We're good, Brad.

All right, good morning, everybody.

Welcome back.

Um today we've got four hearings that are our conversations around the financial arm of the corporation.

Um we're starting off this morning with the Bureau of Accounts.

Um I am joined by Counselor Zarinric, Jones Rouser, Moore Nave, President Paniagua, um, Councillor Monto, and then Nestry and Kristen Bennett from our finance department.

Um we're gonna start off on page eighty nine.

Uh but before we kind of jump into the numbers, do you want to just give us an overview of what you're doing while we're here?

Uh certainly.

Um arguably to me one of the most critical and uh very important as we move forward with the next couple weeks of discussions around the budget and our fiscal sustainability.

Yeah, hi, good morning.

Um thank you for that nice introduction.

Yes, I'm Diane Nestry, and I've stepped up as the commissioner of finance uh just this past month.

So new in the role, but I've been around the city of Syracuse since twenty sixteen.

Uh very excited about this opportunity, and I'm already amazed at all of the things that the team is capable of and does being in this seat, I'm seeing a lot of how we work as a team, and I just wanted to give uh an appreciation of all the efforts that the team is making.

Um yeah, we we're gonna go over Bureau of Accounts.

This is where all the transactions for the city of Syracuse is accounted for in our uh finance system.

We also oversee all of the bank accounts and transactions.

Um as well as doing any reconciliations and helping set up projects.

Um we also did a slight reduction in one of our vacant positions for the deputy commissioner.

This was a new role last year that we presented to you uh to the counselors and to the mayor's office to be funded.

We have not yet filled it.

Um change by anything.

Yep, we're maintaining.

We are maintaining um we were just able to reduce some of the salary lines.

Okay.

And I yeah.

Is that because there's new people?

Like um no, uh, we've had two vacancies in BOA as out an accountant three and an accountant one.

Uh we funded the accountant one.

We're only funding for one accountant three instead of two this year.

We've also reduced, like I had mentioned that deputy commissioner salary as well as the commissioner's salary.

Okay.

And if you definitely, if you want a more detailed comparison, I can definitely send something up after this meeting.

I thought it would just later was wrong.

Oh because I mean you you win now.

Well, if you want to give us more funding, we will take it and we will run it.

Thank you.

Has the deputy position been um open?

This was created last year in the budget, however, I I uh it for about a year.

It's been open for about a year.

The um out of title pay, what would that be used for?

What would someone be doing out of title?

Um, I know some of that covers for the interim commissioner or um because I'm stepping outside of my role.

I'm the assistant uh director of BOA.

So um some of that is covering the change in uh responsibilities.

Yeah.

Oh I think we have a few one other staff that is in transition going from one title to another.

So that is also to make up for that uh pay variance.

So I think we've got a half an hour, and what are we looking at?

We're looking at your budget going down by a little bit.

And I think rather than for me to jump into the numbers and why did that change that change that change?

Um you know what I want to think about is the fact that overall I think that departments, including you know, including your own, have done a really good job of limiting year over year increases.

I think that we have a fairly responsible budget in front of us.

Um yet we still have a situation where our expenses are increased at a at a much more at a much more rapid rate than our revenues.

Um you talk a little bit about what you're trying to do to combat that long-term structural challenge, you know, sitting as the CFO that that's yours to take on.

Certainly.

Um I know that we are pretty strategic when it comes to taking out debt service that helps to study and funding operations as well as use of our general fund, um, you know, our savings.

Uh these things can be used strategically to help us bridge any gaps in cash flow um until we know receive state aid, bring in our levy, or any other uh revenue streams.

So I think just finance continuing to work closely with the budget team and with all departments and watching their spending.

I'm hoping to uh see where there's uh room for improvement and in reporting.

I'd like to see a little more budget to actual reports coming out of the finance team in partnership with budget.

Um I'm curious.

I've uh been slowly meeting with first the finance team, but I would like to, if given the opportunity, meet with other teams and departments to know how how closely they are working with their numbers, how familiar are they with that?

Do they know how many projects they have open?

Are they spending on it or are we just opening shells?

Um, I know that that was something we talked about last year at this time too.

The number of projects and the spending that the city has.

So I'm hoping if there's capacity within our team uh to improve communication that might help us uh spend responsibly and see what we really do have on the table to spend in comparison with the budget.

How has it been working with Bonadio Group on the audit?

I appreciate the partnership with them on the audit.

I think that they're very informative.

Um it is a incredibly lengthy process.

Um, and we're working to get more organized.

And you know, Bonadio is a great team and a great firm.

I actually worked uh when they were a testal marshal in DeSenza for a couple years, so it's nice to see some familiar faces.

Um yeah, I think they're good, they're a great uh they're a great audit firm, audit team.

Can I ask how often do we bid them?

Um it's through every three-year contract.

I think so because other contracts we have.

I know we started the RFP process um for our our accounting consulting services that we have.

That is we have one support staff in our boa team that helps us with all of the work.

As you can see, we you know have a pretty tight budget.

So sometimes we do have trouble filling in and getting accountants to come in on our team.

So that has been helpful, and that's through FUST.

Um, and then another professional service they're providing is helping us revamp our our grants project.

Um, it's the center of excellence.

I am very impressed with the progress that they've been making so far and all of the teams that have been coming together collaborating because I think that would be another way to help sustain our budget is getting the money in.

You know, a lot of our grants are on reimbursement basis, so if we're staying organized, we can properly um submit for reimbursement on our vouchers and our claims and keep that money coming in.

Are there any efficiencies that you would like to see your department implement in the next couple years now that it's your department?

Um, with respect to the BOA, I think I'd like to continue to find areas where we can consolidate these bank accounts.

I know this has been a recurring theme, but we've got at least a good 30 bank accounts, and I don't think that's very that's not necessary.

I think that's just adding a lot of administrative work for our team to reconcile, you know, we're gonna still have the same volume transactions.

Um, but I would like to see us consolidating some of those accounts.

Uh I'd also like to you learn how to use our software that we currently have to better have some of these systems outside speak to our accounting software.

Right now we're manually entering transactions and hundreds of journal entries are being entered, and it's it's impressive, although I wonder if there's a better way to use our resources.

If some of that can be automated or maybe a batch upload, we're looking at that, but um it's really on the um brainstorming piece of it.

Do you think you might need more training and development dollars this year to manage something like that?

I would appreciate that.

I would.

I um I know that last year our BOA team signed up for um LinkedIn learning for about four people, and I think that type of training the professional development is just so huge, and I am a big advocate for training.

Um the city is unique where I don't see as much training as I have in other places that I've worked.

It's so I I'm trying to find ways where our team can fill that gap.

How many positions in your um department is paid through Sora?

Can you can you speak to the mic?

How many positions are through Surah in your department?

In BOA, we don't have any Surah, but I in FinOps we have two, right?

Which one's our yeah?

We can we can um talk about it now or during the FinOps budget hearing.

Okay, okay, we'll wait.

Okay.

We've got our interest is going down by two and a half million dollars.

Is that change in the market?

Is that interest income?

Yep, it went from nine five to seven.

Um is that just our utilization fund balance and we don't have as much money invested, or what's that all coming from?

That is a conservative estimate, which I as accountant prefer.

Um, yeah, we don't know where the market's going.

So we want to make sure we're not relying too heavily on this uh additional income that we've been able to generate over the past couple years due to the increase in um our cash reserves or we do have slightly less invested than we did previously.

Um all the revenues are lit stuff permanently.

I apologize, I didn't mean to cut you off.

Oh, I was just saying we do have a slightly less invested.

We have burned through some of the investments.

Diane, which departments you work closely with in your you work like with the auditor's office, assessment, um neighborhood business development because we're talking about you know with finances.

So I just want to get a broader explanation.

Within this capacity, I'm I'm still seeing all of our partnerships.

Um strictly speaking, when I'm in BOA as the assistant director of accounting, uh, we partner mostly with uh budget, uh other people within our finance team, you know, FinOps and stuff.

I know we've specifically been partnering with NBD.

We meet every three weeks to help support getting them into PeopleSoft fully integrated.

You know, for a long time that team has been working off of a different accounting software.

And um not to sound like a control freak, but I my concern is that it's it's better to centralize your accounting processes, right?

And to have it all in one accounting software, we can make sure that we are um accounting for all of the transactions for the city instead of having one team entering it into uh different accounting software, then we're translating it for PeopleSoft and putting it in.

I I'd like to see that get a little cleaned up.

So we're we're partnering with any department that we're able to and that we have capacity to to better support everybody with working within PeopleSoft.

That's good.

Are there any other best practices that you've seen in other cities that you would like to implement here?

And I know this sounds like a job interview, and I apologize for that.

But you're new in your role, I'm new in my role.

I'm just trying to get a sense of you know where we're going, how we're changing.

No, I appreciate that, and I am looking forward to an opportunity to reach out to other teams.

That's something we often discuss.

Well, what is the county doing with this?

Or how does the city school district even do this?

Um I'd like to make partnerships and reach out to Rochester, Buffalo, see how um any of their finance functions operate, take a look at their financial statements, how are they doing their reporting?

Um you know, we we do have good partnerships, like you brought up Bonadio, they're very helpful.

We have three plus one help us manage our cash, and that you know, that's a good partnership.

And the last one, we have uh financial advisors that they help us with the bonding.

So we are very supportive, but it would and and a lot of these partnerships, they do work with other um municipalities, so they do bring a lot of good information to us, but I'd still like the opportunity to reach out to these other municipalities and see what we're doing and what what could we change today?

What do we have to work towards for the future?

Thank you all set till the kind keep going.

Just I have one more question, and it's kind of a cross-departmental question.

Just like with the grants management, are if there are ways for us to take fees easier across departments.

Is that something that you would be a part of working on?

Like so receiving uh cash payments.

I think that would be better.

Uh could we discuss that when going through the CPC budget?

Yeah, okay.

That's it for me.

Um well, if if there's nothing else during the session, we'll adjourn for about 10, 12 minutes and regroup.

Um I get a motion.

So move.

All right.

We'll see everybody in a little bit.

All right, thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

You guys are intimidated.

No, we're in the ground.

No, very much.

I I appreciate all the things.

Sometimes we should bring you in for like clofi with the videos just to meet you.

It would be nice.

I know I've been wanting to come up.

I don't know how long we don't have to break.

I know I'm sorry about the delayed budget.

Oh no, you guys had enough, we'll have enough time to get through.

All right, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Take care.

Good meeting you.

Oh, yes, nice meeting you guys too.

I know.

I reassuring

I'm sure you have to do it.