City of Jamestown 2022 3rd Quarter Sales Tax Receipt Information

City of Jamestown sales tax receipts are down 2.1% for the third quarter of 2022 compared with the same quarter in 2021.

Jamestown received $2,206,455, which is $48,207 less than in 2021. Currently, the city has received 74.7% of its budgeted amount of sales tax for 2022. Comptroller John Sellstrom is expected to give a full report at tonight’s City Council work session.

City Council also will review a resolution to use $68,895 in American Rescue Plan funds to replace 20 Cisco switches. The switches would be purchased from SHI International. Information Technology Director Mark Dean said the purchase price represents a 76% discount over retail price.

A resolution to use $21,400 from the contingency fund to replace Fire Station #4 roof also will be reviewed. The project originally was funded using $100,000 in ARP funds back in June. If this additional funding is approved, that will leave $111,568 in the city’s contingency fund.

Council will also review the donation of $2,000 by Rand Machine to purchase smoke alarms for the Jamestown Fire Department’s Fire Prevention Outreach Program.

Other items on tonight’s work session agenda include the discussion of the Senior Home Improvement Incentive Program application status as well as an update on grants.

The Housing Committee will meet at 6:45 p.m. with other committees meeting at 7:00 p.m. The full work session will take place at 7:30 p.m. in the Police Training Room on the fourth floor of City Hall. The meetings are open to the public with the work session also being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Jamestown City Council

Mayor Eddie Sundquist‘s $38.68 million Executive Budget proposal included no tax increase. The tax levy is proposed to remain at $23.69 per $1,000 of assessed property value, which it has been since 2020. It has a 0.06% increase in the overall levy.

Council members have raised concerns over a proposed parking meter rate increase. The budget has on-street meters rates rising from 25-cents to 50-cents a half hour, for a total of $1 an hour. The parking revenue budgeted for 2023 is $245,000 versus $127,000 for 2022, a 31% increase.

Police Chief Tim Jackson also raised concerns over the SWAT Team, training, and K9 handler being underfunded.

There are also have been concerns over the need for additional staff for Information Technology Services. Information Technology Director Mark Dean informed Council that his request for an IT Specialist was not funded in the Executive Budget. He said the $42,634 for the additional position is needed to handle cyber security needs and network hardware-software needs.

Finance Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund had expressed concern over departments doing their own tech work when there are staff assigned to handle that already.

Council must vote on a budget by December 1 or the mayor’s proposed budget goes into effect.
Council also will vote on several American Rescue Plan funded projects that have been languishing on their agenda for months.

Resolutions to be approved include $1.5 million for a Non-Profit Assistance Program program, $1 million for the Chautauqua County Land Bank Post-Pandemic Housing Initiative, $750,000 for a Business Expansion & Building Acquisition program, and $500,000 for the 19A Homeownership Program.

The proposed amount for the 19A Homeownership program has been reduced by $250,000 with another resolution re-appropriating that amount to the very popular Senior Citizen Home Improvement Incentive Program.

Council also will vote to approve a local law on the Reapportionment of Ward Boundary lines.

City Council will hold a work session at 7:00 p.m. in the 4th Floor Police Training Room with the full voting session taking place at 7:30 p.m in the Council Chambers on the second floor of the Municipal Building. The meetings are open to the public with the voting session being livestreamed on jamestownny.gov.

Council President Tony Dolce, City Comptroller John Sellstrom, and Information Technology Director Mark Dean at budget presentations to City Council (October 24, 2022)

The City of Jamestown is proposing to raise downtown parking meter rates 50-cents an half hour.

City Comptroller John Sellstrom told City Council that the on-street meters rates will go from 25-cents to 50-cents a half hour, for a total of $1 an hour. The parking revenue budgeted for 2023 is $245,000 versus $127,000 for 2022, a 31% increase.

Information Technology Director Mark Dean informed Council that his request for an IT Specialist was not funded in the Executive Budget. He said the $42,634 for the additional position is needed to handle cyber security needs and network hardware-software needs, “There’s a lot of activity, a lot of technical needs in the city hall. And what’s happening here is that many departments are kind of doing their own thing, taking it upon themselves to do IT. And that kind of leaves us out of the loop a little bit. And, so, when we’re asked sometimes about a certain piece of technology, we don’t know anything about it and we probably should have another person to help with that.”

Finance Chair and Council member at Large Kim Ecklund expressed concern over departments doing their own tech work when there are staff assigned to handle that already.

City Council also heard budget presentations from the City Clerk and Treasurer’s office, Corporation Counsel, and Assessor’s Office. Assessor Lisa Volpe did note that a city revaluation had been in her proposed budget for $685,000 but was not funded in the executive budget.

City Council will hear the next set of budget presentations by the Police and Fire Department at 6:30 p.m., Monday, November 7 before its work session that night.

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.

Sundquist said the City can regulate using zoning to establish time, place and manner of use,

“We cannot have dispensaries or other on-site establishments so many feet from a school or house of worship, so that does limit locations that those can go. In addition, any dispensary or on-site consumption establishment must notify the municipality, so we will be notified before any of those are opened to ensure they comply with any type of regulations or zoning requirements.”

Sundquist said the City would receive 3% of the 13% sales tax the state will impose on the sale of cannabis. He added that the law establishes the creation of the State Office of Cannabis Management, which will be the entity that implements regulations and guidelines

The City of Jamestown will be receiving its full New York State Aid to Municipalities payment as well as an increase in CHIPS monies in the recently approved New York State Budget. Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the city had budgeted for a 20% decrease in aid this year,

“In addition, we’ve been notified that the state had prior withheld 5% of last year’s AIM payment. We will now be receiving that back to the budget so we’re very excited to get the full state funding back after the state has been made whole by the federal government.”

Sundquist said the CHIPS funding hadn’t been increased since the 1980s. DPW Director Jeff Lehman said the City will receive $1,102,000; which is a 24% increase from prior years. CHIPS funding is used to repair roads for which the City is reimbursed.

City Council will vote on replacing 63 Police Body Cameras at its voting session on April 26th. The cameras will have an annual cost of $70,000 dollars for five years, with this year’s cost being pro-rated at an amount of $46,746 dollars. Jamestown Information Technology Director Mark Dean says the old cameras, which were only 3 years old, had been failing for the last year and a half,

“And some of them haven’t been able to be replaced and with ones that do need to be replaced take up to a few months to get replaced. So right now some officers have to share body cameras to have the ability to have a body camera. So we’re proposing to replace every one of those including detectives.”

Dean said the Axon cameras will allow police to save the video recordings in the cloud and the city will have the option to give the District Attorney access to the videos as well. The money for the cameras will come out of the City’s contingency fund this year and then will be a regular part of budget for the remainder of the contract.

Council also will vote on a resolution to purchase an electronic fingerprinting system for the City Jail. Police Chief Tim Jackson said the current equipment for booking prisoners is outdated and needs to be updated in order to comply with the state. The fingerprinting system is being paid through a grant with the city being required to pay a 25% match of $7,100 dollars.

For a second year, there will not be a Memorial Day parade in the City of Jamestown. Parks Manager Dan Stone updated City Council last night that the Blue Star Mothers will still have a small ceremony in Veterans Park on Memorial Day weekend with the Veterans Council holding an invite only ceremony at Lakeview Cemetery on Memorial Day.