City departments highlight impact of steep budget cuts approved by common councilors [00:00-02:01]
Syracuse residents and the Walsh administration are trying to make sense of the unexpected and severe budget cuts approved by common councilors.
The across-the-board cuts are deeper for some departments than others.
Department of public works commissioner Jeremy Robinson said things like trash collection, plowing, sewers and road repair are at risk.
“Our department is going to get a 9% budget cut when our budget stayed flat for the last two years," Robinson said. "You're cutting a department that delivers city services every single day.”
Code enforcement faces a nine percent cut. Deputy Commissioner Jake Dishaw said they work hand-in-hand with DPW.
“I don't know how we're going to pick up trash piles out in front of vacant lots and vacant houses that our codes grass contractor cleans," Dishaw said. "He puts out tires and furniture out to the curb and public works environmental services follows. We're losing that funding.”
Parks commissioner Syeisha Byrd said she called an emergency staff meeting just hours before the vote to talk about how the department will be affected.
“I can't imagine moving forward this year with this proposed 7% cut," Byrd said. "And keeping all of our pools open and keeping all of our rec centers open.”
Byrd said grass mowing at the 1,200 acres of parks will also be compromised.
Five percent was sliced from the police department’s budget. Chief Joe Cecile said special details are the first to go.
“The Armory Square detail that goes out there Thursday, Friday and Saturday night to make sure everything goes smoothly when we have a tremendous amount of numbers of people come downtown...that will be gone," Cecile said. "The dangerous panhandling that we get called down for all the time...that detail is going to be slashed. A loud party detail that goes out specifically for noise ordinances, one of our highest quality of life calls, will no longer be in operation.”
Fire Chief Michael Monds said his department can’t sustain a $2.4 million cut.
“We've been busier than ever," Monds said. "We are at historic levels with our alarms that we're responding to and reducing our funding will directly result in an increase in civilian fire injuries, civilian deaths, firefighter injuries”
All department heads say during their budget review, councilors didn’t indicate they were seeking drastic cuts and never asked follow-up questions ahead of the final vote.
Mayor Ben Walsh, department leaders raise concerns over council budget transparency [02:02-04:02]
Syracuse Mayor Ben Walsh and his department heads are raising concerns about the lack of transparency leading up to last week’s common council’s approval of deep budget cuts. The more than 80 amendments slicing $16 million from the mayor’s proposal came as an eleventh-hour surprise.
Councilors spent most of April publicly reviewing department budgets with their respective leaders. But police chief Joe Cecile said there was no indication councilors were seeking such deep cuts.
“Not one of them has picked up the phone and said, 'hey, by the way, we're about to slash $3.5 million,' or even more importantly, 'do you think there's someplace else that we can slash' and then maybe we could have sat down and worked it out.”
Sue Katzoff, the city’s top lawyer, had a similar experience.
“I went in prepared to review all of the cases that we had brought affirmative actions that we had sought to protect tenants, homeowners, renters," Katzoff said. "And what I got was. ‘So, Sue, we don't need to hear about that. We just want to know what are you going to do about corner stores.’”
Video shows less than half of Katzoff’s 20-minute meeting was spent discussing the law department’s actual budget.
Mayor Ben Walsh said part of the problem lies with the council’s reliance on budget analysis conducted by an outside accounting firm. Councilors approved spending $20,750 in taxpayer funding for the service the same day the mayor released his budget proposal.
“They're not elected by the people of the city of Syracuse. I am. The common council is," Walsh said. "The council was elected to represent the people of the city of Syracuse and their interests in this process, and they have simply elected not to take on that responsibility.”
Acting council president Pat Hogan defended the use of an accounting firm, saying they provided clarity in a daunting process.
“They gave us a clinical look at the budget and that's that sort of steadied what we needed to do," Hogan said. "It became fairly apparent and after many discussions with many different councilors, after all our department hearings, budget hearings, our path became clear.”
Hogan has been through more than a dozen budgets as a councilor.
The council also refused to share the firm’s recommendations with the Walsh administration or the public. When asked why, Finance committee chair Corey Williams declined to respond.
“I’m not going to answer that," Williams said. "We entered it into public record. It will be available to the public.”
As of Friday, the firm’s report was not included on the city's website as part of the council’s budget agenda. Councilor Amir Gethers also declined to answer, and Hogan said he hadn’t even thought about it as he walked away from reporters.
Common council overrides mayor's vetoes, approves broad budget cuts [4:02-5:40]
As expected, Syracuse common councilors Tuesday unanimously agreed to move forward with $16 million in budget cuts despite the mayor’s attempt to stop them. The vote overriding the mayor’s vetoes marks the end of an unusually contentious budget process.
Councilors methodically plowed through 45 amendments restoring their budget cuts without public explanation. The spending plan keeps taxes flat and eliminates a proposed water rate increase.
Councilors have come under criticism from the mayor’s office and the media for the lack of transparency and public discussion about the more than 80 amendments cutting department spending across the board.
All councilors quickly left chambers or declined comment, continuing to defer to acting president and Democratic mayoral primary candidate Pat Hogan. When questioned by reporters, he defended the council’s action.
“These were open public meetings where anybody can attend the budget at any time," Hogan said.
However, at no time was the public invited to hear the drafted amendments that came after those departmental budget hearings. Hogan was pressed to answer why.
“So why not have meetings in a public forum so people can listen to the rationale as to…” asked a reporter.
Hogan spoke over the reporter before he could finish asking his question.
“Well, obviously, obviously, obviously, obviously when you're questioning the department heads about their budget, you don't make a decision right off the bat,” Hogan said.
Mayor Ben Walsh spoke to reporters after the council's vote.
“There has been zero public dialogue about the amendments that the council made, so this is the council's budget," Walsh said. “I've asked department heads to develop their plans per the council's budget. That is in process. The goal is next week to sit down and review draft contingency budgets; we’ll make any final changes. Unlike the Council's process, we do intend to be very transparent and open with what those decisions are.”
Walsh said there doesn’t appear to be anything illegal about the council’s lack of transparency but does say they’ve been disingenuous by not offering opportunities for public feedback on their controversial amendments.
