City Council Housing Committee meeting (June 5, 2023)

A U.S. Supreme Court ruling is causing concerns over how proceeds from county tax auctions will be handled.

On May 25, the Court ruled that state and local governments cannot seize and sell the homes of people with unpaid property taxes and keep the proceeds beyond the amount owed.

The Supreme Court ruled that a county in Minnesota violated the Fifth Amendment‘s bar on the uncompensated taking of private property by a government for public use, a provision known as the “Takings Clause.”

Jamestown City Council learned about the ruling when Councilmember Brent Sheldon asked if the city or Chautauqua County Land Bank would be pulling any properties from the upcoming county tax auction for potential rehabilitation.

Department of Development Director Crystal Surdyk said the city may not pull any properties as a result of the court ruling, “The Land Bank has advocated to stall the county auction until there is a plan. I don’t know that that’s going to happen. But, we are very hesitant to get into a situation where we pull properties from the auction list and put the city and, or, Land Bank in a position where we would then have to pay a difference between what the property is sold for and what is owed.”

Surdyk added she doesn’t want to pay and reward an absentee landlord who allowed their property to go to auction and pay the difference for something they neglected.

She said the city is looking at possibility of pulling properties for demolition, “If we legally can count the cost of demolition against what the value of the property would be and then bill that back to that landlord, which is what we typically try to do anyway, but we want to make sure that constitutionally this does not, that it will uphold in court should somebody file a claim against that.”

Mayor Eddie Sundquist said the New York Conference of Mayors is recommending that all municipalities that hold In-Rem Foreclosure Auctions delay those auctions until a state plan is in place, “The state may look at a temporary moratorium for any counties that aren’t in compliance with this decision already, counties or municipalities. We don’t know if that will happen yet. Obviously, the legislature is still in session, so we’re waiting to see. There are also several bills that would bring the state into compliance with that decision that are still being voted on and worked through the legislature.”

Surdyk also shared that while the city will still continue to attach code violations for properties on the county’s tax auction, the company hired by the county will now only be providing that information upon request by bidders versus providing that information online as had been done in the past.

Jamestown City Council meeting (February 13, 2023)

The New York Conference of Mayors isn’t on board with Governor Hochul‘s housing proposal in her state budget.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist said while NYCOM agrees there is a huge need for new housing across the state, they’re not supportive of the Housing plan proposed, “Because part of her proposal, although we do support the new builds, her proposal requires that municipalities change their zoning laws to accommodate for new housing. It is not something that the organization, NYCOM, supports at this time. It was very clear to the Governor that yes, we support new housing and yes, we support providing funds for it, but if you’re going to make us do that you’re not going to make us change our zoning laws just because the state said so.”

Sundquist said while there are monies in the budget for upgrades to infrastructure and for changing zoning laws, NYCOM doesn’t believe it will be enough given the amount of additional housing the state is looking to build.

Hochul wants to see 800,000 new housing units built in the state over the next 10 years.

Sundquist said NYCOM also is disappointed that AIM, or Aid and Incentives to Municipalities, has not increased, “There’s obviously a lot more cost to run cities, towns, villages and the fact that that hasn’t changed in several decades has become a huge issue.”

Sundquist said he’s trying to learn more about the $5 billion in migrant aid that’s included in the state budget. He said while they haven’t seen any new influx of migrants to the city, his administration has had direct calls with the Department of Homeland Security, White House Intergovernmental office, and Social Security Administration, “So, we’re just working with them (migrants) and the organizations are working directly with them to get social security cards which would allow them to get certain benefits but also to have some type of I.D. which is required for the food bank and other things.”

Sundquist added the city is also working with the United Way of Southern Chautauqua County on migrant issues.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist goes over the 2023 State Legislative agenda for the New York Conference of Mayors.

Eddie Sundquist

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, who sits on NYCOM’s Finance Committee, said the last time the state increased aid to municipalities was 14 years ago.

He said the City receives about $4 million in that aid, “Think about the cost of living, think about how our own pocketbooks have changed across the years, and so we’d like that to be more equitable and we’d like the state to share some of its resources with the cities on the ground doing the work.”

Sundquist said NYCOM is requesting a 38% increase, or a cost-of-living adjustment, to the current $715 million AIM program. The equates to an increase of $270 million.

Sundquist said mayors also would like to see the state create an annual dedicated funding stream for water and sewer infrastructure costs, similar to the Consolidated State and Highway Improvement Program, or CHIPS.

He said currently municipalities have to apply for grant or loan funds through the State, and that they’d prefer to see a dedicated fund that’s coordinated with the CHIPS fund, “Often times water repairs don’t coincide with your road repairs. So you may have just completely redone a road, and trust me, I get this from our residents all the time. They’re demanding to know why we just did this great new road, now we have to tear half of it up because we have to replace the water main, right? And so we’re saying, let us as a city help better coordinate those things by just creating this fund we can draw down from and apply it at the same time as CHIP funding if we need to do road repairs.”

Sundquist said another agenda item is to amend bail reform to increase the number of offenses that are bail eligible and to allow judges more consideration when assessing the “dangerousness”as a fact when making bail determination.

He added that lobby days will be held in February where mayors from across the state will meet with state legislators in Albany to encourage them to pass legislation in the NYCOM agenda.

To read the full legislative agenda report, visit nycom.org

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.

Local government has borne the brunt of the fiscal impact – from organizing the response to COVID-19 cases to revenue drying up amid businesses shuttering .

Counties outside New York City are expected to lose a cumulative $2 billion in sales tax revenue due to the coronavirus pandemic. Both the New York State Association of Counties and the New York Conference of Mayors are each calling for federal funding in a phase IV stimulus package known as the Coronavirus Community Relief Act.

“The Coronavirus Community Relief Act would provide a $250 billion stand-alone fund for COVID-19 related costs for communities with fewer than 500,000 residents,” Sundquist said. “This comes after smaller municipalities were mostly left out in the CARES act, which only provided a direct federal fund for states, tribal groups, and cities larger than 500,000 residents, which comprises only 14% of the United States population.”

“County leaders are the onsite incident commanders, serving as the generals on the ground. They are developing innovative ways to stop the spread of the virus, modeling courage at the local level, and are focused on strengthening their communities during this global pandemic,” said NYSAC Executive Director Stephen Acquario. “The NY Counties Lead campaign will share the stories of innovation, courage and community that exemplify the work of our county leaders and heroic frontline workers they oversee.”

Meanwhile, Congressman Tom Reed on Tuesday said he will support the effort to get the funding, adding that the Phase IV stimulus package will likely be developed and finalized in May.

John Flanagan

ALBANY – The leader of the Senate Republicans and members of the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM)  have come out against Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposal to require local governments in each county to offer government consolidation plans to go before voters in November.

According to the Albany Times-Union, Senate leader John Flanagan (R-Suffolk County) on Monday addressed a meeting of NYCOM, saying that the governor’s proposal, while “laudable in its intent,” is too “convoluted” and forces local voters to dive too deeply into the sausage-making of local government.

Flanagan also said he doesn’t think there are too many local governments, as Cuomo has contended. He said if the public thinks the number of local entities is too high, there are ways under the present law to dissolve those governments.

The conference of mayors also opposes the governor’s proposal, and in a media released called it “another top-down state mandate that ignores the root causes of high property taxes.”

The mayors are asking for $133 million in state aid that they said has been cut in recent years from the budget.

A spokesman for Cuomo said the governor understands that some people want to “protect their fiefdoms at all costs,” but the governor’s plan is to get municipalities to talk to each other and actually lower costs for property taxpayers.