Whose fault is the city’s current financial situation?

Many of the decisions made came under the administration of former Mayor Eddie Sundquist. But, many sitting council members were around the table when those decisions were made or when followup actions to realize financial savings didn’t take place.

The end result is a proposed 7.79% tax increase in the 2025 city budget that has left at least one member of the City Council saying there should have been more oversight of Sundquist and his leadership team.

The topic came up during Monday’s City Council budget presentation while discussing required paperwork not being filed to receive about $1 million in reimbursement money from the Medicare Advantage Plan, which left about $1 million dollars on the table that the city could have now to help with the current budget issues.

A main point that was brought up multiple times during the meeting was that a committee was formed to focus on this specific issue and put in the work, but then there were assumptions that administrators would handle the paperwork to receive the money that was promised.

“There’s a certain level of trust or you’re assuming that someone is going to do something or a group of people are going to do something, and it wasn’t done,” Councilman Jeff Russell, R-At Large said. “I mean, I’m speaking for myself, I’m not speaking for this council, I’m not speaking for the mayor, I personally take I guess a little bit of accountability for that. And I know sometimes it’s hard for politicians to say ‘I take accountability.’ I take a little bit of accountability because it’s clear now, looking back, that there should’ve been more oversight, because there were mistakes being made like this.”

Russell continued by giving an example using Brittnay Spry, Jamestown Public Schools Assistant Superintendent for Finance and Operations. He said if Spry told members of the school board needed to buy a new school bus that cost $220,000, the board would take her at her word and the school board would not micromanage and make sure that amount was correct, and Russell added they should not have to either.

Additionally, the council discussed that when a committee was formed for a specific purpose, it would be assumed that those who asked the committee to be formed would take advantage of it. Russell made it known that he was angry about mistakes being made in the past, and other council members agreed.

“Obviously we’ve got to stop assuming,” said Councilman Russ Bonfiglio, R-At Large. “The old question is you know what happens when you assume. Obviously we’ve got to stop doing that. … There’s a bunch of stuff from what I understand that should’ve been done by X,Y,Z, that wasn’t done and now we’re screwed.”

Mayor Kim Ecklund said in her executive budget presentation that the 2024 budget contained overly optimistic projections for sales tax and ES revenues, included state Financial Restructuring Board that weren’t going to be received, underestimated police and fire retirement system contributions, overestimated contributions for health and dental contributions and Medicare premiums. Many of the issues were brought up in December after Ecklund asked former city Comptroller Joe Bellitto to review the 2024 budget, with Bellitto’s memorandum was met with a counter memorandum defending the 2024 budget. No changes were made before tax bills were finalized, which meant the council would have had to approve a new budget and issue new tax bills – a situation that would have been too confusing for taxpayers.

City Council President Anthony Dolce reiterated a point that was brought up by Russell, saying that as members of the council it is not their job to micromanage and make phone calls and other things with companies or higher levels of government to make sure people are doing their jobs.

“We make — I hate to use the word — the assumption that people that are here, working, give us accurate data, accurate numbers and follow through and do what they say they’re going to do or what should’ve been done,” Dolce said.

Bonfiglio agreed that he did not like or want to micromanage either, but added that maybe in the future they would have to because things have not been working out. It was also noted that current comptroller Erika Thomas was not in the role of comptroller during this time and that the mistake made by not going after the Medicare reimbursement was not her fault. Dolce said this is the first time this has happened in his time on the council, adding that when former comptroller Joe Bellitto was there things went like clockwork.

“We knew exactly how much money was there, where it was coming from, when it was coming in, and you know there were little mistakes here and there, I mean obviously mistakes are going to be made and miscalculations, but for the most part it was pretty dead on,” Dolce said. “So, this is kind of new territory for us too, as well.”