[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
he
[Music]
conect city council committee meeting
for Monday June 17th 2024 we're going to
start off with two presentations this
time I'd like to turn up the commission
for
Ferrari thank you council president uh
city council mayor uh we would like to
start uh tonight with uh uh a review of
the audit uh we have uh John tski from
kuak and Company are Auditors of the who
audited the city's connected financials
uh for 2023 and uh uh we're going to
have John come up and explain the audit
and what he's done and uh how everything
looks and hopefully
uh uh you guys can have some questions
as you go along okay I'm going to turn
it over to John
John uh I just wanted to start off by
saying thank you to um the mayor city
council and um everybody who helped us
out during the audit um really
appreciate everything they did to help
us complete the audit um we have a great
staff here very well qualified uh really
good people and we really appreciate
everything that they did for us um so
our ultimate responsibility for the
audit is to be able to issue an opinion
on your fin statements as to whether
they're materially stated and whether
they're in compliance with generally
accepted accounting principles otherwise
known as Gap so our audit takes place in
three main phases um the first is our
pre- audit phase which takes place in
December so during this time what we do
is we review your internal control
processes um we test those internal
control processes we perform variance
and budget analysis uh review council
meeting minutes and complete our
internal risk assessment
procedures um the next is our audit
fieldwork phase this takes place in
mid-march uh we use this information
gathered um to develop our audit
procedures our audit programs test
account balances um to U verify if they
appear materially stated the third is
our reporting phase where we review the
financial statements prepared by your
senior accountant and um report on the
final results so the financial
statements that you have in front of you
are a 77 page document overall it's
comprised of several major parts the
first major part is going to be the
Management's discussion analysis on
pages 1 through 7 adds are required un
audited section financial statements so
what this does is it summarizes the
operating results and other financial
highlights of the year if you're
unfamiliar with the financial statements
this is an excellent read uh Pages 8
through 10 that's your independent AUD
report where we issue an opinion on your
financial statements
um it is important to note that your
financial statements are on the fund
level only fund and account group level
only exclusive up a non-current
governmental asset account group we are
pleased to say that we
have we have once again issued an
unmodified opinion on your financial
statements the highest insurance we can
give you consider a clean report we have
no report issu with no F so Pages 11
through 13 these are your governmental
fund balance sheets and statements of
revenues expenditures and changes in
fund balance approximated operating
results for the year end of December
31st
2023 general fund balance was unchanged
due to the ARA loss Revenue water fund
had a surplus of
323,000 sewer fund had a surplus of
136,000 recreation fund had a surplus of
4,000 a special grants and revenue fund
surplus of
13,000 and your capital projects had a
surplus of 26 million uh due to the
proceeds from Sero Bond issuance and
band
redemptions so highlights of the 2023
general fund activity these are all
approximated figures prior your taxing
Ed F below Expectations by 772 th000
casino revenue exceeded expectations by
54,000 property sales fell below
Expectations by 1.7 million uh sales tax
revenue exceeded expectations by 2.3
million insurance recoveries these
exceed Expectations by $753,000
adult use cannabis revenue for the year
was
$531,000 for new Revenue source for 2023
Street opening permits these fell below
expectation 700 188,000 and the federal
arpa funds that were utilized $8.9
million for the year 6.5 million of
which was used for the loss Revenue
calculation um overall we feel that
management does a really good job with
your reserves uh general fund balance is
$18.9 million for the year ended 6.5
million of that is restricted funds and
the detail for these account balances is
on pages 52 and 53 notes of financial
statements band borrowings increased by
5.7 million to fund projects your New
York State EFC borrowings $28 million
converted to Long Ser
con there was an increase of $48 million
in the city's net pension liability this
is for underfunded ERS and PFS balance a
year end was a liability of 9.9 million
for ERS and a liability of 42.9 million
for pfrs total oped liability other
post-employment benefits it's increased
by $43 million to $294 million these
valuations are due to gby savings 68 and
75 which require the acral of pension
assets and liabilities and the other
post employment benefits on actu
valuations custodial fund is required by
G state4 this includes the property
taxes which are collected for other
governments not yet remitted Pages 16
through 58 of your financials these are
the footnotes of your financial
statements if you're not comfortable
with the face of the financial
statements or you wanted more detail as
a significant account balances or
material account balances in the face of
the financial statements the notes are a
very good read overall Pages 66 through
77 this is your federal signal audit
since the city expended more than
$750,000 in federal funding you are
required to have it's called the federal
single audit um Federal expenditures for
the year were $29 million overall so as
part of this Federal audit what we're
required to do is uh rotate your major
programs every 3 years major programs
for this year with a Community
Development block rant
uh the home Grant and also the Arta
funds as well um your art funds are
required to be obligated uh for
expenditure by December 31st 2024 and
must be expanded by December 31st 2026
there are currently $31 million um still
remaining of your AR funds to be spent
um from the overall accounting and
control standpoint we feel like your
staff does a really great job a really
great team here a lot of strong people
um they were very helpful during the
audit um if there was any questions at
this point you know audit process that
was just a brief overview of the
financial highlights the questions on
the audit process or the audit in
general financial statements um I'd be
happy to take at this point could you
just go over a again about the liability
that you talked about the 9.9 million
liability increase sure the um
underfunded ERS and pfrs so those
evaluations are so ERS and pfrs are
under gas saer number 68 the state has
an actal evaluation done and what they
do is they have to report to us whether
we have if they're in an asset sit
situation or a liability situation for
overfunding or underfunding both of
those um pension systems are underfunded
which essentially means that they have a
liability that that is allocated on a
pro-rated basis to each municipality
that's part of that system so in theory
as of 123123 should those systems fail
in theory the city would owe 9.9 million
for ERS and 42.9 million for police and
fire we know that would never happen
there's safeguards in place but gby
statement 68 does require that that is
plac on in the long-term dead fund as a
life and that's the same with G State 75
for the other post employment benefit
benefit that's a liability as well
that's done on an Actuarial basis so the
actuary provides a report that says you
know this is your projected liability
based on our our inputs and outputs into
into this calculation at that given time
so I know those numbers seem really
massive you know and it's kind of scared
up some they for lack of a better term
can be considered paper liability ities
where they're not going to be funded
they cannot be funded but ultimately
those are viations that have to be put
on to the STS thank you so question you
said uh that part of the federal AIT
process that you have to rotate three
major programs what do you mean by that
so every so your major programs are any
programs that are over $750,000 or meet
certain risk criteria so that AUD if
that program was audited in the previous
year it was over 750 we had findings we
then have to AIT that program again so
every third year so essentially like um
like your lead Grant you spend more than
$750,000 on your Le Grant this year but
I audited that program last year without
any material there was no findings no
significant efficiency so I did not have
to once again audit it this year as well
the arpa program is so large that we
consider a higher risk from our
standpoints our internal risk assessment
says this is brand new program very high
dollar amount we're going to audit it
every year IR regardless of what we can
or cannot do so that's that's kind of
from our our our side what we're doing
for our risk assessment that program
okay so I had a question and I imagine
your report it gets more detailed U just
wanted to confirm you said Pages 52 and
53 give that assessment of the balances
uh I imagine that gets into uh how our
rating is a c is
outline I'm sorry you're reading or I
think there's like a a like a the bond
rating so the bond rating is discussed
in the Management's discussion and
Analysis the details of the actual fund
balance with all the different funds
that's going to be on pages 52 and 53 so
you can see how much is restricted what
it's restricted for if there's
incumbrances details of all those
different balances thank
you um you mentioned um the arpa um loss
Revenue $8 million that was set aside
and we only used um $6 million does that
mean that we have $2 million available
using 24 now yeah well I was going to
say was even more than that so was I
think
Tony I think it was $11 million in total
but we use six six and change this year
and then the rest of it is budg
for anyone
else you said the audit went very well
thank you all for having me here tonight
and if there's any questions you know
afterward after you're done here if you
think of anything just um give my
contact information ton or D and can
take care
of thank you
than okay um excuse me um we've been
talking about this for um a while and uh
about doing a quarterly financial report
so that we don't see a similar situation
as we did last year we get to the budget
we kind of have an idea where we were
financially and how things are going so
Mr Ferrari is here
today we just kind of go over it um
where we are with our
Revenue excuse me are you going to vote
to adopt please oh yeah for the audit to
accept the audit to accept the audit yes
but um but let's just do that under
government office because I usually do
it in a committee so let's do it
[Music]
there all right you want me to go ahead
or you yeah we'll do that in government
house I'd like to present DK who's going
to present our first quarter uh
uh details for you
Derek thank you so we're just going to
review the first quar report for the
fiscal year
2024 uh I'd like to start with the
general fund um start off on a positive
note uh the city's connect uh did
increase its rated from an A to an A
plus after completion of the official
state statement and interview with our
S&P experts um from operational
standpoint uh based on the original
adopted budget through March 2024 the
city has attained 40% of its projected
general fund revenue and expending 22%
of projected general fund expenditures
uh during the same period of 2023 the
city had attained 41% of projected
revenue and expended 23% of its
projected
expenditures um some of the budget
concerns for the general fund are in
certies in health insurance costs
um there's 11% increase from 2023 to
2024 this is in the same period from
January through March uh vehicle repair
budget um has increased by
68% uh compared to
2023 um tipping fees increased by
107% uh compared to 2023 the waste
recycling per DM salary increased by
28% um Public Safety overtime costs um
respective the PD has increased by 5%
compared to 2023 and again this is from
January to March of 2024 the far
requirement increased by 16% during the
same time period um there's only one
meeting contract which has not been
settled which is on tonight's agenda uh
the PBA uh for
2024 um the golf fund uh from an
operational standpoint based on the
original adopted budget through March 24
the city has attained 2% projected golf
fund revenue and expended 7% of its
projected golf fund expenditures through
the same period 2023 and seven correct
correct 2% for Revenue 7% for the
expenditures 2024 uh compared to 2023
the city attain 2% projected revenue and
expend 20% of its projected excuse me
projected
expenditures uh the expenditures for
2023 are due to higher typ type Capital
Reserves expenditures compared to the
same period in 2024 the length of the
season will um definitely um influence
the financial outcome of the golf fund
um as of now there are no budget
concerns in
2024 the water fund uh from an
operational standpoint activities in the
water fund are closely tracking those of
2023 raising no budget concerns at the
present time based on an original
adopted budget through March 2024 the
city has obtained 58% of its projected
Revenue spend 20% of projected
expenditures through the same period of
2023 the city has attained 67% of the
projected revenue and expending 19% of
his projected
expenditures the revenues are down in
2024 due to the timing of issuing uh n
Uno water
bill uh which is uh approximately
$648,000 the expenses are up in 2024 due
to early use of water repair line of
approximately 455,000 in
2024 the sewer fund from an operational
standpoint based on operational adopted
budget through March 2024 the city has
attained 63% of its projected sewer fund
revenue and expended 16% of its
projected sewer fund expenditures
throughing the same time period of 2023
the city has attained 62% of projected
revenue and expended 18% of the
projected proes use of type Capital
reserves is much higher at this point in
2024 than the same in 2023 by
approximately
66,000 so the finance department will
continue to monitor the numbers and
Report City Council on a quarterly basis
um are there any questions at this
point um thank you for the breakdown
looking for clarification you said the
vehicle repair increased uh are you able
to differentiate between like reing
maintenance and then just
acents uh the vehicle pair parts and
bringing to uh uh Gad shop to get the
repair um I think most of that is do the
inflation the parts supply and demand um
so we're definitely seeing that
everything's
up so just you're you're not you're
suggesting that's probably just because
the increase of pars not necessarily
like more vehicles are breaking down or
there's an increase of things like that
it could be potentially B of Aging Fleet
and um you know just supply and demand
and then as We Know with the cost ofair
and you know getting those uh pars
from um you also said there was 11%
increase in for our healthcare costs
yeah yes um well that's compared to
2023 um it's going up um we I think we
showed you guys in the past and the
council wanted to cut um and was
approximately a million dollarss at one
point but um it's just you know the way
the market is at this point um
FY can speak more towards
that on the health side uh during the co
period from 2020 to 2023 actually uh
because of the the co outbreak our our
uh uh fees for uh Health had steady and
actually gone down but as as uh 2023
emerged especially at the last uh
quarter the last half you know people
started going back to the doctors we
have a lot more babies and I'm sorry to
say we have a lot more people getting
sicker um and than you know than we we
we wish to uh in 2024 we saw that uh
last quarter of 2023 move increasing as
you can see at 11% more more people are
going to the doctors more people are
getting treatments and more people are
getting uh work done so uh uh the the
price of uh the price has gone up but
you know I I always like to say that uh
because we have such a great uh uh
health benefit here at this concy you
know we're proud that our workers are
our C so well so it's it's it's to give
it costs more money but you know we're
giving a really good product to our our
employees so we have a 2023 completed
year and now this year at this point in
time what areas are lying on expenses
that we should be concerned of that we
may I think I mentioned a bunch of them
I think those are definitely you know
you have a look out for um they could do
another that sorry top three top three
um health insurance is definitely one of
them um you know with the overtime cost
possibly PB and uh PD and fire
department um you know the council did
cut uh from this past budet year um you
know this first quarter is really hard
to tell at this point we'll have a
better idea in the second and third
quarter where we're going to sit um so I
think about a month or so we'll have
another discussion uh for a second quar
more updated numbers thanks a
lot um in terms of the vehicle repairs
um 68% increase do you think that that
might have been um lessened had we been
able to vote in our last budget about
going to the um going internal with our
vehicle repairs which I think was what
you guys had presented to us in the
budget but was rejected by the council I
I thought that we through if I recall
correctly went through yes oh I thought
we
um I think I think it took a
while in our in our group now okay but
we did keep that guy on overnight okay
that's also an increase but we're also
thinking work time okay cuz I thought
you said something about sending the
vehicles out just just now talking to I
was I no I I was asking is is it due to
the increase of cost of price Parts what
I saying we do both we do both Miss
Patrick
okay but but to her point I thought that
was going to kind of uh that was
supposed to cut our our cost as opposed
to but now doesn't seem like it
necessarily yeah I think like I said it
took a while to get someone in that
position so I don't think we're really
seeing the fruits of yet okay maybe in
the second third quarter we'll actually
see you know that decrease
okay thank you Mr waves uh I know kind
of referencing our last budget cycle I
know a point of contention or just an
area of a lot of discussion was around
the uh uh overtime budget related to the
police department and fire department um
I don't know if it's related but I do
see both uh Chief Clifford and chief up
here and in tonight I don't know if
either are available but I would love to
hear from their respect if there's been
any uh alteration in their responses to
Public Safety which was uh a comment or
series of comments I heard frequently
from the community I know as you
mentioned this is just the first quarter
but there's a question that I will be
asking throughout the year just has
there been any uh administ or altered
responses due to the uh or due to the
way we budgeted over time sure I'm not
sure if the Chiefs are ready to present
this time for that and I maybe they'll
come in next committee cycle to discuss
that further with you me did did you
hear the question did you hear the
comment I can speak in general
ter come
[Music]
on I know your fingers on the post of
this all the time so I know your fingers
on the post of this all the time so so
you want to understand the
question U so just to repeat myself um
throughout my conversations I've heard
and also it was a comment that was
consistently repeated that any uh
adjustments that were made to the
recommended budgeted lines for overtime
would have a negative effect to your
ability to respond to events throughout
the
community so my question is have you had
to alter your response due to the um due
to what money was allocated to over no
not at this
point uh we have minimum Staffing of 20
uh we put 20 on the street every day we
answer every call that comes in uh like
normal and the money is there now to pay
for all the overturn what happens in the
third and fourth quarter is yet to be
seen that's why I was so passionate and
adamant for that figure that we
presented um as of the first quarter
the amounts that we were looking at we
were right on target for that amount
that we
requested uh now if we remain at that
we'll see we're definitely not going the
other
way
Chief simar response um I think it's
fair to say that the first quarter for
the police department is always be least
expensive for us seems like uh weather
is usually Cooperative from the first of
the year until uh you know April May and
uh we we do a lot less proactively more
responsive so we really didn't you know
we we we really didn't do much different
than we normally do um but we do expect
that with the summer months upon us uh
we have more that will be busier we'll
be putting more assets out there as the
certain holidays come around like 4th of
July so so we will expect it to be
probably a higher percentage than first
quarter for our overtime spending thank
you
aome any other
questions okay um thank you very much
and U we'll see you for the second
quarter absolutely I'm sorry no I just
moov your glasses around yeah oh mayor
the
uh
just be uh trying to be polite my word
choice uh last year's budget process was
somewhat of a debacle said trying to
avoid that this type of information has
always been provided to the council we
had generally made public comments at
the adoption of the budget that we would
go back and look to change the code in
the charter where today it reads that
the mayor submits it by October 1st the
council adopts it by November first uh
there were some opinions granted that
there were no impact or effect of not
adopting a
budget uh I've made some staff
adjustments to uh reflect that prior
opinion but thought the council was on
the mindset to put something on the
ballot to clear that up so that if a
budget is not adopted by November 1st
you adopt either uh the mayor's proposed
budget last year's budget some
contingency budget but to take the ambig
do it out of the whole process and that
uh I've waited for that the action of
the council we are coming up to a point
where the timelines to put forward
resolutions that would go on the ballot
for this November uh there's still time
where we can do that but I would assume
the council is going to act on that in
some fashion we can pick up the
discussion at the next committee meeting
thank
you oh I'm sorry Mr yeah my my only resp
response to that would be I I would
disagree in that I would categorize that
as a debacle I think it offered a lot of
areas of improvement and a lot of
learning opportunities for the council I
would agree with that if we allowed it
collectively to repeat again in our 2024
or 2025 conversations but I definitely
agree um Mr Mayor I think cleaning up
some of those um lesser cleared areas
specifically with regards to whether a
budget is adopted I I definitely can
agree that having more finer language to
alleviate our interpretations only helps
ensure that a budget is passed in timely
manner for the
city and um that's one of the reasons I
was hoping I was asking that we had do
this process so that we're once we get
to the um where we have to actually look
at the the overall budget we will have
had discussions throughout and have a
better idea of where we were so we will
have the back and forth and
um long elongated prolonged um budget
process that we had last year so we can
put that forward to have discussion at
the next committee meeting thank
you okay go ahead I like the col
government operations we have two items
on the agenda actually the audit and I
we put three items on the agenda right
so first I what we'll
do we to accept our
audit so second all those in favor
I all right next agenda item is going to
be ring Dr Kelly tolin of other clinical
psychologist and is Chief
War good
evening um so working with the Police
Department fire department has been in
the process of establishing our home
peer
support team as a matter of fact we're
joining the police department um with
their te they're doing a fantastic job
uh and we are modeling our team after
theirs and we'll be working closely with
them part of our par support team is
bringing on a clinical psychologist and
we are uh asking to approved a contract
with Dr Kelly toin who's the same
psychologist at the police work
with uh her contract calls for a
$1,400 uh retainer fee every month
uh we'll be modifying our original
proposal of a year contract to 6 months
and um there was some questions that the
uh uh council president had asked I have
answer to so the background of our the
reason why we want our prayer support
team is because of the increase in
mental health challenges that First
Responders are are facing and in the
legislative request I listed some of
those they're actually pretty trouble uh
to the point where we just dealt with
two issues uh about 10 days ago of
people that really needed some
intervention so due to the work our
people do and the stress that comes with
that and the amount of time that our
people are working um we're seeing more
and more challenges so it is extremely
important that we have a team and with
the team we need the clinical
psychologist so that's why I'm here to
ask for the approval of the
contract Chief um the compensation of
section three page um section three um
$1,400 with retainer and that not to
exceed
$1,000 for additional service so that's
like 4 hours is that enough
on top of the $1,400 so the $400 is uh
her retainer and all the services she'll
provide you see that on exhibit a that
additional
$250 a u an hour that would be in the
event of
some acute
event and I don't want to get specific
but it something happened and she was
called in because of the sheer uh severe
that that would be what she would be
charging for that event it wouldn't be
for oneon-one for oneon-one
uh sessions she' be charging she'd be
invoicing the insurance so this would
be in the event of something
happen
specific so I think what we're seeing um
in society right now is that there's a
renewal of the social contractor
institutions including school districts
um First Responders things like that
nature and I think that this is
definitely in line um with
that that's probably a contract that
wasn't necessarily negotiated we just
had to respond to because there's a
different level of need here so I think
that that's a important step to take a
proactive step to take it's something
that we can probably um
unfortunately uh will likely we utilize
one way or another so I I I appreciate
that F and full support of that any
other questions or comments on that um
just a comment do we have the same PSA
for the police department do we have the
same PSA for the police department I'm
not sure it's exactly but conceptually
it's the same it's um the police
department it's 2,000 overall and then
225 for
incidents um I just want to make sure
that we have U up to date signed
contract um we don't do that but that's
that's the difference there he so it was
modeled as the chief said off of the
police dep
Department my um I just wanted to ask
Chief so are we going to be um this date
in in that we have in our information
say it's June 1st so we going to be
changing that to July 1st July 1 yeah
okay and I'll speak with court Council
tomorrow about uh making it a six month
as opposed to a year right so to keep it
in line with how we do our um our budget
and then we'll do it again in the
beginning of the year correct well at
the end of the year at the beginning of
the year and cor Council wanted one
phrase in the resolution so so we make
sure that gets in there also oh it was
just regarding legislative request sorry
that was just regarding the legislative
request okay we we'll put together the
final
contract thank you H um so you said you
said something about You' be working
with the team who else is on the team
you
haven't well right now we're putting
together our team working with Dr toin
and just to be fully transparent Dr
Tobin's been working with us probably
the last two months
and has not been uh compensated nor she
asking to be compensated I just state
that to show you the character of Dr
tolin she is not in this for the money
like I said to her today you're not
building a mansion any words she's in it
because she believes it and she does
wonderful work she's already counil a
couple of our people
um
so we'll be starting in July what was
your question oh who whe the type of
professionals or staff or whatever you
going to put on a team to help so some
other departments have modeled their
team uh through seniority um you know
taking into
consideration what the contract States
here we're doing it basically on a
volunteer basis our people will not be
compensated there are people that are
drawn to this
and they'll be vetted by Dr toin and
those members of the SK Police
Department team to make sure there'd be
a good thing so we we don't have names
to give you at this point but we'll have
that soon we're in the process very nice
thank
you so is Dr Toby is this a to uh
actually do the homework on the site
which uh which vendor we will go with
each for each uh each category
CH you thank you so so you said drones
in addition to the other program that we
have with the two drones I think the
other one is and this would be these
would be
additional nope uh this is a what we've
already you've already approved which is
uh through Brink we have funding down
and pay for that whole the
contract Chief you mentioned a list vit
here are you planning to upgrade the S
at the same time or are you going to use
um
Cloud we're going to use the cloud okay
any other
questions see may have a motion to move
this item so second all in favor the
next item is the intergovernmental
cooperation
agreement yes so AC is give here the
city's connected police department has
received grant funding under the gun
involved violence and elimination which
again is the gri partnership for the
fiscal year of 14 2015 the award is
granted by New York state to the
Department of Criminal justic Services
the Grant application is a partnership
between SK Police Department the SKC
District Attorney's Office SKC County
Probation Department and the skan county
sheriff's the total Grant reward for all
of the entities is $1,200
773 with the scity police department
receiving 5
$3,495 question on
this go ahead please and so is all of
ours going to um be so this is the
budget here right you've given us the
budg of house