To call to order a meeting of the Syracuse Industrial Development Agency.

We'll start by a roll call of the board members.

I'm Kathy Murphy.

Ricky Brown.

Kirk's on a board.

Steve Camps.

All counted accounted for and present.

Thank you.

Uh proof of notice was properly served.

Minutes of our last meeting held on November 18th of 25 were included in your packet.

I'd accept the motion to accept the minutes.

Second.

Second.

Ricky, all in favor, please say aye.

Opposed.

Opposed extensions.

Motion carries.

Thank you.

Uh first item on the agenda, Eric, is our organizational budget.

All right, good morning, everyone.

So included in the packet was a draft copy of the proposed but organizational budget for the agency for 2026.

Just correct the agenda.

Sure.

Which is for 2026, not 2025.

Sorry.

Oh no, thank you for the cuts.

Okay, go ahead, Eric.

No problem.

So um so uh that is proposed for the coming fiscal year, which will begin on January 1st for the agency.

And so included and what the board should have in front of it is a copy of that draft budget.

Uh and just we typically like to color the columns to make that a little bit easier and more legible.

Um you want to be looking at the 2026 in yellow is the proposed budget.

Uh the 2025 projected, uh the books still have not closed as we are currently in still the current fiscal year.

However, this is what we anticipate uh based on our best projection right now.

And then in uh green was the 2025 budgeted amount from the budget from last year.

Um just to talk through a couple of different things here, specifically related to the revenue items, um, as well included before the board is a projection of some of the various projects that we currently have in our pipeline.

And as we continue to work with the project sponsors and the team, we really wanted to take a conservative approach to what we anticipate closings uh and and revenues and the fees related to project closings would be.

So you will see that breakdown in the spreadsheet uh based on project considering likelihood to close, as well as again just taking a very conservative estimate, um, just to be able to budget accordingly for revenue that we would anticipate for the coming year.

So we have that number listed just over 1.4 million um in terms of closings.

The 2025 projected, I will note um that number has increased within the last 30 days because of the fact that we are anticipating this week um the release of escrow on the closing of the Syracuse Developmental Center project, which is about 1.3 million in revenue fees that the uh the agency will realize.

So that has resulted us to anticipate about 2.8 million in total fees collected uh during the 2025 current fiscal year.

Um some of the other revenue items that we have listed before us include some of the bank interest income.

Uh we also have our typical advertising from the billboard uh located at 341 Pete Street.

Uh we also have included this year the sale proceeds uh that we anticipate taking place after January 1st of the three uh Southside parcels that are owned by the IDA that are being purchased by the Syracuse Land Bank.

So as the board will recall that was approved at our last meeting in November, and so that is a total of 39,000 from those sale proceeds.

And then we do have included this year in the budget is $400,000 as part of the EPA multipurpose award that was made to the agency to be able to advance and really look at master planning efforts for 341 Pete Street, but also adjacent to that is the Winkleman site.

Just to briefly speak through expenses being projected.

So we do have uh some of the uh continued board obligated expenses.

So this is something that we like to be able to provide more information to the board about, uh, included as well in some of the uh the information presented to the board is the outstanding board obligated expenses as it stands currently today.

And so that includes various breakdowns, including the downtown committee of Syracuse, uh, that outstanding contract for various security and maintenance expenses.

That is included uh for the coming 2026 fiscal year.

Um, we typically have our staffing in the uh or the a agreement between uh CITA as well as Surah for economic development staffing expenses, and then we do include some of our outstanding board obligated expenses, including the SEMR Center Armory Garage Repairs.

Uh the agency owns the garage, but has an agreement in place with the city of Syracuse and Laz parking and undertook this past year capital upgrades to the garage facility itself.

Um then certainly this last column, just in terms of other operations and administrative expenses.

Uh, we do have certain things like our uh contract with the uh National Development Council or Grow America, as they are known as.

Um, and then typically our our services agreement, such as legal fees, our accounting uh will be one of the items we have later in the agenda is going to be our auditing services with Grossman St.

Amore.

So all of that is really encapsulated here in the proposed 2026 budget.

And uh you'll again see based on 2025, um, what we are anticipating is that uh total revenue that we would realize this year is just shy of three million dollars, two point nine million.

Uh we're anticipating total expenses at uh just over 1.3 million.

So uh overall uh general surplus and reserves uh projected at $1,568,000.

So happy to take any questions, happy to share more detail, but wanted to just give the high-level overview of what's proposed with the budget for this coming year.

I only had one question, Eric.

I forgot the details.

The downtown committee contract we had.

I know it was for some which came up last night.

Some security measures.

Wasn't there an implementation for some additional lighting on that mistake?

Yes, yep.

So we and we are working with the downtown committee on that program, which would really be an open uh we would do an open call for applications to be able to do more pedestrian style lighting, um, other opportunities within particularly the downtown core.

So we are working through that.

We anticipate that that program would formally begin accepting applications early next year.

Do you recall just an estimate of how much of that budget of their budget was allocated towards that?

Yeah, I think it was between 60 and 70,000.

Um that was on and the contract with the downcount committee is on a two-year basis as well.

Okay, thank you.

Yeah.

Any other questions?

Yeah, sure.

Any questions, comments, concerns?

Hearing none.

Is there approval for the proposed 2026 organizational budget?

Thank you, Ken.

Second, Ricky.

Second, Steve.

All in favor, please say aye.

Opposed to extension, motion carried.

Thank you, Eric.

Um, next item on the agenda is our directors and officers insurance policy authorization to spend approximately $7100 for our insurance for next year.

Yeah, so this is related to the directors and officers coverage for uh for the agency's board.

Uh typically the broker that we work with, Haler Fryer and Kuhn.

Uh Hale HFC was able to go out and solicit multiple bids.

The uh the bid that was ultimately that we're bringing before the board for consideration is from the Greenwich Insurance Company.

Uh, and then total that's approximately seven seventy-five hundred dollars.

Um, that is actually they were able to go out and solicit multiple bids.

So overall, this is a decrease in the expense from last year about a uh by about 110 dollars.

But happy to answer any questions in terms of uh of the coverage if needed.

Yeah, what are the limits on the so five million dollars per uh per claim?

Good motion.

I'll make a motion.

Motion made by Ricky Second can.

All in favor, aye opposed abstention, motion carries.

Thank you.

Last item on the agenda right now is um the contract with Grossman Saint Amore for next year's audited financial.

Correct.

Yeah, so also just in anticipation of the audit, which will typically uh get underway in the first quarter of next year.

Grossman Santa Moore has provided us an engagement letter that was included as part of the uh board packet materials.

And so that would be a proposed expense of approximately $22,000 for the auditing of the financials, the books, uh coordinating with uh with CITA staff as well as our uh our our recent transition to QuickBooks.

So all of that was included as part of the overview, and so we would be working with uh with the auditing team from Grossman Saint Amor for the current year financials that'll be closing on December 31st.

Do we get any other services directly from Grossman St.

Amoor directly to meeting two CITA as opposed to through the city of A.

No, it's typically just the auditing of our our books, and and then again they were um they were able to work with us on the transition to the QuickBooks process.

But did they build a separately for the QuickBooks?

Yes, that was separate.

We ended up working with them on that, and we were provided a separate invoice and an overview and scope of that project.

I don't have the number off hand, but I can I I can pull it.

And the only thing I will note too is that we uh because that also included uh SLDC as well as SEDCO too.

So the way that we had done that was actually a small portion was yep, SEDCO as well.

So SEDCO was able to also um assist with the cost and underwriting the cost of of that transition.

Any other questions?

Authorized to sign that engagement letter.

Is there a second?

Second, second, Ricky.

All in favor, please say aye.

Aye, opposed abstention, motion carries.

Thank you all very much.

Um I would ask for a motion to go into executive session for the purposes of discussing potential litigation for the purposes of the audience and those that may be watching.

We I don't believe we'll be taking any votes when we return except to adjure.

Is there a motion to go into executive session?

Motion made by Ken.

Is there a second?

Second, Steve, all in favor, please say aye.

Opposed abstention, motion carries.

Uh we'll be back.