OBSERVER Photo by M.J. Stafford Dunkirk Councilman-At-Large Nick Weiser, right, speaks with resident Bob Whittemore before a hearing Monday on the city’s 2026 budget proposal. In the background are Treasurer Mark Woods and Mayor Kate Wdowiasz.

It was calm at the eye of Dunkirk City Hall’s financial storm Monday, with a laid-back 2026 budget hearing that featured just one speaker.

Only two members of the public attended besides the OBSERVER. One of them was occasional city meeting watchdog Bob Whittemore, who spoke at length with Councilman-at-Large Nick Weiser before the hearing, but did not comment during it.

The person who did speak was Gary Frederickson, the Third Ward’s councilman-elect. Fredrickson admitted he hadn’t looked at the budget yet, but made this statement: “if the city is in financial difficulty, there should be no pay raises for employees until the city is in the black again.”

The budget proposal by Wdowiasz contains a 2% property tax increase, after a 2025 spending plan that saw an 84% hike. The 2026 proposal, and Dunkirk’s financial practices in general, were ripped Friday in a critical letter from the state Comptroller’s Office to City Hall.

Monday’s legally required hearing on the budget lasted just five minutes, at least in public. The Common Council went into executive session afterwards, using personnel matters as an excuse.

Frederickson had a few more things on his mind, buttonholing the OBSERVER for longer than the hearing to offer some comments on city affairs.

He bashed Wdowiasz for considering an insurance buyout, calling it a back-door way to get herself a raise.

Frederickson thinks previous Mayor Wilfred Rosas’ administration used numbers that were not true to derive budgets, but the Common Council failed to doublecheck and simply went along with him.

Frederickson called for a city comptroller to oversee financial affairs, now that the treasurer position has been abolished.

The councilman-elect also criticized the purchase of two trucks by the city fire department. He repeated his pro-consolidation stance from the election campaign, noting that neighboring Fredonia also purchased a fire truck recently — but a combined department could share the cost of new trucks.