Fredonia made no firm decisions on its budget during a special trustees meeting called last week to consider the village’s troubled finances.

A rather dark number did get tossed out: If the village does nothing, it’s staring at a 68% property tax increase in the upcoming 2025-26 budget.

Village officials brainstormed ideas on raising revenue and slashing expenditures. Many of the ideas were criticized as either unpalatable or unworkable due to contractual obligations.

One thing that does appear to be coming is a hike in parking fines. Trustees tabled the item once but a public hearing on the matter, to be scheduled in March, was on the agenda for Tuesday’s meeting.

Fredonia Mayor Michael Ferguson said trustees should “substantially increase” parking fines. “Previous boards, for many, many years, were behind in that. We’re leaving money on the table.”

Ferguson also wanted an increase in traffic fines — but Police Chief David Price corrected him, stating those can’t be touched because they are covered by New York State’s Vehicle and Traffic Law,

The mayor went on to suggest a big change in the summer recreation program.

“Nothing hurts me more than to say these words, as someone with five children: I think we should charge this year for the summer recreation program,” he said.

Ferguson also called for an Increase in fines for people not taking care of their properties, with substantially higher fines for out of town slumlords.

Ferguson added that unless the village can find a sponsor to cover the cost of its summer music series in Barker Common, it should be cancelled, “and I’ll take responsibility for that, for making that happen.” He said the series costs the village $7,000.

Trustee Jon Espersen said he had asked people to look at non-essential items and “things we have some kind of control over,” which he called “maybe 25% of the budget.” The rest is contractual, and contracts are up for renegotiation soon, he said.

Espersen continued, “I asked (Treasurer) Erlyssa (LeBeau) at one point if no changes were made, what the tax increase would be, and the number was staggering… the figure I was given was just not palatable.”

Trustee Michelle Twichell asked him what the figure was. Espersen said a close to 75% tax increase. LeBeau later corrected him that it would be more like 68%.

Currently, “there are several lines where we are way over,” said Trustee Nicole Siracuse. “I think in those lines where we are way over, we shouldn’t have any more spending at all.”

It came out that Fredonia is currently about $140,000 over budget. LeBeau said cuts must be made now or in March when the 2025-26 budget process begins.

Twichell said the village could save $40,000 on its recreation programs by using Chautauqua Works workers to run them. The village would only need to hire a supervisor, she said.

Espersen said he requested to not look at essential services, which led him to wonder what essential services are. “And if it’s not essential, why do we have it? Essential services, to me, are police, fire, and streets. And because we are in a contract with all of those unions, I think we don’t even consider changing any of those lines at this point.”

He talked about cutting a cleaning crew. “Is it essential? It’s essential if you want to clean the building. But there are other options. There are services that will come in once and twice a week and do a clean like that.” Staff could take on more responsibility for cleaning, he added.

“He’s part of the union, Jon. You can’t just eliminate someone from the union,” Twichell said. “He’ll move to DPW, you can’t eliminate him totally.”

Ferguson commented, “I think this is a point to the general public… These are the costs of running a community. The only revenues a community takes in are taxes, fees and fines. That’s it. Considering we went almost five years with no more than a 53 cent tax increase, dotting I’s and crossing T’s and paying attention is where we are today. Hard decisions have to be made in the future. We are in the middle of three of our contracts we have to renew and we are doing that diligently and as quickly and efficiently as we can.

“But again, we need essential services, we need essential personnel – this is the cost of running a community. So please keep that in mind. I love my social media friends, but do your homework, please. And we will do the same.”

Representatives of the Barker Library and Museum opened the meeting by pleading with village officials to not cut their funding. Ferguson offered support, suggesting that cutting their village funding “would close their doors.”

Twichell said, “I really think the library and museum are important for the community. It is in our charter that we are responsible to take care of that.”

Trustees ended the meeting by closing out the public for an executive session. They did not give a reason for the executive session; they are supposed to under the state’s Open Meetings Law.