Finance Committee

FINANCE Tuesday, July 22, 2025 – 6:00 p.m. Council Chambers – Olean Municipal Building Present: Members: Chairman McCall, Vice Chairman Crawford, Alderman Bennion, Alderman Robinson, and Alderman Anastasia (Ward 2 vacant). Others: Mayor William Aiello; Frank Caputo, City Clerk; Bridget Marshall, City Attorney; Lens Martial, City Auditor; James Sprague, Director of Public Works, and Tiffany Taylor, Managerial Confidential Administrative Secretary. 1. Roll Call Alderman McCall called the meeting to order and asked that the record show that all committee members were present except Alderman Forney, who was excused, and Ward 2 is vacant. 2. Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Committee Meetings (Tuesday, July 8, 2025) A motion to approve the minutes of the July 8, 2025 meeting was made by Alderman McCall, seconded by Alderman Robinson. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 3. Presentation – ClearGov – Budgeting Software Mr. Martial explained after some research, he contacted three companies regarding budgeting software: ClearGov, OpenGov, and iWorQ. He explained he feel ClearGov best fits the City and introduced Tory Cortese from ClearGov. Ms. Cortese explained she had a conversation with Mr. Martial about the City’s current process, which mainly uses Excel spreadsheets and is very disjointed. He explained there have been issues, including accuracy issues, using this process, and it already sounds like the Council is on board with modernizing this process. She explained ClearGov will help the City with efficiencies in creating the budget and explained there are a couple of tools that are included. She explained there is an operational budget tool used to collect requests from department heads and for Mr. Martial to review and create a proposal for the Council, as well as for individuals to see the budget process and to make comments on line items and concerns. She explained this flows into the digital budget book which is a tool used after the budget is approved. Ms. Cortese explained ClearGov will onboard the historical budget and current budget so the City will have access to all of that information through their program and explained year to date actuals can be updated through the budget season. She explained the program can be customized to match the process the City currently uses. She explained Mr. Martial will have control over permission to give department heads to prevent errors in editing parts of the spreadsheet they aren’t supposed to edit. She explained there is automation within the tool and reminders can be set for department heads to notify when budget processes will be starting and when requests and revisions will be due. She explained department heads will only have access to their line items and will be able to see historical budgeted versus actuals in columns and will be able to visualize that data to see where they are over and under budget to help make quicker and more accurate budget decisions for the future. She explained adjustments can be made by values and percentages and there are no formulas to mess up. She explained there is no need to communicate through emails as all information can be attached to specific line items in the system such as notes on increases, attachments, receipts, and quotes. She explained there is a comment thread so users can communicate through the chain and comments are also available to the Council. She explained the Council has read-only access through the budget season to see requests and changes made as this information is all tracked within the line items. Alderman McCall explained the Council is looking for consistency across departments and one budget flow that works. Ms. Cortese explained this would provide the Council with additional tools to streamline the budget process and will help clarify questions the Council has as the budget process is gone through. She explained this will help save a lot of time for department heads, Mr. Martial, and the Mayor. She explained while the City is in budget review, changes cannot be made unless the system is opened for changes, and in the system all changes are consolidated and tracked. She explained the Council can make comments ahead of meetings such as to say more information or justification is needed on a certain request. She explained it is all tracked in an organized fashion in one tool. Ms. Cortese explained the digital budget book shows all of the information collected on the back end that syncs into a budget display. She explained Mr. Martial will do setup in the background and templates will pull in data collected, including historical budgeted versus actuals, the current year budgeted for, and year to date actuals that can be updated through the budget season to show where the City is year to date versus what we have budgeted for. She explained the only part that is not automatically pulled in is if a narrative is to be added, such as a major increase due to something, and this narrative can be added if chosen. She explained the budget book is interactive and the public can look into it and have customization as to how they want to view data. She explained this tool gives graphs and charts, and can include narratives, photos, images, and extra details as the City feels is beneficial. Alderman McCall asked about the cost. Ms. Cortese explained the total annual cost for this program for the City would be $21,240, which includes unlimited users and editors, and explained anyone can be added in the future for no additional cost. She explained this includes unlimited support as well, and the City is not limited to a number of support hours. She explained support can be given whenever the City requires it through a Zoom call. She explained there are online training tools and training for Mr. Martial and department heads. She explained the cost only goes up 3% for the first three years, and then 6% per year after that. Alderman McCall explained she sees a setup fee of $9,720, and Ms. Cortese explained this is correct. She explained ClearGov does all of the setup for the City, and data mapping from what the City has into the system. Alderman McCall asked if this integrates into the day to day entry on the Auditor’s part, and Ms. Cortese explained this is an import/export model and does not integrate directly with the City’s accounting software. She explained initially ClearGov will help with the data mapping and getting things set up, and then the City has the option to self-import to keep the data up to date or they can send it to ClearGov and they will continue to do this for us. Alderman McCall asked if a module is offered or day-to-day accounting that integrates with this budgeting software and Ms. Cortese explained ClearGov does not provide this. She explained they have other things for capital plans and personnel, but there are no modules that are accounting system-based. She explained if the City chooses to change their accounting system, ClearGov will help remap information based on the accounting codes. Alderman Bennion asked what happens if the City decides to leave and gives a 60 day notice. Ms. Cortese explained they can pull reports from their system to give the City historical data and any planning that is done, exported as a CSV or Excel file. She explained there is no additional cost if the City chooses not to renew. Alderman Crawford explained as far as options, he wonders if there is any software that is more modern and has an improved mechanism than InCode, but also has a budgeting module. He explained he has never really heard anything great about InCode in terms of the user friendliness of it. He explained he wonders if there are other programs out there that would allow us to use one program for both things. Alderman McCall explained she also feels the City would benefit from this altogether in one package. Mr. Martial explained he will work with Mr. Volz, who does all of the InCode software to do more research. Mr. Wells explained the cost of moving the software and getting the data is going to be in the six figures based on prior estimates, plus four to five months to convert the data and the time needed for employee training. Alderman McCall explained she still thinks we need to look, possibly with NYCOM, to see what other cities our size are doing and see if anything has a comprehensive system rather than using multiple companies. She explained she thinks NYCOM would be a great place to start. Alderman Crawford asked if InCode has budgeting software that would connect, and Mr. Martial explained they did check last year and they don’t have anything, but he can ask again. Alderman McCall asked that we follow up in this in a month, and asked for an update on Auditor policies and procedures at the next committee meeting. 4. Unfinished Business a. Marcus Park Funding Mayor Aiello explained Ms. Kerper sent the Form E to the Council last Friday, and explained there is an approval on for later tonight for the electrical portion of the project. He explained that is included on Form E in the amount of $219,645. He explained the contingency amount is $258,589 and we can take this cost from contingency and still remain with $38,000. He explained there is also contingency built into the Gardenville LLC site work contract. He explained the City has also received $23,803 for this project from the Cattaraugus Region Community Foundation. He explained he has been in contact with the Cattaraugus County Legislators and they have not come to a decision yet, although Ms. Andreano should be getting back to him on this. He explained the project is ready to go and we have funding in place. Mr. Martial explained the bond has been done and the money should be in the bank by Thursday, July 28, 2025. Alderman McCall explained she cannot wait for this to get up and running. She explained she thinks this is something that will draw people into the City. b. Capital Funds Postponed to first committee meeting in September. 5. New Referrals for Consideration None 6. Committee Reports None 7. Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Alderman McCall, seconded by Alderman Robinson. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at approximately 6:30 p.m.