City Council Meeting on Capital Plan Charter Changes - September 11, 2026
City Council Meeting on Capital Plan Charter Changes - September 11, 2026
The Syracuse City Council met on September 11, 2026, to discuss proposed charter changes to the capital planning process, presented by Director of Budget Evan. The changes aim to improve transparency, clarity, and quality of the capital improvement plan (CIP). Councillors Patrona, Joan Srauser, Marty Nave, Corey Williams, and Hannah Erin Rick were present, along with Evan and the director of budget.
Discussion Items
- Evan proposed renaming the "capital program" to "capital improvement plan" (CIP) to better reflect its purpose as a planning document.
- The current requirement for six-year projections would be changed to a minimum of two years and a maximum of six, to prioritize quality over quantity of data.
- The plan would require two-year post-completion operating impact projections for each project (currently required three years but inconsistently applied).
- Clarification that the CIP aligns with fiscal years (July 1–June 30) and that departments must seek council authorization for cash capital or bonding accordingly.
- Evan outlined a broader vision: incorporating historical data, project timelines, procurement timelines, consistent naming conventions, and better alignment with the operating budget and grants management.
- He noted that the current CIP includes too many projects (e.g., $90 million general fund) to be financially sustainable and plans to align the CIP with realistic spending capacity.
- Implementation will be incremental: the first updated plan (due December 2026) will include a new introductory narrative and selected pilot projects with historical data and timelines, with full citywide rollout over two to three years.
- A grant from Bloomberg will fund a consultant to build backend capacity, and a mid-year dashboard is being developed with API to track project status and spending.
- Council members asked about how one-time grant-funded projects are reflected, the need for master plans to answer constituent questions about project schedules, and the importance of making the plan understandable to the public.
- County Legislator Romeo commented, noting that the county's capital plan has a good template worth reviewing.
- A councillor commended Evan for incorporating previous feedback and going above expectations, expressing strong support for the changes.
- Evan acknowledged the iterative nature of the process and welcomed ongoing feedback.
Key Outcomes
- The council discussed and showed support for the proposed charter changes and the broader capital planning improvements.
- No formal vote was taken; the changes are expected to be reflected in the upcoming capital plan release.
- The first updated CIP under the new framework is targeted for December 2026, with incremental improvements each year.
- The city will continue current capital operations while implementing changes, with a focus on transparency and constituent usability.
Meeting Transcript
Are they the three four five or what room? Uh no, first, second, third grades. They're just about to try me, yeah. She's got she's in the same class our twins who were in last year. New principle new leadership team up there. Named Kate. They both have to be a little bit more. And they switched clothes and all the benefits of being identical. Yeah. I figure one day it's gonna dawn on them that they could just switch classes, but we're not there yet. I don't think they have that far enough. So you're keeping them away from parent traping. That would be a very bad thing. We suppose anyone too. Luckily, one of them has a worth mark, so they can never truly switch places. Sorry. Is it time? It's time. Good afternoon, everybody. Thank you for joining us. This meeting is to this cost charter changes. And uh thank you for uh Councillor Patrona, Joan Srauser, Marty Nave, Corey Williams and Hannah Erin Rick for joining us. Thank you, Evan. Loving our director of budget for being here with us today. So I'm just gonna hand it to you so you can explain to us your plan. Great. And we'll ask questions after that. Sure. I'm gonna cover a couple of things. So I'll cover what's in the proposed charter changes. The tr the changes themselves, I think are a lot of clarifications. Um my thought behind this is that these are helping us set the stage for things that we're gonna be working on over the next couple of years in order to actually improve the capital planning process and product. Um so I'll touch on some of those as well. And I know I'll touch on the timing of the capital planning um as well as a project that we're currently working on with API to help um make some more information available mid year. So uh to start, I'll start with the legislation since since that's what's before the council. Um some simple things. So currently our capital plan is really called capital program. Uh I wanna rename it to capital improvement plan. I know it's a small thing, but it's colloquially called the CIP. It is truly meant to be a plan. And so I think you know, making that as a clarification. Um currently the charter requires six years for a capital plan. Uh it's challenging at times to project out plan you know, projects that far in advance. So my hope is to require a minimum of two years of projections for each project and up to a maximum of six. So, for example, if we're doing lead service on replacement and we're confident in what our project plans are gonna be six years out, um, then we we should put in six years of data. Uh, if it's something that's smaller and we say we really only know what we're gonna be doing on this project for two years. My purpose in this is I really want the information that's in the plan to be quality, not quantity. So I don't want people putting in out years of three, four, five years, and saying, but I really have no idea. If we have no idea, I think we need to be able to knowledge what gaps we have and what we need to fill, um, but make sure that we're focusing on quality information in the plan. Um I wanna currently the charter requires that we project out three years post-completion impact on operating.
openpublica.com