Schenectady City Council to meet Tuesday to continue budget debate | #citycouncil

SCHENECTADY — City Council members debated cost-saving steps like cutting several municipal positions, putting $2.5 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds toward eliminating the mayor’s proposed sewer and water fee hikes and whether to dedicate money earmarked for vacant positions to defray overtime pay for police and firefighters. 

But in the end, after hours of back and forth and an extended break, the majority of the panel — over the objections of a few colleagues — decided to adjourn Friday’s gathering and resume the finance committee meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday at City Hall. 

Under the mayor’s $111 million budget, property taxes would remain unchanged, and homeowners would pay nearly $170 more next year in garbage, water and sewer fees for a single-family home. McCarthy has said that since no ARPA or COVID-19 federal monies will be available in 2025, Schenectady could be looking at a roughly $7.4 million tax deficit.  

The council is eyeing a $1.1 million reduction to the overtime budgets the mayor wants for the police and fire departments. 

Police Chief Eric Clifford and Fire Chief Don Mareno both addressed the panel Friday.

Mareno said the department has a 20-person minimum staffing contractual requirement and to meet that threshold he has been trying for the past two years to fill the vacancies. He worried that staffing shortages were taking a mental and physical toll on firefighters.

Clifford said the department has been running short on their minimum staffing at nights and that not being at full strength makes them more reactive than proactive.  

“We have been fortunate that our major crimes have been down this year,” said Clifford, adding the force is down about 15 officers. 

McCarthy said not having enough police officers hampers the department’s ability to respond to quality-of-life crimes like noise complaints that have increased. 

Councilman Carl Williams said he is “against throwing money at overtime to fix it,” a move he said has not worked in the past. Councilwoman Carmel Patrick said she was concerned crime would increase if police don’t get the overtime money.     

Among the vacant City Hall jobs on the chopping block are the job of an assistant to the engineer and assistant to the corporation council as well as a code enforcement officer position.

The panel also disagreed on whether to let departments use money that was allocated for years-vacant positions for overtime costs.

One of the issues that wasn’t discussed Friday is a proposal from Council President Marion Porterfield to increase the governing body’s $14,100-per-year stipend by 16 percent to $16,356 annually.  She and others on the council backing the idea have argued that the council hasn’t had a pay raise in about two decades. 

As the meeting was coming to an end, Patrick said she wanted to press on, later adding that her colleagues all know where she stands on the issues and that she would be shocked in any of them changed their minds.

McCarthy wasn’t amused by some of the proposed changes to his tentative budget.

“This just becomes a charade and is an overall embarrassment to the finances of the city,” said McCarthy who later in the session commented that “we’re in the theater of the absurd.”  

Porterfield said, “sarcasm is unnecessary.” 

The panel must adopt the budget by Nov. 1.