Board of Estimate and Apportionment, 2027 Budget Session

1. 0:02of the FY27 budget process. We're going to begin with um budget departments covering city clerk, records management, animal control, and common council as well as vital statistics. Um if everyone be in agreement, we'll start with um presentation by each um department listed and then uh have questions for each before moving on to the next. Does that sound good? Great. I think pretty much you presented all of them because you prepared this. Yeah, we can do it. Sure. Let's go that way. So, you want me to start?
2. 0:47Yes, please. All right. So, let's start with common council 27. Okay. So, first account is 1010.1, which is common council personal services, which um pays the council president, the council members, um any of the council members that do hospitalization buyout cuz they're not on the city's insurance, they're on somebody else's insurance, they're entitled to the buyout. Um as well as Logan for video conferencing tech. He gets paid from this budget line. and Linda Fenoff for uh secretarial duties. I did increase um Linda from 1538 an hour to the minimum wage of 16 an hour.
3. 1:44I wasn't sure if she was going to get the $2 raise as per the contract because she's a part-timer, but I figured if anything she should at least be getting minimum wage for the amount of work that she's doing and legally we have to. Okay, so that's where I went with that. Um, no changes to um, Logan. He's still at the same rate as before. Um, I did a calculation. I did have hospitalization buyouts higher last year because I was unsure with the new council who was going to take insurance
4. 2:12and who wasn't. Um, so we only do have four people currently that received the buyout. So that's exact numbers right there. Um, and then does and that's a savings over last year, right? So that's that's where the the top line here is 97240 and the top line last year was 129 40 y. Yeah. So the um video conferencing average hours are down from what we budgeted last year. It was budgeted at 12, this is at 8, which is pretty much tracking where we are. Yep. Um yeah and the big thing the big change was in the last year's budget the buy
5. 2:56was budgeted at 50,000 and this is what that's the big change. Yeah. Um moving on. If there's no other questions for that one. No. Equipment a zero. It was zero last year. I just kept it zero unless there is something that I didn't know of that a council member needed or something to that extent for equipment. Well, we got an email from um uh a resident in the second order. No, no. Uh the the tech support person, Joe, listing laptops. Mhm. And one of them appeared to be related to the common council. Yep. Which laptop is that?
6. 3:37That's my laptop. It's also on here to be replaced cuz Okay. So, that was in here somewhere. Okay. Got it. Yeah. I This This is a new laptop. It's a It's a council clerk laptop, so it's for me to record the minutes, type the minutes, and do all of that. But it's been six years, so it really needs to be updated. I can't even use it without it being plugged into a power cord. It doesn't It will just turn off. So, if anybody unplugs it or anything during a meeting, I mean, kind of.
7. 4:06I think that's fine, but if it's specific for your work with the council, I think it should be in the council's budget, not in the clerk's budget because they'll look up like it's for you. It's not I mean it's for me it's my computer. It is it's your your regular work. It's my city No, it's my city clerk minutes laptop for the purpose of council meeting. But do you use it for anything else? You use it for clerk work in the clerk's office. It's just Yes.
8. 4:28Yeah. So I would put it So then I just put it on the budget. I just it over just to be more accurate. It's not a problem. So I'm going to add a thousand for that. Okay. Um, that one for the laptop I do have under 1410.2 and on the high-end estimate it was 2,200. Just a little that that came from um Joe. Y I think you can probably get something for less than that probably. That's just the rights that he gave me and he can be precise. Yeah. suppose something I don't know.
9. 5:09Um, moving on to materials and supplies. That's postage, office supplies. Um, if you guys need any letterhead, name plates, anything like that, postage for when we do special meetings or any notices that need to be mailed, anything like that. Um, I believe that that went down by 500 there. Yeah, that 500 because currently I still have a good chunk of money in that account. So, it was 50. Yeah. Hold on. Where's my other paper? Is it I can't edit it when I'm sharing it, but it's not letting me like if I pull up the spreadsheet and I try to go.
10. 5:58Oh, now it is. Never mind. I see. No, I got it. I got it working. Yeah. So, last year you know why? I know why. Sorry. Apologies. That's okay. It's cuz I have things protected so that it doesn't get overwritten. There you go. So, yeah. Last year it was 1,500. This year I'm dropping it down to 1,000 because we still have 13,000 in the account. So, I figured that extra 500 if I can cut it, that's probably a good place to cut it from. Um, moving on.
11. 6:28Printing and advertising. Um, same thing. and council envelopes, anything that needs to be made or ordered. Um public notices for register star when we do um publications for any meetings. Um code supplements. Whenever you do a local law, we get code supplements that we have to pay for directly. Yep. Um do are we still legally required to keep those in hard copy? Yeah. Could we move to electronic? I don't know. I have that's something I'll have to investigate because we just have a we just got a bill for the local laws that were just approved for $15.95.
12. 7:09That's the invoice. So, we're going to have to figure out where I'm going to charge all that this year. And that's I don't even think that's for all of the ones that we've already approved and the three more that are going to be forthcoming. Right. So, we just got to keep that in mind. Local laws right now with this current system do add up really quick. So, just so everybody knows. So, right now, year to date, on this $8,000 line, how much have you spent right now?
13. 7:34That's on the sheet that I gave 961. Oh, I'm sorry. That's okay. So, 101041, the balance I have left as of our bills in September, we have 6,912 left. So, that'll cover that and anything else that comes through hopefully for the rest of the year. But going forward, I figure keep it the same. Mhm. Just in case. Sometimes there's more meetings, sometimes there's less meetings, sometimes there's more local laws. So, it's always fluctuating. You can't really pinpoint it. Um, also charged to this line is municipal parking permits,
14. 8:10which have still been in the question to be moved to the police department. Uh, I don't think it's going to happen anytime soon because the charter needs to change in order for us to change the language to move it from the city clerk to the parking violations bureau. Um, so I have that factored in as well for that amount. Um, historically it's always been charged to that account. I'm not sure why, but I went all the way back to 2016 and it was always charged to that account.
15. 8:42Um, moving on. 101046 general code maintenance. That's our maintenance for our hard copy code supplement books. The minutes tracking is a system where Sherry actually indexes all of the meeting minutes that I type up. She indexes them into a minute tracking and then it's easier for us to look up in a quick pinch. Oh, let's see. Maybe this was done, but everything has broken apart and it's different than our current system and it's very outdated and it's just something that they've always done, I guess. But they we are behind. So since 2023, it hasn't even been uploaded cuz we just don't have the
16. 9:22capacity to get to it. So it's been on the back burner. That's what that's for. Um, the BIS, that's recording equipment for my laptop that I use for the console, my foot pedal, my headset, all of that stuff. Is that like a lease or is this new purchase? It's a lease. Yeah. Um, and then the Nikon conferences, I dropped that down. I think last year I had it for 1,500 because of the new council members. This year I dropped it down to 1,000 because I'm not I don't think everybody's going to be going to these Nikon conferences.
17. 9:58How much has been spent on that this year? Um I can tell you right now. So one. So one, two, three, four, and 255. And then also Ron and cousin went for 510. So one, two, 1500 roughly. 15,600. Yeah. So right now in that account, I only have $2023 left available out of that 4,000 budget. Um, but I did drop it down to 3,600 with the off chance of not having all of those council members wanting to attend, which if they do, great. If they don't, they don't.
18. 10:45Um, and then other just for any other repairs that may need to happen. Gives us a little bit of a cushion to move if we need to. Um, council council, I don't address that. I did though. Yeah, that's legal. No, did you put that dollar amount in? I put the $30,000 in. I just kept it flat versus year ago. And given where we are year to date, it looks like it was reasonable. Yeah, we we're staying under most months we're under 2,000. So, um I'm trying to keep it to 25,000 if possible. Okay. 25. Um year to date, how much is in there?
19. 11:23Uh year to date we spent 147 27. That might have been like from before the last August. I'm not Well, we're we're missing we're short. Let's see. This is We don't have the August invasive. We paid three in a row. Three together. Uh there's two months not showing there yet. Okay. Cuz we don't have September yet and he hasn't broke for August. So that's um if you just take what we are now, so we're basically at 15,000 and that's for 7 months. Yeah. Divided by 2100 per month. Yeah. It's been it's been around 2,000. I think you could take it down to 25. Okay.
20. 12:01Will will Ken will council council line be used if Ken's tapped for um charter revision? Uh well, I I'm not sure when charter I think we didn't budget anything on the charter uh commission because it got tabled. Mhm. Um so I have to see if that's going to move forward. Okay. Um I think if we need to we you know later in the process I can see if we want to revisit that. Um, okay. Any other questions on the common council? I see. Oh, sorry. I was going to say I think the only thing is if we could look to see about the uh the code supplements and whether or not they have to be paper.
21. 12:58Yep. Cuz Okay. definitely is on my list. And the other question I have, which is not really a budget thing, but the the minutes tracking thing, is that something that could be made available to others? What do you mean? Like when I'm trying to find something online, it's often very difficult if I'm trying to find a resolution from the past. And it's just I wouldn't have to bother you so much if I had access. Possibly. I can see. I know right now me and Sherry are just working off of one login because it's so outdated. the one doesn't work and the one does work and I
22. 13:32guess Joe is one of the only people that knows how to play with the system. So, um I can definitely see. Okay. Just fine. Yeah. Something else that we talked about it came up I think it ended last year is moving our tax support over to be under using the counties uh process and their person. So, I think that's something we could look at because I do think we could probably save some money that it it was it the conversation started at the end of Yes, I know Tom was having conversations with
23. 14:09I've heard differing opinions about that. I haven't read anything. And then just before we move the promotion citywide events, that's because there's zero left in the account line there. So that's for um the tourism grants when they apply for through the council or the finance. I think they come through finance for the event awards. So just budget for because you don't consider it really part of your budget the 30,000. Yeah. I don't have it as a part of my budget. No. Yeah. Okay. So we need to add that.
24. 14:43Well actually um in finance and we've looked at this and I've also discussed it with Ken. Um we would really like to eliminate that. Um, we should re it's it's a gray area that we are using public funds to provide to uh programs that we do not control. Um, if they were our events, we could have a vendor doing them, but technically we should not be using public funds for private events. It's fine. So, I would like to eliminate that alto together from the budget this year. The one comment I will make is I believe that there is a balance in the tourism reserve.
25. 15:23Not much, but that is legally required to be put toward some sort of tourism based event. So maybe this is the the year that we use that up. You give me a second. I'll look. It's not much because I think we had like I don't know. We took 30,000 out of it last year to fund promotions and I know there was some balance left. So just give me a second. reserve for tourism board. That's uh we have a balance of $4,750.14. So, should we just throw that in to get it over with? Um, yeah, but I think that we have to make
26. 16:16sure that what that goes towards is something that is closely connected to the city determining what the program is. Yeah. And I would assume there would be a council committee, subcommittee, whatever you want to call it, that would finance. Okay. So, I'm going to modify the budget to add this 4,750 in. Yeah. Finance does all of the applications. Yeah, that's what I thought I explain. So the one thing that comes to mind um where it really is a city program that is managed by third party is walk I'm sorry Margaret I can't hear you. The
27. 17:20thing that comes to mind that is an activity that that we have a vendor a contract with with the right now with sleep cup is water front lenses. And so that's something where we do actually have some input into the actual program. So that that's on top of my mind. That's what I would say. Okay. Does anybody have anything else for legislative? So, I'm just going to summarize the changes. So, we're all in agreement. Um, we added, we didn't add, we are transferring $2,200 into the equipment
28. 17:59line. We'll be taking it out of the clerk's equipment line. Uh, 4750 for promotion. That's going to be closing out the remainder of the tourism board reserve. And we reduce council council from 30 to 25,000. That's all I have. Anybody else? Nope. That's it. Okay, moving on. I'm going to skip the first one because it's broken down in the next page. Yep. City. So, um 1410.2 was that equipment line. So, we're going to make that zero cuz we moved that to the other council account. Uh materials and supplies.
29. 18:52This is our time slips, call out slips, time off slips, um our permits, auction permits, event organizer permits, things like that. um our postage, envelopes, city clerk letterhead, and any other office supplies, pens, notebooks, folders, anything we might need. Um so that's at 25. I actually up that a little bit from 2,00 to 2500 for 2027. Um right now we have a balance of 349 in that account. Um with a couple more months left, I might deplete that. So just even if we wanted to go to 2,200 or something like that cuz the cost of everything is so expensive. Um I'm open
30. 19:37for conversation on that as well if you guys think. Um telephone and conference that's our phone and um internet which is paid the same. It has been the same. No changes there. So I'm keeping that at the 2200. Um the 141046 is our city clerk others account. So I have in there maintenance and repairs of any of our computers cuz some of us have dual screens. Um Kim is the only one that has one monitor. So um just in case anything goes wrong, we have a little extra cushion. Um this admin's govk that's our clerk licensing system.
31. 20:19That's where we do our daily work. We take in our payments. We issue our birth certificates. Everything is done in that system. Um, we got a new copy machine. Um, so our bill is 183 a month times any copies we get. Um, so that actually decreased from last year's. We had a more expensive copy machine lease last year and I was able to work it out. So this year I've got it down a little bit. Um, and then again a little extra cushion of 300. So I think I'm bringing that down from
32. 20:538380 to 58 380 to 59. Yeah. So I could cut there. So the one thing I don't see that I remember from previous years is the acrual software. It's like 500 bucks. But are do we have that out because we're trying to move it to ADP or I don't think we've had a bill for that. So I don't even know. Okay. It's so outdated. I know. So much so that none of us can we can't go in at the same time. Like only one person can be in the system where crash is and it's yeah it's
33. 21:26well if it makes you feel any better it's highly problematic for me too because I have to calculate compensated absences every year and the output is just horrendous. It's so much manual work. So hopefully maybe 2027 will be the year we move into ADP. Hopefully maybe and then it'll work correctly. Well, those are confirm. Any other questions there? Um, no. Um, so the, um, the s the only differences I saw in personnel were some differences in salaries. Um and it's all explained here. Um and so you've calculated last year there was no raise for anyone who was non-union. Where are you?
34. 22:252026. Oh, we're on the next page. No, I'm not I have your 2026 budget open in front of me as well. This one and so last year L did not get an increase as a department head. But are you the only are you the only non-union person in the clerk's office? Yes. Right. So, um did the salary amounts that um you're putting in here include the new CSCA contract? Okay. And you have with and without depending on what happens this year for the non-union. Correct. Got it.
35. 22:59I will make a comment and I will make this comment to everyone. Um because it's a flat 2% increase. That means every single p fat $2 per hour increase. That means it should be a flat dollar amount. And that dollar amount should be the same across all the clerical workers because they do 37 12 hours a week. And DPW should be the same at a different rate because they do 80 hours a week or 40 hours a week. I've noticed discrepancies in how different people have calculated the $2. So, I'm going to put something out there to say here is
36. 23:34what I at least believe is the accurate calculation of $2 per hour for a 37 and a half hour worker and a 40hour week worker so that we're consistent across. Cool. Y perfect. I think yours is a little high. I think so, too. Yeah. I was trying to work the numbers. I did it a million times. I have like 18 spreadsheets on my computer. Yeah, that's well and it is it seems like it should be more straightforward than it is, but it's really not because and then you throw HPD into it and it
37. 24:05gets even more confusing as they have written into their contract that their year is 2080 hours and that's not a calendar year. A calendar year is more like 2087 hours. So then that just throws everything off too, right? So, I I I think the easiest way to do it, and I will I will mention my because I also went through at least four different methodologies, and I came up really close with each one, but I'd like to have a fixed one. So, the DPW one is pretty straightforward because it's $2 an hour times.
38. 24:37Well, he's he's 2082, so never mind. I think I just have to figure it out and let me know. Yeah. So, that will be coming. Okay. So, speaking of the personal services, um, in my office, I am the only one that receives the hospitalization buyout. That's why the 5,000 is under me. Um, this year, um, FYI, the number next to Sherry is incorrect because I lumped the entire amount instead of the split amount. Oh, you go one. Yes. So, that number should actually be 6150442. And this is wait sorry what is it 61 6150442
39. 25:23because um she has a separate line that gets charged for registar that her salary is broken into. Yeah. So when I added it there I noticed I was like oh that's not right cuz I already put it on the other paper. Um but uh Kim nothing has changed. She got her $2 increase plus her longevity. Sherry. This year I am asking the BEA if we can give Sherry a promotion, a welldeserved promotion. She's been here for 12 years. She does a lot. She is basically my deputy when I'm not here.
40. 25:56She's she can sign vital records. She can city clerk. She has been inundated with foils. I just want to mention that. Um she what else? She does everything. She helps me with the record retention, dispositions, things like that. Um, she is my go-to. Like, if I'm not here, Sherry's got it. Sherry knows what's going on. She can sign for everything for the most part. I keep her in the loop of what's going on here and there. So, if I'm out, she at least will have some sort of idea of what's what might come or who's who might be coming, that kind of thing. Um, and in that, she did
41. 26:32get a parking stipen when parking was here. Cool. um which if she does go forward and we can get her the senior account clerk position, I have already removed the parking stipen from her salary. So she won't be double dipping in that aspect at all if reduces the the actual amount of the increase to take her to that title because it's being reduced by the stipen amount. Yeah. So the stipen amount came up to about like $1,400ish. Um, so we removed that before we did her new salary plus the raise and all of that. Um, so if you guys could consider
42. 27:09that, we would be very appreciative of that. She does a lot of work for the office and I don't think she gets recognized enough to do the work that she's doing. So any questions on that part? Okay, next we have records management. Um, this is for materials and supplies for our record rooms. If I need I think they're acidfree folders, if we need new boxes for records retention for downstairs, um, anything we might need to preserve the records that need to stay. Um, this is just a little glimpse of extra.
43. 28:02We haven't spent anything on this this year. Not this year. No. Okay. Any other questions there? Next is animal control. It's still at 10,000. Um, I talked to Jimmy Delaney. He is still interested in holding the position. Um, he has no issues with the pay. I told him everything would stay the same. He said he'll pay. He was on board to stay another year. Um, so this is for his pay. Um, any shelter services that the Humane Society does, if there's a stray dog or anything like that, it would get charged to this account. um our dog
44. 28:57licensing um tags that we order for the dogs, also ditch charts to this account. Um and then envelopes for us to mail out renewal letters and deliver notices and things like that. And right now you're at you you've spent about 6,500 of the 10,000. Y So that the 10,000 looks like a reasonable estimate. Yeah. You're on target. Okay. Next is vital statistics. Um the first one is the registar portion which I explained about the whole salary up on the last page. So can I just clarify this number is going to go up right by
45. 29:46the amount that the clerk's number is going down. Like you didn't double count Sherry's salary being divided. Yeah. Does this include her division? No. And not in the spreadsheet I gave you. That's why I had you cross off the amount because it was the whole thing marked into one. Right. So it's going from 63 to 61. So this is going to go from 4 to 6. So it'll be 61 plus whatever is in that vital statistics that So these numbers don't change. So it be it will add up to the 63 alto together.
46. 30:1862 is the grand total, correct? Okay. Yeah. Of both. That was my Yeah. Wait, I I just want to make sure I'm clear. So is the 63 and change her entire fiscal year salary across all duties? Correct. Okay. So then that would be divided using whatever ratio we do between clerk and correct whatever. Yeah. Okay. which I have it broken down as 2 27933 would go to her vital records portion and then the rest would go to that I think it's like the 61 I gave you would go to the other one.
47. 30:50Okay. So the 44 is you the 4,400 the 4,400 is combined me and her 2,000 or the two Yeah. So I'm so confused. So So here's where the 44 is coming. So you're 2,000 for me plus the 22 is 22. So that's the breakout at the 44. And last year the breakout um it was very close was like 42. No, no, I see those numbers. I I think what I misunderstood is Oh, so you basically double counted for 2279. It's included in the 63, which is the wrong number. Correct. That's the thing that got Yes.
48. 31:34All right. There we go. Yes. Got it. All right. So, the vital statistics number is good. It's just the one. Yes. Okay. Thank you. Thank you for bearing with me. That's okay. Um Yeah. And mine would say the same obviously. And with her new salary promotion, um and breakdown, hers would actually say the same as well. She's getting a little bit more on the other end for the breakdown, the percentage portion, I guess, from the way that was calculated. I don't know. Um, yeah. And then 1,600 for other expenses.
49. 32:11We haven't spent that yet this year. Uh, 420 14 20 46. Correct. We have not spent anything yet. um because at the end of the year we will order um more vital statistic things. We'll need more supplies. We need safety paper to do our death certificates and things on. Um we we charge a portion of our clerk software to the vital records as well because all the vital records are inside the system. Um same thing envelopes, stamps, postage for us to mail vital records when we get the applications in. Um, so we try to
50. 32:57use what we have and then at the end what we need and so that line serves as a back stop at the end of each year. Okay. Basically. Yeah. Do you do you have any idea why it was so low in 25 cuz pretty consistent 23 24 about 1,200 and then 25 it's only 164 bucks. Is there a common zero? I don't know. It's possible I need a typo, but I tried to prove it pretty clearly. I'll look again. So, I'm not sure. But if you wanted to drop it to 1200, that's fine.
51. 33:32I have no issues with that. So, if you're wrong with it, we will take it. Okay. I tried to cut a lot. The other We're going to drop that to 500. Yes. And then when you're ready now, can we talk about this? Yep. When Heather's ready, she's done stuff. So, I think I can co-rocess at this point. So, if you guys want to go ahead. Okay. All right. And um this is a quote that I received. As some of you may know, we are running out of space in the
52. 34:31clerk's office for our vital records. We have a small little vault in our office. It is fireproof and all those good naturatured. It has to be because of vital records. Um, with that being said, it's hard to find something that is going to hold the records, be fireproof, not get not damage anything. Um, so I reached out to New York State Archives. She gave me a contact to this guy named Tim from Office World. He gave me a 2026 quote for two different kind of storage options. One would be like a four drawer
53. 35:17um kind of like a big standing filing cabinet, but it is fireproof. I don't know if that one is going to be best case scenario because some of those records are very fragile and I don't know if we take them out of their box and try to put them in a folder if that's really gonna be a good idea without them ripping or tearing or something to that extent. Um, so the other option is like a big large storage unit which I guess he said majority of the people who buy this is for like hazardous material things like that. So it's more of just like a
54. 35:48shelving than a file cabinet, which maybe we're thinking if we do that, then we can pull some of the boxes that we have with the old historical records and maybe they can go in there and then maybe DPW can create a couple more shelves in our vault just for temporarily. Um, that storage unit is that 2293. The other one that is the filing cabinet is 7,000. And that seems a little outrageous for a filing cabinet. That's not going to be able to store much. And this is also the one where for the more fragile record, you don't think that's a great fit. Correct. Yeah.
55. 36:27Yeah. So, I did want to move some of the boxes out. That gives you more space in your existing. Right now, there are a bunch of boxes, but they're historical records, so they can't go downstairs because they need to be in fireproof. So that's why they're stored in there. We actually have two mini vaults inside of our big vault that are also stored with old historical records that are wrapped up with acid paper and everything. And these vaults don't even close. Like there's something that stops them cuz they're so old. I
56. 36:57don't think they even service them anymore. They're full to capacity. And I just wanted to bring it to everybody's attention that this might be something that we need to do next year. I wasn't able to include it in my budget. I didn't get a quote until after budgets were due. Um, pricing is going to vary obviously for 2027, so it could probably increase. Um, but this was a good start and I figured I could share it now, get it all on the table. And we are slowly running out of room.
57. 37:27And this this would be on the vital records line, right? Correct. Yeah. So, do we want to add like 3,000 to ber records for equipment? Because if we go with this one here, the 2293 to allow for and there's also setup. There's a charge for setup 430. If we were to budget for a filing authority to for 2027 in vital records, we could add 3,000 to the vital records budget. What do you think? I mean, we can do it. Well, yeah. And we look at the end when we have to make everything match. We'll see if we can Yeah. pull it off. You don't have anything in your current in
58. 38:12your yeartoday budget that you could use to move money from one line to another possibly to purchase it. Now, I possibly Yes. I have to I mean, if you could find money in your current budget, I think that would be preferable, right? Yeah. I know that he's only going to hold this quote for 60 days. Yeah. So, I have a little bit of figuring out where to pull if I can pull any money because I don't want to do a budget amendment or anything like that to purchase something now. If I can't purchase it now, I'd rather just wait for next year and do it the right way instead of having to move money.
59. 38:48So, so given that, do we want to add the money now or do we want to hold off? Hold off for now. we'll return to the question. But if you go and look at your current per year to date and see if there's anywhere that you can find yeah some money and then feel feel free to reach out to me because if you can't find all of it but you can find most of it I might be able to find something in some of the non-EP departmental ones.
60. 39:11Okay. Yeah. Cool. Okay. So we're so we're not changing that right now. Okay. Yeah. I just wanted to bring it up and I I think we've talked about this before, but I we don't really use our vault, although it is also jam-packed full of unnecessary crap. Um, some of which we have to keep and some of which I don't know that we do. But, um, we're doing so much more electronically. We're storing more of our stuff electronically. We used to have like wads and wads of paper like every day this big. So, it would take up a huge amount of room and we're not really doing that anymore. So we do use it for
61. 39:46some things but a smaller amount. So you know the only thing I would say is that as I think you know you can't really use the vault door anymore because it doesn't work and it can't really be repaired because they can't get the parts anymore. So but it does have a grill that locks with a key. Okay. with a PL you can go back and look at it and also with um plastic on it so people couldn't even put their hands through the thing because that's where
62. 40:14the coin guy used to count coins before it moved over to HPD. So maybe maybe the historical records if I talked to New York State Archive or something, maybe they don't need to be as I don't know protected. That's not the right word, but protected as we need them to be. And maybe I could just move some of those boxes in there. Wouldn't hurt to ask them, but I appreciate it. I did check out the one downstairs that Rob's head, but it's a mess. It's full of stuff. It's dark. It's dingy. I don't even think the
63. 40:46door closes. So, no, there's a Yeah. Oh, well, I think that's everything. Okay. So, if I can just summarize for the city clerk's office. Uh I'm going to take a look at the uh $2 per hour things and we'll issue that information to everyone. Uh so that and we took the $2,200 out of equipment because we moved it into the council budget. No changes in record management, no changes in animal control. Uh again, once we get the $2 an hour thing, that may impact the register of personal services as well. So I have that highlighted. And then other expense, we took down $400 to,200.
64. 41:31Anything else? I think that's it. Okay, then I have it all. Yay. Thank you. Thank you. Are they different? Should be the same one. Okay, the same one. Yep. I figured that would be easier. Oh, definitely. Yeah, definitely. Um, we're done here, right? We're done with this one. I'm just going to get some water. Yeah, I'm going to go get some All right. Awesome. I saw the camera was on already. Uh, all right. We are back um now with budget presentation from code enforcement. Nick, the way we are going
65. 56:53to do it is if you want to walk us through both um both documents you sent us and uh we'll ask questions as we go along the way. Okay. Um most of my budget has stayed the same um from last year. Um personal services is one of the only in is the only increase in there um last year. The approved budget for personal services was $146,521. Um, but then we had uh an amendment toward the middle of the year um to hire a full-time code enforcement officer with some rollover from the two previous.
66. 57:49Am I reading the wrong one? No, no, no. I just wanted to give you more background. I meant to hand that out to you before. Okay. Okay. Cuz that just gives a little more context to prior years. And you know, when you're talking about the budget amendment, it shows you right there where it went from 146 up to 173. So it was originally approved for 146 521. Um, after the common council approved a increase so that we had some rollover, when we hired the full-time code enforcement officer and left on the two part-time code enforcement officers, uh,
67. 58:24they increased that budget to $173,756 for the year, but we know that was just temporary. Um, but I have now requested a $10,000 increase to my salary to make that budget $161,224. Um, equipment remains $3,000. Yep. So, uh, what was did you factor in the $2 an hour raise for your code enforcement officer? Yes, thank you. that's included in that also. Okay. Um what we're telling everybody is different pe every people have calculated that number to be different. Okay. When it should be consistent because obviously $2 an hour for x amount of hours is the same amount no matter who you are.
68. 59:17So I'm going to be providing a calculation and to the extent that it doesn't match what was used, we'll modify that accordingly. So we're doing that across all departments. Okay. Do you happen to know off the top of your head how much you included in that or and or if you can give me the code enforcements officer starting salary I can reverse engineer to figure out how much you put in there. So his starting salary is $60,000 a year. Um okay even okay so you calculated 4168 which I
69. 59:49think is what a lot of people have done but it's not accurate. Yeah, that's not accurate. Uh because uh non DPW field people and nonHPD people work 37 and a2 hours a week, not 40. So I think that number is based on like 2080 hours in a year, which is not actually correct, but it's not a problem. A lot of people have done it. There's even some it's it's confusing figuring out the increase. It doesn't sound like it should be, but it is. So, we're just going to figure out what the set amount
70. 1:00:22is and say, "Okay, everybody for clerical staff based on 37 half hour week, this is the dollar amount increase." And for like DPW for 80 hours a week, this is their dollar increase. And we'll make sure it's consistent so that everybody's being treated the same. That's all. We just want to make sure it's even and fair. Okay. Um I I have a question. Yep. So uh in this spreadsheet on this tab um for 2026 on the far right your total for personal services is 153 877 I'm not looking at the same thing you are
71. 1:00:59this is it's from your spreadsheet you had you had two things you had this is the detail it's the detail on the personal services line right um so requires that 153 when the amended was 173. I don't know. I I think I think because I think I know because the two part-time officers left so their salary didn't continue through that. I I guess I think this is this is not the budgeted number. I think we because if you look across the line, what it shows is a
72. 1:01:43full-time director and then a part-time code enforcement, a part-time um building inspector and then another part-time code enforcement. Well, I think what's going on here is that the 173756 is what was approved, right? But what it will actually end up being is the 15387 because that rollover didn't actually happen. those both of those part- timerrs ended up leaving before we hired the new full-time person. So, we didn't end up spending all of that extra money to keep them on for the training as we had planned.
73. 1:02:19Got it. Okay. I just was trying to reconcile that I believe that's what the difference is there. So, it was approved for 173, but we didn't end up needing it. We didn't end up using it. on here today uh uh on person services you're at 98,944 okay yeah this is how okay and that's because of the delay and I think in some I think that's what's going on I think it's exactly what he said which is the the parttime keeping lock staying so we didn't end up using all of the money that we Right and then I think your code
74. 1:02:57enforcement officer started later than was originally anticipated And then you also had a clerk shortage for a brief period of time that been some changes. Um so yeah, mine would go to 80,000 and what I had calculated for him was $64,168 with the $2 increase, but uh Heather will let us know if what that actual number is. assuming it'll be close to that if Yeah, I think it's I think it's actually around $3,900. Okay. Um other than that, all the numbers are the same. Equipment remains $3,000.
75. 1:03:40Um materials and supplies remains $10,000. Telephone and internet remains $4,000. Um and other expenses, which is primarily used for training, remains $2,500. So if you look at the year to date um dollar amounts expenditures year to date Mhm. on equipment although that was you know was budgeted for 3,000 in 2026 you're at 571. So what um and in previous years um it was 800 there was a large amount in 2024 but it's around 800. So why do you need 3,000 for equipment? um because we might not have spent it all yet, but I plan to buy some more electronic equipment for the office. Um
76. 1:04:33we are moving more towards digital um equipment rather than paper and pen as things were in the past. Uh that would include having um tablets for inspections and the services that go along with that. Some of the programs uh quite expensive and stuff like that. So the money would be spent on ultimately making the office more efficient. The other one, the materials and supplies year to date is at uh 5,206 budgeted for 10,000. So why does that still need to stay at 10,000? It's been roughly 8,500 for the last two years. That looks pretty consistent. Do you think that's okay?
77. 1:05:20Yeah. Or you think that could come down to 8,000? I mean, that's not that. Yeah. I don't think I don't think you can take it to eight. That's not I mean, you leave it alone. 85 9,000. 9,000 gives things some some cushion cuz there was between 85 and 9. Yeah. If we look at 2023, we're at 111. So, we want to avoid potential needs for budget transfers and amendments. Nine's a a good number. I I'd like to also get some granularity on the 3,000 for um equipment. Now, clearly something occurred in 2024
78. 1:05:59because $8,000 was spent, but other years actual in 2025 was 805. This year we're at 571 and um it was budgeted for three. So to me that looks like something that come down unless you have specific well I believe that you can itemize that you want to purchase. You have to remember I didn't make the budget last year that was Craig and I believe he did have in there to buy more electronic equipment um albeit a laptop and stuff like that to which didn't happen yet. I've been holding off on making any purchases to find out where we were at
79. 1:06:35the end of the year to make sure that I had enough money in our budget to make those purchases. Got it. So I think you know the other thing is if you're going to be purchasing more electronic equipment and you have sufficient money in your budget in 2026 to do so you may not need 3,000 in 2027. So I think if you take a look and itemize what it is you're planning to what the expenditures are for that would be helpful. I can do that. Um again I know tablets aren't extremely expensive or laptops.
80. 1:07:08um some of these programs that we'd like to use cost thousands of dollars um to be able to download these apps and stuff like that. Y so uh that's where a lot of it would go. So even if we use this year to be able to buy the equipment, uh I'd still need some next year to be able to have the programs at a yearly cost at that as well. So it's basically like an annual subscription kind of thing. Yeah. Okay. So that wouldn't I mean I'd like to get some detail and that's on the lower end on some of those programs.
81. 1:07:40Yeah, that would probably go into a different expenditure line though. Probably office or Yeah, there would be a subs we would add a subscription line that we don't currently have. It's become a much bigger issue. Um there's government the county's governor's bureaus. So if you hear me say Gazsby what it means they constantly come out with new and ridiculously complicated regulations. So their newest one is called CIDA, which is subscription based information technology X, right? So, but we literally now have to start tracking subscriptions and if they're over material amount, we have to like depreciate them over time. It's insane.
82. 1:08:18But given that um we're going to start like making sure that all the subscription things have their own line item. So that's just an FYI for you. Okay. Um, the second thing I would ask about that is I would assume then, and I think you actually mentioned this, that if you're out in the field with tablets accessing apps, that probably means you need a data plan that you don't currently have. Mhm. Perfect. So, I would have initially said that it looks like telephone and internet could come down because it hasn't, you know, was 2,800 last year. Uh,
83. 1:08:50but I'm thinking to Margaret's point, if we can get a little more detail about how much those apps might cost and how much a data plan for those apps might cost, then we can see if that's going to be too much or not enough in terms of what your data is going to be requiring. Does that make sense, guys? Yeah. Can highlight that one. Um, I also think it would be wise to get a cell phone for our other officer. Um, I know the previous officers were using their personal cell phones to make uh
84. 1:09:23city calls when they're uh for example outside of a building waiting to get in to make uh inspections for the fire safety inspections. Better to have a work phone. What's that? It's better to have a work phone. Certainly. Yeah. Well, we can all use work phones. I mean, I hate the fact that I have to use my personal phone just to log into various apps because they require some sort of second factor authentication, but what we do because we can't afford to give everybody a cell phone. So, but yeah, I mean, if the world was
85. 1:09:53ideal, I don't think anybody should have to use their personal phones for anything. Part of the problem that we had is when one of those um inspectors left, uh we still had landlords and whatnot calling this guy's personal cell phone and trying to relay messages between us and all of that stuff. So, um my think field work is, you know, I don't mind using my personal phone. I get with your point. I have always had a work phone, but it doesn't really have the same impact on me it has on somebody
86. 1:10:26who's at the Just making the bottom point. Yeah. No. Yeah. Sir, not fair. And I believe Tiffany had her hand raised. I don't know if she had information to add. Yeah, I think it was information. Hi there. Can you hear me? I actually dropped it in the chat. There was um some questions around uh Justin's compensation. He's currently at 28.885 an hour based on 280 hours per year. And so that's how next year's comp was calculated. Okay, just for the records, 2080 is not an accurate number to be using to calculate annual compensation. So that's where some of this confusion is coming from. So what's his hourly rate again?
87. 1:11:1728.85. Correct. Andre. Okay. And that Yeah. And that was the uh the amount that we were given to calculate his uh his compensation, the number of hours rather. Sorry. Okay. cuz I mean in reality it's really more like 2087 hours in a day which means he's going to actually net up more than $60,000 for his annual first year salary. So just an FYI. Gotcha. But it is what it is. It's already been committed, right? Yes. But thank you cuz the hourly rate's more important than the salary for basically anybody under the CSA contract. Okay, great.
88. 1:12:03That's relatively new. So that's why I don't even think about it all the time. Okay. I don't have anything else. And then just on the training, we see that uh we're tick under a thousand. Is that just because as you mentioned earlier kind of the staff turn over? No, actually it's because um I the trainings that I took this year were free trainings through the state. Um after that uh we have to go away and do these trainings that includes tolls uh hotel stays sometimes and stuff like that because they're in-person trainings. Uh this year being my first year was all online 6 week program.
89. 1:12:52The one thing though is you're now only two people instead of three, right? So it could shift a little bit but also things do get more expensive too. So, that should be considered. We all know things get more expensive. Sure. I mean, I feel like we could take it down to two, but I'll leave that up to you guys if you want to hold off and see where we met out first. Yeah, let's do that. Great. I don't have any questions. Okay. So, in summary, we're going to look at the um $2 an hour increase and make sure that's consistent across all
90. 1:13:41departments and we'll share that. We took uh telephone and fit down by a thousand. And uh currently that's it with a request for some more information about the tablets and data plan to so there's data plan the subscriptions and then there's actual equipment and hopefully equipment you can purchase this year and then we will see what needs to be purchased for applications for subscriptions. Okay. And are you are you we can definitely talk about this offline. Um, but are you familiar with like if you want to move money in your budget, like if you've got extra money here and you want to use it
91. 1:14:17for equipment, you want to move it into your equipment budget. Do you know how that works? If not, we can talk separately offline. Um, we've talked about it before a little bit. Um, I don't know the process of it. I haven't had to do anything. We also updated our rules so that um you can move up to 5,000 I believe the new number is without without requiring a resolution to come before the council. Okay. So, is the first one we make it 2,000 or 1,000? Um, I think I can't remember. I'd have to look it up. No, there are three tiers.
92. 1:14:49I think we'll confirm whether it's 1,000 or 2,000. I think it's 1,000. You as a department have used only able to request to move up to $500 between your lines. Mhm. You can now move up to a,000. And that's just an email to my office saying, "Hey, move a,000 from here to here or 800 or whatever you need." between a,000 and 5,000. It's now a BA resolution. That used to be anything $1,000 or under. It's now $5,000 or under. So all that's required there is a little resolution and you just need two out of three of us to sign off on it. Okay.
93. 1:15:23Um and then it comes to my office and we make the budget adjustment and then $5,000 or higher has to be a formal resolution that goes council full council. Okay. So you got more flexibility than you used to in terms of moving stuff toward the end of the year to try and maybe make some of these purchases. Okay. Great. Great. Thanks. Thank you much. That's it. Yep. Yeah. Thanks. All right. That is the end of our first meeting. We'll see all of you back here on Wednesday.
94. 1:15:58There should be one on the chair.

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