We're gonna start.

Thank you.

We're gonna start the um Office of the Mayor.

Budget hearing, thank you.

Wow, we're I'm joined by Councillor Hudson, Moore, Callwill, Mashog, and Aaron Rick.

And well, I'm welcome.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Corey, I usually want to call you Corey Driscoll, but I have I'm forever Corey Driscoll, so that's fine with me.

People have called me a lot worse.

So I'll go back to the thank you for joining us, Corey.

Thank you for having me.

Um so um as you can tell by the pages in um the budget book for the office of the mayor, not a lot of change.

Um so there are, you know, title changes and happy to walk through those if that would be helpful.

Um, but there are you know, aren't uh a lot of new asks.

Um the one thing that I will just note where um the projected is above the adopted is that we did have a number of uh payouts for staff that um left their positions at the end of the calendar year, and so they are like all employees are their paid out for their PTO.

Uh page six and three, Corey.

Uh walk us through who's who's who.

Uh so obviously the mayor.

Um I am uh listed under chief of staff.

Um chief strategy officer is Stephanie Pasquale, Chief Development Officer is um Eric Ennis.

So the chief operating officer, you know, Kevin Henry is new to that role.

We actually um shifted, which is you know, shifted his role to the office of administration.

Um so that's on page sixty-five.

It's kind of uh odd um setup that we have that I think in speaking with the budget team, we'd probably like to change next year, perhaps eliminate the office of administration.

Um because it just you know uh operationally functionally it's all the same.

I was on the zero out.

Okay, I didn't realize that.

Yeah, so there's there's an office of administration where generally in practice the chief administrative officer lives.

That's where I was listed in the budget prior to this year.

Um, but I think you know, again, in conversations with the budget team, perhaps next year we just eliminate the office of administration and bring everything under the office of the mayor, since that's functionally how it works anyway.

So chief oper chief operating officer is or is not Kevin.

So it is it is Kevin, it's just not in the mayor's office budget, it's in the office of administration budget.

Okay.

Uh we don't have uh Mayor Owens did not put in a chief administrative officer, so the title changed.

Okay.

But um but the number of positions total, you know, the head count hasn't changed.

Oh, you added one more.

I'm sorry, President.

Well, no, I mean minus one.

So the so um we actually reduced one, so you'll see at the end the confidential aid is moving off of the mayor's budget.

So we went from um nine p you know at the bottom of page sixty three, a total of nine positions in the mayor's office to eight.

Who's the right strategic initiative?

That's Jen Tift.

And senior executive secretary.

That is Jakia Durham Kelly.

I81 director.

So that is Mr.

Joseph Driscoll.

Okay.

And intergovernmental is Josephine Galdames, who's here.

Hi, Josephine.

Okay.

Gotcha.

So the chief developmental development officer.

Chief operating officer is Kevin.

Yes.

And Chief Development Officer.

Yeah, so um on the office of administration, I just mentioned this, and and I think that maybe I didn't catch it with the budget team before.

So on page 65, it should say chief administrative officer instead of development officer, because that's the position that we replaced.

You know, we that one came off, and the chief operating officer came in.

So that's it should say chief administrative officer on page 65, not chief development officer.

Okay.

There, yeah, I mean, so the yeah, the numbers are the same, and then the um so the head count hasn't changed, really.

So just so oh he's not here.

But I was gonna question SERA piece.

So now that you guys put it under here, which actually is good because now that we can see it that it's under SIR, this is still coming out of the mayor's office, is just coming under SER, which you guys still transfer money to operate these files.

So, yes, I believe that's what's listed under um contracted services related parties is the SURA budget or the Surah positions.

And we do have a list of all the SURA positions, correct?

I believe I don't, yes.

All this you mean all the SER positions in the office, the mayor's office or citywide.

Contracted services, because that's what 190,000.

Yeah, in the in the in the mayor's office, those two positions, the I-81 director and the intergovernmental affairs coordinator are both on the Sura budget.

I'm sorry.

Oh, the fringe.

Is it the French?

I was like, the French?

Uh yes, the benefits.

Oh, the French benefits.

Yes, the German, the Spanish, uh, yes.

Yes, yes, exactly.

Yes, we have our francophone uh outreach uh for those countries.

Yes, so um it yes, to Stacey's point, this also includes the fringe.

Okay.

Are there any additional questions?

So I guess I guess I'll go to um the contracted services related parties uh line, which is 54170.

So the actual for 225 is 234,000.

Projected in 194.

It's it's 92.

That's proposed.

That's the proposed.

So I why are you proposing that in what that should have been spent last year?

I'm looking at our budget team for the removal of the one service position.

I don't so the the contracted services and related parties should only be the Surah positions in their fringe.

So Stacey, do you have any?

Okay.

Okay.

Okay.

So you think it might be the fringe?

Okay, all right.

So we'll get back to you, counselor, about why.

So the question is why the projected is higher than the adapted, and then the proposed has gone up.

Okay.

Okay.

Next page.

Anyone else?

What's the comparable between our mayor's salary and Syracuse and other mayor's salaries?

So to my knowledge, um, you know, I the Rochester, Buffalo, um, I think even Albany may be above where um the mayor is.

They are.

Um and I know that um, you know, and the mayor is kept um by the ordinance that was passed, the mayor is kept flat, so there's no um cola baked into increases for the mayor as there are for um for other elected positions.

So, you know, um, so it's 150 until the ordinance changes.

So that being said, I think that um, you know, when I was looking through this, um we've added um this is not a criticism.

Sure, but we've added other chief of staffs, like we now have three chief of well chiefs, right?

Chief of staff, tree chief strategy officer, chief development officer, and chief operating officer.

Some of those are fairly new positions in the last six, seven years, right?

They are, yeah.

So I mean they would be, you know, when uh the Walsh administration started, I was director of operations.

Then there was a change that it was chief operating officer, which you know, to me, I woke up the same each morning.

Um and so um, but you're right, counselor.

So, you know, instead of a chief policy officer, instead of a chief administrative officer, when Mayor Owens came in, she reimagined those positions to be chief strategy and chief development.

So although the head count hasn't changed, the titles have changed.

I the only reason I brought it up is because our mayor's salary is a little lower than the other ones, but it may be because we have all these other support staff that these some of the other localities don't have.

Yeah, I'd be happy to look into how the other municipalities structure it because I know there are I think Buffalo might have several deputy mayors, you know, but to your point, counselor, I don't know what the level of responsibility is for those deputy mayors, whether it's similar to what we have in our structure.

Thank you.

Instead of calling them deputies, they of course of calling them chief, they call them deputies.

It's possible.

Yeah, it's possible.

So I could certainly looked into that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I know one of the deputies there.

Oh, yeah.

So I asked.

So uh yeah.

But I don't, I I'm not sure if the level of support in in our structure is more or less than another municipality.

Okay.

So let me ask this question.

Um line 1600 on page 64.

This is in the office of the mayor.

Yes.

Okay.

It went from 13,000 to 8,250 on travel training and development.

So there's gonna be less travel and training.

So I think that's you know, um we took a look at um, so what we actually spend in FY25 was, you know, $13,000 plus.

Our adopted budget last year was 20,000.

We're only projected to spend about two, which I think some of it might have to do with being in the last year of administration, and you know, perhaps people weren't as uh looking for conferences and travel.

Um, but so to your point, um uh counselor Hudson, eighty two hundred is what we've adopted, so it's you know significantly less than what we had last year, but you know, we will make it work.

Okay.

Um where is the night mayor listed?

So the nightmare is actually an NBD's budget.

Okay, um, so um so they can it's reflected in their budget.

I just had a very interesting conversation about the permitting process for entertainment venues and how that might be streamlined with the uh administration of a particular person.

And then just in case Eric is watching, it's the director of nightlife.

Um I know I know sensitivity around the word nightmare.

Okay.

Um anybody else?

All right.

I will get back to you, counselor, on that question.

Let us all know.

All right, thank you.

So move second.

We're done.

Thank you.