Dunkirk's city harbor.

The state Comptroller’s Office was highly critical of the city of Dunkirk’s 2026 budget proposal in a letter sent to City Hall on Friday.

“Although we told the mayor (Kate Wdowiasz), treasurer (Mark Woods), fiscal affairs officer (Ellen Luczkowiak), and members of the council on multiple occasions including during the 2025 budget review that the financial records were incomplete and inaccurate, they have not taken sufficient action to address these deficiencies and continued to make key decisions including developing this budget without inaccurate information.” That’s just one of many negative statements about Dunkirk’s budget and financial processes in the 13-page letter signed by Deputy Comptroller Robin Lois.

The Comptroller’s Office gets to review city budget proposals as part of the terms of the 2024 Fiscal Recovery Act, passed by the state Legislature allowing Dunkirk to access $18.5 million in debt liquidation funds.

The office hasn’t liked what it saw this year. “City officials do not have accurate, complete and up-to-date accounting records,” the letter states. “As a result, city officials do not know the city’s current financial position and cannot properly monitor the city’s cash flow or deteriorating financial condition.”

In fact, Dunkirk’s records are so poor that the Comptroller’s Office states it “significantly limited our review.” However, it was able to determine that “significant revenue and expenditure projections in the proposed budget we were able to assess are generally not reasonable.”

The comptroller’s staff also determined that if no action is taken, Dunkirk could run out of cash flow in March.

The letter bashes Dunkirk for failing to submit a budget calendar. The Comptroller’s Office requested a list of meeting, hearing and budget adoption dates, but did not get one. “Rather, the councilman-at-large (Nick Weiser) verbally advised us on Nov. 3 that the council planned to adopt the budget on Dec. 2.”

Complete coverage in the weekend OBSERVER.