Finance Committee

FINANCE Tuesday, June 24, 2025 – 7:20 p.m. Council Chambers – Olean Municipal Building Present: Members: Chairman McCall, Vice Chairman Crawford, Alderman Bennion, Alderman Forney, Alderman Robinson, and Alderman Anastasia (Ward 2 vacant). Others: Mayor William Aiello; Frank Caputo, City Clerk; Lens Martial, City Auditor; Bridget Marshall, City Attorney; James Sprague, Director of Public Works; Kris Shewairy, Youth and Recreation Supervisor; Eric Maurouard, Fire Chief; Capt. Dave Bauer, Code Enforcement Supervisor; Keri Kerper, Community Development Program Coordinator, and Tiffany Taylor, Managerial Confidential Administrative Secretary. 1. Roll Call Alderman McCall called the meeting to order at 7:20 p.m. and asked that the record show that all committee members were present with the exception of the vacancy in ward 2. 2. Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Committee Meetings (Tuesday, June 10, 2025) A motion to approve the minutes of the June 10, 2025 meeting was made by Alderman McCall, seconded by Alderman Robinson. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 3. Unfinished Business a. Audit Corrective Action Plan – Training Plan / Funding Needs Mr. Martial explained he plans to go with Mayor Aiello to NYCOM this fall and explained he believes the price is around $1,500 for the week. Alderman McCall asked what the training is on and Mayor Aiello explained this is the training conducted with the clerk’s association and there is a large presence from the comptroller’s office with different classes for City-run finances. He explained there will be a lot of useful information and a lot of legal programs as well. He explained he also has Mr. Marital looking online for trainings through the comptroller’s office. Mr. Martial explained he also uses the InCode back office when he has questions. He explained we can also use our independent auditors as a resource if needed. Alderman Bennion asked how we are going to fund anything that is above the amount in the Auditor’s office travel and training. Mr. Marital explained his general plan was to use contingency and Mayor Aiello agreed that he would like the funding to come from contingency. He explained there is not a lot in the current training budget. He explained being a City Auditor we may be able to take some funding from other line items to cover this but he would rather see it come from contingency. Alderman McCall explained the Council identified this issue a while back and then gave a $100 training budget. She explained we have to make sure we provide funding for more training. She asked at the next meeting that the Council be given an update on what other programs we have found to switch to rather than using Excel for budgeting. She explained we would like to get everything in order before the 2026 budget. Alderman Bennion explained we have to be careful because a lot of travel and training items are low due to cuts and it’s not fair to take the funding from other departments. He explained there is $11,250 between the Mayor’s Training and Celebrations budgets and he thinks we should use that. Alderman Robinson explained he3 thinks through the budget process we should look at not taking from the training line item for any department. He explained training is important and that is how we maintain getting better at what we do. He explained he appreciates where cuts were made but we should be leery cutting training budgets as it is important to make sure everyone is trained for what they need to do. Alderman McCall asked if we have looked into other municipalities and how they do their books. Mr. Martial explained he has reached out to Jamestown and Salamanca and is mainly focused on budgeting software. He explained he has a meeting tomorrow with a representative from the company Jamestown uses. Alderman McCall explained we need to know about this sooner rather than later and explained she is supportive of this, we just need to know where funds are coming from. b. Marcus Park Funding Director Sprague explained we rebid the contract without the electrical portion and he feels we have a successful bid for the general contractor. He explained we are still waiting to get the electrical package from the design team and then we will go out to bid on that. He explained it looks like, based on numbers we had from before, we would come in essentially on budget, but we don’t have a solid answer until the electrical bid comes in. Alderman Bennion asked if we still need to fund $205,000. Ms. Kerper explained that is the City’s local match, and it was borrowed in the BAN with the entirety of the costs. She explained we were looking to help offset the local share. She explained she has applied for $25,000 in funding from the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation. Mayor Aiello explained he has spoken with County legislators and they have stated that our request for their funding assistance is in process. Alderman McCall asked about the electric being bid separately, and Director Sprague explained the first time we went out to bid having the electrical included with the general contracting work deterred people from bidding because that is not in their normal scope of work. Alderman McCall asked if we anticipate an increase in cost and Director Sprague explained he doesn’t believe so, and we will have to see. Alderman McCall asked when we have a projected date that we will have something in the ground. Ms. Kerper explained the site work needs to be done by the end of August and we are planning a build day in September. Mr. Martial noted that we have not borrowed yet, and we will be borrowing next month, in July. c. Rename Capital Fund #118, Ambulance Reserve Fund Chief Maurouard explained he sent information on vehicles that need to be replaced to the Council via email. He explained he was asked what Capital Fund #118 may be able to fund in the future, and he explained at 12% the fund can purchase an ambulance every 30 months and an engine in 2036, but that is 11 years away and we will probably need to replace one in 4-5 years from now. He explained the 12% could fund an ambulance every 30 months and all support vehicles on a 7-10 year rotation. He explained we would need to get to 32% to fund all fire department vehicles. He explained he was originally looking to rename the fund and repurpose it to purchase other vehicles for the department out of that fund with the priority continuing to be ambulances. Alderman Robinson explained he thinks we should allow for these two vehicles to be replaced and explained the vehicles are a poor representation for the City, especially if they are being used to go out of town. He asked if we have to replace the Tahoe with something big like another Tahoe or if we could do with something more efficient. He explained he is willing to leave that open for discussion or to find out what vehicles would best fit the City for replacement of both of these vehicles. Chief Maurouard explained he is looking at an Acadia, which is smaller than a Tahoe. He explained he is looking for a three quarter ton truck to replace the truck. He explained repurposing these funds doesn’t mean he is going to replace these vehicles right away, and explained it gives him the flexibility to do this in the next 6 to 18 months when it is time to pull the trigger. He explained he thinks we can do mini bids through the vehicle portal for state bids. Alderman Robinson asked if we need two 350’s in the fleet, and Chief Maurouard explained the last 350 was purchased with the intent to pull the foam trailer, He explained it’s a pretty heavy trailer and there is a lot of technical stuff in the truck. He explained Capt. Bauer’s truck is mainly for Code Enforcement duties, but it is also a backup vehicle if there is a truck out of service and would be able to tow trailers. He explained he does use his open bed to load equipment after fires to take to be cleaned. Alderman McCall asked if there is a way to maximize the vehicles we have with shared resources between departments. She explained it seems we have a large fleet for the number of employees we have, and asked how we can share resources between departments to manage some of that. She explained she would ask that this be taken back to fleet to see how we can manage things differently to share what we can. Alderman Robinson explained he is fine with the idea of replacing these two vehicles, as Chief Maurouard knows his department the best. The Council consensus was to change the name of the Capital Fund. 4. New Referrals for Consideration a. Spending Freeze Savings Mr. Martial explained he sent out information yesterday with savings by department. Alderman McCall explained we keep talking about the horrible shape of the City Garage and somehow we managed to save $86,000 for a building that does not seem particularly safe. Mr. Martial explained under the spending freeze there were certain things we could not do. Alderman McCall asked about the overage in employee benefits and Mr. Martial explained this is because some buyouts were not included in the budget. Mr. Martial explained the final overage will come from the fund balance, just like if money is left over it goes into the fund balance. Alderman Bennion asked where that leaves the fund balance and Mr. Marital explained it is between $1.6 million and $1.7 million. b. Capital Fund #235, Ash Trees Mr. Marital explained this Capital Fund has a balance of $48,736. Alderman Crawford asked if all of the ash trees that were supposed to come down have been taken down. Director Sprague explained he thinks there are still some ash trees left. He explained his staff was asking if we can make this money available for all trees at this point. He explained he knows there are some trees at Oak Hill Park and Franchot Park that need to be trimmed or removed. Alderman Crawford explained he thinks it would be a great idea to earmark this funds for dangerous trees. He explained he would also like to see the City plant new trees as well that will not be as apt to create problems in the future. Alderman Bennion explained this fund started when Mr. Thompson was the DPW Director and at that time $150,000 to $160,000 was not enough to take care of all of the ash trees. He explained we should not be reallocating these funds until we are sure all of the ash trees have been taken care of. Alderman McCall explained she is interested to see how many were taken down and explained there is an inventory somewhere. Ms. Kerper explained we were awarded funds from the DEC to do a tree inventory and management plan. She explained it identifies all trees and every species in the right-of-way and on City-owned property. She explained she will provide this information to Director Sprague so he can take a look and see what needs to be done from here. Alderman Bennion explained he would like to see how many are down, how many are left, and how much funding we need before we allocate these funds to something else. Alderman McCall requested this be discussed again in 2 months. c. Project Updates  i. East State Street Director Sprague explained with the exception of landscaping, East State Street is pretty much done. He explained with DOT specs on plantings, we are not allowed to plant in the summer, which we have also run into with South Union Street. He explained he doesn’t think we will see much work being done until September when we are repairing the landscaping that was planted but failed on East State Street. Mayor Aiello explained the center lines need to be painted and Director Sprague explained he believes that is a separate entity that will take care of this when they get to the City. Alderman Crawford asked if the financial information for the project can be sent to the Council, and Director Sprague explained there is a Form E that is used to request reimbursements. He explained he is waiting to get that and when he gets more information he is waiting on he will compile the Form E and get it out to the Council. Alderman McCall asked if this is done on a monthly basis and Director Sprague explained payment apps are monthly, but he has not figured out from records yet how often the Form E has been done. Ms. Kerper explained she has a Form E tracked for the life of the project and can help with that for both this project and South Union Street. ii. South Union Street Director Sprague explained we are on schedule and on budget with the target substantial completion date of July 31, 2025. He explained there are no large outstanding issues and landscaping for this will occur in September as well. Alderman Robinson asked if the State is paving this portion of roadway and Director Sprague responded that they are. He explained they have not shared when this will occur and is contingent on when our contractor gets the roundabout prepped. He explained we are working with the Cattaraugus County resident engineer at the DOT to coordinate the paving. iii. Splash Park Director Sprague explained the splash park is proceeding and we are now doing weekly progress meetings to stay on top of the contractor more directly. He explained this Thursday and Friday the vendor who provided the equipment will be in town and we have made arrangements for temporary power and water to test the equipment that has been sitting there for two years. He explained right now the project is on schedule showing a substantial completion date of August 15, 2025. d. Monthly / Yearly Fees for Food Trucks Alderman Crawford explained he was approached by an individual who is doing a lot of vendor services and explained why Olean is one of the only communities who doesn’t have a longer term option for vendor and peddler licenses. He explained we currently charge $20 a day for a vendor and $12 a day for a peddler. He explained he is not looking for anything definitive tonight but wants to look into more options. He explained we have more and more food trucks popping up around town, and we want to be friendly for small businesses. He explained $20 a day for a vendor is a bit steeper in comparison to other communities. He explained he suggests a $300 fee per month or $1,825 for the year. He explained those are more on par with what other municipalities offer. He explained it is really all over the spectrum what others charge, from $300 a year to $1,000 a year. He explained given our daily rates it may be beneficial to help out smaller businesses to have a longer term option with a discount. Mr. Caputo explained last year, 187 daily permits were generated among 12 food trucks and five other businesse3s that receive those types of licenses. He explained the clerical administrative problem on his end is that a lot of food trucks come in the morning they plan to operate because based on weather, they don’t always know if they will be operating in advance of a day. He explained it’s a daily event, but sometimes they will request a permit for a few days in a row. He explained monthly or yearly fees will streamline the permit process and make things more efficient. He explained he will work on this and is prepared to come to a future committee meeting with a recommendation. Alderman Crawford explained we should offer options for a price per month or price per year. Mayor Aiello explained we need to keep in mind of our brick and mortar restaurants who pay taxes, and explained he has heard complaints from restaurants about the food trucks in town. He asked if we should limit the number of food trucks. Alderman McCall asked if we tell the food trucks where they can park when they get a permit. Mr. Caputo explained there are a few restrictions but for the most part they can park anywhere in the City. Alderman McCall explained she would not want to see one somewhere that they are impeding parking. Alderman Robinson asked if the $20 absolves the truck from parking restrictions, and Mr. Caputo explained they do not feed the meter. Alderman McCall explained she is supportive of reduced long-term fees but she doesn’t want it to impede being able to get to other businesses. Mr. Caputo suggested setting up zones for food trucks. Alderman Robinson explained he feels zones are a good idea and explained there are two to three locations he often sees the trucks, and we can allocate those areas as zones for the food trucks and leave it at that. He explained he feels if you are a local brick and mortar restaurant and you can’t compete with a food truck, then maybe they aren’t doing good business in the first place. He explained he feels a monthly payment would be a good idea. He explained there could maybe be a parking fee involved, as if we are going to implement QR Code parking they will have to park for that amount of time they will be in those allocated areas of the street. He explained maybe we should say $100 a month or $600 a year and call it good. He explained we should encourage competition. Alderman Forney agreed that we should encourage competition and that we should not be deterring small businesses from coming here. She explained they also have inventory and overhead to manage, and she doesn’t want to make fees and requirements so substantial that they go to other cities. Alderman McCall explained Mr. Caputo would draft something and give to the Council. She3 explained she would like to see, unless they are for a special event that is planned for, that they are not in the downtown areas. She explained she would like to protect the downtown. 5. Committee Reports None 6. Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Alderman Robinson, seconded by Alderman Forney. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:20 p.m.