City Information Services Director Mark Dean presents department budget to Jamestown City Council (October 16, 2023)
Jamestown City Council learned there could be at least $170,497 in funds they need to add to the proposed 2024 budget, possibly more, at its first set of budget hearings Monday night.
Council heard presentations from the departments of Clerk/Treasurer, Assessor, Comptroller, Information Services, and Corporation Counsel.
Under the presentation from Information Services, IT Director Mark Dean shared that a three-year contract renewal for the city’s spam filtering software was not included in the budget at a cost of $8,997. Mayor Eddie Sundquist said that request wasn’t included in the department’s proposed requests to the Executive, however Dean said he had previously communicated with the Mayor that the software’s renewal was up this year.
Dean said the training budget line also had been cut from his request of $3,000 to $1,500. He said training is needed for Cisco switches in the building and for the new server scheduled to come online in 2024.
Council Finance Committee Chair Kim Ecklund indicated she believes that line should be funded to the full $3,000 request.
Ecklund also asked Sundquist why the proposed $6.8 million bond interest payments weren’t included in the proposed budget. Sundquist replied that the bond hadn’t been passed by Council yet, so he couldn’t include that payment in the budget. Ecklund estimated that interest payment could be $160,000 if council passes a bond at the current proposed $6.8 million level.
Council has discussed using the remaining $1.2 million in American Rescue Plan funds to lower the bond amount, which also would lower the interest payment amount.
When it comes to increased salaries for department heads, Sundquist said his proposal works to bring salaries in line with similar positions in other municipalities in the state, “We’re also trying to move all the department heads into a similar salary range because it’s been harder and harder to keep some of those. And since government work has been more and more difficult to keep employees as you all have probably have seen. Similar things are happening in the private sector where we’ve had to change benefits and salary amounts. So, you’ll see some of those increases to make sure they’re commensurate with what their counterparts are getting across the state and in Western New York.”
The Comptroller’s position shows a $13,000 pay increase, the City Clerk/Treasurer’s position a $18,000 increase, and the Corporation Counsel’s position a $19,676 increase.
The proposed $40.15 million spending plan currently includes no tax increase and uses no money from the fund balance.
Council will next hear presentations from the Departments of Public Works and Parks at its work session on Monday, October 23.
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