By Jake Palmateer
Staff Writer
---- —
ONEONTA _ Mayor Dick Miller had a stark message in his State of the City address delivered Tuesday night: layoffs of city workers are possible as Oneonta deals with continued financial strains.
Those fiscal strains are driven largely by personnel-related expenses, with more than 70 percent of the city's budget paying for wages or benefits, the mayor said from a small podium in front of the city flag.
But cuts to the city's work force would mean cuts to the services provided by the city, he said.
"Our situation is a difficult one. I can't imagine how we could operate with the current levels of service with fewer employees," Miller said.
The warning on layoffs was part of a wide-ranging speech as the mayor starts his third year at City Hall at the head of a Common Council that includes five new members.
Civil Service Employees Association Unit 8101 President Tom Pondolfino was one of two dozen audience members on hand for the mayor's speech.
Pondolfino said he isn't too worried about layoffs in 2012.
One of the main reasons is that the city's CSEA work force has been pared back through attrition to the point where it can't be cut anymore without reducing services, according to Pondolfino.
Pondolfino noted the city police and fire departments, which have their own unions, have very visible presences in the community. But CSEA workers maintain the city's water and sewer systems, as well as work in other ways for the community.
"You have to have your roads," he said.
But Pondolfino said cutting workers -- and therefore services -- may be an eventuality in coming years.
"It's going to be somebody's headache," Pondolfino said.
Fire Chief Patrick Pidgeon, who has lobbied vigorously for additional firefighters to help with his department's staffing woes, said he will continue those efforts, but acknowledged it will be a tough fight.
Tough decisions ahead
The Common Council will face tough decisions and will have to reduce services through layoffs or find other ways to generate revenue, Miller said.
Those include seeking financial help from the city's nonprofit organizations or merging with the town and sales tax pre-emption. Other ideas mentioned by the mayor include a commuter tax, similar to the New York City income tax for non-city residents, a sales tax increase or a renegotiation of the city's share of the county's sales tax revenue.
"None of these ideas are popular ideas," Miller said.
Four of the new council members were present for the mayor's speech, delivered at City Hall. They include David Rissberger of the Third Ward, Mike Naples of the Sixth Ward, Bob Brzozowski of the Seventh Ward and Chip Holmes of the Eighth Ward.
First Ward Council Member Maureen Hennessy, Fourth Ward Council Member Mike Lynch and Fifth Ward Council Member Madolyn Palmer are returning to the city's governing body.
Newly-elected Second Ward Council Member Larry Malone was absent.
Miller reflected on 2011 and outlined a list of successes: A strengthened code enforcement office; the adoption of a new City Charter, which calls for the hiring of a city manager, by voters; a revamped zoning code; a reorganized Department of Public Works; continued work on the former Bresee's project; and a re-energized Oneonta Police Department following a police brutality case.
The challenges faced by the city are largely fiscal in nature and involve the city using its reserves to pay off operating expenses, according to the mayor.
It's a problem that will "simply not go away," Miller said. "We have pushed out the day of reckoning."
But, the mayor said, the city's deficit situation is better than it was three years ago when it was first calculated in a five-year fiscal plan.
However, the budget deficit for 2011 was originally projected at $460,000, but is now $700,000. The mayor said this was because of a renovation project on the municipal parking garage and the initial funding of the Johnson Controls energy efficiency project.
The $3.8 Johnson Control plan pays for itself entirely over a 15-year period and generates positive cash flow in every year of the project and $1 million in total, according to the mayor.
Miller outlined how he hopes joint efforts with community groups, organizations and businesses will benefit the city in 2012, naming a housing summit scheduled for next month, a soon-to-be launched community-wide effort to meet future recreation needs and a revitalized Main Street Oneonta organization working with Foothills Performing Arts and Civic Center and the Oneonta Theatre.
Palmer said she was enthusiastic about 2012 -- a year in which the city is implementing its new charter.
"We are a new council, and we are going to be working under a new charter," Palmer said. "I think it's great."
She thanked several members of the Charter Revision Commission in the audience.
The cornerstone of the charter is the city manager position.
"I hope somebody can be in place in early fall," Miller said.
The incoming Common Council skirted the open meetings law, which requires that meetings with a quorum of members be announced and open to the public. Miller said the incoming members met in a retreat Dec. 10 to discuss the upcoming year before they were sworn in as public officials.
"We were able to sneak the one in December in," Miller said.
The next retreat would now be considered a formal meeting of the Common Council, according to the mayor.
