Andrew Liuzzo

JAMESTOWN – Both Republican candidates running for mayor of Jamestown agree that city police officers and fire fighters deserve every cent they are paid by local taxpayers. But both Andrew Liuzzo and David Wilfong also acknowledge that financial challenges facing Jamestown will likely prevent public safety workers from getting all they they deserve.

• [RELATED] LISTEN TO FULL LIUZZO/WILFONG INTERVIEW

In 2019 the city of Jamestown has budgeted nearly a third of its total budget – $11 million – toward police and fire salaries and other related expenses. And a larger chunk could be on the way if a state appellate court upholds a recent state Supreme Court decision involving an arbitration ruling giving the police union a 2% pay raise. City officials say any increase the police receive in salary will also likely be given to firefighters as well, so the outcome of the arbitration appeal will be a challenge facing whoever is the next mayor of the city.

Liuzzo is currently a member of the Jamestown City Council and is the only council person to vote against challenging the arbitration ruling in State Supreme Court, as well as voting against the decision to appeal the Supreme Court decision.

Liuzzo told WRFA in our recent interview that it’s not the salaries but the healthcare and pension mandates from Albany that are what the city should be focused on.

“This all goes back to our retirement benefits and our healthcare benefits, and the Taylor Law and the Triborough Amendment. These laws and amendments have hurt upstate communities immensely. These were downstate laws that got applied to the whole state,” Liuzzo said. “My question would be, ‘Why hasn’t the New York Conference of Mayors, as a group, addressed this?’ Our current mayor was president of NYCOM, yet that question is still out there. Why wasn’t this addressed? These kinds of laws are what has hurt upstate New York Communities.”

Liuzzo added that he would also be willing to local at regional policing by trying to improve relationship with adjacent communities like the Town of Ellicott and Busti – which each have their own police force as well.

“Jamestown encompasses West Ellicott, Ellicott, Lakewood-Busti. What I would like to see is an inter-municipal police force. I would like us to negotiate instead of litigate with our neighbors and come to an agreement where we can use the existing police force we have outside of Jamestown to be the same police force. And to protect all of us. That’s one way I see of bringing the cost down, or at least maintaining the cost,” Liuzzo explained.

David Wilfong

Wilfong has served on the Chautauqua County Legislature since 2014 representing Jamestown. During his time in Mayville a report was completed by the Center or Governmental Rochester using over $200,000 in state money that provided a plan to consolidate the Jamestown Police Department with the County Sheriff’s office gradually, over two decades or no longer.

The consolidation would come at no additional cost to county taxpayers but would save Jamestown some money. That plan was never put up for a vote, let alone publicly discussed by Wilfong and his colleagues after it was completed.

• VIEW THE CGR REPORT

Wilfong said he agrees that regional policing may be better solution, though the push should come from the state, not the local, level.

” It would have been very difficult to put together a group of people that would have voted in favor of the consolidation. I don’t know if that would ever go off. I’ve seen it, I’ve read the document and I actually think it was a good proposal. But one of the things is, ‘Do we want a change?’ I don’t know if the Jamestown Police Department wants to merge and I don’t know if the sheriff wants to merge,” Wilfong said. “I did see the figures and the cost savings would be good for the city of Jamestown and a flat cost the county. But we’re talking about the county legislators and you’ve got to get them on board with their own districts. Because what they’re going to say is, ‘How does that benefit my district. I live in Silver Creek or I live in Findley Lake.’ It’s a hard sell.”

Instead, Wilfong said he’d prefer to see the effort to deal with police costs lead by the state representatives, similar to what former Sen. Cathy Young had worked on with school districts.

“I am not against it. I think to make change and to move our county forward and our state forward, we’ve got to start thinking consolidation. I don’t know at the mayor level what can be done there. I think that needs to be done more at the state level – maybe our assemblyman or our next senator. I think that is where that type of change has to come from,” Wilfong said.

The complete audio of our interview with Liuzzo and Wilfong can be found at our website.

Liuzzo and Wilfong will square off in the June 25 Republican Primary, which runs from noon to 9 p.m. and is eligible to all 3800 registered republicans living in the city.

That from Chautauqua County Executive George Borrello, who said during his July 19 interview with WRFA that the effort to consolidate and share public safety services isn’t dead, but the involved parties will likely have to come back to the table to rework a proposal on how it can be accomplished.

Borrello said that the proposal of consolidating the JPD and by gradually bringing in Sheriff’s deputies to provide public safety within the city through a process of attrition doesn’t appear to have the support of the majority of members in the county legislature, nor from rank-and-file members of the police unions involved.

As a result, he said it may be time for city officials to go back to the drawing board to consider another approach to finding a way to reduce costs via public safety.

George Borrello

“I’m open to any options, but we need to start over again there and take a fresh look at this and look at other options as well,” Borrello said. “The thing that I see, when I look at Jamestown and I look at – for example – the town of Ellicott, you see Ellicott police cars drive across Jamestown to get from one end of the jurisdiction to the other, to me this screams for the opportunity to create a regional police force. You’ve got Ellicott Police, Lakewood-Busti Police, and Jamestown Police. Now there are many challenges there and I’m not sure of the appetite for that, but just looking at it from a logical standpoint, that’s probably the best place to start.”

Nearly ten years ago Jamestown was awarded $400,000 from the New York State Department of State to develop a plan to consolidate the JPD with the Sheriff’s Office in order to streamline public safety services while also reducing city expenses. In 2012 the city entered into a contract with the Rochester-based consulting firm Center for Governmental Research (CGR) to help develop the plan and after five years of work and negotiations, a final draft intermunicapal agreement was completed. Total spending for the effort was just over $200,000, with the remaining unspent grant money returned to the state.

The final draft agreement involved the city contracting with the Sheriff’s Office, gradually adding deputies to provide public safety services within the city to replace JPD officers as they left the department, either through retirement or resignation.  Once fully implemented, the plan was expected to help save city taxpayers well over a million dollars in annual costs, with no additional costs to the county because the salaries and benefits provided to the Sheriff’s office are less expensive than those to the officers in the JPD.

But once the proposed intermunicipal agreement was completed, it didn’t appear to have majority support of the county legislature, which would be needed before Borrello could sign off on the deal. The city council would also have to approve it, but Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi has told WRFA it would be pointless to bring the matter up to a vote in the city unless the county was also willing to move forward.

Borrello said from what he’s learned, the majority of the members in the public safety unions also didn’t appear to favor the agreement. While their approval isn’t necessary to put the agreement in place, it does signify that a court battle would likely ensue with the union challenging the legality of the agreement, tying the process up in the courts and costing taxpayers money in legal fees. As a result, Borello said he’d prefer to see a plan that all sides – including labor – can agree on.

“You can sit around a board room or conference room with a bunch of executives and come up with a great plan, or what you think is a great plan, but if you don’t have the buy-in of the grassroots folks that are supposed to be executing that plan, you’re doomed to failure. And right now on both sides, I don’t see any support for this,” Borrello said.

The proposed public safety consolidation effort was one of a dozen proposed initiatives included on a $20 million shared services grant proposal that was submitted by the county to the New York State Department of State, and which Borrello helped to develop while serving as a county legislator prior to being elected County executive. While the county was a finalist for the grant, it eventually lost out, with the state instead giving the money to a community on Long Island.

According to the Post-Journal, the forum – which was hosted by the county executive Vince Horrigan and Regional Solutions Commission Chairman and county legislator George Borrello – highlighted 13 proposed projects that would be included in the application.

The projects’ list includes:

• Merging the Jamestown Police Department and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office;
• Researching a possible merger between the Lakewood-Busti and Ellicott police departments;
• A comprehensive study on the delivery of fire services within the county;
• Dissolution of the village of Sinclairville;
• Consolidation of services among the towns of Gerry and Charlotte;
• Merging the Mayville, Dewittville and Hartfield fire departments;
• Sharing police and court facility in Dunkirk and Fredonnia;
• Sharing courts in the towns of Harmony and North Harmony sharing courts;
• Sharing a municipal facility for the Village of Lakewood and Town of Busti.

Several other north county proposals were also included in the outline.

The application detailing the projects and cost savings is due to the state June 28. The county is being assisted with the completion of the application by the Center for Governmental Research consulting firm. The winner will be announced in August.

The meeting was hosted by the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County and focused on residents offering ideas and input on what strategies to use over the long-term to reduce poverty in the area.

The city of Jamestown was given a $1 million grant last year as part of the Empire State Poverty Reduction Initiative, with the United Way serving as the lead agency on how to allocate the grant funding.

United Way executive Director Tory Irgang recently told WRFA that once the public input has been collected, it will be used to come up with a final plan on how to apply the money, which will be released later this spring or during the summer.

The Center for Governmental Research – a consulting firm out of Rochester – is assisting the United Way in the effort to create and finalize the plan.

County executive Vince Horrigan delivering his 2017 State of the County address on Wednesday, Feb. 22.

MAYVILLE – Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan will be focusing a lot on regional solutions and shared services during his final year on the job.

On Wednesday night Horrigan delivered his 2017 State of the County message to the legislature, which, as it turns out, will also be his last. At the end of the address, Horrigan announced he would not be running for reelection in 2017. However, Horrigan said that even though he has less than a year left on the job,  he still plans to focus on a variety of initiatives, including those involving regional solutions.

In fact, Horrigan said the county has already laid groundwork in that effort with its Regional Solutions Commission, which focused on several projects in 2016 and will also put together a plan on a dozen other projects this year that could lead to significant financial assistance from Albany.

“The commission has identified 12 projects to either merge, consolidate, or share services,” Horrigan said during his State of the County. “These projects have been submitted to the state as part of a municipal consolidation and efficiency competition and last week, as many of you know, our county was awarded $50,000 as part of Phase 1 of the state program. This will require us to develop a plan for the final round of the competition to try and take home $20 million for regional solutions.”

CONSOLIDATION PROPOSAL BETWEEN CITY, COUNTY STILL IN PLANNING PHASE

One of the regional solutions proposals is a consolidation plan between the city of Jamestown and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office. The plan, which has already received state funding to help guide it along, has been in the discussion phase for more than four years.

While Horrigan didn’t specifically mention the consolidation in his state of the county address, WRFA did ask him about it following Wednesday night’s presentation. He said 2017 may be the year that it is finalized and put before city and county lawmakers for review and action, although some details still need to be ironed out.

“What I found is that the way we were going about it is that we were trying to merge collective bargaining units and it’s very hard to do that,” Horrigan. “We have a model where we provide contract services to Cherry Creek, and all over the county. We’re happy to do that to the city as well, and maybe there’s some adjustment there as well. We’ll see how that goes.”

Horrigan also said that any public safety agreement between the county and city also needs to be mindful of labor relations with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Deputies Association, as well as with the JPD’s bargaining unit, the Kendall Club.

“Whatever we do, I’ll have to be able to sell it to the legislature. That’s very important. And the last thing I want to do, where we have very good labor relations with our team, all of a sudden get into a situation where collective bargaining agreements become a point of contention, or we’re stepping on the [city’s labor groups], I’m not sure that’s going to help anybody.”

In 2012 Jamestown received a state grant to hire Rochester-based consulting firm the Center for Governmental Research to help develop a plan to have the city contract with the sheriff’s office in order to help save the city money, at no additional cost to the county.

An initial report from CGR stated that the savings from such an agreement could be as high as $1.4 million annually, once fully in place. The savings would be due to the city reducing the number of JPD officers who provide public safety and instead bringing in Sheriff Deputies, who work under a labor agreement that has less costly benefits than what officers in the JPD union receive.

It’s not so much a consolidation of the two departments with one going away, but more of a contractual arrangement with between the city and county that as officers at the Jamestown city level retire or should otherwise leave employment would be replaced by a contracted county employee, because of the savings differential on salary, retirement, and other expenses,” Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi explained last July.

The tentative labor contracts with sheriff’s deputies and lieutenants was reviewed last week in committee and was approved by both public safety and audit and control.

The contract between the county and the Deputy Sheriffs’ Association would take effect Jan. 1 and expire Dec. 31, 2021. The agreement includes no wage increase in 2017; a 1.5 percent increase in 2018 and 2019; and a 2 percent increase in 2020 and 2021. It also places all active members into a high-deductible health plan while the county would provide a 20-year retirement plan.

Details within a tentative five-year contract with lieutenants are similar to that of the deputies’ agreement, besides a slight difference in the pay increase schedule.

Both unions have ratified their tentative labor agreements.

IMPACT ON JPD/SHERIFF’S OFFICE CONSOLIDATION PLAN

It’s not known what impact, if any, the proposed contract would have on a proposed consolidation of the Jamestown Police Department with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s office. That plan is still being finalized and there’s no guarantee it would be accepted by the city council or the county legislature. The basic premise of the proposed consolidation is to have the Sheriff’s office provide deputies to work in Jamestown, replacing Jamestown Police officers as they retire or leave the force. The transition would result in a savings for the city at no additional cost to the county.

Consultants with the Center for Governmental Research (CGR) consulting firm out of Rochester have been hired to look into the feasibility of such a plan, with funding provided by the state.

The legislature will act on the two contracts when it meets Wednesday night at 6:30 p.m. in the Chautauqua County legislative chambers in Mayville.

“I think we’ve been making some good progress on it and in fact, we had a meeting last week in my office of all the involved parties and we are writing a final report back to the [Public Safety Consolidation Task Force] that was put in place, together with our consultant, the Center for Governmental Research (CGR) out of Rochester,” Teresi said during his July interview with WRFA.  “I think we’ve got the final details in place for the framework in accordance to what the task force had directed.”

The state-funded project involves developing a proposed plan to have the city contract with the sheriff’s office for deputies, with the sheriff’s office adding new deputies to serve Jamestown as the city gradually phases out the number of police officers in the Jamestown Police Department.  According to Teresi, the result of such a proposal would be lower benefit costs for the city with no additional costs to the county.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

An initial 2012 report from CGR stated that the savings from such an agreement could be as high as $1.4 million annually, once fully in place. However, because the plan would have to be phased in, that amount savings for the city wouldn’t be immediate but would only be realized once the transition was completed.

“It’s not so much a consolidation of the two departments with one going away, but more of a contractual arrangement with between the city and county that as officers at the Jamestown city level retire or should otherwise leave employment would be replaced by a contracted county employee, because of the savings differential on salary, retirement, and other expenses,” The Mayor explained.

The preliminary plan has received support from Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan, who says it’s part of the county’s overall effort to identify efficiency and cost savings in local government through inter-municipal cooperation.

“I’m looking to ask, ‘Can the county help in some way?'” Horrigan told WRFA during a recent interview on Community Matters. “People have to understand that this regional solutions approach is where you spread out costs and can help. What’s important for people to know is that this won’t cost a taxpayer one additional penny who lives outside of Jamestown. We just can provide the service at less cost.”

Chautauqua County Executive Vince Horrigan.

The Public Safety Consolidation Task Force is a joint task force that includes members of the Chautauqua County Legislature, Jamestown City Council, members of both the mayor and county executive’s administration, and union members from both the sheriff’s office and Jamestown Police Department. The committee first met in late 2012 to explore options for a possible police consolidation. Since then, CGR and city and county officials have worked to identify the best option to go with and then finalize details so the option can be brought forward for consideration.

CGR has been assisting with the development of the proposed agreement the past three-and-a-half years. Nearly $400,000 in funding for the project has been awarded to the city through the New York State Department of State, with just over half of that money being spent so far.

The mayor says both his staff and the county executive’s team are in the process of ironing out the final details of the plan which, once completed, will be presented to the Chautauqua County Legislature and Jamestown City Council for their review.

“We’re hopeful that in the next few weeks we can get the steering committee together so it can give its final review and examination and provide any final thoughts that they may have,” Teresi said. “We’d incorporate those final thoughts, if they are helpful and warranted and then get the final document ready to bring jointly to the county legislature and city council for its consideration. I’m hopeful that can be done in the next couple of months.”

That’s according to Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi, who told WRFA this week that his office has been meeting with County Executive Vince Horrigan and his staff to review a tentative consolidation model and iron out final details.

“That model basically is built around the notion of not doing away with any department, but pursuing economies of scale in the hiring and employment practice, and effectively hiring off the counties employment contract as a way of bringing down the replacement cost of officers in Jamestown as they leave through attrition,” Teresi said.

While the mayor said that the plan (also called the Draft Inter-municipal Agreement) is being finalized, a specific date of when it may be completed and presented to the public has not been set.

Since 2012, representatives of a Public Safety Consolidation Task Force have been meeting to discuss and determine how to proceed with a consolidation plan that would allow the Sheriff’s office to provide police services in the city, with many services of the Jamestown Police Department being phased out over an extended period of time through the process of attrition.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

Teresi said once the draft agreement is completed, the next step will be to present it to the Chautauqua County Legislature and the Jamestown City Council for consideration. In addition, it would then also be presented to the public.

“That concept is elevated now to conversations, discussions and negotiations with the county,” Teresi explained. “We’ll see if we’re able to bring it to a proposal standpoint at some point down the line to bring to the county legislature, jointly with the city council, and then also to the general public for vetting and decision making.”

In addition to the legislative bodies and the general public, the finalized plan must still be reviewed by the collective bargaining units for both the sheriff’s deputies and Jamestown police. The mayor says both groups have been involved in the process, but so far, no one has endorsed the concept.

“There has been no endorsement of the concept, made on [The Jamestown Kendall Club’s] part, although they have been open to, participated with, and in dialogue with us about the concept,” Teresi said. “There has been no decision made at the level of the city council or the administration here at the city. Just a good, general openness to the concept and seeing where it goes.”

The mayor says that the most important thing to keep in mind about a consolidation plan is that it needs to be cost-effective, with no additional costs being incurred by the city or county, compared to what each is currently paying for current law enforcement efforts.

Facilitating the consolidation study and tentative plan is the Center For Governmental Research (CGR), based out Rochester. Funding for drawing up the consolidation plan – which so far has exceeded $300,000 – comes from the New York State Department by way of its Local Government Efficiency Grant.

Teresi made his comments during his June interview with WRFA. To hear the complete interview, including comments about the effort to look into having members of the JPD wear body cameras while on duty – tune in Thursday afternoon to Community Matters – now airing at its new time of 5 p.m.

On Feb. 26, 2014, the Chautauqua County Home in Dunkirk, NY was sold to VestaCare for a price of $16 million.

DUNKIRK – Chautauqua County has completed the sale of the Chautauqua County Home to VestraCare. The sale was finalized on the final day of 2014.

The Chautauqua County Home in Dunkirk was a 216-bed skilled nursing facility specializing in rehabilitation and long term health care. It was owned and operated by Chautauqua County since 1960 and in the past few years its operations were reviewed by the County and the Center for Governmental Research in an effort to find ways to save money for county taxpayers.

VestraCare first showed interest in buying the facility from the County in August 2013. Although its first offer to purchase the County Home was voted down by the County Legislature in October 2013, its second offer of $16 million was approved by the legislature in February 2014.

The contract signed between Chautauqua County and VestraCare will give preferred admission to county residents and give current residents the right to remain.  VestraCare also agreed to interview all current employees who filed an application and passed a background check, and it is expected that the majority of current employees will continue to work for VestraCare. The facility will now operate as the Chautauqua Nursing and Rehabilitation Center.

The Jamestown City Council Monday night approved a resolution for the city to continue to work on developing a plan for potential consolidation, with the help of the Center For Governmental Research (CGR) in Rochester. The anticipated cost for completing the study is $10,000, with the money coming from a grant from the New York State Department by way of its Local Government Efficiency Grant.

Since 2012, representatives of a public safety consolidation task force having been meeting to discuss and determine details for a plan that would allow the Sheriff’s office to provide police services in the city, with many services of the Jamestown Police Department being phased out over an extended period of time through the process of attrition. However, any plan finalized by the task force must still be reviewed by the collective bargaining units for both the sheriff’s deputies and Jamestown police. The latest grant will allow CGR to facilitate that review and work with all parties to collect input and finalize any plan.

Once a plan has been completed, it would go to both the county and city legislative bodies for review. That part of the process may not happen until next year.

COUNCIL OKAYS LABOR CONTRACT

Another union in city government now has a new contract in place. Monday night the City Council approved a new contract with the Jamestown City Administration Association. The new contract is retroactive, and covers the time period from Jan. 1, 2012, through Dec. 31, 2016. The contract calls for zero percent salary increases for 2012 and 2013; a 1.5 percent salary jump for 2014; and 2 percent raises for 2015 and 2016.

The new contract also states there will be an increase for how much employees pay for health insurance and also includes a wellness program. Between 20 and 30 employees are currently members of the union.

MYGOV.US GETS GREEN LIGHT

A screen image of MyGov.us, the web-based code enforcement software the city of Jamestown, NY is considering implementing to help create more efficiency and transparency in local code enforcement.

The City Council last night also gave its approval for the city to spend $30,000 on MyGov.us, a software system and website that will make it easy to report, track and enforce housing code violations in the city. Money for the software came from the city’s contingency budget, which will still have more than $200,000 after the purchase. Once online, the software will have an annual subscription cost of about $20,000. Earlier in July, City Development Director Vince DeJoy went over the details of the software with the city council.

The new software will allow residents to report housing code violations online. It will also allow code enforcement officers, city officials, and the general public to track the status of current violations. It will take about 90 days for the city’s mygov.us website to be up and running.