Council member at large Kim Ecklund reads out finance committee resolutions (May 15, 2023)

Stop gap insurance costs are expected to rise 37% next year for the City of Jamestown.

City Council Finance Chair Kim Ecklund reported out that City Clerk Jennifer Williams and former City Comptroller Joe Bellitto have met with bid applicants to provide the city an Annual Stop Loss Program.

She said they both recommended staying with Highmark, who is the current administrator and insurance carrier, “Unfortunately, the increase is 37% for a budget increase of $160,521 for next year. So, all these times I keep saying we’ve got these increases, this was a pretty significant one. I was expecting to see an increase, I’m not going to lie, but I wasn’t expecting to see 37% for $160,000.”

Ecklund said there was a higher deductible offered by Highmark but Bellitto did not recommend that option.

She said the increase is due to cost of doing business and that there are five people on the plan whose medical costs have passed the stop loss amount of $175,000.

A resolution for accepting the bid by Highmark for a Stop Loss Program is expected to appear on the May 22 voting agenda.

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

The Council Finance Committee had recommended using an additional $282,856 in American Rescue Plan funds to cover applications to the Senior Citizen Home Improvement Incentive program that weren’t funded initially.

However, the resolution filed under new business would allocate an additional $377,528. The resolution states the funds would come from the ARP’s “Healthy Communities and Neighborhoods fund.” Council member at Large Kim Ecklund had stated that council members did not want money to be allocated away from a Residential Home Improvement Incentive Program that had been funded with $500,000 last June. That program has not been set up yet by the City Assessor’s Office.

Council also will vote to use $900,000 in American Rescue Plan funds for water main replacements and street restoration on Roland Road and Juliet Street. The Department of Public Works and Jamestown Board of Public Utilities recommended the work be done after multiple water main breaks on both streets over the decades.

In addition, Council will vote under new business on a five-year Animal Holding facility contract with Pick of the Litter in Falconer. The staff report said Pick of the Litter was the only entity that submitted a proposal. The contract would pay the agency $2,800 a month for board fees and/or euthanasia for 360 dogs per year. Upon receiving the 361st dog, Pick of the Litter will charge $90 per dog for board fees and/or euthanasia.

The voting session will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the City Council Chambers of the second floor of City Hall.

It is open to the public and members of the public may also participate remotely in the meeting via videoconferencing by requesting a link from City Clerk Jennifer Williams at (716) 483-7612 or clerk@jamestownny.gov in advance of the meeting.

The meeting also will be livestreamed at https://www.jamestownny.gov.

Justin Hubbard, Missy Paterniti

Jamestown City Council voted down Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s citizen appointments to the Board of Public Utilities as well as the reappointment of Justin Hubbard to the Human Rights Commission.

City Clerk Jennifer Williams read a letter from the Human Rights Commission advocating for Hubbard’s reappointment, “We feel it is our duty to try to convey to our elected representatives how much we value Mr. Hubbard and the ideas, thoughtfulness, and passion that he brings to our group. As a teacher, he brings a point of view regarding education that helps us better understand and address human rights issues in our schools.”

Resident Missy Paterniti spoke out against Hubbard being reappointed, saying he publicly attacked her at an HRC meeting by calling her a racist and a bigot in response to her creating a petition to the school district to keep the “Red Raiders” name, “I contacted Elliot Raimondo [City Corporation Counsel] and nothing happened. I wrote to the mayor. And I’m just asking you, as the city council, that have the ability to remove this gentleman from the commission, please do so because he doesn’t belong there.”

Hubbard, speaking at privilege of the floor, said he was approached by Mayor Sundquist following rallies he helped organize after George Floyd‘s death in 2020 about serving on a reinstated Human Rights Commission. Hubbard said while on the HRC, he was approached by members of the community regarding issues on discrimination in relation to religion, race, and sexuality, “Even though I knew that some of these complaints were about members of council and that would make some members of this council unhappy with me for bringing them to the table, I knew that it was my duty to do so. I also believe that the passion I brought to this position made it so that people could feel free to contact me when dealing with very stressful issues.”

Council voted 2 to 6 not to reappoint Hubbard with Brent Sheldon, Marie Carrubba, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, Randy Daversa, and Jeff Russell voting no.

The appointment of Sean Conner and Sabrina Gustafson to the BPU Board to replace Jim Olson and Greg Rabb failed 4 to 4 with Brent Sheldon, Andrew Faulkner, Kim Ecklund, and Randy Daversa voting no.

Council President Tony Dolce said while he supported the appointments to the BPU board, he doesn’t know why other council members did not but he guessed it may have come down to qualifications, “In the past, there’s always been a kind of.. not going to say controversy but discussion over replacing long time members that have experience with newcomers. And this mayor wanted to put his people in just like the previous mayor did as well. And so I don’t know specifically why those two individuals were voted down by specific council people.”

Jim Olson and Greg Rabb will remain on the BPU board as holdovers until new appointments can be made.

City Clerk Jennifer Williams has requested $15,000 in American Rescue Plan monies to purchase a Bill Pay kiosk for City Hall, “You know, for folks, if the office can’t be open, they can run in and pay a parking ticket real quick or pay their BPU bill real quick. Those are two items we can’t take credit cards for in the office, so this would give people the capability to, rather than turning them away and sending them off to an ATM, they could step aside and make their payment right there so they don’t forget about their parking ticket.”

Williams said the kiosk could be set up for other functions as well.

The Assessor’s Office is requesting $300,000 in ARP funds to hold a reassessment in the city. Assessor Lisa Volpe said there hasn’t been a reassessment in 15 years, with the State wanting municipalities to do one every four years.

She said the uniform percentage of value of properties is at 93% which contributes to a higher tax rate due to inequity in values. Volpe explained what could happen if the full evaluation went up to $732 million, “The city could generate an equal amount of tax revenue by decreasing the rate to $22.08-per-thousand, which is about a $1.61-per hundred thousand, as compared to the current rate of $23.69. If the tax rate remained the current $23.69 and it was applied to the new levy amount of $732 million, the city could generate an additional $1,179,203 of tax revenue.”

Volpe said house assessed at $70,000 that saw no change in its value could see a tax decrease of $112.

The Information Technology department is requesting a new employee to help the City of Jamestown combat cyber attacks. IT Director Mark Dean said ARP monies would help fund a systems analyst, “We’ve suffered two attacks, well we didn’t suffer but, we’ve gone through two attacks and spent hours and up all night trying to make sure we weren’t, we didn’t succumb to their attacks. But this new position would be a person who would focus on cyber security as well as the servers and a lot more higher end networking that the city relies on.”

Dean said the analyst also would assist with new software for the Fire Department, which is very high maintenance. He added the new position is needed with the department already behind on projects from last year.

Council has until November 10th to file budget amendments with a public hearing needing to be scheduled by November 19th. Council must vote on a budget on November 29th in order to meet the December 1st deadline.

“The total amount paid through MuniciPay was just over $935,000 so I think that really contributed to that jump of people being out of town and able to just get on and pay their taxes. We also saw the issuance of the stimulus payments which we saw our payments pick up in March with those being issued.”

Williams said property owners can still make payments at the Treasurer’s Office, including partial payments.

(image provided by city of Jamestown)

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council has voted to give food trucks and other mobile food vendors more flexibility in operating within the city, but the vote wasn’t unanimous.

The council held its monthly voting session Monday night video video conference and approved a Mobile Food Vendor pilot program for the operation of food trucks by a vote of 7 to 2.

The pilot program will allow food trucks to operate in the city if they are set up at least 125 feet away from an existing brick-and-mortar restaurant. However, if the vendor is also located in Jamestown, they would be allowed to set up immediately outside of their base of operation without having to abide by the 125 ft distancing mandate. All mobile food operations would have to pay for a license to operate ($150 for Jamestown-based vendors and $300 for out-of-city vendors) and also have to follow health and safety guidelines.  Once a permit is granted, they would be allowed to operate between 8 a.m. and 8 p.m.  They could also operate past 8 p.m. if part of a special event application or if granted a variance from the city.

• VIEW ALL FOOD TRUCK PILOT PROGRAM GUIDELINES

A map of the downtown, with the circles representing areas where a mobile food vendor could NOT set up, unless it received permission from the affected brick-and-mortar restaurants.

Prior to the voting session the council held a work session and discussed the program, including addressing concerns about the impact the program would have on existing restaurants.  Also during the voting session, City Clerk Jennifer Williams read through seven comments from the public, all dealing with the food truck issue. All but one of them was in favor of allowing mobile food vendors to operate. Some of those who spoke in favor of allowing the program to get underway were downtown businesses, including Forte Restaurant, Jamestown Skate Products, and The Sprinkle Cone.

Only one letter requested the council table the resolution, but that was signed on behalf of the owners of several downtown restaurants.

In the end, the council voted to approve the resolution, with council members Kim Ecklund and Jeff Russell both voting against it. Council president Tony Dolce did say at the end of the meeting that there will be an opportunity to evaluate and adjust the pilot program.

“We’re probably not going to get a lot of feedback or information on how it will work, particularly during the next month and the remainder of the summer,” Dolce said. “But as we get into next year we’ll have a better idea and lets hope and pray that we have a normal summer with normal activities and we’ll have a better handle on what works, what doesn’t work, what needs to be changed, and what could possibly be changed and do what’s best for the city – both the brick and mortar businesses and the food truck businesses as well.”

Also last night the council approved accepting a $350,000 payment from Southern Tier Environments for Living (STEL) in order to help pay for the removal of blighted homes in the community. That funding was being provided as part of a negotiated agreement with STEL that stemmed from the $31 million renovation and conversion of the Gateway Center on Water Street into the Gateway Lofts housing project.

And the council also gave approval on the Board of Public Utilities borrowing up to $2 million as part of its $5 million water line replacement project. The low-interest borrowing will come out of the state’s drinking water revolving loan fund. The remaining $3 million of the project comes from the New York State Drinking Water Infrastructure Improvement grant program.  The BPU had also approved the project earlier in the day on Monday.