WATERTOWN, New York (WWNY) – After holding one budget session, the city of Ogdensburg has called off the rest until November.
The sessions bring in department heads like fire and police chiefs to talk about the money it takes to make each department run.
“I don’t know where the money is going to come from. Nobody’s come up with any ideas how we’re going to make more money or how to get more money coming in. I don’t know what’s going to happen. I really don’t know,” said William Dillabough, city councillor.
On Monday, lawmakers met to discuss the city fire department’s budget but instead of crunching numbers, councillors and the city manager went back and forth – ending with all budget sessions being delayed until November.
“I simply canceled the pre-budget workshops I was doing after the first one because there doesn’t seem to be a lot of willingness. In fact, there was a lot of banter and arguing among councillors and myself of the type of information they wanted,” said Ogdensburg City Manager Stephen Jellie.
Jellie and the mayor said city councillors just don’t want to do the work. But councillors say they don’t have the full budget report yet.
Councillor Dan Skamperle says the council will provide input on the budget but only after it sees a line-by-line, detailed spending plan which spells out the city’s $3.5 million deficit.
“How do I know if there’s really these deficits if I don’t have a line item? Anybody can show you the number and say, well this is what we’re looking at. But how are we looking at it? What are the line items? What are the people? What are the jobs? What are we paying for? What’s the legal fees? What’s the consultant fees, right? We know nothing,” said Skamperle.
Dillabough sees the money problems as something the city created.
“When we got elected, a lot of contracts were handed out and I think it’s coming back to bite us in the rear because we can’t afford it. The money coming into the city is pretty much staying the same,” he said.
The budget work sessions will happen after November 1 after Jellie reveals a detailed spending plan to council members.
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