Finance Committee

FINANCE Tuesday, September 2, 2025 – 6:25 p.m. Council Chambers – Olean Municipal Building Present: Members: Chairman McCall, Alderman Bennion, Alderman Keary, Alderman Robinson, and Alderman Anastasia. Others: Mayor William Aiello; Lens Martial, City Auditor; James Sprague, Director of Public Works; Eric Maurouard, Fire Chief; Tiffany Taylor, Managerial Confidential Administrative Secretary, and Jerry Volz, Information Technology. 1. Roll Call Alderman McCall called the meeting to order at 6:25 p.m. and asked that the record show that all committee members were present except Aldermen Keary and Crawford, who were excused. 2. Approval of the Minutes of the Previous Committee Meetings (Tuesday, August 26, 2025) A motion to approve the minutes of the August 26, 2025 committee meeting was made by Alderman McCall, seconded by Alderman Bennion. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. 3. Unfinished Business a. Capital Funds Mr. Martial explained Capital Fund #181, Zombie Grant, has a balance of $34,401.94. Alderman Bennion asked if this is used to board up and secure vacant homes, and Mr. Martial explained that is paid for through a Code Enforcement line item. Alderman Bennion asked what this is used for and Mr. Martial explained he would look into this and follow up with the Council. Alderman Bennion asked if bullets can be placed on reports with information such as what the fund is used for. Alderman McCall asked Mr. Martial to email the Council the information and explained they would follow up if they had any questions. Mr. Martial explained Capital Fund #185, Tree Pruning, will be getting a deposit of $6,135.50 back from liens and taxes from last year. Alderman McCall asked if this is the capital fund used for tree complaints and Mr. Marital explained it is. Mr. Martial explained Capital Fund #186, OATS Bus, no longer has a balance and explained a check was sent to the County and funds were transferred to reimburse the General Fund. Alderman Robinson asked if we have received all of our reimbursements and Mr. Marital explained we have. Alderman McCall asked if we should close this capital fund and Mr. Martial explained a PL should be submitted to close this fund. Alderman McCall asked if we know the General Fund balance and Mr. Martial explained it is $1.7 million right now. He explained funds will be added when we close the books May 2026. Alderman Robinson asked if that is the balance without this reimbursement and Mr. Marital explained right now the funds are in line item A-01- 4-3591 in the revenue section of the budget. Alderman McCall asked why this amount can’t be transferred directly into the fund balance and Mr. Marital explained our external auditors have explained this can only be done once a year and we cannot put money in the fund balance in the middle of the year. Alderman Forney asked for a running total of the fund balance. Mr. Marital explained the funds were originally put in the capital fund, but Ms. Kerper indicated they should be in the general fund so he transferred them. He explained it was an error on his fault and he fixed it. Alderman Anastasia asked if this is our money and Alderman McCall explained $136,521 is our money. Alderman Bennion asked if we should keep this line item open for our annual contribution to the OATS system to Allegany County, and Mr. Martial explained there is a line item in the budget for that. Alderman Robinson asked if we are now free and clear of the OATS program and Mayor Aiello explained we sent the funds to Cattaraugus and Allegany Counties and will be as soon as the checks have cleared. Mr. Martial explained Capital Fund #187 is the Playground Reserve and there is a balance of $12,504. He explained these are funds from the KaBoom grant. Alderman McCall asked if there are restrictions on this money and Mr. Martial explained he will have to check with Ms. Kerper. Alderman McCall explained she wonders if it can be used for other playgrounds. Mr. Martial explained he believes there are items to be finished at the Whitney Parklet. Mayor Aiello explained money was moved twice into this account and there was work to be done, but he will look into this and update the Council. Alderman McCall asked for this update via email and explained the Council will follow up if they have questions. Mr. Martial explained Capital Fund #188, Walkable Olean Phase II, has a balance of $300,410, and the project is done. Alderman Anastasia asked if the project is finished, if this funding can go back into the general fund. Mr. Marital explained when we borrow funding it can only be used for a certain purpose and cannot be used for anything else, so these funds can be used to pay down the bond for this project. Alderman Bennion asked which section Phase II is, and Mayor Aiello explained it is for Main Street from North Union Street to Front Street, by the hospital and going down Front Street to First Avenue. Mr. Martial explained he has sent out an email to the City’s bond counsel to get answers to questions about the restriction of the funds. He explained the money really should probably go back into debt service. Alderman Robinson explained if we can find out, perhaps there is something else that needs to be done in the area of that project or something we can make better. He explained it seems we should be able to use the funds to make improvements for that project before we pay down the balance. Alderman McCall explained we could see if we can reallocate funding like we did for East State Street to paving or things like that. Alderman Bennion explained there are issues with lane changes and the light at Main and Front, and funds could be used to change that back. Alderman Anastasia asked about electricity in the roundabout and Mayor Aiello explained we need to see if we can do this with the grant funds, and noted this would be a for a Christmas tree. Mr. Martial explained he will call Municipal Solutions tomorrow to see what he can find out. b. Capita Project Updates i. South Union Street Mr. Martial explained we have a $1.2 million balance in the capital fund for this project. Director Sprague explained South Union Street is actually going pretty well, although the water distribution crew has been working on the project late to get it done. He explained last week and this week we are doing five water services and a new hydrant on the north end of the project. He explained milling and paving work is scheduled with the DOT and striping will be done right after that. He explained everything should be buttoned up by the end of September. Alderman Robinson asked about cutting into new curbing that was already laid, and Director Sprague explained that is on Millennium Construction. He explained there was a conversation before he was hired about when services should be replaced and Millennium chose not to do the services before the curbing. He explained there was some uncertainty as to what size the services would be, and that is why the City got involved and ended up replacing the lines themselves after the project started. He explained it falls back on Millennium and how they chose to move forward, and Alderman Robinson explained that is alright as long as they are not charging for the extra work. Director Sprague explained he has heard nothing about a change order for their crew. Alderman Bennion asked if their bid included doing that work and Director Sprague explained their bid included some funding for it, but because of the size of the pipes it ended up being the wrong amount and we elected to self-perform these services. Alderman Bennion asked if this will create a weak point in the curb in the future and Director Sprague explained it probably will not and it will probably not be noticed. Alderman McCall asked about contingency and Director Sprague explained some contingency has been utilized but there is still contingency funding left. ii. Splash Park Mr. Marital explained the Splash Park capital fund has a balance of $929,000. Director Sprague explained the splash park continues to struggle, but is moving forward. He explained they have started pouring the actual pad and we are waiting on foundation pieces from Vortex, the manufacturer of the splash park equipment. He explained we should have them this week or next. He explained we are hoping October 1, 2025 we will be able to start putting water through something. He explained he wants to be very conservative about claims of when this will be done, but it is continuing to move forward and is still within budget. Alderman McCall asked if the foundation pieces were not purchased in the first round of purchasing, or if they are no longer functional because they sat outside. Director Sprague explained we did not get the pieces, and we are working on backtracking paperwork to prove or disprove they should have been in the original shipment. Alderman McCall asked what happens if this is not done within the original timeframe. Director Sprague explained the contract does have liquidated damages if we choose to assess them. He explained given the way the bids came in and the money this contractor left on the table, we have been avoiding liquidated damages so far in the interest of keeping them moving forward to bring the project to completion. He explained we did get some pushback from a subcontractor who was not paid and we are in agreement with PV Paving to hold their check until we receive written confirmation that this situation has been resolved. Alderman McCall asked if they have their own engineering firm doing on-site approval and Director Sprague explained we have Clark Patterson Lee for Construction Inspection services on part-time basis. Alderman Robinson asked if CPL is doing anything else for the City and Director Sprauge explained they are doing the inspection of South Union Street full-time. 4. New Referrals for Consideration a. Finance / Bills Frequency Changes Mr. Martial explained lately, as we are paying bills once a month, bills are going past due a couple of weeks to different vendors. He explained he has spoken with accounts payable and wants to discuss with the Council paying bills twice a month instead of once. He explained this is a question he wanted to pose to the Council. Alderman McCall explained this could be something put into policies and procedures to do billing on the opposite weeks of payroll. Alderman Robinson explained he does not remember seeing anything in the Charter about paying bills once a month. He explained as far as something like this, he would refer to the Auditor’s office policies and procedures and if there is something the Council needs to approve, they can do that. He explained he feels policies should be able to be changed internally. Mayor Aiello explained this is the first he has heard about this and will discuss this with Mr. Martial tomorrow. He explained we can take the bills that would otherwise be late and put them on the Council agenda for the first meeting of the month. Alderman McCall explained Mayor Aiello and Mr. Martial should discuss this and do what is best for the City. She recommended looking into what best practices are, what other cities our size do and what NYCOM says. Alderman Bennion suggested setting up net 60 pay, and letting vendors know those are our terms so they can decide if they want to work with the City or not. He explained it will help alleviate potential late fees. He explained it would be hard to do this with existing vendors but could be done with new vendors in the future. Mr. Martial explained sometimes we have to call and explain to a vendor we are a municipality and we pay once a month, and Mayor Aiello added the vendors don’t care to hear that, either. Mr. Marital explained smaller businesses can depend on that check and Alderman McCall explained she understands this. Alderman Anastasia explained he does not see an issue as the Council is here every two weeks, so bills can be paid every two weeks. b. Capital Projects (Projected) Mr. Martial explained he has provided the Council with a list of possible capital projects and needs. Mr. Volz explained the first item is the Exchange server, and explained the server we have is at the end of its life as of this year. He explained we were going to try to slide by, but we have found out that we will not be able to access email form a phone or web browser, and the user would need to come into the municipal building to check their email. He explained because of that we are scrambling to update the Exchange server version. Alderman McCall asked if this will get the City what it needs for the next couple of years, and Mr. Volz explained he believes it will get us what we need for the next five to six years to keep the email running. Alderman McCall explained she knows this is listed as a capital project, but it does not seem that it is optional. Mayor Aiello explained we are having a very difficult time right now with emails and we need to get this fixed as soon as possible. Mr. Volz explained he knows we have a tight budget. Alderman McCall explained we should probably get a move on this. Mr. Volz explained he has presented a handout with $159,000 in capital projects that need to be done. He explained he has postponed updating some of the cameras, postponed wireless and postponed office in order to cut back on the sticker shock being given to the Council. He explained they are asking for things that are essential and explained it is hard to say we can live without them as it would mean losing services. He explained we have really done what we can with the server, and explained the security camera server is 8 years old with a $10,000 cost to replace. He explained we could probably do without the cost upgrades to security cameras. Alderman McCall asked if this upgrade would include voice recording and Mr. Volz explained it would. He explained he tried to spitball where we could take things out but some things can’t be. Alderman McCall asked about the budgeting software, and Mr. Martial explained he and Mr. Volz spoke with InCode, and their software will not do what we thought it would do. He explained he believes our best option is to go with OpenGov, who was the second presentation the Council received. He explained the cost is a little more than $65,000 for the first year so he has requested $70,000 for that. He explained he has spoken with North Tonawanda who left ClearGov for OpenGov, and the accountant there is pleased with that program. Alderman Anastasia asked what the annual cost is after the first year and Mr. Martial explained it is $30,000 and change. Alderman McCall asked about the wireless access points and Mr. Volz explained right now there are 12 or 13 wireless access points in the building that are 11 years old. He explained they are working now but are going to die eventually. He explained the replacement we are looking at has an initial upfront cost of $4,000 but will be cheaper in the long run because we will not have an annual maintenance fee while we currently have a $1,000 annual fee on the wireless access points we currently have. Alderman McCall asked about the server with cloud backup. Mr. Volz explained each department has a folder on the server that is backed up on a nightly basis, and the backup can be restored if someone accidently deletes something. He explained it is a nice system to have and we want backups for the backup. He explained the server we have now is 4-5 years old and is a robust machine that is hammered every day by every department. He explained it has been out of support for 2 years now and we are being told we should not push this server any farther than we already have. Alderman McCall asked if there is another option besides replacing the server, and Mr. Volz explained we can roll the dice but if it dies, then everyone’s data is gone. Alderman Bennion asked if the budgeting software would have any implications for the server and Mr. Martial explained it is cloud-based. Mr. Volz explained we do have to have up-to-date browsers on the computer and we did update to Windows 11 last year. He noted last year Office 365 cost $55,000 to $60,000, and now the cost is up to $84,000. He explained we are trying to find cheaper ways to update that. He noted Office 2016 might not work with the exchange server in the future. Alderman McCall explained it seems everything is imminent except the security camera upgrades. She asked if the security camera upgrades are for the existing ones, and Mr. Volz explained it is to replace the existing ones as well as to place one at the roundabout. Alderman Robinson explained we should look into Wellsville, as he saw an article that Wellsville did wireless cameras for $30,000 to $40,000. He explained it seems they were able to get everything they needed for that amount. He explained the Council looked into security cameras for their parks and were given a price around $1 million, which is a huge difference. He asked what they are getting that they are saying they are good with, and Mayor Aiello explained they are putting cameras on their buildings with existing electricity and internet. Alderman Robinson explained what they have might be better or cheaper than what we have here. Alderman McCall suggested holding on the cameras and seeing if we can get more bang for our buck. He explained the City needs the budgeting software to have something more functional than Excel, and any agency can tell you what happens if server and cloud backup goes wrong. Alderman Robinson asked if we have some type of fund for continuous maintenance or improvements, and explained we should create some type of fund where we sent money aside each year strictly for these types of upgrades since they will not go away. The committee decided to allocate $125,000 for the exchange server, server upgrade, budgeting software, and wireless access points. Mayor Aiello explained we need to figure out where funding is coming from, such as fund balance or contingency. He explained we can see how many employees we have in each department and break this down between the three funds. Alderman McCall explained this makes more sense for the budget and would be the more effective way of doing it. In two weeks, a PL will be presented to transfer $125,000 for these items. Director Sprague explained the elevator is still out of service and we need to have it in a public building with ADA requirements and public offices on all three floors. He explained before he began at the City, the City received an estimate of $170,000 to $175,000 for a full renovation on the elevator. He explained he has written an RFP which he put on the street today through the New York State Contract Reporter that asks for a full renovation of the elevator. He explained we do not hae bids yet but he is expecting some escalation from a year ago, so he is requesting $200,000. Alderman McCall asked if there are any grants our outside resources to assist with this, and Director Sprague explained he is not aware of any. Alderman McCall asked when the RFP is due and Director Sprague explained he believes it is due September 25, 2025. Alderman McCall explained this will be on the first committee agenda for October. Mr. Martial explained the City is looking for 2 John Deere mowers. Director Sprague explained we have two wide area mowers, one of which has been out of service for a month and is not worth fixing, and the other is operable but clearly at the end of its useful life. He explained we received a quote to replace both of them. Alderman Anastasia explained he has no problem replacing lawnmowers, but he feels this should have been in the budget. He explained he does not feel it is emergent this time of year and should be worked into the next budget. Alderman Bennion explained the issue with that is there are two more months of mowing, and the next budget starts June 1st while mowing starts around April 15th. He asked about the trade value and Director Sprague explained the trade has gone down considerably and explained they are possibly worth $9,000. Alderman Bennion asked if the quoted price includes the trade in value, and Director Sprague explained the $165,761.10 quote for both includes the trade in value. Alderman Bennion suggested finding funding for one now and the other in next year’s budget, and Alderman McCall explained she would be in agreement with that. She explained the Council discussed previously having these down affects the frequency of mowing. Alderman Robinson explained he feels these mowers have been in the minutes for a year and a half or more. He explained he recalls the Council kicking the can down the road and we are at the point that something needs to happen. He explained he can agree with purchasing one now, but would like to try to offset the purchases so we are purchasing a new one every two years. He explained we could run the second one until it dies and then it forces the Council to replace that one as well. He explained he does support getting one now. Alderman McCall asked if we have funding in the budget for that and if this would wipe out contingency. Alderman Robinson explained he does not want to use contingency this early in the year and Alderman Bennion agreed. Mayor Aiello will introduce a PL at the next regular meeting to transfer funding for the purchase of one mower. Alderman McCall asked about the Bartlett House Roof Repair Project and Mr. Martial explained the Council transferred $44,360 into this fund. Ms. Taylor explained the Council funded to repair the roof, but the City received a grant for the full replacement of the roof and are short for the difference between the grant plus what is already allocated and the total cost. Alderman Bennion asked if this needs to be done now and Director Sprague explained it needs to be done soon. Alderman Bennion asked Ms. Taylor to send out previous minutes regarding 6this project, and Mayor Aiello explained he will look into this to see how much time we have on the grant. Chief Maurouard explained in 2019 or 2020 the parcel behind Fire Station 1 was demolished and the parcel went to the County. He explained the City acquired that lot but has not done anything with the lot since. He explained he has had a conversation with the previous two DPW Directors about doing estimates for what it would take to put a parking lot in. He explained they did just acquire some fencing from the Marcus Park Project, and explained they would like to fence in half the lot and put parking inside the fence as well as a concrete apron from the gate of the fence to the road. He explained inside the fence they would use millings to park on. He explained he does not have a specific number and is just gauging interest on this. Alderman McCall asked if we have money budgeted for this and Chief Maurouard explained we do not. Mayor Aiello asked about the $7,500 estimate and Chief Maurouard explained that is for the roll gate from the last time we looked into it. Alderman McCall explained she feels the taste of the Council on this project will depend on the cost. Alderman Robinson asked if this can be done in house, and Director Sprague explained it sounds like it can but he will need to have a conversation with supervisors before he makes that promise. He explained we could do the apron as a change order to our annual sidewalk curb contractor, and we may need a fence contractor to put up the fence. Alderman Robinson asked why we need to put the gate there if the lot is closed in on the other three sides, and Alderman McCall asked if we need to incur that expense since someone is there 24/7. Mayor Aiello explained Director Sprague will put some figures together and we can come back to this. Mr. Martial explained Chief Maurouard would like to create a capital fund for Code Enforcement cleanup. Chief Maurouard explained right now there is an expense line in the budget that is used to pay contractors and the revenue goes back into a separate revenue line. He explained we do get all the money back that is spent from the expense line, even though it can take time with liens. He explained the revenue line is always playing catch up. He explained he has spoken with Codes, the Mayor, and Mr. Marital, and we would like to create a Capital Fund for the money to go into and come out of to make things simpler. He explained since we charge administrative fees and the County makes us whole on liens, we should be able to start to accrue and build money. Alderman McCall explained she feels that makes sense and Alderman Robinson explained he believes this was discussed during the budget process. Chief Maurouard explained this will only be for Code liens, not water and sewer liens, and Alderman McCall explained it sounds like a good idea. Mr. Martial explained he spoke with Ms. Kerper last week, and for the kennel project the amount of $34,620 is not concrete yet. Mayor Aiello explained the Towns of Olean, Hinsdale, and Allegany, and the City of Olean applied for a grant to build a better kennel on the Town of Olean property and were successful in getting a $500,000 grant. He explained this is for match money that each community will have to pay but we are waiting to find out the exact amount depending on the grant requirements. He explained the grant was just awarded and as soon as we have contracts and more information he will bring this back to the Council. 5. Committee Reports None 6. Adjournment A motion to adjourn was made by Alderman McCall, seconded by Alderman Bennion. Voice vote, ayes all. Motion carried. Meeting adjourned at approximately 8:10 p.m.