OBSERVER Photo by Braden Carmen Ellen Luczkowiak, chief fiscal officer of the city of Dunkirk, spoke to the city’s finances at a recent Finance Committee meeting.

Spending practices in the city of Dunkirk need to get better. That is no secret to anyone after the past year. More information about the past year’s finances was shared earlier this week.

Ellen Luczkowiak, chief fiscal officer, provided details regarding the city of Dunkirk’s finances at a recent Finance Committee meeting. Luczkowiak stated that as of Dec. 31, the city’s expenses exceeded its revenue.

“All in all, we just have to get better at our planning,” Luczkowiak said.

The deficit in 2025 was caused, in part, by the city’s police and fire departments. Regarding the Dunkirk Fire Department, the purchase of two pumpers were not budgeted for ahead of time. Regarding the City of Dunkirk Police, the city owed a large payout for compensation time accumulation. The city has adopted a new system to better track the time of the departments, Luczkowiak said, “so that this will never happen again.”

Both departments also had several retirements with sizable payouts, along with the hiring of replacements. Accidents with city vehicles also led to sizable insurance rate increases.

Luczkowiak said the city is still in the process of collecting revenue from 2025, while some 2025 expenses are yet to be finalized. The Office of the State Comptroller has given the city an extension to provide documentation regarding the city’s 2025 reports.

“We’re going to be very cash crunched between now and April,” Luczkowiak said, noting tax collection in the spring. “We have to be very, very careful with what we’re spending.”

Mayor Kate Wdowiasz explained, “It was not properly funded last year. During budget season, I had originally funded it properly so that the buyouts were covered. I think there was some miscommunication between the Office of the State Comptroller and the Council that ended up in a shortage of about $250,000 to $325,000 with them not taking into consideration the insurance buyouts that employees were receiving.”

Another reason the finances do not look good at first glance is because of a lack of follow through on a previously approved course of action. In 2025, Dunkirk’s Common Council approved roughly $333,000 from a tax stabilization account to be applied to the city’s budget. Mark Woods, former City Treasurer, was instructed to do so.

“Mark never did that,” Luczkowiak said. “He didn’t transfer the money.”

Nick Weiser, Councilman At Large, stated that the city “ought to move things forward” with applying the tax stabilization funds to offset the 2025 deficit. The account had roughly $600,000 available before the application of the funds that were previously approved.

Luczkowiak added that roughly $500,000 remained in general fund contingencies, along with other contingencies in water and wastewater funds, which will be used to offset some of the 2025 expenses. “That will help with the deficit,” Luczkowiak said. “We’ll have a better view of that for the next meeting.”

The Finance Committee entered executive session at the end of its recent meeting to discuss merging the offices of the Clerk and Treasurer. Wdowiasz criticized Woods for his practices during his tenure as Treasurer.

“Unfortunately, Mark Woods did not leave us with very good direction on anything that he did in his office, even though we had been trying to find out for at least six months what his actual role was in the Treasurer’s Office,” Wdowiasz said.

The cash flow report stated the city ended 2025 with roughly $5,427,000, however, expenses were “extraordinary” in January. As of Wednesday, the city reported cash on hand was roughly $4,973,000.