Former Mayor Susan Feiszli Comments On City Government

   I am writing in response to recent articles in the Cortland Standard – one regarding the purchase of tablets for elected City officials, the other relating to the berm project at the Waterworks to alleviate flooding in the City.

   Your article on 4/4/12 discussed newly purchased Motorola XY tablets for the mayor and common council in attempts to cut back on paper and mailing expenses. No such items were included in the 2012 budget as stated by city officials. The online City budget shows $500 allocated towards contractual expenses for the council. Data processing has only $14,000 for all City equipment, and administration and finance does not have a line for this expense. During my administration, council approval was necessary to transfer funds between accounts prior to purchase as required by state law. It would be nice to know from which line item this purchase came.

   The purchase was not necessary to be in compliance with the state comptroller's audit as stated by City officials. The comptroller's report concentrated primarily on the need to consolidate data processing services to a centralized location so that individual departments discontinue the handling of their own payroll and procurement. Currently, there is no mechanism in place to assess or review payroll and expenditures prior to going out.

   The amount of paper used for council packets and associated costs as quoted in the Cortland Standard was three times more that the actual amount used during my term. Supplements to the agenda that were too voluminous would be sent by email to the aldermen. I am not opposed to modernization of City functions, but I do not care for misleading information being presented to the public as justification.

   The article on 4/6/2 that referenced the berm project was also inaccurate. It implied that grant funding was required in order to begin construction this summer. This project was extremely important to me as an alderperson and mayor – as it was for many of my constituents. Five years ago, common council bonded for the project based on estimates prepared at that time. Since then, the department of public works has increased that estimate so that it now exceeds the bonded $60,000. Last year the City applied for grants that were regrettably unsuccessful. To insure that this long overdue project would be completed this year, the necessary funding was included in my 2012 budget. The common council approved $349,000 to be placed in the contingency account with knowledge that a portion was to be used towards construction of the berm. It is discouraging that there was no mention of this fact and that the reader was led to believe that money was not available.


Sincerely,

Susan Feiszli

Editor's note: This letter was published in the Cortland Standard April 13, 2012.