Mayor Barlow Delivers Budget Proposal To Councilors

OSWEGO – This budget is the third city budget I have constructed as mayor.

As you know, since taking office in January of 2016, we have implemented and followed a strategic return on investment driven strategy, a complete contradiction to the strategy used by our predecessors.

Previously, city government felt it could penny-pinch its way to prosperity and worked to implement the strategy by neglecting city streets, sidewalks and infrastructure; not properly maintaining city buildings, irresponsibly ignoring the need to replace or adequately repair city equipment and not wisely allocating resources in the areas that need it the most like our neighborhoods and essential daily city services that improve the quality of life for city residents.

Our strategy simply suggests that if you invest money in the right areas and consider what the return of that investment may be; not just monetarily but also in the form of improving the community and initiating real progression, over time the financial position of the city will improve and simultaneously the investments will help attract new residents and retain current residents.

Since 2016, this administration has been focused on enhancing our parks, our neighborhoods, our streets and public amenities.

We worked to improve our services at the Department of Works by updating, replacing and repairing department equipment that not only provides our employees with safe working conditions but allows us to offer better, higher quality neighborhood services to our residents.

This strategy has undeniably better positioned the city of Oswego in every way, so much so that other Central New York municipalities are noticing what is happening in the Oswego community and inquiring as to what we are doing to make things happen.

At the same time, we’ve had to make several extremely difficult decisions.

The city operates on $1.5 million less than it did the day I took office largely due to significant but necessary personnel layoffs comprised of 19 employees in 2017 and eight in 2018.

We have implemented innovated ideas and changes most apparent in the Department of Public Works.

The addition of a night shift and a new techniques in snow removal and road treatment may not always sit well with our employees but are large contributions to our overall cost reductions.

All three major Oswego city departments including the Department of Public Works, Oswego Fire Department and Oswego Police Department reduced their amount of overtime over the last two years with the most substantial savings in the Department of Public Works reducing overtime from $375,604 in 2015 to $242,762 in 2016 to $169,225 in 2017.

The total overtime budget since I took office has been reduced by approximately $370,000, 30 percent, and I expect that number to be even greater at the end of this year and beyond.

In 2016 I took office and inherited expiring contracts with many city labor unions.

We wisely negotiated those contracts and successfully eliminated what is known as the healthcare waiver.

Believe it or not, city employees who opted not to take the city health coverage received up to a 50 percent payout of the value of the coverage anyway. Through negotiations we eliminated the healthcare waiver and replaced it with a flat $3,000stipend resulting in a $332,000 savings in the first year.

We will maintain our momentum and continue making progress in 2019 by passing a budget that sticks to the same strategy with our focus on the same vision.

Our $2.6 million investment in DPW vehicles and equipment over two years brings our standard of equipment to a significant level and gives our employees the tools they need to do their jobs providing the level of service Oswego residents deserve.

But we still need to invest and focus on our municipal buildings.

My 2019 budget allocates $250,000 to help repair city buildings, including replacing the City Hall elevator.

I would also like to invest in a mowing arm so we can maintain our recent park improvements like Harbor Trail, the Wright’s Landing Marina and the new Oswego Dog Park.

We’ve made remarkable strides with our wastewater facilities in two years. The mandated work on the Consent Decree Sewer Separation project has continued by finishing phase two last fall ahead of schedule and $100,000 under budget in addition to netting $5 million in state grant money to fund the required projects, offset costs and prevent reate increase.

We negotiated new contracts and added new users to generate additional revenue to help fund long over due and necessary improvements to both wastewater treatment plants.

In two years, thanks to the superb management of Camden Group, we have transformed the operation of our facilities and strategically invested more than $3 million upgrading our facilities after three decades of neglect and deferred maintenance.

My budget allocates another $340,000 investment into our facilities but actually lowers the operations budget by $53,000 from $2,430,000 to $2,367,000 allowing us to hold rates steady for the foreseeable future.

I have included in this budget $50,000 and the addition of one employee to the technology department to focus on the recent technological issues constantly plaguing city government.

City government’s email is inadequate, our phone system is virtually obsolete, we are at risk of cyber security hacks and a study currently being conducted is going to outline specifically what our problems are and how to address them.

This $50,000 set aside gives us the resources to address the issues and an additional person in our department allows the city to stay ahead of problems in the future.

I have also allocated an additional $20,000 in our events budget, increasing the budget from $49,000 to $60,000. The reason for this increase is to build on our successful Summer Concert Series. In addition to the concert series, next year we will have the Market Street Pocket Park completed. I would like to fund occasional small concerts and other forms of entertainment in that area in addition to concerts at the Veterans’ Stage as well.

An increase in the events budget also ensures we continue with our traditional events like the Independence Day Parade and festivities, the Christmas Tree lighting event, farmers’ market and Project Bloom.

A final highlight of this budget is a $15,000 allocation to the city of Oswego Section 8 Rental Assistance Program. In 2017, we overhauled our rental assistance priority ranking and emphasized a workforce development component in our program criteria.

We restructured our priority ranking system to first assist those actively looking for employment, those who have part-time employment or those going through a vocational training program.

This change transforms the city of Oswego Section 8 program from being a government subsidized ‘hand-out’ program to a more helpful, meaningful ‘hand-up’ program.

This approach will help those in this community who truly need it, who are trying their best and wake up every day to go to work, care for their children, improve their overall situation and are working toward self-sufficiency.

At the same time, I believe if we are going to change the priority list to help those who are actively looking for work or going to school, we must make available recourses to help them search and land that job.

The $15,000 allocation will create a workforce development center in our current Section 8 Rental Assistance office and will fund computers, workstations, resume preparation sessions, mock job interview sessions and other job preparation and skills training lessons to help those on our program be successful in obtaining and retaining a job.

After our annual review this month and with the addition of this workforce development center I truly believe we’ve made the changes to reform our rental assistance program and it now has the capability to help those in the community who truly need it and perception of our local program will be more positive, serving as a model for communities similar to Oswego.

In summary, the city pf Oswego operating budget for 2019 is $46,052,604 resulting in a 2.11 percent decrease of the tax rate with no use of the city reserve fund balance.

This tax reduction is the first time city residents will receive a tax reduction in 20 years and the last time a tax reduction was issued, $2.8 million of the fund balance was used.

You gave to go back to at least 1969 to find the first time taxes were reduced and no fund balance was used.

The budget broken down by category is 52 percent personnel coast, 14 percent fringe benefits, 24 percent contractual and 4 percent equipment costs.

The fact that we actually get to lower the tax rate for city residents is a true testament to the hard work and commitment of all city department heads. This would not be possible without their cooperation and support of my overall vision for city government.

I must take this opportunity to emphasize that every decision, every initiative and every calculation made by each and every department in the past two years has been made with the intention to get us to this moment in time and in a position to actually put our residents’ money back where it belongs – in their pocket.

Two years is not a long time to reverse the course of an underperforming local government.

To reduce overtime so quickly, to invest in buildings and infrastructure so heavily, to completely in every way change the direction of government at any level in this short amount of time is rare and could not have been accomplished without the cooperation, dedication and commitment shown by every department head I cannot express enough how much I appreciate their support and efforts.

I must thank the 2016-17 Oswego Common Council along with the 2018-19 Oswego Common Council.

During last year’s campaign silly season we hear political, nonsensical rhetoric put fourth insinuating the Common Council should oppose the mayor more often or not give up the administration funding we request. That sort of mentality and attitude is appropriate when money is being wasted and city government has no strategy, direction of leadership.

It takes real leaders and decent people who truly want only what is best for our community to endure that sort of rhetoric and still do the right thing.

Doing the right thong as difficult as it may have been for Common Councilors on both sides of the political aisle has gotten us to this point.

Just as my department heads have known what the overall goal is, both Common Councils tat I’ve had the privilege to work with understood our goals and put politics aside to reach those goals.

It would have been easy and maybe politically convenient for any of the 12 councilors I’ve worked with to stand up and oppose me just for the sake of opposing me and attempting to stop progress. I am fortunate they did not do that; they saw the bigger picture, truly wanting the best for this community, put politics aside and worked cooperatively to move this city forward and make Oswego a better place for all to live, work and play.

In summary, my budget maintains the appropriate amount of investment into our municipal buildings, city equipment and public amenities.

It is designed to continue improving our parks, offer current city services with the same level of quality and reduces the costs of those services.

This budget continues to move our community forward and sustains our current rate of progress.

The decision is now in the hands of the Oswego Common Council on whether to accept this proposed budget or amend it by resolution.

Any amendments made by the Common Council by resolution to increase or decrease appropriations will affect the proposed tax rate.

If any increase in the tax levy equals 5 percent or more, the amended budget must be presented to a public referendum in November per local law. Should the amended budget be voted down in the November referendum, my proposed budget, by default, will become the 2019 operating budget.

And, it is after months of hard work and focus that I, William J. Barlow Jr., as mayor, submit the proposed city of Oswego 2019 operating budget to the Oswego Common Council for consideration.

William J. Barlow Jr.
Mayor of Oswego
August 13, 2018

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