Jamestown Human Rights Commission meeting (May 10, 2023)

The Jamestown Human Rights Commission will begin work on creating policies and procedures for handling complaints.

Commission Member Isaiah Rashad said his understanding is that complaints would first go to HRC Chair Uvie Stewart and then to the City’s Liaison Police Captain Scott Forester, “What I’m proposing is to create from scratch a Policy and Procedures form of how we are to conduct our investigation, and where that information goes step-by-step, so that we are uniform, and that we look professional in everything that we’re doing to the public.”

Rashad also recommended that members of the HRC begin attending various public meetings again, “There’s a lot that we don’t know, especially as a small group. There’s a lot that we do not know. We only hear things as people bring it to us. But, if we’re out there, if we’re putting ourselves out there and we’re going to these meetings, we’ll understand a lot more about what’s ebbing and flowing throughout the city. And it’s important for us because when there’s chaos, that’s when people need us. And we need to make sure we’re prepared.”

Rashad was given the approval to move ahead with developing the polices and procedures form for complaints. The group also agreed they need to assign members to attend various public meetings including City Council, Jamestown School Board, the IDEA Coalition, and more.

The group also discussed holding fundraisers to raise money for the commission to supplement what is received in the City Budget. However, according to the State Office of the Comptroller, municipalities may not solicit monetary or material gifts nor conduct fundraising activities. The commission was allocated $6,000 in the 2023 city budget.

Jamestown City Council

Five of the positions will fill current and anticipated vacancies in the Jamestown Fire Department. Funding is included in the 2023 City Budget for these positions. The other eight positions also will fill vacancies and are being funded through the 2021 Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) Grant Program.

Council also will review a proposal to replace the Assistant Corporation Counsel position with hiring an Ombudsman. Ben Haskins, who is the current Assistant, is leaving City Government for a different job.

A resolution to use $500,000 in American Rescue Plan funds for the construction of Splash Pads at Allen and Jackson-Taylor Parks is now officially on the agenda. Council had heard a presentation on proposed projects earlier this month.

Council also will review a local law to increase the mayor’s salary to $82,000 and increase city council member’s salaries to $7,000 with council president receiving an additional $1,000. These salary increases were recommended by the Jamestown Salary Review Commission and, if approved, would not go into effect until January 1, 2024.

They also will review an amendment to the Jamestown City Code to change the number of appointments to the Human Rights Commission from 12 to 9 members.

Council will review a American Rescue Plan allocation of $327,925 to the Chautauqua Watershed Conservancy by the Jamestown Local Development Corporation for Chadakoin River bank stabilization work. As the request is over the $100,000 threshold, it requires Council approval.

Council also will review a resolution to accept a $50,000 from the Chautauqua County Partnership for Economic Growth for a one year tourism and marketing campaign.

The Housing Committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. tonight and their agenda includes continuing a discussion on lead issues. The Finance Committee, which meets at 7:00 p.m., will hear a report on a National League of Cities grant.

Other committee meetings will start at 7:00 p.m. with the full work session taking place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. All meetings are open to the public with the full work session being livestreamed at jamestownny.gov.

Catherine Maycock, on far right, addresses City Council Finance Committee (February 13, 2023)

The City of Jamestown is looking for its fifth comptroller in three years.

Catherine Maycock, who was hired as the Deputy Comptroller in Fall 2022, became the interim Comptroller in December 2022 following John Sellstrom‘s resignation.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist confirmed that Maycock departed the interim position at the beginning of March for a job in the private sector.

John Sellstrom had only been City Comptroller for five months. City Council members had criticized 2023 City Budget during his tenure for having around $400,000 worth of mistakes. Sellstrom has returned to the Financial Coordinator position he previously held in the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency prior to being appointed Comptroller.

Sellstorm had replaced Ryan Thompson, who resigned in July 2022 for a job in the private sector as well. Thompson had been preceded by longtime Comptroller Joe Bellitto, who retired in June 2020.

Sundquist said it’s been tough for the city to compete with the private sector, “She (Maycock) received an offer to work for another company that offered her some different flexibility than the city is able to offer. Unfortunately, with city work we just can’t compete with work from home opportunities as well as well as much larger salary opportunities that have been coming along.”

Sundquist said internal staff is helping keep the city’s finances moving along including oversight from the Clerk’s office under Treasurer and City Clerk Jennifer Williams. He said a search for a new comptroller has been underway with interviews being conducted.

Sundquist added that in the meantime former City Comptrollers are assisting with year-end close outs as well as audit preparations.

He hopes to have a new Comptroller in place by April 1.

Jamestown City Council (December 19, 2022)

Jamestown City Council President Tony Dolce said 2022 was a “very challenging year” in his year-end remarks.

Dolce, speaking at the December 19 Council meeting, said deciding how to allocate the $28 million in American Rescue Plan funds the city received has been difficult at times.

He cited the retreat Council had in March at the Robert H. Jackson Center as one of the times councilmembers gathered to discuss possible spending plans for the money, “I’ve always told people in the community that this is like a family member who passes away that leaves all the family the money and everybody fights over it. And everybody in the community wants a piece of it and everybody has an idea of where the money should go.”

Dolce said he thinks Council has done a good job with distributing funds in a way that “touches all areas of the community” so far, “We’ve put quite a bit of programs and quite a bit of money into business and industries, as well as millions of dollars for seniors, and neighborhoods for demolitions. So, through the Department of Development we’re still working on some plans that are going through there. Tonight we passed some more resolutions for ARPA. We touched on public safety. This past year was a very challenging year. We had an increase in gun violence.”

Dolce said public safety investments included the hiring of additional staff for the police and fire departments, vehicle purchases, equipment upgrades, and infrastructure upgrades for the fire department for long needed repairs.

He said a lot of money was spent in the Department of Public Works and Parks Department for badly needed vehicle and equipment replacement. Dolce added the clean-up of the lower section of the Chadakoin River also benefited from use of the ARPA funds.

Dolce said for those who criticized council for moving too slowly in process, that spending $28 million is a daunting task given the need in the community, “To bounce all those balls around and try to hit every department, hit neighborhoods, hit development, hit economic development, hit public safety, as well as other programs that are in the works and still in the works out there; infrastructure, and manpower, all of those. I think Council took their time and did their due diligence in working through those and coming up with the best solutions.”

Dolce commended Council for its work on the ARPA funds as well as on the work done on the 2023 Budget. He said he also feels Council was transparent during the budget process

City Council will hold its first meeting of 2023 on Monday, January 9.

Jamestown City Council holds special voting session to override vetoes to the 2023 City Budget (December 12, 2022)

Jamestown City Council has voted to override all of Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s vetoes to the 2023 City Budget.

The $38.68 million budget as passed by Council on November 28, 2022 will stand following the special voting session. There is no tax increase in that budget.

Council voted 8 to 1, with Bill Reynolds voting no, to override the veto of the $75,000 increase to sales tax revenue. On the veto of the $6,500 cut to the Mayor’s Office travel and education lines, Council overrode that by a vote of 6 to 3. Councilmembers Regina Brackman, Bill Reynolds, and Jeff Russell voted on on that.

Council voted 7 to 2 to override the $5,600 cut to the engineering supplies line. Regina Brackman and Bill Reynolds voted no on that measure. And the veto of the $3,000 cut to the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency was overriden by a vote of 8 to 1 with Regina Brackman being the only no vote. A procedural veto of the appropriations line was overriden unanimously.

Finance Committee Chair and Council member at large Kim Ecklund said due to the errors needing to be corrected in the proposed budget, it was council’s unanimous decision that all departments felt the pinch through cuts, not adding items, or keeping lines stagnant, “While I truly understand the risk in the sales tax, I also do know that there was another $52,000 that was found in error in the budget. Without showing that and having that, my personal opinion is to let those ride and come together in an over-under.”

Council member Marie Carrubba said the budget process was made more difficult this year by Comptroller Ryan Thompson resigning in July with someone new coming in.

Mayor Sundquist said this is democracy in action but he is still concerned about Council’s increase to sales tax revenues, “I do not think it is realistic and I think it sets the city up for failure for that high of a sales tax amount. Given the fact we’d only budgeted 2% to 3% and this amount incorporates almost 6, 7% to last year, it’s a little high for my taste. In fact, the County only budgeted about 5%.”

Sundquist said the 2023 budget is balanced as it now stands.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist discusses the 2023 City Budget as well as changes happening in city government.

Eddie Sundquist

Jamestown City Council

The five vetoes on the voting agenda include Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s veto of Council’s $75,000 increase to sales tax revenues. The veto of the $6,500 cut to the Mayor’s Office travel and education line. A veto of the $5,600 cut to the Engineering supplies line. The veto of a $3,000 cut to the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency. And the fifth veto is of the Appropriated Fund balance, which is to allow Council to reappropriate additional funds to balance the 2023 budget should they not override some or all of the vetoes.

Sundquist has proposed a further budget amendment to eliminate a bond interest payment in the amount of $52,964 that was related to the bond payment cut by Council from the budget. He said that by passing the amendment, Council could avoid a full veto override of the three cuts. It would also reduce the sales tax revenue increase needed by $37,864.

Council President Tony Dolce along with Finance Chair and Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund put out a statement last week about the Mayor’s veto of the cut to JURA in response to a news item that ran on a Buffalo television station, WKBW.

Both said the $3,000 cut was to a $5,000 increase from the 2021 budget. In 2021, the JURA budget was increased by $12,000. Dolce and Ecklund said the amount cut by council was “never designated to fund anything specifically for the homeless nor communicated that was the intention.”

They added that “…every department had to be evaluated and cut in places to make up this difference considering we are close to our constitutional tax limit. While we completely understand no one wants a cut we don’t appreciate the false narrative being shared considering the recent story which aired. The City of Jamestown was recently awarded a grant of $194,000 from HUD to address homelessness in Jamestown so this council is not ignoring the issues.”

The special voting session will take place at 6:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers on the 2nd floor of City Hall. It is open to the public and will be livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

John Sellstrom

Jamestown City Comptroller John Sellstrom will be resigning less than six months after taking the job.

City Council had approved the appointment of Sellstrom in July following the resignation of Ryan Thompson as Comptroller. Thompson left the position for a new job in the private sector.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said Sellstrom has been offered another opportunity. He had previously worked in the Jamestown Department of Development for several years.

Sundquist said Sellstrom will remain in the position until the end of December with the position of Comptroller being advertised in the new year, “But we do have to start that process to do a search. Unfortunately, the market for hiring people has changed. As I’ve talked to mayors across both New York and nationwide, everyone is struggling to find and fill positions in city government. City government, unfortunately, just can’t move quick enough to provide the same benefits that private sector is providing.”

Sundquist added a new Deputy Comptroller was hired several months ago, as authorized by City Council, “We’ve been very lucky to have Catherine Maycock, who’s been our Deputy Comptroller, joining us. In particular, she was hired on to help us with ARPA projects, Rescue Plan projects and others. But it’s been really beneficial to have that additional assistance. We also have some of the former comptrollers coming in to provide some technical assistance as needed to those folks, so we will have some continuity as we move forward.”

The proposed 2023 City Budget had been criticized by Finance Chair and Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund for having around $400,000 worth of mistakes. Many of the 27 amendments passed by Council as part of approving the 2023 Budget on November 28 were to deal with correcting those issues.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist presents budget vetoes to City Council (December 5, 2022)

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist has issued four vetoes on the 2023 city budget that would restore $15,100 in cuts by Council and reduce the sales tax revenue increase Council had passed.

Sundquist cited a slowed increase in sales tax revenues for 2022 and a concern that the City could fall short of projected revenues for this year as the reason he was vetoing a $75,000 increase to that revenue line that Council passed by amendment.

Another line vetoed by Sundquist was the $6,500 cut to the Mayor’s Office travel and education line. Council member at large Jeff Russell asked if the Mayor’s office was traveling more than before with Sundquist responding that he is compared to 2020 and 2021, “The former mayor spent around, anywhere from $8,000 to $9,000 in travel expenses per year. So, I think the budgeted amount that we had this year was somewhere around $11,000. We’re currently at about $9 or $10,000 for traveling this year. The majority of it is for conferences for the New York Conference of Mayors. We do also have conferences for the National League of Cities, which we’re a partner with.”

Sundquist said some of the travel has been reimbursed as well.

He also vetoed a $5,600 cut to the Engineering supplies line citing the increased amount road work the City is doing, “Most of it is due to federal and state funding for roads and others. The engineering line in particular usually goes to blueprints, other engineering costs for streetscapes. Sometimes it’s other miscellaneous engineering items, but really we’re focused on the items it takes to redesign some of the street work.”

The third cut Sundquist aims to restore through a veto is $3,000 from the Jamestown Urban Renewal Agency, saying in his message that the cut “reflects poorly for our shared concern for the extraordinary housing issues Jamestown faces.”

A fifth veto by Sundquist is to the Appropriated Fund balance, which is to allow Council to reappropriate additional funds to balance the 2023 budget should they not override some or all of the vetoes.

Sundquist also proposed a further budget amendment to eliminate a bond interest payment in the amount of $52,964 that was related to the bond payment cut by Council from the budget. He said that by passing the amendment, Council could avoid a full veto override of the three cuts. It would also reduce the sales tax revenue increase needed by $37,864.

City Council now has until Thursday, December 15 to try to override any of the Mayor’s vetoes. It requires a 2/3 majority, or six votes, to do so.

Based on discussion at Council’s work session, Council will hold a special meeting on Monday, December 12 prior to the regular work session where they will vote on overriding any of the vetoes.

Council Member at Large Kim Ecklund presents budget amendments at City Council voting session (November 28, 2022)

There will be no tax increase and no parking meter increase in the 2023 City Budget passed by Jamestown City Council.

There were 27 amendments voted on by Council.

Finance Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund said some of those amendments were to deal with $400,000 in issues she found while analyzing the budget, “As many people know, I’m a numbers person and I asked for the nitty gritty, down to every line item in the budget. And going through each line item and each detailed item in that budget instead of just the book you have seen, I analyzed every line, every expense from expenses to salaries and found some things that were missed, some things that were doubled, and some whatever the case may be. And to that tune, it was roughly around $400,000.”

Ecklund said the amendment to cut $157,500 from the Bond Principal line is an example of an issue she found, saying that amount shouldn’t have been included in the budget.

Jamestown City Council amendments to 2023 City Budget

One of the amendments approved reduced parking meter revenue by $127,000. That amendment was directly correlated with cutting a proposed increase in downtown meter rates from 25-cents to 50-cents a half hour.

Council member at Large Jeff Russell said you often see higher parking fees in other larger cities, “You know, I don’t think we’re always like other major cities. We’re hopefully in the tail end of the Pandemic and we’re out of that. I don’t think it’s fair to be pumping this money into our businesses, through ARPA funding, and then turn around and raise meter rates and discourage people from coming downtown.”

Council also approved an amendment increasing the Jamestown Police Department‘s budget by $40,000 to allow them to purchase a new car. Council member Marie Carrubba, who introduced the amendment, said this was to help get the department on a rotation with replacing vehicles.

Other notable increases to department budgets through amendments included adding $46,926 to the Police Department’s salaries line to address concerns by the Police Chief that the SWAT Team, training and education, an K9 Handler lines were underfunded. Council also added a total of $54,000 to the Fire Department‘s equipment lines to aide them in purchasing new turn-out gear for 10 firefighters and to replace ropes for bail-out gear.

Council also added a total of $20,000 back into the Parks Department‘s Flags and Banners and Horticulture supplies lines. Both had been totally cut in Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s proposed budget. Parks Manager Dan Stone had said in his budget presentation that without the horticulture funds, he couldn’t purchase flowers, shrubs, or mulch for flower beds or flower pots in the city.

Council approved raising the projected sales tax revenue line by $75,000.

Ecklund said increasing that line is a gamble, “I have concerns and I’ve made that clear to every council member in this process that although I’m willing to accept it and move forward that you don’t know what the economy to do next week, much less next month. I have concerns because inflation is still high, gas prices are high, the sales tax (holiday) is coming off at the end of the year, discretionary funds could change. Will gas prices, taxes go up? What’s that balancing act?”

Council did have to approve allocating $54,879.20 from the General Fund Balance in order to have a budget with no tax increase. With that allocation, that leaves the fund balance total at $5,828,590 dollars.

Council President Tony Dolce said while American Rescue Plan funds helped purchase a lot of equipment earlier this year, there were still items council wanted to include in this budget “So it just took some jockeying around a few different lines. And again, there were some mistakes that were found in the budget that had to be rectified, so it took time to rectify those mistakes and adjustments and different things, particularly in Public Safety, that we felt the turn-out gear for the Fire Department, the vehicles for the Police Department, those type of things that are important to the community.”

Mayor Sundquist now has five business days to submit any vetoes of those amendments. By City Charter, Council then has until December 15 to vote to override any of those vetoes.