The Dunkirk Common Council Finance Committee met Monday but it may be Wednesday night before information about what the extra meeting was held for is available.
After the minutes from the July 13 meeting were approved, Councilman-at-Large and chairman of the committee James Muscato called for a motion for the Finance Committee to go into executive session to discuss contractual matters. Third Ward Councilwoman Rose Floramo made the motion and First Ward Councilman A.J. Dolce seconded. The three council members comprise the Finance Committee.
It was a full house in the executive session.
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OBSERVER Photo by Gib Snyder
The Dunkirk Common Council Finance Committee met Monday with other city officials and Gus Maas, P.E. of Hill Engineering, Inc., spending some 45 minutes in executive session.
Mayor Richard Frey, Second Ward Councilman Kevin Muldowney, Fourth Ward Councilman Robert George, Development Director Kory Ahlstrom, Department of Public Works Director Tony Gugino, Fiscal Affairs Officer James Curtin and City Treasurer Mark Woods joined the finance committee members as they heard from Gus Maas, P.E. from Hill Engineering, Inc.
Some 45 minutes later the meeting was again opened to the public but continued with little more than housekeeping issues. One of those was setting a 5:30 p.m. Wednesday meeting of the committee to continue its discussions.
After Monday's adjournment, Muscato was asked if the next meeting will again be mainly an executive session.
"I'm not sure yet. We're trying to get some finance matters settled," he said.
The water meter change was one of the items talked about in the executive session.
"We can't put that out in the open yet because there's possibly three proposals," Muscato said. "We don't want to give anyone an advantage."
When asked if that was the main item of conversation in the executive session, Muscato said that was part of it.
"Generalities of what we're looking at, what we have to deal with down the road with the water plant as far as infrastructure upgrades and stuff like that," he replied. "He (Maas) just brought us up to date on all the findings."
Muscato was talking about a Chautauqua County Health Department report that showed the city's water treatment and delivery system needed over $17 million in work.
"It was just going into some of those recommendations. Also, the auditors from New York state, their recommendations on some of the things we should have been doing over there," Muscato said. "We want to just get that all in place as budget time is coming up. It's good to know where we've got to go. That's all I can talk about right now."
When asked if that was covered under executive session rules, Muscato said it was.
"Under the contractual-type things, yes it should be off the record," he said. "What we're generally discussing here, if it does come to a consensus, it will be brought out into the public for a public hearing. The public won't be left in the dark on whatever is going to transpire there."
Muscato was asked if the water treatment plant issues were covered under the rules of executive session.
"That's already been out to the public through the health department," he said. "It's possibly contractual matters for certain items that have been expressed to us by the Health Department. We just want to know what the options were going into that. Hopefully, this Wednesday we can shed some more light on it."
Woods provided a report showing revenue from the boat launch for the years 2004 through July 21, 2009 while Curtin provided expenses for the same period.
Revenue and expenses for those years were as follows: 2004 ($16,529-$13,811); 2005 ($17,965-$11,622); 2006 ($16,980-$12,789); 2007 ($16,420-$12,736); 2008 ($13,585-$12,032); 2009 ($9,300-$10,539). The figures included daily boat launch passes and season launch passes but did not include incidental revenues such as fish cleaning and pier docking fees, according to Woods.
Other business included Dolce requesting a discussion about the water meter issue and Floramo asking for a report on overtime.
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