current employee, something Mayor Sundquist had said he wanted to avoid if possible. Councilman Brent Sheldon (R-Ward 1) was the only member to vote against the cut.

The council also opted not to create a new Grant Writer/Communications position, nor create a full time position for a maintenance mechanic. That provided another $95,000 in savings.

And the council opted not to boost downtown parking fees nor parking violation fines for next year. That resulted in over $53,000 in revenue being cut from the budget. The vote on the parking fee amendment was unanimous approval. But both councilmen Tom Nelson (D-Ward 6) and Jeff Russell (R-At Large) voted against the amendment cutting parking violation revenue – a sign they were in favor of boosting the fines to bring in more revenue.

The one proposed amendment that failed to receive enough support was cutting the vehicle lease cost from the mayor’s budget. The move was identified as a $2600 savings, but Olson pointed out that if the lease agreement for next year was already signed, the city would still be obligated to pay that amount, even if the vehicle was returned. As a result, Olson and four other members voted against the amendment.

While not all amendments were approved unanimously, the council did eventually vote on a final revised spending plan and that did receive a unanimous vote.

City finance Chair Kim Ecklund (R-At Large), who oversaw the budget discussion and amendment process, said it was a very challenging spending plan.

“There were some tough decisions in this budget for all of us. I know that not everyone is going to like what happened or is going to be happy. Some people may even be the opposite. So they were tough decisions we all had to take into consideration not only for our city residents and the tax base, but also for the employees as a whole and the resident,”

Ecklund also said there remains several concerns, even after the budget was finalized.

“The health insurance, even with this $1 million added back in, is always a big gamble and a big risk. The sales tax addition [of $200,000] is a shot in the dark. While I support it, it is concerning to me. Also we have open litigation with costs that are unknown that is concerning to me – nothing that the mayor could have predicted or added at that point. There’s additional state aid, other things with bonds, and cost of translation that I think are great things we need to do for the city and are technology based that we’re short on, and that we did not include in this budget and neither did the mayor,” Ecklund said.

The council also commended first-year Mayor Eddie Sundquist and his new administrative staff for trying to put together a spending plan during a pandemic. Council president Tony Dolce (R-Ward 2), who’s served on the council for more than two decades, said it was one of the most challenging budgets he’s had to work on.

“This is not a perfect budget by any stretch of the imagination. We have worked diligently and conservatively over the past several years to build up the fund balance to $4 million. To have to spend almost half a million dollars of it is not something that we take lightly or want to do,” Dolce said. “We take this very seriously. It’s very difficult. It can be stressful. We say that every year during budget time that it’s stressful and difficult, and a lot of difficult decisions have to be made. We do not take this lightly.”

The budget will now go before the mayor to either sign off on or veto. Under the city charter, he has the ability to veto any or all amendments to the budget. He has until next Monday to decide if he wants to veto the spending plan or not. If vetoes are issues, the council would then have until Dec. 15 to address them.

2021 BUDGET AMENDMENTS

• Amendment 1 – Update Dental Insurance Expenses – $35,000 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 2 – Maintain Retiree Health Insurance Program – $1,000,000 Expenditure Addition (Nay vote: Grant Olson)
• Amendment 3 – Employee Retirement System Amortization Adjustment – $100,000 Expenditure Addition
• Amendment 4 – Removal of Communications/Grant Writer (new position) – $58,447.93 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 5 – Removal of Equip Purchase (Projector and TV for Mayor’s Conference Room) – $2,100 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 6 – Reduce Dept. of Development Contract Expense – $12,400 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 7 – Remove Full Time Maintenance Mechanic Position – $37,015.80 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 8 [FAILED] – Remove Vehicle Lease Expense for Mayor – $2,600 Expenditure Reduction (Nay votes: Sheldon, Olson, Nelson, Tamu Graham Reinhardt, Russell)
• Amendment 9 – Assessor Position Adjustment – $2,500 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 10 – Gas and Fuel Expenses on a Certain Take-home Department Vehicle – $500 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 11 – Adjust Contingency Fund to 2020 level – $200,000 Expenditure Reduction
• Amendment 12 – Eliminate Recreation Coordinator Position – $53,970 Expenditure Reduction (Nay vote: Sheldon)
• Amendment 13 – Increase 2021 Sales Tax Projection – $200,000 Revenue Addition
• Amendment 14 – Parking Fee Revenue Adjustment – $29,045.09 Revenue Reduction
• Amendment 15 – Parking Violation Revenue Adjustment – $24,329.13 Revenue Reduction (Nay: Russell, Nelson)
• Amendment 16 – Property Tax Rate Adjustment to 2020 Level – $115,298.70 Revenue Addition
• Amendment 17 – Appropriation of Fund Balance – $436,138.53 Revenue Addition

WRFA’s Jason Sample talks with Jamestown City Council President Tony Dolce to preview the 2021 budget that will be voted on Monday night, Nov. 30, 2021. Dolce talks about pulling a proposal by Mayor Eddie Sundquist that involved switching retirees to a new healthcare program, where things stand with downtown parking heading into the new year, and the challenges of working on a budget during COVID-19.

Tony Dolce