JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council Monday night approved a resolution requesting financial and operating assistance from the state.
As WRFA reported on Monday, Governor Andrew Cuomo announced at the start of the year that the state would establish a Financial Restructuring Board for Local Governments. The board would provide recommendations for any municipality that requests help in finding ways to eliminate or reduce operating costs.
City Councilman and finance committee chairman Tony Dolce said that just because the council is requesting help from the new panel doesn’t necessarily mean it will get it.
“It’s a new thing that just came up so a number of different municipalities are looking into it and we’ll have to see where we fit on that scale of high need,” Dolce said. “They may look at us and say ‘we’re not ready for you yet.’ Obviously its a good step forward to have people come in, take a look at things with maybe a different set of eyes to give us some ideas or to maybe say, ‘hey, you guys are doing a pretty good compared to some other places so just keep up what you are doing.”
Dolce also stressed that if the state did allow the city to receive help from the panel, it doesn’t mean the city would need to follow through on any of the recommendations put forward. He said the city should find out within the next few month if the state will offer assistance or not.
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