Jamestown City Hall on Third St. is surrounded by Tracy Plaza, which is undergoing another renovation phase following action by the Jamestown City Council on April 27, 2015.

Jamestown City Council will vote on a settlement to end litigation between the City and the company hired to renovate Tracy Plaza.

The City of Jamestown hired Patterson-Stevens in 2017 to renovate Tracy Plaza, which sits above and also serves as the roof for the city police and fire departments along with the city parking garage.

A lawsuit was filed in February 2019 by the city and New York Municipal Insurance Reciprocal, claiming Patterson-Stevens Inc. was responsible for not properly securing the area, which allowed rain water to pour into the police station during a heavy rain storm in September 2017.

The lawsuit sought $2 million in damages.

According to State Supreme Court filings, on September 11, 2020, that lawsuit was discontinued by both parties.

However, a few months earlier on July 17, 2020, Patterson-Stevens sued the city for breech of contract, claiming the city owed over $306,000 in back payment for work that was done at Tracy Plaza in 2018.

The lawsuit also claimed that former Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi had said the departments were susceptible to water damage and flooding even before work began.

According to the lawsuit, Patterson-Stevens said, “The City has breached the contract by delaying the start of the project, issuing an improper stop work order, interfering with Patterson-Stevens’ performance of the contract, improperly withholding payment or failing to pay or reject invoices as required by the Contract, and improperly delaying completion of the project well beyond the June 30, 2018 completion date.”

The settlement has the City paying Patterson-Stevens $155,000 with Patterson-Stevens paying the city $75,000. The resolution filed said the agreement would “discontinue the litigation and resolve the matter.”

Judge Stephen Cass leads new Chautauqua County Legislators Tom Nelson and Travis Heiser through their oath of office. (January 3, 2023)

The Chautauqua County Legislature approved the appointment of two new Legislators at its organizational meeting Tuesday.

Legislators approved resolutions naming Tom Nelson and Travis Heiser to the body.

Nelson replaces Paul Whitford as the legislator for District 13 in the City of Jamestown. He thanked Whitford for his years of service, “He is a public servant in the truest sense of the word. So, we’ll miss Paul. And I’ve made a habit of following Paul politically because when he moved out of (City Council) Ward 6, there was a vacancy and Mayor (Sam) Teresi appointed me to that. And now with Paul leaving, there was a vacancy and it just worked out, so I’m happy to be here and to work with all of the other legislators.”

Nelson is a U.S. Government teacher in the Frewsburg Central School District.

Heiser replaces Jay Gould as the legislator for District 17 in the towns of Clymer, French Creek, Harmony and part of Busti.

Until last week, he was Clymer’s Town Supervisor for seven years and had served on the town board as well. Heiser said the Town Board will vote next week to appoint a new Supervisor from its members to serve out the last year of the term.

He said he has always been interested in local government, having lived in Chautauqua County for over 20 years, “I knew Jay Gould, who I am replacing, a little bit beforehand and had a kind of an inkling and knew that the committees were looking for when he was eventually going to resign. And so, they did come knocking at the door and it wasn’t totally unexpected and I did say yes.”

Heiser is currently the CEO of the Inner Lakes Federal Credit Union.

Nelson will serve on the Public Safety Committee with Heiser serving on the Public Facilities Committee.

Both new legislators plan to run for a full two-year term on the Legislature in the November General Election.

The entire Jamestown Community is continuing to mourn the sudden loss of council woman Victoria “Vickye” James, who pass away suddenly on Saturday, March 27.

Vickye was known for her love of her family and her years of work and community service, which included elected office in the both Chautauqua County Legislature and the Jamestown City Council.

This week on Community Matters, we’ll let other elected officials – both past and present – share their thoughts and memories of Vickye and the impact she left on the community.

Our program will feature comments from Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, former mayor Sam Teresi, current City Council President Tony Dolce, former president and current councilmember Marie Carrubba, current council member Kim Ecklund, former council president Greg Rabb, and former councilmember Mike Taylor.

This week the New York State Court of Appeals denied a motion by the city to appeal a lower court’s ruling involving a 2018 arbitration ruling, in which an arbitration panel ruled the city must give the Jamestown Kendell Club police union police union a 2% salary increase as part of its 2016-2017 collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The city filed the motion in the state’s highest court in late June after the State 4th Appellate Division in Rochester released a unanimous ruling on June 12 that upheld a 2019 State Supreme Court Decision allowing the arbitration ruling to stand.

The arbitration ruling originally came in 2018, after the city and police union reached an impasse in contract negotiations for the years covering 2016 and 2017.

• READ COMPLETE 44-PAGE ARBITRATION RULING

Upon its release, city officials – led at the time by then-mayor Sam Teresi – felt the arbitration ruling failed to take into full consideration the financial challenges facing Jamestown. State law indicated that the Arbitration Panel was to place a 70% weighting factor on the city’s financial position and ability to pay for any increase in salary. The city contends the arbitrators didn’t place enough focus on that aspect of state law when ruling in favor of a pay raise for the union members.

With the court ruling not to hear the motion, the original arbitration ruling will stand. As a result, the city will have to pay an estimated $800,000 in back wages to the members of the union during the time period that is covered. In addition, a similar back payment would also likely have to be made to the Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association, which also never settled a contract for 2016 and 2017, but opted to wait until the police arbitration case plays out before possibly pursuing their own arbitration case.

The Albany-based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King represented the city in the legal dispute, while the Jamestown law firm of Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo represented the police union. The cost of the court proceedings for the city – including taking it to the State Court of Appeals – has totaled $50,000.

WRFA reached out to Mayor Eddie Sundquist on Thursday morning to find out how much the city will have to pay the police union, as well as what the timeline is for the retroactive payment.

A map highlighting the free 2-hour “courtesy” parking spaces in downtown Jamestown.

JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council will be reviewing a plan to increase downtown parking rates and fines when it meets tonight at city hall. Another proposal would eliminate the long-standing, two-hour Free Parking Zone located in the core of the downtown.

As part of his 2021 executive budget, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist is calling for an increase in revenue from both downtown parking as well as from fines for parking violations. He said the increased revenue would come from anticipated hikes in parking rates as well as parking fines.

Sundquist will present specific details of his parking proposal on Monday night. According to the meeting pre-file documents, the plan involves increasing metered parking by 50 cents an hour and also increase fines by $5.

• VIEW THE COMPLETE OCT. 19 WORK SESSION AGENDA

The current rate for parking meters is 50 cents an hour, meaning the new rate would  increase to $1 an hour.  Metered parking in downtown Jamestown is in place from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. during non-holiday weekdays. Meanwhile, a standard parking ticket for Jamestown costs $10, but would increase to $15 under Sundquist’s proposal.

The adjustments are expected to help raise revenue for the city budget.

• For parking violations, the mayor is calling for an 11% increase in revenue (+$24,000) over 2019 . However, that is still 5.4% (-$14,000) lower than the revenue that was originally projected in the final 2020 budget.
• For On-Street Parking Meters, the mayor is calling for an 18.5% increase in revenue (+$29,000) over 2019.
• And for Parking Lots and Garages, the mayor is calling for a 21.5% increase in revenue (+$15,000) over 2019.
  (We are comparing the numbers to 2019 instead of 2020, because of the current year being impacted by COVID-19)

COUNCIL TO CONSIDER REMOVING DOWNTOWN FREE PARKING ZONE

The council will also discuss a proposed ordinance to eliminate the courtesy (free) parking zone and increasing downtown owner parking permit costs. The proposals, again from Sundquist, are intended to help generate more parking revenue for the city.

The courtesy parking zone is located along Third Street from Washington Street to Spring Street, and also on Cherry, Main, and Pine Streets, between Second and Fourth Streets.

Three years ago the city council also considered eliminating the zone, under a recommendation from an ad hoc Downtown Parking Commission created by then-mayor Sam Teresi. However, the council ultimately tabled the ordinance because there wasn’t any funding to pay for additional meters downtown, there was no need to immediately act on the matter.

In late 2017, WRFA spoke with 15 different downtown businesses located in the courtesy parking zones, and learned that all but two of them were opposed to removing the free parking zone. The businesses also said the parking commission never consulted with them prior to putting forward the recommendation. It’s not know if mayor Sundquist and his staff have approached downtown businesses to get their thought on the matter.

In addition to helping increase revenue for the city, the 2017 study also noted that the free parking zone creates challenges for parking enforcement as the reason for eliminating it.

Monday’s work session begins at 7:30 p.m. and will streamed at the city website due to COVID-19.

Parks Commissioner Russ Diethrick, Historic Marker Committee Member Art Osterdahl, Historic Marker Committee Member Karen Livsey, Mayor Eddie Sundquist, City Historian Ashley Senske, Historic Marker Committee Member Traci Langworthy

JAMESTOWN – The City of Jamestown has unveiled a new historical marker honoring local and national Suffrage Leader Edith Ainge. The City’s 76^th marker is located on the corner of Fourth and Pine Streets near where Ainge was living during the final years of the suffrage struggle.

Edith Ainge immigrated from England to the U.S. with her family when she was 10 years old, becoming involved in the suffrage movement in 1914. Her family lived adjacent to her father’s accounting firm on East Fourth Street in Jamestown.

Ainge chaired the Jamestown branch of the Women’s Political Union. She took part in demonstrations organized by the National Women’s Party in Washington D.C. in 1917 where she was arrested several times during peaceful protests. After her first arrest, she was sentenced with other women to serve 60 days in a workhouse in Virginia.

Ainge was elected treasurer of Alice Paul’s National Woman’s Party in 1922 and continued to serve on the organization’s National Council until at least 1930. As part of the NWP’s inner circle, she helped promote what became known as the Equal Rights Amendment, which Paul first proposed in 1923.

Mayor Eddie Sundquist thanked the Marker Committee for their work in selecting and researching the site, “This summer our country celebrated the 100^th Anniversary of the adoption of the 19^th Amendment. It is timely and appropriate to be unveiling this marker that recognizes a local woman’s efforts to work toward making the right to vote more of a reality for women.”

City Historian Ashley Senske said, “I thank former Mayor Sam Teresi, who supported the marker’s selection before he left office. We have a rich history in Jamestown and the marker program plays a role in bringing it to residents and visitors in an accessible way.”

Ainge continued to make her home in Jamestown into the 1930s. When she passed away in 1948, her death was noted in the New York Times as well as the local papers. She was laid to rest in Jamestown’s Lake View Cemetery, alongside her parents, William and Susanna, and six of her siblings.

Jamestown City Hall on Third St. is surrounded by Tracy Plaza.

MAYVILLE – The contractor that was hired by the city of Jamestown to oversee Phase 2 of the renovation work on Tracy Plaza is suing the city for breech of contract. Specifically, Patterson-Stevens Inc., based out of Tonawanda, is claiming the city owes over $306,000 in back payment for work that was done at Tracy Plaza in 2018.

The lawsuit alleging the breech of contract was filed in Chautauqua County State Supreme Court on Friday, July 17.

According to the lawsuit, the city entered into a contract with Patterson-Stevens in July 2017 to oversee Phase 2 renovation work of Tracy Plaza, which included the replacement of the plaza deck, which also serves as a roof over the Jamestown Police Department and City Fire Department. The initial contract called for a payment of $1,534,864 to the firm, with two additional change orders bringing the final tally to $1,645,689.

Funding for the Tracy Plaza renovation project came primarily from a $1.48 million New York State Green Innovation Grant.

However, in September 2017, a strong rain storm swept over the city and led to significant flooding of the city police department. According city officials, the flooding caused damage to city equipment, files, computers and radios. The main entrance to the police department also had to be closed to the public for months. Then in September 2018, city officials claimed additional damage was done to the Jamestown Fire Department when rain water pored into the interior as a result of the ongoing renovation work.

In both instances, City officials claimed Patterson-Stevens Inc. was at fault for the water damage. In February 2019 the city, through its insurance company, filed a lawsuit in Chautauqua County Supreme Court against Patterson-Stevens, seeking $2 million in payment due to the water damage that took place. That case is still ongoing and has yet to be settled.

In the counter-lawsuit filed Friday by Patterson-Stevens, the contracting firm claims former Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi had said the departments were susceptible to water damage and flooding even before work began.

“Tracy Plaza was in desperate need of repair because, as the City’s Mayor said to Spectrum News on January 4, 2017, the plaza ‘has literally been deteriorating and leaking since day one when the building opened back in 1970,'” it said in its legal complaint.

The firm also claims the city delayed the start of the project in the summer of 2017 by at least one month. It also says that it undertook efforts to protect the surface below the plaza deck from water and moisture, including the installation of a temporary roof. But in April 2018, the city issued a stop work order for the project and ordered Patterson-Stevens to remove the temporary roof. As a result, the firm claims that any damage that was done after April 2018 was due to the city’s improper stop work order. The city then withheld payments to the firm for work that was already done or which continued to take place.

According to the lawsuit, Patterson-Stevens says, “The City has breached the contract by delaying the start of the project, issuing an improper stop work order, interfering with Patterson-Stevens’ performance of the contract, improperly withholding payment or failing to pay or reject invoices as required by the Contract, and improperly delaying completion of the project well beyond the June 30, 2018 completion date.”

Due to its claim, Patterson Stevens says it has suffered monetary damages in the amount of at least $306,048. It is asking the court to not only order the release of the payment, but also pay any interest, attorneys’ fees, costs, and disbursements, along with any further relief as the court deems necessary and proper.

Eddie Sundquist

JAMESTOWN – The city of Jamestown will move forward and take its ongoing arbitration battle with its police union to the state’s highest court.

During a recent interview with WRFA, Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist confirmed that the city has decided to move its appeal of a 2018 split decision Compulsory Interest Arbitration Ruling to the New York State Court of Appeals.

This after the State 4th Appellate Division in Rochester released on a unanimous ruling on June 12 that upheld a 2019 State Supreme Court Decision allowing the arbitration ruling to stand.

The 2018 arbitration ruling involved the collective bargaining agreement between the city and the Jamestown Kendell Club police union. Among other things, the ruling called for officers in the union to receive a retroactive 2% salary increase for both 2016 and 2017.

• READ COMPLETE 44-PAGE ARBITRATION RULING

Upon its release, city officials – led at the time by former mayor Sam Teresi – felt the arbitration ruling failed to take into full consideration the financial challenges facing Jamestown. State law indicated that the Arbitration Panel was to place a 70% weighting factor on the city’s financial position and ability to pay for any increase in salary. The city contends the arbitrators didn’t place enough focus on that aspect of state law when ruling in favor of a pay raise for the union members.

Sundquist said the city notified the police union this week that it would seek a judgement from the state’s highest court. He added that such action would require approval to do so from the court.

“If it wasn’t a unanimous decision, we would be able to appeal by right, which means the Court of Appeals would take that case and hear it,” explained Sundquist. “Since that is not the case. Since we had a concurring decision from the Appellate Division, we will have to ask permission from the Court of Appeals to hear that case, as it’s a portion of the law that may not have been yet interpreted. There is always the risk that the Court of Appeals may not want to take the case, so we are kind of going with that process to see if they will accept it.”

Sundquist also said that last year the city council approved a resolution to challenge the local Supreme Court ruling on the matter, and that resolution included taking the case to the Court of Appeals if it was not overturned in the Appellate Division. As a result, no additional legislative action is required by the city council because no new costs are being added.

The mayor also said that in the meantime, the city is continuing to negotiate with the union.

“We are still working actively with the police union to try to negotiate a deal and try to come to an understanding, as we have many years left with that contract that are still un-negotiated. So even though we are actively moving forward with that court case, we are are still actively trying to resolve this issue at the same time,” Sundquist said.

If the arbitration decision stands, the city will have to pay an estimated $800,000 in back wages to the members of the union during the time period that is covered. In addition, a similar back payment would also likely have to be made to the fire fighters union, which also never settled a contract for 2016 and 2017, but opted to wait until the police arbitration case plays out before possibly pursuing their own arbitration case.

The Albany-based law firm of Bond, Schoeneck & King is representing the city in the legal dispute, while the Jamestown law firm of Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo is representing the police union. The cost of the court proceedings for the city – including taking it to the State Court of Appeals – has totaled $50,000.

The complete interview with mayor Sundquist – which covers a variety of topics and issues – will be broadcast on WRFA this Thursday at 5 p.m. on our Community Matters program.

According to the calendar page of the State Supreme Court Appellate Division: 4th Judicial Department, attorneys Terence O’Neil from Bond, Schoeneck & King and Charles DeAngelo from Fessenden, Laumer & DeAngelo are scheduled to appear before the appellate division justices on Monday, March 30 to argue on behalf of their respective clients – the City of Jamestown and the Jamestown Kendall Club PBA.

The long-awaited showdown is the result of the Jamestown City Council voting in May 2019 to appeal a State Supreme Court Decision that upheld an October 2018 arbitration ruling on the 2016-17 collective bargaining agreement (CBA) between the city and the Kendall Club. Among other things, that ruling provided a retroactive 2 percent increase in salaries for each of those two years for police officers.

The council’s decision to appeal came after Chautauqua County Supreme Court judge James Dillon ruled in April 2019 that that arbitration panel ruling on the matter would stand.

• READ JUDGE DILLON’S DECISION

The city has long argued that it can’t afford giving officers the salary increase because it will have an impact not only on any reserve funding that has been built up, but also on all future expenses for the city. In addition they say the increase to the police union will also likely be applied to the 2016-17 Jamestown Professional Firefighters Association CBA, which is also still unsettled and has been awaiting the outcome of the police contract issue before being resolved. While still in office, former Jamestown mayor Sam Teresi had said the bottom-line impact would approach an excess of over $800,000 if the arbitration ruling where allowed to stand.

“To allow that decision to stand will have an $840,000 unbudgeted impact on the 2019 budget. And that impact is only for retroactive raises for 2016 and 2017. If that decision is allowed to stand, it could lay the groundwork for a similar retroactive payment with the fire union moving forward. And as well that $840,000 impact for the police union alone doesn’t take into account raises that might be received for 2018, 2019, and 2020 moving forward,” Teresi explained in March 2019.

The city is paying Bond, Schoeneck, and King $25,000 to handle the Appellate Division case.

Once arguments are made before the appellate division justices, they will then deliberate and deliver at some point later this year.

Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist during the Jan. 27, 2020 Jamestown City Council meeting.

JAMESTOWN – Mayor Eddie Sundquist says the city is doing what it can to address a pending crisis with ambulance service in the community after Alstar Ambulance Service and UPMC Chautauqua announced last week that it was terminating its mutual aid agreement with the city.

UPMC Chautauqua’s Alstar EMS division is the primary provider of EMS transport in the city. The Jamestown Fire Department isn’t the primary ambulance service provider for the city, but fills in when Alstar is out of service.

In recent years, the fire department has been fielding more and more EMS calls. That means UPMC Chautauqua has to give the city more in reimbursement payments under the mutual aid agreement.  The hospital has said it is now terminating that agreement because it is over 20 years old and UPMC now wants to see new reimbursement rates with the city.

According to Sundquist in his 2020 State of the City report, the city was handling 50 ambulance transports a week and contracted and contracted with Alstar to be the primary ambulance provider for the city to bring that number down. However, last year alone, the city fire department did over 1,000 ambulance transports while Alstar was offline, adding the number doesn’t account for countless calls for service that brought neighboring municipalities in to assist. “This is simply not sustainable for the city,” Sundquist said.

Following Monday Night’s Jamestown City Council meeting, Sundquist gave WRFA and other members of the media update on the ambulance service situation, saying that while the city plans to meet with UPMC officials to discuss an the termination of the agreement and possibly iron out terms for a new agreement, it has also put out a Request for Proposals (RFPs) to see if another privately operated service provider would be willing to come into the community.

“At this point we are going to be working be working with Alstar to see if there is anyway we can move that relationship forward. In the meantime, we are also going to be putting out a Request for Proposal to provide an exclusive ambulance franchise for another private ambulance to come in and service our residents,” Sundquist said.

As for Alstar, Sunduist said the mutual aid agreement with the city will be terminated by mid April unless the two sides can come to agreement on new terms.

“Alstar is not leaving the area. We’ve not been given that indication. They are terminating their agreement with the city in April. They’ve given us a 90-day notice,” Sundquist said.

Late last year former Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi – along with Deputy Fire Chief Sam Salemme and Public Safety Director Harry Snellings – had put forward various options to consider in order to address the growth of EMS calls being handled by the city as Alstar continues to roll back its service in the community. Among those suggestions was contracting with other private companies, which could have a projected net cost of $450,000 for the city. Another option would be for the city to provide its own in house ambulance service, which could cost as much as $1.5 million for the city – something both Teresi and Sundquist have stated is unlikely to occur.

In the meantime, the city Fire Department will still have to contend with increased EMS calls in the near future. That means it will likely need new ambulances to add to its fleet, something that was included in the $13.6 million 2019 Smart City Capital Investment Plan the city council approved last year and which included borrowing up to $12.6 million to help pay for it.