Reorganizational Meeting - Tonawanda



Council Chambers

Tonawanda, New York

October 6, 2020

A Regular Meeting of the Common Council – 7 P.M.

Present: Council President Koch

Present Councilmembers: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch

Excused: Mileham

Pledge of Allegiance led by Council President Koch

Moment of silence led by Council President Koch

Bid Openings:

Thursday, October 1, 2020

10:00 A.M.

YOUNG STREET PUMP STATION FLOWMETERS PROJECT

NFP & Sons, Inc.

7311 Ward Road

North Tonawanda, NY 14120 Total Bid: $81,470.00

H & K Services Inc.

12025 Leon Road

Leon, NY 14751 Total Bid: $181,325.00

Mayor’s Proposed Operating Budget & 5 Year Capital Plan Message

2021 Budget Message

The Mayor’s proposed General Fund Budget for 2021 includes a 6.36% increase in the City property tax rate from $18.54 to $19.72 per $1,000 of assessed valuation. This represents a 6.49 % increase in the budgeted property tax levy from $13.7 million in 2019 to $14.6 million. In laments terms, the average assessed home in the city will see an increase of about $12 a month in taxes. Property taxes represent 59% of the revenue used to fund operations of $24.8 million. The proposed 2021 budget projects State Revenue Sharing to remain constant at $2.6 million. In 2009, the City of Tonawanda received $2.8 million of State Revenue Sharing Aid, which was reduced to $2.655 million in 2010, then further reduced in 2011 to the $2.6 million we have received for the last 10 years. There is a $202,500 decrease anticipated over budgeted 2020 Sales Tax Revenue. State Aid and Sales Tax combined account for 30% of the revenue in the proposed spending plan to fund City services. A long term concern on the reliance of Sales Tax as a significant component of the General Fund Operating Budget is the fact that a portion of what the City receives is determined by the aggregate populations of the Cities of Buffalo, Tonawanda and Lackawanna, currently using a Census from 2010. The City of Tonawanda’s share of County Sales Tax could be significantly, adversely affected when that calculation updates its census populations in 2021. The General Fund began fiscal year 2020 with an unassigned fund balance of $3 million, approximately 12% of total projected operating expenditures, and weak by Government Accounting standards.

Property Tax Cap

Chapter 97 of New York State Laws for 2011 established a tax levy limit (generally referred to as the tax cap) that affects all local governments and school districts in New York State except New York City and the “Big Five” dependent city school districts. This legislation took effect in 2012. Property taxes levied by local governments generally cannot increase by more than 2 percent, or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower. However, the law does allow local governments certain exclusions which add to its tax levy limit. Any perception that the tax cap is a hard 2% is erroneous, as it can fluctuate from year to year depending on growth based economic factors. For fiscal year 2021, the State Comptroller’s Office has established the City’s property tax cap at $13,936,800, an increase over the prior year spending plan of approximately 1.5% which equates to an increase in property taxes levied of approximately $205,000. An override of the levy limit by local law, was passed by the Common Council earlier this year.

It is the City’s responsibility to complete and submit its tax cap calculation to the New York State Comptroller’s office prior to its budget adoption.

General Fund Revenue Summary

NYS Per Capita Revenue Sharing is projected to be $2,602,104. This is what New York State has allocated to the City in its General Fund Operating Budget for the last ten (10) years. It is unclear whether or not the State will implement additional, if any, reductions in State Aid to municipalities, however it is clear that over the past ten years New York State has severely diminished the impact of Revenue Sharing to Local Governments as a means to control the growth of property taxes, while at the same time imposing property tax caps, encouraging the consolidation of local government services and mandating/imposing comprehensive multi-million dollar sewer improvement projects via consent order. The proposed 2021 budget does not include an appropriation of fund balance to offset the property tax levy.

General Fund Expenditure Summary

The 2021 Budget anticipates the City’s contribution to the New York State Retirement System to be $2.159 million. This is an increase of approximately $304,000 from the 2020 budget. Generally, this is attributable to projected employee salary increases and conservative reserving policies administered by the State Retirement System.

The proposed 2021 budget attempts to maintain and increase current budgeted levels of service while attempting to work within budgeted overtime and seasonal employee expenses in the four largest departments. Personnel costs account for approximately 77% of total general fund expenditures. Health Insurance costs in the 2021 budget are projected at $4.4 million. The Health Insurance line item was specifically reduced from the 2020 adopted budget by approximately $150,000. This was a result of sending our coverage out to bid. The City must continue to work collectively with current employees and retirees to control the cost of health insurance.

The proposed budget anticipates the potential retirements of approximately 4 employees in 2021. The fiscal impact of impending retirements and between now and the end of 2023, which is the year that all of the collective bargaining agreements expire, is an element of the annual operating budget that is critical to understand and contemplate. We estimate as much as 22 City employees to retire before the expiration of the current collective bargaining agreements over the next four years and stress the need to recognize the budgetary fiscal impacts of accumulated leave payouts. Retirements are also opportunities to consider restructuring the workforce.

The Mayor’s proposed operating budget eliminates the position of Sr. Citizens Director and consolidates those responsibilities under the Senior Recreation Leader.

The 2021 proposed General Fund spending plan includes funding of the Local Development Corporation (LDC) of $45,000 and the expenses and revenues associated with the Solar Panel array at the Wales Avenue Landfill which recently commenced operation. The cost for the Solar Panels for the year has been projected at $92,612, with $55,000 designated as offsetting revenue from the Sewer Fund as a conservative estimate of electrical reduction costs as a result of the project.

General Fund Debt Service for 2021 is approximately $1.8 million.

The proposed Water Fund Budget is a reflection of the City’s complete elimination of its Water Department in 2004. Budgeted revenues for 2021 of $200,000 represent funds received from the Erie County Water Authority surcharge, which is 49 cents per thousand gallons. These funds were originally applied to eliminate outstanding indebtedness owed on bonded Water projects. The Water fund began fiscal year 2021 with a fund balance of $91,000. The 2021 Water Fund Budget appropriates the entire $200,000 projected surcharge to be transferred to the General Fund to offset the cost of Water related services currently supported by property tax revenue in the General Fund Operating Budget.

The proposed Sewer Fund Budget is approximately $2.5 million. A 5% rate increase from the current $5.60 per thousand gallons was recommended to fund this budget in 2021. The proposal would increase the minimum annual charge from $224.00 annually to $235.20. ($11.20 or less than $1.00 per month). The Sewer rate has remained constant for the last three years. Fund transfers to the General Fund to reflect the cost of Sewer related services are increased from $495,000 to $505,000. The Sewer Fund began 2019 with a fund balance of $595,340. The City’s cost to the Town of Tonawanda for sewage treatment is projected to increase from a budgeted amount of $950K to $1.1 million annually. The City continues to progress towards the completion of its comprehensive ten phase Sanitary Sewer remediation projected under consent order from the NYS DEC. This is an overall investment which is projected to cost between $25 and $30 million. We have been extremely successful working with the NYS Environmental Facilities Corporation (EFC) to finance these improvements at 0% interest. This capital improvement is reflected significantly throughout the 2021 to 2024 five year capital budget. The City must anticipate additional improvements to our sewage treatment system beyond the existing ten phase project from federal and state environmental regulatory authorities. This will require future sewer rate increases and stresses the importance to maintain an overall sound financial position. More than 30% of the users of the sanitary sewer system are within the confines of what is determined to be minimum consumption. An honest reflection of the value of the minimum value for a consumer to be connected to a sanitary sewer system regardless of the annual discharge into that system is appropriate and necessary.

2021-2025 Capital Budget Summary

The Five-Year Capital Improvement Budget reflects a cumulative total of $10.4 million in future Sewer Remediation projects included as part of the ten phase NYS DEC Consent order and beyond. Annual street paving projects and sidewalk replacements are approximately $700,000 annually offset by NYS Consolidated Highway Improvement Projects (CHIPS) funding. 2021 includes Empire State Development Grant Funds ($2.5 million) for capital project work in the downtown Young Street corridor. All projects identified in the capital plan require further scrutiny by the Mayor and Common Council to determine their fiscal feasibility based upon their impact on future budgets as well as their ability to be funded through grants and not through municipal bonds.

Every budget deliberation process and presentation to the Common Council is a challenging attempt to continue to provide a high level of City services at the least expense to the property taxpayer. The reality has always been that our services are being delivered to a finite group of residents on a tax base which experiences limited if any growth. The Capital Plan, though not funded in the 2021 spending plan, also requires serious scrutiny and evaluation by the Mayor and Common Council. The Capital Plan is a valuable planning tool which identifies and prioritizes the projects and capital needs identified and determined by the management team. Debt service costs associated with these proposed items and projects have budgetary impacts associated with them.

In Conclusion

I am always concerned at our reliance of Sales Tax Revenue as a way to help balance our budget. This, associated with what I believe also is that we are underfunded with respect to State Aid, makes our census numbers even more important. If our population is not accurately counted, this could have disastrous effects with Sales Tax sharing that last a decade. Therefore, it is important we have everyone counted during this census cycle.

We also need to continue to educate the taxpayers on the cost of the City Services they receive. If they truly want a reduction in their tax rate, then they can make an educated decision on what services they would be willing to give up. Thank you, please stay safe and healthy, and God Bless.

COMMUNICATIONS FROM THE MAYOR

Letter from Mayor to the Chairman of the Tonawanda Civil Service Commission regarding 2020 budget shortfall

COMMUNICATIONS FROM CITY OFFICIALS AND CORRESPONDENCE

Board of Appeals September 2020 Meeting Minutes

Building Inspector Monthly Report for August 2020

Letter from the Inner Harbor Yacht Club to Mayor and Common Council regarding Lease Renewal

Email from City Treasurer to Common Council regarding State Aid Payment Advisory from the Office of the State Comptroller

Email from National Grid to the Mayor regarding the City registering with the National Joint Utilities Notification System

City Clerk Monthly Report for September 2020

Email from City Treasurer to Common Council regarding 3rd Quarter 2020 Erie County Sales Tax information from the County Comptroller

2020 Overtime YTD Report from the Treasurer thru September 30, 2020

Communication from Treasurer - Revenue & Expenditure Report as of September 30, 2020

Referred to the Committee of the Whole

Ordered filed

COMMENTS BY THE PUBLIC ON RESOLUTIONS

Mike O’Connor 32 Fuller - On resolution number 4, It says the direct sale will help establish a new city business operated business. What is this?

Council President Koch - A few weeks ago, we had a developer present plans, they are available on our city website, to purchase this area, and they proposed condo style apartments.

Mike O’Connor - So what’s the city operated business?

Council President Koch - Well it’s a residential, I know the first floor they had discussed commercial, real estate as well. Its not named they are currently looking for vendors.

Mike O’Connor - It says establish a new city operated business I didn’t know what that was.

Mayor Davis - A new business operation here in the city. Not a city sponsored business.

President Koch – It’s not a city business.

The Tonawanda Common Council, in an effort to conduct business in a timely fashion and maintain an open line of communication with the public, welcomes comments on resolutions and other City business.

• Persons wishing to speak and be recognized by the President of the Common Council are to be courteous, respectful, non-repetitive and brief.

• All questions and/or comments should be addressed to the President of the Common Council.

• Please state your name and address clearly for inclusion in the Common Council minutes. In the event any person wishes a response outside the confines of the Common Council meeting, please leave all necessary contact information with the City Clerk after the meeting.

• Persons may address the Common Council during (2) separate sessions of the meeting for a total of 30 minutes per session. Once prior to the resolutions and also after the resolutions prior to Common Council comments.

• Individuals may speak a total of (3) minutes per speaker per session. The President of the Common Council will adhere to this (3) minute guideline in an effort to allow everyone an opportunity to speak who wishes to do so.

• The President of the Common Council reserves the Council’s right to limit or expand upon these limits as he/she may deem necessary and prudent.

• Usage of cell phones other than for emergency is prohibited during all Council Sessions.

MOTIONS AND RESOLUTIONS

142. By Councilmember Kammerdeiner seconded by Councilmember Newman

Resolved, that the Common Council minutes from September 15, 2020 be accepted as filed.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

143. By Councilmember Rautenstrauch seconded by Councilmember Kammerdeiner

WHEREAS, the City of Tonawanda has decided to permanently close a portion of James Street between Gibson Street and Wheeler Street in the Spaulding Commerce Park in order to facilitate the development of said park; and

WHEREAS, the Common Council believes that the usage of the real property involved in this closure will benefit the residents of the City of Tonawanda and help to revitalize the development of the parcel; and

WHEREAS, the Common Council has published notice on September 5, 2020, and September 12, 2020, in the official newspaper of the City of Tonawanda in accordance with Chapter 106, Article 3, Section 106-91 of the City Code of its intention to vote on the permanently closure of a portion of James Street, which lies between Gibson Street and Wheeler Street, at its regularly scheduled Council Meeting.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that a portion of James Street lying between Gibson Street and Wheeler Street shall be permanently closed and discontinued as a public roadway for vehicular traffic pursuant to Chapter 106, Article 3, Section 106-91 of the City Code; and

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that this Resolution shall be effective as of October 6, 2020.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

144. By Council President Koch seconded by Councilmember Newman

WHEREAS, the lease between the City of Tonawanda and the Inner Harbor Yacht Club Inc., is set to expire on December 31, 2020, and the parties desire to renew and extend said lease for an additional five-year period; and

WHEREAS, the parties have agreed to the annual rent for the lease of City owned property.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that Mayor Rick Davis is hereby authorized and directed to enter into a renewal lease agreement between the City of Tonawanda and the Inner Harbor Yacht Club Inc. A copy of the said renewal agreement is on file in the Office of the City Clerk.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

145. By Council seconded by Council

WHEREAS, the City of Tonawanda Common Council has reviewed an offer from a prospective purchaser regarding the purchase of some city owned property and believes it would be in the City’s best interests to complete a direct sale to the purchaser rather than sell the property at public auction; and

WHEREAS, a direct sale will enable the City to place certain restrictions on the purchaser to insure that the property is developed in accordance with the City’s downtown revitalization strategy; and

WHEREAS, this direct sale will help to establish a new city operated business which will contribute to the local economy and provide revenue to the City of Tonawanda; and

WHEREAS, the real property involved in this sale are commonly known as 13 Young Street, more particularly identified as S.B.L. #39.46-1-1.1, and 20 Fillmore Avenue, more particularly identified as S.B.L. #29.46-2-1; and

WHEREAS, pursuant to the City’s Land Sale Ordinance a notice was published in the official newspaper of the City of Tonawanda on September 5, 2020, September 12, 2020 and September 19, 2020, advising residents of the Common Council’s intention to vote on a resolution for a direct sale of the above stated properties to JC Tonawanda Tower QOZB, LLC.

NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, that the City of Tonawanda Common Council hereby authorizes and directs Mayor Rick Davis to execute a contract on behalf of the City of Tonawanda for the direct sale of the properties commonly known as 13 Young Street, more particularly identified as S.B.L. #39.46-1-1.1, and 20 Fillmore Avenue, more particularly identified as S.B.L. #29.46-2-1, to JC Tonawanda Tower QOZB, LLC for the sum of $320.000.00.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Mayor is hereby authorized to execute on behalf of the City of Tonawanda all necessary documents to complete the said real estate transaction.

Council President Koch - I have a question, City Clerk, the plans are on our city website right? The proposal

City Clerk James Kossow - I will have to double check, I don’t have the website up at the moment.

Council President Koch - Ok. If not, they can reference the council meeting when we met with the developers.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

146. By Council seconded by Council

WHEREAS, the City of Tonawanda initiated preparation of a Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Amendment in cooperation with the New York State Department of State in accordance with the provisions of Executive Law, Article 42; and

WHEREAS, the Draft Local Waterfront Revitalization Program (LWRP) Amendment and proposed local laws including the City of Tonawanda Local Waterfront Revitalization Program Consistency Review Law, Proposed Zoning Regulations (Community Facilities & Waterfront Mixed Use), and Proposed Docking Regulations for Ellicott Creek have been prepared under the guidance of the City’s Waterfront Advisory Committee, with consultant planning services provided by Clark Patterson Lee; and

WHEREAS, the City of Tonawanda, as lead agency, will prepare and evaluate an Environmental Assessment Form concerning the action of adopting the LWRP Amendment and proposed local laws listed herein in accordance with the requirements of the State Environmental Quality Review Act and Part 617 of the implementing regulations of Article 8 of the New York State Environmental Conservation Law;

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the Draft LWRP Amendment for the City of Tonawanda is accepted by the City of Tonawanda Common Council as complete and ready for public review and shall be submitted to the New York State Department of State for its review by State, federal, and regional agencies pursuant to the provisions of Article 42 of the NYS Executive Law.

Funding/Fiscal Impact: None

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

147. By Council President Koch seconded by Councilmember Kammerdeiner

Whereas, a Special Events application was received by the City Clerk from Amy Allen for the Meet and Greet Motorcade Parade to benefit canine rescues, and

Whereas, the application was reviewed and commented on by all appropriate department heads to ensure the safety and well being of our residents, and

Whereas, all details for the above named event must be coordinated with Captain Fredric Foels and the event chairperson, now, therefore be it

Resolved, that permission is granted to Amy Allen to hold the Meet and Greet Motorcade Parade to benefit canine rescues on October 10, 2020 from 1:30 P.M. till 2:30 P.M.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

148. By Councilmember Newman seconded by Councilmember Kammerdeiner

Resolved, at the recommendation of the City Engineer, Jason J. LaMonaco, P.E., that award of the contract for Young Street Pump Station Control Improvements be made to NFP & Sons, Inc. at a cost not to exceed $81,740.00.

Funding/Fiscal Impact: $75,000.00 from NYSDEC Grant

$6,740.00 from Sewer Bond

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

.

COMMENTS BY THE PUBLIC AFTER RESOLUTIONS

No Comments

COMMENTS BY THE COUNCILMEMBERS AFTER RESOLUTIONS

Councilmember Newman - I just want to thank our Assistant Chief Jim Barber for completing the chief’s course, it’s the highest level of training in the fire service. He did this on his own time, and I commend him and I thank him. That’s all I have.

Councilmember Kammerdeiner - I have nothing to report this week.

Councilmember Rautenstrauch - Just a couple comments, I would like to social distance myself a little bit and be able to speak so people can hear me, I would like to thank the Chief Strassburg for being here to take questions and address the issues and the rest of the council for supporting what we have continued on Elmwood Park, its definitely a safety issue. I appreciate that everybody kind of takes care of that. And we will have different hurdles to overcome with it. Also, thanks to Mark Banks for being here as well, I appreciate your help with this and what you have been doing all along helping us right through COVID. I do want to make a couple comments on a couple of the resolutions this evening. I just want to say I’m excited to see the sale of the property going to someone who is investing in our city. To see the LWRP go through, back when I was on the council previously, a lot of these things started then and started prior to that, so its nice to see them come to fruition, a lot of people talk about they don’t see changes in the city or anything happening, but, I’m kind of sitting back here looking at them saying, as much as they move at the pace of government as Dave likes to say, its nice to see things actually happening. The LWRP is something that was worked hard on by Mayor Davis and the rest of the Council at that time. To kind of have this come to together and have a plan for our waterfront, that part closing young street during my time on the council and this council will continue that, and thank you guys for seeing that through and continuing with it. I think that’s led to the interest investing into our Young Street area and the Fillmore Street area and the other areas connecting to it as well. We have seen East Niagara being developed The old Christian building being developed, and other properties in the area. I just want to make a point to shine light on that to us and the residents that there is some great work that’s being done and it’s great to see it actually happening. I just want to thank the Treasurer and the Mayor for their work on the budget and moving forward many of us had an expectation of a much higher amount, not that any amount passing it along taxes to our residents is a good thing, but you know all of us here take it seriously, we are all homeowners, we all live here so it effects us as well so we want to do our best for our neighbors, so we will be working on that for the next couple of months and try and do some good here, its hard to make cuts, we have talked about making different cuts and moving into the next year with this, I prefer to see building on an investment in our community then taking things away and cutting services to our residents. That’s all.

Mayor Davis - Halloween trick or treat hours will be 5:30-8:30 pm, I’m not going to go through all the normal safety measures associated with a normal Halloween, cause those should be granted and given, I would ask that our residents and our kids stay in their own neighborhoods and trick or treat, I would ask anybody that is out trick or treating or handing out candy please wear a mask, other than the mask that you are wearing, and try to limit as much as possible that human to human contact element that goes along with Halloween. Last, I seem to bring this up a lot this year but I ask for your thoughts and prayers for the residents of Louisiana, who are going to be hit by another bad hurricane, to compound with everything else 2020 has brought us.

Council President Koch - So the Council tonight decided on a schedule for our budget meeting with our Department heads, I do want to thank our City Treasurer, Mayor, all the department heads for the work that went into this budget. There are municipalities where some Council members haven’t even seen a proposed budget from the Mayor, so I appreciate the Mayor for submitting a timely budget so that we can continue with our timeline as well. For our residents, these meeting will be open to the public, we will be meeting starting next Tuesday starting at 6:00 pm and we will be meeting with our Police Chief and our Fire Chief. Then on the 20th, we will be meeting with our Parks and Recreation director, and then on the 27th we will be meeting with our Engineer, Building Inspector and DPW, sticking with that we will also have our public hearing relative to the Mayor’s proposed budget on November 3rd. With that said I know collectively we will be taking a look at the budget to see if there is areas and opportunities for us to reduce that, but more to come on that. I just also want to say it is time for flu shots; City Hall will have flu shots available on October 16, 2020 for residents, from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm in the community room. Residents are asked to wear a mask and bring a photo idea and a copy of the health insurance card. With that said, I want to thank everybody for attending tonight, it was great to see some faces we have seen in quite awhile, so thank you for coming and I will make a motion to adjourn.

ADJOURNMENT

149. By Council President Koch seconded by Councilmember Rautenstrauch

Resolved, that this Common Council adjourn until October 20, 2020.

Ayes: Newman, Kammerdeiner, Rautenstrauch, Koch

Nays: None

Resolution declared adopted

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City Clerk

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Mayor

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Date Filed

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