Sam Teresi presented his $12.9 million Smart City Capital Investment Program to members of the Jamestown City Council during the Sept. 9, 2019 work session at city hall.

JAMESTOWN – Mayor Sam Teresi has less than four months to go before he leaves office at the end of this year, but that’s not stopping him from rolling out an ambitious borrowing program that he says could result in the city saving half a million dollars on an annual basis.

On Monday night Teresi, city staff, and the Jamestown City Council spent over two hours reviewing the proposed 2019 Smart city Capital Investment Program, which involves the city borrowing $12.9 million in order to address capital and equipment challenges facing the city.  An additional $1 million would also come from the state Financial Restructuring Board (FRB).

The mayor said that unlike borrowing proposals of the past, this proposal is geared toward an effort to identify and go after large expense projects in an effort to create efficiency and save money.

• READ DETAILS OF THE PLAN

“This is our first major foray into a true, smart city initiative where everything that we’re investing in has an efficiency, a revenue-generating potential, and has a savings potential. A lot of our bonding initiatives, as you’ve seen in the past, have been reactive to things. And some of the things that we borrowed on didn’t meet the definition of smart city,” Teresi said.

The plan involves borrowing money for seven main categories – three of which would focus on needs at the Jamestown Board of Public Utilities and the other four would focus on city infrastructure, facility needs, and vehicle and equipment replacement and upgrades for both Public Works and Fire Departments.

For the BPU, an estimated $3.5 million could be borrowed to address sewer lines, water mains, and needs at the wastewater treatment plant – although the specific amount wont be known until after BPU officials finalize a detailed plan for the borrowing.  That final plan could come by the end of this month.

Meanwhile, the other $9.4 million would be borrowed to cover everything from possibly building a new DPW garage to replacing and upgrading vehicles in the city fire department. Deputy Fire Chief Sam Salemme said that right now, several vehicles in the fleet are in very poor condition and borrowing as much as $1.2 million would go a long way addressing the problem.

“In one of the trucks – something as simple as a braking system has become obsolete. We pay through the nose to get just a caliper and brake pads to repair one of the trucks,” Salemme said. “It’s just costing us a lot of money to repair these trucks.”

Jamestown City Councilman at large Andrew Liuzzo (center) discusses the smart city Capital Investment Program with Mayor Teresi and other council members during the Sept. 9, 2019 work session.

Another major component of the borrowing would go toward the DPW, with $1.9 million being used to help pay for equipment and vehicle needs. In addition, $1 million from the FRB, making the total investment $2.9 million.  Another $4 million would also be used to construct a new DPW garage on Crescent Street.

DPW fleet manager Patrick Monaghan said right now the garage on Steele Street isn’t adequate to meet the needs of the department.

“One of their strongest recommendations for us – in order to put in place what they believe would be an effect fleet management program going forward – is that we need a larger and more adequate facility. Not only for maintenance, but just for simply managing a vehicle from the moment we buy it to updating and serving the vehicle to the day that we dispose of it,” Monaghan said. “Now, are we getting the work done? Yes. But we can do it a lot more efficiently, a lot quicker and a lot easier if we had the facility to do that.”

The total borrowing could be as high as $12.9 million and not all the projects would come on line at once if the borrowing did take place. However, Mayor Teresi said that by packaging all the items together under one borrowing program, it could help save the city nearly $150,000 in administrative costs and other fees that are typically associated with the bonding process.

“As we’ve done in the past with the BPU, when we package bonding initiatives together we are able to piggy back on top of each others efforts and basically share those costs so that we’re not going out in 2019 and doing $150,000 in costs and then the BPU is going out in 2020 or 2021. We’ll take them under one initiative and we’ll share the proportionate costs.”

If all projections were met, the mayor said the city would realize a projected annual savings of $599,500 through the program.

While the project was only publicly revealed on Monday night, the program is on an aggressive timeline to be reviewed and then acted on by the city council. According to the mayor, the council may give its authorization to proceed with the bonding process in a resolution that could be voted on as soon as this month’s Sept. 30 voting session.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi was joined by various local and state officials along with dozens of local residents on July 7 for the official opening of the two pedestrian bridges along the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk. (Image courtesy of Mayor Sam Teresi Facebook Page)

JAMESTOWN – There’s been a heavy focus on development projects aimed at tourism and quality of life in recent months in the city of Jamestown, but Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi said that the city is still focused on trying to solve its financial challenges.

Teresi was a guest this past week on WRFA’s Community Matters program and while much of the conversation focused on the completion of key phases of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk as well as the upcoming opening of the National Comedy Center, he also was asked if the city is focused on development in other sectors within the city, as well as addressing the ongoing financial challenges in the city’s general operating budget.

The National Comedy Center in Jamestown, NY will open on Aug. 1, 2018.

Teresi said the city is actually focusing on a variety of items, from housing to crime to economic development.

“Our work is not done. It’s never ending. It’s continuous on everything else that we are trying to move forward – from an economic development standpoint to a quality of life standpoint in the community. And to put it quite bluntly, yes we can, we need to, and we do and are able to walk and chew gum and do 50 other things at the same time. That’s the nature of life these days. Whether you’re in the private sector, not-for-profit, or the media, you need to multitask. You need to work on multiple fronts at the same time. We do that every single day in city government,” Teresi said.

In two consecutive years the city has been straddled with a shortfall in the city budget that could only be closed with additional state aid from Albany. Despite the recent success of the riverwalk, the NCC, and several other downtown projects connected to the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative grant, the city remains at its constitutional taxing limit and the 2019 budget is expected to be another major challenge for the mayor and the city council.  But Teresi said he is optimistic things will begin turning in the city’s favor due to new development.

Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi was joined by various local and state officials on June 29 for the opening of the Chadakoin Park Bike Path, which was part of the Greater Jamestown Riverwalk.

“The days in which we were losing $4-6 million a year in tax assessment has basically leveled out, it plateaued, and not for the past few years we’ve been posting modest gains in tax assessment. So it’s having a direct impact in the way of payment in lieu of taxes that otherwise wouldn’t have happened,” Teresi said. “But it’s also sending out a loud and clear message to investors  our there  – and I include the state of New York as one of those investors – that you can have  confidence in Jamestown.”

In addition to various downtown development projects funded by both public and private dollars, the city has also focused on other initiatives in recent years to address its financial challenges. However some are either in a holding pattern or have completely stalled out. They include the Health Insurance Buyout Program for city retirees and the proposed Jamestown Police Department consolidation plan with the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office (both funded with money secured by the New York State Financial Restructuring Board funding) along with the controversial annexation of the city-owned Board of Public Utilities substation property in Falconer.

Between those three alone, the city is projected to see a positive financial benefits in excess of $2 million annually. But the retirement buyout has yet to see the interest from retirees that was projected, the consolidation effort continues to await action from the county legislature and city council, and the annexation will need to be settled in New York 4th Appellate Division court in Rochester, although a date has yet to be set.

In the meantime city officials will have to once again face major financial hurdles when they deals with the 2019 City Budget, which will be presented by the mayor and put before the city council for consideration in October.

On Monday night the Jamestown City Council unanimously approved a resolution allowing the mayor to accept the final report on Fleet Management Practices, prepared by Mercury Associates.

• READ THE FINAL MERCURY REPORT

The firm was hired in 2016 to assist city officials with managing its vehicle and equipment fleet. The cost of the report was $58,000 – with money coming from funds given to the city by the State Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments in an effort to help the city identify efficiencies to help reduce local costs.

The study provides a blueprint for a new fleet structure that would not only help to manage vehicles, but also eliminate underused/duplicate vehicles. It also calls for sharing more non-specialized vehicles and equipment, implementing a new vehicle and equipment turnover program, and increase leverage with original equipment manufacturers for after-sales service and support.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

Mayor Sam Teresi said there is little to no cost to pursue some of the initiatives in the plan, but a significant amount of funding would be needed to replace old vehicles, as well as prepare city facilities to house any newer vehicles that may come online in the coming years.

“To really get into the meat and potatoes of what is in that Mercury plan — that really can save significant dollars for the rate payer customers of the BPU and the taxpayer customers of the city council and me as mayor – it will require some serious investment of capitol to buy new equipment, to buy new maintenance operation equipment, to make renovations to building to make them large enough and tall enough to take new equipment in, and ultimately to secure that energy-efficient, productive equipment that can really help us lower costs,” Teresi said.

The mayor has said the funding to cover the related costs associated with vehicles and equipment could come from the proposed Capital Infrastructure and Equipment Replacement Program announced in November. Money for the fund would come from what the mayor calls a “paper sale” involving the city selling its $16 million Wastewater Treatment Plant, located in the town of Poland, to the Jamestown Local Development Corporation (JLDC). The JLDC would use bonding as a way to pay for the sale with BPU rate payers – both in and outside of the city – helping to pay off the debt for those bonds over a period of time.

The plan is not without controversy, as the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce / Manufacturers Association of the Southern Tier, along with others, have come against the proposal.

The Jamestown City Council approved the city’s $35 million 2017 budget on Monday, Nov. 28, 2016.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council has approved a $35 million 2017 budget that contains no operating deficit.

On Monday the city council council’s finance committee announced that the city would close an $825,000 operating deficit for the 2017 spending plan through an increase of projected state aid.

Council member and Finance Committee Chair Tony Dolce (R – Ward II) said amended amount of state aid is the result of recent conversations with the State Department of Budget and Finance, with state officials saying they are aware of Jamestown’s financial problems and will be able to offer some additional support in 2017, on top of the $6,087,000 that was already projected.

“Until [the state] actually gets its  budget process going in January or February, we won’t know exactly how much we’ll get,” Dolce said. “It could be more than that. I could be less than that. We obviously have the right and responsibility to make the adjustments as necessary. So if we only get some of it or none of it, we’re going to have to go back and make adjustments to the budget in order to go through 2017.”

Jamestown City Council President Greg Rabb (D – At Large) called the budget process the most difficult he’s ever been a part of and was thankful the state was able to step in at the 11^th hour to say it will offer support for the city.

“It’s not the best of situations, but it’s the best possible budget we could put together under these difficult circumstances and it is a balanced budget,” Rabb said. “I mentioned that when we put in revenue or expenses, we’re never totally sure about any of it. We do our best job at estimating, and we hope that we are right.”

The final vote on the spending plan was 8 to 1, with city council member Brent Sheldon (R-Ward I) voting against the budget. Prior to the vote, Sheldon said he was disappointed with Mayor Sam Teresi for putting forward a budget that wasn’t balanced. He also said that there’s no guarantee the state will be able to bail out the city.

“The state of New York has cut our aid in 2010 and 2011 and has not increased it, at all, these previous few years. I find it hard to believe that they would restore the aid and give us almost double what they cut. Therefore, I will not be voting in favor of this budget,” Sheldon said.

In addition to increasing state aid, the city council made three other adjustments to the budget totaling nearly $54,000. The adjustments included a $13,800 reduction in fire department salaries, $15,000 reduction in Health Insurance costs, and a $25,000 increase in the PILOT payment from the BPU’s water division.

The city council also left in $600,000 in state aid from the state’s Financial Restructuring Board, which would be used to create an annual savings for the city by implementing a buy-out incentive program designed to encourage Medicare eligible retirees, currently receiving supplemental insurance coverage through the city’s self-funded plan, to transition to a lower cost, commercially based supplemental product.  There is no guarantee that funding will come forward or that retirees will participate, but Dolce said the state has given it’s word that it will help with the program.

“The state thought it was a great idea and they are willing to back it. We’re going to be starting January 1 to meet individually with those people and begin that process,” Dolce said. “We may get some, we may get all of it. We may get more. The $600,000 was a middle-of-the-road, conservative projection based on numbers, but if the numbers were higher, than obviously the savings could be much more significant.”

The tax levy for the 2017 budget is $15,694,050, an increase of $150,220, or .96 percent. With the increase, the city has reached its constitutional tax limit. The increase also is above the state mandated tax cap, which required – under state law – at least a 2/3 majority vote on the budget in order for it to pass. The 2017 tax rate will be $23.77 per $1,000 assess property value. This is an 18 cent increase, or .76 percent. The executive budget totals $35,052,304.

Mayor Teresi was attending an economic development council conference in Syracuse on Monday and was not at last night’s council meeting. As a result he was not immediately available for comment following the passage of the spending plan.

On Monday night, Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi updated Jamestown City Council members on recommendations from the board – which was created in 2013 by Gov. Andrew Cuomo to assist municipalities with identifying ways to reduce the cost of government.

• READ THE FULL REPORT

Teresi said that the board has returned with a five point plan of action for the city, which includes a financial contribution from the state along with several recommendations. According to the mayor, a total of $250,000 will be given to Jamestown to help payoff a $3 million bonding initiative approved by the city council in January. The money from the bond initiative will be used to purchase several pieces of DPW equipment, along with several capital improvements.

During Monday night’s work session, the mayor said the state has agreed to chip in a portion of funding to help pay off the bond, primarily because the money is being used for energy-efficient projects.

Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi

“The state’s position is that they see that as a restructuring initiative because it has a long-ranging, recurring savings value to the community as we change out less energy efficient equipment and replace it with more energy efficient equipment. So $250,000 cash will be allocated to the city that we can use in the coming year to apply against the debt service for that latest round of borrowing that the council approved,” Teresi said.

In addition to the $250,000 award, the restructuring board’s action plan also made several other recommendations. They include:

• The development of a transition plan to converts city street lights to more energy-efficient bulbs;
• Encouraging the state legislature to go forward with the city’s request to develop a Parking Fine Adjudication Board (Tribunal);
• Working with neighboring municipalities to develop other consolidation and shared service projects that would result in lower costs and better efficiencies;
• Continuing the effort to finalize a Police Consolidation Study between the Jamestown Police Department and the Chautauqua County Sheriff’s Office.

The mayor said this action plan was really just the initial phase of the board’s involvement with the city, and it board  may return with other recommendations in the future. He said that partly hinges on his Government Efficiency Task Force, which is currently working on identifying various cost savings measures that can be taken up by both the city and/or Board of public utilities.

Any municipality that participates in the State’s Financial Restructuring Board program is eligible to receive a maximum of $5 million in state aid and the mayor said more funding may find its way to Jamestown, depending on how the city proceeds with continuing to identify cost-saving projects. Participation with the board is voluntary and the city is not required to follow through on any or all of the recommendations that are made.

Mayor Teresi will provide more details on the restructuring board’s recommendations later this week when he appears on WRFA’s Community Matters public affairs program, airing at 6 p.m. Thursday.

According to a report in today’s Jamestown  Post-Journal, Mayor Sam Teresi announced Monday night that the city has been selected to be reviewed by a state Financial Restructuring Board.

The state board was set up last year by the Governor’s office to assist municipalities by offering advice on how to streamline government and reduce expenses. In December, the city requested assistance from the board in December and the mayor says he recently received word that the board will work with Jamestown.

The board will begin reviewing Jamestown operations during the next few months and will provide recommendations later this year. The city is under no obligation to follow any of the recommendations, although there is some financial incentive from the state should all recommendations implemented.

As WRFA reported on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced at the start of the year that the state would establish a Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments. The board would provide recommendations for any municipality that requests help in finding ways to eliminate or reduce operating costs.

City Councilman and finance committee chairman Tony Dolce said that just because the council is requesting help from the new panel doesn’t necessarily mean it will get it.

“It’s a new thing that just came up so a number of different municipalities are looking into it and we’ll have to see where we fit on that scale of high need,” Dolce said. “They may look at us and say ‘we’re not ready for you yet.’ Obviously its a good step forward to have people come in, take a look at things with maybe a different set of eyes to give us some ideas or to maybe say, ‘hey, you guys are doing a pretty good compared to some other places so just keep up what you are doing.”

Dolce also stressed that if the state did allow the city to receive help from the panel, it doesn’t mean the city would need to follow through on any of the recommendations put forward. He said the city should find out within the next few month if the state will offer assistance or not.

Lawmakers will act on several measures, including a request to state officials allowing the city to establish an administrative tribunal to deal with parking infractions in the city. The request has been discussed throughout the year, and if approved by state lawmakers, would lighten to case load for the city courts by no longer having it deal with contested parking tickets.

Another item that may be considered tonight is the city requesting financial and operating assistance from the state. Earlier this year, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that the state would establish a Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments. The board would provide recommendations for any municipality that requests help in finding ways to eliminate or reduce operating costs. Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi calls it a no-strings-attached approach to having the state assist local governments. There is no local cost associated with the board and if the state gives the city permission, the board would make recommendations that the city is not required to follow.

If recommendations made by the board are accepted, up to $5 million per municipality will also be available. The board may also serve, upon joint request from a local government and municipal union, as an alternative binding arbitration panel.

Along with several other items on the agenda, tonight’s meeting will also be the final for two out going council members. Both Ward 1 councilman Stephen Szwejbka and Ward 3 councilman Michael Taylor will not be serving on the council in the new year as neither ran for reelection in November.  Starting in January, Brent Sheldon will be the new councilman for Ward 1 and Tamara Dickey will be the new councilwoman for Ward 3.

Tonight’s meeting begins at 7:30 p.m. and is open to the public.

In addition, the legislation includes an alternative binding arbitration process that municipalities and unions could voluntarily opt for to resolve contract issues in an expedited process.

Under the legislation, the state will establish a new, 10-member Financial Restructuring Board that would be available year round to offer assistance to eligible localities.  Any upstate locality deemed fiscally eligible would be able to request review by and assistance from the Board. The Board would be authorized to make recommendations to these municipalities on improving fiscal stability, management and the delivery of public services and to provide awards of up to $5 million per municipality through the Local Government Performance Efficiency Program. If a municipality agrees to the Board’s proposals, it would be contractually bound to fulfill those terms.

The Board would also serve as an alternative arbitration panel to the binding arbitration process for police, fire, or deputy sheriff unions, if the municipalities and unions agree. The Board would render an arbitration ruling within six months.