Mayor: City Losing $1M A Year At City Council Retreat, Miller Outlines Steps Toward Solvency

1-15-10

In 2006, 2007 and 2008, City Hall spent $1 million a year more than it had.
To end that, Common Council has to shift “from managing change to driving change,” Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., told the aldermen at a five-hour retreat Saturday, Jan. 9, in City Hall’s basement conference room.
“Success,” he said, “is defined by your ability to get the most important things done.”
Miller, who was sworn in Friday, Jan. 1, and presided at his first Common Council meeting Tuesday, Jan. 5, scheduled the extended meeting so he and the council members could agree on procedures – they did – and start developing an action agenda.
But the highpoint of the morning session – the afternoon was a closed executive session to discuss personnel issues – was the declaration of the former business executive and college president that the city has been living with a “structural deficit.”
“Reserves should be for emergencies,” he said, “not to balance the budget.”
For the past three years – including one where property taxes were actually reduced – City Hall has been sapping reserves.  Miller’s punctuation mark:  “We run out in three years.”
He ticked off the revenue options:  Raising property and/or sales taxes, “modest” PILOTS (negotiating “payments in lieu of taxes” from current non-profits), consolidation and economic development.
And the cost options:  Efficiencies, staff – “head count” – and/or service reductions, or ending City Hall’s financial commitment to the Allison Building (the former armory) and/or the airport.
At least for now, Miller said, he opposes tax increases, but he believes the hospitals, the colleges and other non-profits would be susceptible to reasonable PILOTS if they could be clearly related to services received.
Already, the mayor said, he has approached Oneonta Town Supervisor Bob Wood and others about merging the city and town – it was a specific recommendation of Governor Spitzer’s Commission on Local Government Efficiency and Competitiveness – and said, “I’m getting nothing but encouragement.”
On economic development, he mentioned the current downtown revitalization effort – the $7 million Bresee’s project is the centerpiece – and also the need to look at opportunities in the east and west ends.
Beyond finances, Miller’s second “key issue” was quality of life. Solutions aired included stricter code enforcement, formation of neighborhood groups in each ward.
There appeared to be consensus that streets and sidewalks should be repaired according to a plan prepared by public works; right now, aldermen walk their wards every January and make recommendations.
“This should be a management issue, not a political issue,” said Alderman Erik Miller.
Prior to discussing the key issues, Common Council agreed to several streamlining proposals. 
Henceforth, routine matters – routine pay increases for a laborer, for instance – would be folded into a “consent agenda,” requiring one vote instead of – as at the last semi-weekly Common Council meeting – 24 individual votes.
Miller streamlined Common Council committees to four – finance/administration, human resources, facilities/operations/technology, and the Community Improvement Committee (formerly intergovernmental affairs.)
He also assigned one city staffer to act as point-person to each committee, keeping minutes and tasking.