Jamestown Director of Development Crystal Surdyk addresses City Council Housing Committee (February 13, 2023)

The City of Jamestown has started the process to update the City’s Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code.

Director of Development Crystal Surdyk said the New York State Department of State has to review and approve the city’s request for proposal to do updates for both. She anticipates that will be completed in the next 30 days.

Surdyk said when it comes to vacant properties in the city, an update of the code will help them redevelop those sites, “Because when we do a demolition and we do have a vacant property that is tucked between two houses, right now our code is prohibitive of building something new. So as we do the zoning code update, that is something we are going to take a close look at and adjust it so it makes sense, so it’s modernized. So we’re talking about, what is the future of the city and how are we allowing for those in-fill buildings?”

Surdyk added that the update of the Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Code is a five year process and that it will take time to see results.

Surdyk also shared with the Housing Committee that a contract with the Chautauqua County Land Bank should be signed by the end of this week. That contract will allow the Land Bank to proceed with a list of priority demolitions in the City.

Following a citizen request that the Housing Committee meetings be longer than 15 minutes, Council President Tony Dolce said trying to schedule that committee has always been frustrating.

He said committees are always welcome to meet at a different time or day if needed, “We had before a public safety committee, a few terms ago, that met during the morning because they were all retired, they were all available, and they had more time, and they were able to do that. And I realize that Marie (Carrubba) has a job and others have jobs and work. They’re more than welcome, and we can discuss, if there’s a time when they need more time a week here or once a month, rather than meeting 15 minutes and shoving everything in.”

Housing Committee Chair Marie Carrubba said her conflict comes from another board she has been a member of for the last 30 years, “I have made adjustments as I’ve been able to and I will continue to do that. But I’m always available. If people call me at home, call me at work. I get a lot of calls even outside of my ward about housing issues because they know I’m on the Housing Committee or they just think I get things done, so they call me. So I’m always open to that. I return calls.”

Public Safety Committee Chair Brent Sheldon shared that the City has hired two new police officers. He said they are currently in the Sheriff’s Academy and will do their field work with JPD next month.

When it comes to hiring the third officer approved by Council to handle quality of life issues like noise, Dolce said they can look at ideas for that, “Some things that we can look at. Things are already cranking up. I’ve already gotten nuisance complaints of noise and motorcycles and cars. Those are going to get worse as the season goes on and there are certainly some things that the administration and council can look at too to try to deal with that. I know that they’re a busy group dealing with and prioritizing what they have to go after but there may be some things we can look at.”

The two new hires now brings the total number of officers in the Police Department to 61.

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.

(Image Courtesy of Mayor Sam Teresi / Facebook)

JAMESTOWN – Approximately 50 people attended Tuesday Night’s Downtown Revitalization Initiative meeting at the Robert H. Jackson Center.

The public meeting was hosted by the New York State Department of State and HR&A Advisors, the consulting group that was brought in to help oversee the planning process. Chris Bauer with the Department of State’s office of planning development said the meeting was another effort gain input into how $10 million in state economic development funding should be spent.

“It’s an opportunity for us to get with the public and gauge their views on some of the projects being proposed – get some feedback from them – which really helps guide us and our efforts to figure out what our priorities are for Jamestown,” Bauer told WRFA following the meeting.

• VIEW LIST OF PROJECTS [PDF]

One of the five breakout groups during the Dec. 13 DRI Meeting, discussing which projects should be prioritized for $10,000,000 in state economic development funding.

One of the top priority projects to receive at least a portion of the money is the National Comedy Center, but there are many other projects – including the Riverwalk, the Reg Lenna renovation effort, and the Furniture Mart redevelopment – that could also qualify for the funding. Eligible projects have to have a focus on improving the economic climate for the city and must have a focus to improving the downtown.

Tuesday’s input session allowed attendees to break out into five separate groups and discuss and prioritize the eligible projects. Bauer said that part of the process proved to be helpful.

“A couple of the comments about different funding areas that some of the groups thought DRI should not go for; it was good to get that feedback,” Bauer said. “But it was also good to see the common threads. It shows that we’re heading down the right track and it helps guide the consultant teams as they move forward and look at the projects in greater detail.”

Bauer that the public input process will continue for the next couple months, although he was unable to offer a timeline for when the spending plan will be finalized and released to the public.

“We’re moving very quickly for a planning process,” Bauer said. “It’s very aggressive and we have a good idea on what we need to accomplish, and that is to show what are the priority projects for Jamestown and what do we want to propose for potential funding for those projects. So that’s our goal and that’s what we’ve been working on and once we get that completed, we’ll have more clarity [on finalizing a spending plan].”

The next and final public meeting will take place in February 2017. Input will be collected and evaluated in order to determine how the funding will be applied.

Residents unable to attend any public meetings are also invited to comment online at www.surveymonkey.com/r/JamestownDRI.

In August Jamestown was announced as the Western New York recipient of the $10 million Downtown Revitalization Initiative Grant. A total of ten different grants was awarded to communities in ten different regions of New York State.

Among the items to be acted on, the council will vote on a $555,000 contract with the New York State Department of State, Division of Local Government Services, to help convert 900 existing street and security lights to more energy efficient LED fixtures. The funding would also cover the conversion of lights in the Main Street and Cherry Street Ramps to LED fixtures.

A second resolution also involves a $58,000 contract with the New York State Department of State, Division of Local Government Services to help pay for a city fleet management services consolidation analysis and implementation plan, to be conducted Mercury Associates.

Both contracts would be funded with state money that’s been allocated for Jamestown in order to help identify cost reductions in the annual budget.

Other resolutions to be considered during tonight’s meeting is $40,000 grant agreement with the Chautauqua County Water Quality Task Force to aid in the continued improvements to the Riverwalk steam bank stabilization.  Funding comes from the county’s 2016 Occupancy/Bed Tax Grant program for Lakes and Waterways. Lawmakers will also act on a grant agreement with the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services Legislative Grant Program in the amount of $25,000.00.

Monday’s voting session begins at 7:30 p.m. on the second floor of city hall and is open to the public.

Prior to tonight’s voting session, the city’s finance committee will meet at 6:30 p.m. to continue reviewing the 2017 budget with city department heads. City council members will review budgets for the Clerk, Treasurer, Assessor, Comptroller office, as well as for Information Services and Corporation Counsel.

The meeting will be in the mayor’s conference room on the 4^th floor of city hall and is open to the public.

“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.”

The forum, which will be a question and answer session for Mayors and Town Supervisors, will be led by Dierdre Scozzafava, Deputy Secretary for Local Government, and Kyle Wilber, Municipal Management Consultant, from the New York State Department of State. County Exective Greg Edwards tells WRFA the forum is being held at the urging of Governor Andrew Cuomo, who’s asking county executives throughout the state to spearhead the discussion into possible consolidation ideas.

Listen to WRFA’s Interview with Greg Edwards on Community Matters (May 10)

Edwards adds that the current forum is intended more for elected leaders to begin the analysis of possible municipal consolidation. However, he adds that once the initial meeting is completed, he’s hoping to have another forum open to County residents and taxpayers. Tonight’s forum will take place from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Carnahan Theater at Jamestown Community College.