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State of the City 2008

State of the City Address 2008
Mayor David J. Carucci
City of Olean
1-2-08


Welcome members of the Common Council, guests, family members and citizens of the Great City of Olean, New York.

When I ran for office and was sworn in as your Mayor, I pledged to run the City like a business and put it back on sound financial footing. Understandably, this requires fiscal discipline and making difficult, but, necessary decisions. Some of the decisions and policies I have implemented include the following:

  1. I have reduced the number of full-time City employees from 180 when I took office to less than 145 presently. This occurred principally through attrition and retirements.
  2. Permanent part-time City employees have likewise been reduced during this time from 26 to 7. The net result is that the City’s payroll today is less than it was when I first took office.
  3. We have raised real estate taxes to bring them in line to where they should have been in past years…although still not at the levels levied by the County or Olean City School District.
  4. We have likewise increased water and sewer fees, which had been neglected for all too many years.
  5. For the first time ever, we are actively prosecuting individuals who have ignored parking tickets. Last month alone, the City Clerk received in excess of $2,000 for delinquent parking tickets alone.

These measures, along with many others which I shall not now enumerate, have produced tangible, concrete results.

An independent, outside audit by Buffamante Whipple Buttafara on December 18, 2007 advised and confirmed that my first annual City budget for the City’s three funds, General, Water and Sewer, for the period ending 5/31/07, was BALANCED…and in fact, resulted in a surplus for all three funds of more than $265,000. This is the first time in this decade that these funds in combination have been balanced…that is, the revenues received by the City have been sufficient to pay the expenses incurred, without having to use surplus funds or savings to balance the books, as had been done in 2002 and before.

Let me pause to say this is a very good first step in the right direction. However, there is still a lot of hard work ahead of us.  None of this could have been accomplished without the exceptional work of our Department Heads and City workers.

Fire Department:

  1. Chief Robert Bell and his staff were able to secure a $220, 000 grant to purchase a new fire truck to replace Engine 39, which was purchased in 1979.
  2. Another separate grant of some $120,000 allowed the Fire Department to acquire and have installed a state-of-the-art and necessary exhaust system in our fire stations.

Community Development:

Department of Public Works:

Assessor’s Office:

City Attorney:

  1. In addition to his regular duties as City Attorney, Dan DeRose has personally handled all of the City’s Labor and other Litigation. He has represented the City in our local courts, the State Supreme and Appellate Courts, the Labor Relations Board, as well as Federal District Court at Buffalo. Prior City Attorneys have "farmed this work" out to Buffalo law firms, typically at a cost to the City of some $100,000 to $200,000 per year. This single item alone has saved City taxpayers more than a quarter of a million dollars.
  2. Mr. DeRose has also drafted legislation and is implementing procedures to prosecute unpaid parking tickets, which have been ignored in the past.
  3. He also handles all loan and mortgage closings for the City’s Revolving Loan Fund. This, likewise, had been previously "farmed out" to outside counsel.

City Clerk's Office:

  1. City Clerk Alexander Utecht has worked hard to save the taxpayers money and has implemented some cost-cutting measures including the following:
    1. The parking lots which have previously shown losses will, with the addition of meters and elimination of attendants, will show a profit in 2008-09 budget.
    2. Mr. Utecht re-negotiated terms with our cell phone carrier and the City is now saving thousands per year for cell phone service.

Police Department:

Auditor’s Office:

We had another great Summer much like last year! The partnership that was formed last year between the City, NeighborWorks and Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce is very effective in cleaning up and beautifying our downtown. Among other activities, we had several youths paint and make minor repairs to Bradner Stadium.

The Woodland in the City project that was created by Amy Sherburne has been a great success. The 4-foot squirrels that have been placed throughout the City have attracted residents and visitors alike, and there has even been a demand for more.

The Rally in the Valley that is sponsored by Greater Olean Area Chamber of Commerce, was held for the first time in Bradner Stadium and was a great success, attracting approximately 600 participants and over 4,000 spectators.

This year the City will be hosting the first Gus Macker Tournament August 15th, 16th and 17th and we anticipate it will draw large numbers of people to Olean from the surrounding areas to participate and enjoy the tournament.

Future Project and Activities:

The year in review

We are still in negotiations with the Fire Union and looking forward to working with the CSEA Union in the negotiation process. I remain hopeful that fair and equitable agreements can be achieved.

I also want to thank our Common Council members, City workers and Department Heads for their hard work and continued support. It is also my great pleasure to thank the citizens of this great City. Your support and encouragement over the last 2 years has been appreciated.