State of the City

STATE OF THE CITY

January 3, 2012

The 2011 year—the final year in the term of Common Council members who had taken office four years earlier—was a highly productive one for the government and, as a result, for the City. Two major efforts initiated by John Nader—a new zoning code and a new city charter—were brought to fruition. The zoning code gained official approval from the Council and the charter was authorized by the City’s voters, with great credit due to the intensive efforts of volunteer task force and Commission members. These documents will serve the City well for years to come and we should all be grateful for those who worked so diligently to bring them to completion.

While we are months away from having final financial results, it appears at this writing that they will show a deficit of approximately $700,000 versus a budgeted shortfall of $460,000 for the year ending December 31, 2011. The deficit increase was entirely related to financially prudent decisions of the Council on such infrastructure projects as the garage and initial funding of the Johnson Controls project. The City continued rigorous management of expenses and revenues in operating budgets controlled by department heads. Further, the City benefitted in 2011, and will benefit again in 2012, from holding health insurance cost increases to nominal levels for active employees. Additionally, we have been methodically reviewing all of the City’s expenditures and business practices to eliminate waste and unnecessary activities. While doing so, we have made major commitments to new accounting software, a new website, digital record storage, and an automated City-wide emergency telephone communication system. These efforts are intended to allow the City to become more cost efficient and effective in meeting the evolving needs of our citizens.

In the broad area of facilities that includes our engineering, public works, water and sewer departments, we have brought our multi-year facility plan to a new level of sophistication. This has allowed us to forecast capital needs of all of our physical plants and to schedule improvements so that we can assure continued operation and compliance with ever increasing mandates and requirements on a financial basis manageable by the City. Additionally, in December the City entered into a comprehensive energy conservation management contract with Johnson Controls that will, in 18 months’ time, assure that the City’s physical plant is not only at an optimum level of “green” but is also operating most cost effectively. This 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. Additionally, during the last year the City came to grips with the issues of the Allison Building and airport. In the case of the former, we have taken the steps necessary to begin its possible disposition. For the airport, we have adjusted service levels and the methods of providing them to assure the lowest possible cost to City taxpayers. Finally, the Department of Public Works was reorganized, establishing new performance requirements, increased accountability, and responsibility for the benefit of our employees and taxpayers.

A substantial effort is being undertaken on a variety of fronts to improve the quality of life in the City. Oneonta Public Transit is expected to show a deficit in 2011 driven by rising fuel costs and aging equipment, and will be looking carefully at its routes and forms of revenue. A $450,000 Senior Citizen Housing Improvement Grant allowed 20 qualified homeowners to benefit from improved living conditions and more energy efficient housing. Visible work began on the Bresee’s project in December and the City approved a general plan to improve parking and generate increased fees to invest in related facilities. More than 15 new and existing businesses benefitted from grants and loans totaling more than $250,000. While the funds available were exhausted, the City received notice in December that they would be replenished by a new micro enterprise grant that is part of Governor Cuomo’s stimulus program.

All of the City’s fees were reviewed and increased where appropriate. The Code Enforcement Office increased its efforts and diligence to assure that rental and commercial properties in the City are safe and in “neighbor friendly” condition. In related matters, the constitutionality of the City’s definition of a “functional family unit” was upheld by the court and we used it to successfully prosecute a landlord for the first time and have two additional cases now before the Court.   Finally, through selective hardwood harvesting of properties owned by the City in the Town of Oneonta, additional funds were put aside to supplement the City’s shade tree and beautification programs. This will allow us to double program expenditures over the next several years.

The Oneonta Police Department moved forward through a difficult period in the aftermath of the widely reported incident at the end of January 2011. With the April appointment of Interim Chief Gary O’Neill, procedures in the department were strengthened and morale has improved. Efforts are underway to replace several officers who have left and, as recently reported, Lieutenant Dennis Nayor will assume O’Neill’s position on a permanent basis at the end of April 2012. In the meantime, the department has committed to the New York State Department of Criminal Justice accreditation process. Additionally, investments in more advanced surveillance cameras and tasers have been approved to support the department’s effectiveness. The Oneonta Fire Department experienced another significant increase in call volume and transport requests to which it responded with great professionalism. While most of this increase was in the area of emergency management services, there were two significant structural fires, one resulting in the death of a prominent retired Hartwick College faculty member. In both cases, the department and supporting mutual aid organizations responded in a first class manner. Because of the increase in call volume experienced over the last 25 years, and in a dramatic way over the past 5 years, a task force has been formed and is working to consider the optimal size and structure of personnel within the department.

As we leave 2011 behind, a comment is in order on our good fortune in avoiding the direct hit of three major storms that affected the region in late August through October and into November. These storms brought significant damage to neighboring communities but left Oneonta relatively unscathed. While many of our homeowners were affected, essential services were maintained and our plants suffered minimal damage. We have filed more than $200,000 in FEMA claims to reimburse us for the special work that was undertaken in the storms’ aftermaths. We have worked where possible to lessen the impact on individual homeowners from significant drainage problems that existed beginning with a series of heavy storms in May of last year. When all is said and done, compared with such communities as Prattsville, Sidney, Schoharie, and Binghamton, we were fortunate indeed, and all our department heads and City workers are to be commended for their responses in a myriad of ways.

Before turning to the future, I want to reflect on and thank our Department Heads and their staffs for their contributions to our City’s well being. When one considers that we have replaced icons like Insetta, Martindale, Redmond, Scorzafava, Obergefell, Bernier, Friedman, Barnes and Polhamus over the past 4 years, we should be grateful that others have stepped in successfully to fill their shoes.

A new Common Council, with three veterans and five new members, took office on January 1.   Unofficially, the Council actually began its work at a retreat on December 10. Let me express my thanks to the Council that concluded its work at the end of 2011. We are in a stronger financial position than we anticipated two years ago and have taken care of many small but urgent items. Now we can place our focus on the future. The new Council will face, during its time in office, the continuation of deficits, which are unavoidable based on expenditure and revenue projections, with resulting reduction in our reserves to levels that will not be satisfactory.

The Council won’t have many options. It will either have to reduce essential services with related layoffs, or generate additional revenue either through cooperative efforts with the City’s not-for-profit entities or consolidation with the Town and sales tax preemption.   There are other ideas: a commuter tax, renegotiation of the City share of County sales tax revenue, or a sales tax increase. These are unpopular concepts, but I would not be acting responsibly if I did not call attention to problems that won’t simply go away, or to potential solutions that must be considered in order to deal with them. With a property tax cap in place, and fees adjusted to rates in comparable communities, the City has virtually no options to generate revenue that don’t involve the cooperation of other entities from the New York State and County legislatures to the local not-for-profit community. We have pushed out the day of reckoning, but it will be upon us nonetheless. The City will face tough choices. Those who care about its condition will have to decide how important it is to them to maintain services in public works, fire, and police at current levels. Our situation is a difficult one, but it is straightforward.

We have begun the process of engaging the new Council in understanding this reality so that they can be confident in their knowledge of the facts when they have to make difficult decisions. In the meantime, I will reach out to the leaders of local not-for-profits to see if we can collaborate in addressing our needs. I am sure they are well aware of the stake they have in the health of the City. I am also well aware that each of these other entities faces its own challenge, and that their financial well being is important to that of the City and the region.

I will also try, once again, to have a meeting with town leaders on the issues of consolidation and preemption and the benefits that would accrue to Town as well as City residents from this action. I hope they will be willing to at least discuss the subject. If we could have these discussions they will take months. In the meantime, collaborative regional efforts in planning and economic development would benefit everyone.

The City will benefit in addressing these challenges with the help of its first City Manager, as called for in the Charter adopted in November. The new Council will have to set in motion a search process and make the appointment, hopefully, in late summer or early fall. I have said to many that the first City Manager appointed in Oneonta will be its most important since he or she will establish the standard for his or her successors. I look forward to working with this individual as soon as an appointment is made.

There are other areas on which I know the Council will focus. The first is housing. A recent study conducted by Opportunities for Otsego presents a list of challenges for the area from which it is easy to see that one most relevant to the City, and presently unaddressed in a comprehensive way, is housing. The Council will announce tonight a summit on housing-related issues to focus on vacancies, the needs of the homeless, deficient conditions experienced by many, particularly our senior citizens, first-time home buyers, the desire for more owner-occupants in the center City, and the creation of additional housing on the upper floors of our Main Street. We hope OFO, Habitat, the City’s churches, realtors, colleges, downtown property owners, banks and businesses will join in this effort.

Additionally, the City government must look at the requirement of redistricting based on the last census, and at the wisdom of revaluing City properties as was done in the town last year. Redistricting is a requirement, revaluation is an option. Both will require Council study and leadership.

Council will receive recommendations from the Task Force mentioned earlier evaluating staffing issues in the Oneonta Fire Department. I have asked the Parks and Recreation Commission to work with the Boys and Girls Club, YMCA and School District to create an integrated community wide program to meet future recreation needs, particularly of our youth. Additionally, through the grant program mentioned earlier, and an invigorated MSO, we must leverage the presence of Foothills and the Oneonta Theater to continue the momentum of a resurgent downtown.

Finally, let me say that we must work together to address our challenges, particularly those related to our structural deficit, in order to be successful in avoiding the calamities of Albany and Washington. We have time, but it is slipping from our grasp. Over the past year, we have had meetings of the Council, Mayor, department heads and labor leadership to talk about the City’s challenges and to identify ways of working together to address them. This practice, which will soon include the City Manager, must continue. We can not have a “we-they” environment if all of us are to be successful. I look forward to working with all parties involved to that end.

Local News

Search Results

Discussion

Will the economy continue to improve in 2012?

Site Map

Contact Us