OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk Mayor Wilfred Rosas, center, and Councilman-at-Large David Damico pore over a budget document Thursday at City Hall. At left is Vince DeJoy, city director of planning and development.

Travel and discretionary spending by Mayor Wilfred Rosas, and the status of American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funding, were prominent talking points at the Dunkirk Common Council’s final scheduled budget hearing this week.

Rosas made what he said was just his second appearance at a budget session this year. He stated he was not invited to previous meetings, including one on Saturday that the public was not properly informed about.

Councilwoman Nancy Nichols told him he was the chief executive officer of the city, so is automatically invited to all meetings.

Rosas and Nichols verbally sparred as soon as the mayor walked into the meeting room. “Let’s just do a smooth thing,” said Councilman James Stoyle. City officials took his advice and conducted a meeting free of personal discord.

Councilman-at-large David Damico said he had a list of four questions about the budget. Two were about Rosas’ travel line and his discretionary spending line, both of which the mayor wanted to raise in his budget proposal.

“My trips to Albany are not cheap,” said Rosas, who added that a trip to a State of the State address by Gov. Kathy Hochul in Albany would exhaust nearly all of the $1,000 he had budgeted for 2022 travel. A hotel room alone costs about $370 per night in Albany, he said.

“I didn’t go last year. But that hurts the city,” he continued. “Others are getting the attention we normally get.”

Rosas said he also uses his travel and discretionary budgets to meet with mayors around the region, such as in Buffalo, Jamestown and Olean. The networking he does on such trips “helps the city in many ways,” such as in hearing about grant opportunities early, he said.

Nichols said if his travel line gets close to empty, the council can always do a budget line modification.

“That’s a way to run it, but it makes it difficult for me to plan,” Rosas said.

He said his discretionary budget also goes to things such as sponsoring children’s teams at the last minute when they cannot find any other sponsors. Media outreach about city events is also paid for with that line, Rosas added.

Councilman Martin Bamonto said state and federal politicians will sometimes drop into town with little or no notice and Rosas needs his discretionary line to entertain them. Councilwoman Natalie Luczkowiak said she supported Rosas’ proposed hike to the two lines, calling them “reasonable.”

Damico turned to the status of the city’s ARPA funding. Fiscal Affairs Officer Marsha Beach said Dunkirk has $2,875,487 of that left, but “it’s pretty much all spoken for,” either through council resolutions for purchases or allocation in the budget.

“I didn’t think there was (much left) but wanted to make sure everyone had a good handle on that,” Damico said.

The discussion then briefly went back to Rosas’ budget lines. “Council has not refused you if you come to us with a line item modification,” Nichols said.

Rosas replied that it was “not professional” for the mayor to have to come to the council for modifications on the lines.

Damico wondered how much money the city has left over from 2022. Beach said it was “kind of hard to say” as the city is still waiting on numerous final numbers but estimated it will run about a $1 million surplus. That will go into fund balance, she said.

Beach stated the garbage fund would be about $60,000 in the black. However, she, Rosas and Treasurer Mark Woods continued their criticism of the fund’s existence. They think sanitation should go back into the general fund, as it was before this year.

“It’s never going to be able to replace equipment on its own,” said Beach, an assertion she repeated several times.

“All the expenses to provide these services should be coming out of the fund, and it’s not,” Rosas said.

The council is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the budget at 5:15 p.m. Tuesday. A special meeting, called so the council can vote on the budget, will follow.