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City of Dunkirk Fiscal Affairs Officer Marsha Beach is attempting to clear up some misunderstandings with the $24 million budget that was approved by the Common Council on Dec. 1.
In an email sent to the OBSERVER last week, Beach shared that the $30,000 in funds for the fireworks were never transferred to the Dunkirk Local Development Corp. in 2020 as the money is only transferred when payment is due.
"I informed Councilman-at-Large (Paul) VanDenVouver of this last week, when he called me," Beach said. "Since the fireworks were canceled, (the funds) were never transferred."
Beach also shared that the DLDC festivals account cannot be used for anything other than what the funds were donated for. "Each donation was for a specific event with a specific band," Beach said. "It was very generous of some local sponsors to let us hold on to these donations for next year’s events, but make no mistake, these funds must be used for the events they were donated for."
Beach went on to further share some information on the $21,000 being looked at for cutting from the budget in the Development Department.
"This money was budgeted by Mayor (Wilfred) Rosas for three part-time summer employees to help run the festivals," Beach added. "The mayor did not budget for a special events coordinator this year. It is going to be very difficult, if not impossible, to run the summer events without any extra summer help."
Finally, Beach wanted to make it clear that the budget Rosas puts out every year is very much his budget and not anyone else’s.
"The budget proposed by the mayor is 100% his budget," Beach stated. "It’s true, one of my job duties is to facilitate the preparation of the budget and I do so by getting feedback from the department heads and of course our Treasurer Mark Woods. But then the mayor spends many hours discussing each line item with Mark Woods and myself and determines the figure he is comfortable with. This is a long-involved process that the mayor takes very seriously."
Council will meet on Tuesday when it is expected it will override the four line-item vetoes that Rosas has submitted. Those vetoes include: reduction in law department head salary line of $25,000; removal of the $21,000 part-time budget line from Development Department; removal of the $45,000 DLDC allocation from Development Department; and the additional allocation of $10,000 to council for retained counsel.