OGDENSBURG, New York (WWNY) – Ogdensburg needs to have a preliminary budget passed by October 31 and there’s one regular city council meeting left to get it done.
Tuesday night, council was split 3 to 3.
Three councillors, John Rishe, Bill Dillabough, and Stephen Fisher, wouldn’t pass the preliminary budget, saying they want meetings to make changes to the spending plan before they pass it including bringing down sewer and water rate increases.
“If we pass her (interim City Manager Andrea Smith) budget, and for some reason we go down and we can’t make these changes down the road, then it reverts back to her budget and that happened once before to us and it’s not going to happen again,” said Dillabough
“You really only have one opportunity to negotiate and that’s until October 31 where you accept or modify the budget,” said Rishe.
Meanwhile, Councillors Dan Skamperle and Mike Powers and Mayor Mike Skelly point out that passing the preliminary budget is procedural. After it’s accepted, budget work sessions are held to make changes, and then a final budget vote is taken in November.
“In order to begin workshops and things like that, let’s just start the process by passing the preliminary budget. Without passing the preliminary budget, there’s no sense in talking,” said Skamperle.
“They want to tweak the preliminary budget before accepting the preliminary budget and then just formulate a budget? That’s not what the charter calls for and I’m a procedural guy,” said Powers.
Meanwhile, the 3-3 stalemate has interim City Manager Andrea Smith reminding council that by December 1 a final budget needs to be approved, and it needs to override the state tax cap. She warns a deal that doesn’t would deal a blow to the city.
“The majority of our budget goes to personnel. So in order to realize or overcome that deficit, there would be serious cuts across the board,” said Smith.
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