Common Council - Regular Meeting

Wow, that's going quick.

I call the Common Council meeting of the City of Dunkirk to order on this 18th day of August 2026 at 530 p.m. Clerk, please conduct the roll call.

Councilmember Laskowiak. Here. Councilmember Terrain.

Here.

Councilmember Fredrickson.

Here.

Councilmember Civiletto.

Here.

Councilmember at-large Weiser.

Here. Thank you, Clerk. Please rise for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it

Thank you all for joining us tonight. Next, we have the certification of prior meetings.

This is to certify that an official copy of the minutes of the regular Common Council meeting of Monday, August 3rd, 2026 was presented to the mayor on Wednesday, August 12th, 2026. Pursuant to Section 3.03 of the Dunkirk City Charter, all items presented to the Mayor are now in full force and effect. In witness whereof, I have here to set my hand and seal of the City of Dunkirk, New York, this 18th day of August, 2026.

Is there a motion to dispense with the reading of the minutes and approve them as presented? Moved by Council Member Fredrickson, seconded by Council Member Laskowiak. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Laskowiak. Aye. Council Member Terrain. Aye. Council Member Fredrickson. Aye. Council Member Civiletto.

Aye.

Council Member at-large Weiser.

Aye. The minutes are approved as presented. We now move to privilege of the floor.

The privilege of the floor shall be extended to any person appearing for themselves, in which case each individual appearing shall be limited to three minutes and to any person representing any group who shall be limited to a maximum time of five minutes. The privilege of the floor is reserved for members of the public to speak on any subject pertinent to the affairs of city government. The city clerk shall have the duty of maintaining such time limits. The chair may determine in their discretion whether individuals are speaking for themselves or representing groups. The chair shall maintain good order and may require any speaker to see speaking if remarks are made in bad taste or slanderous or not germane. The time limit specified shall be adhered to, except the chair may allow any person speaking to complete a statement or a thought started before such time expires. A longer time may be allowed by the chair with the approval of the majority of the council.

open. There are many any members of the public who wish to speak. Please step forward, state your name and address and address the council.

I am Linda Bradigan, 146 West Sixth Street in the city. It's OK, chief. I'm not talking about my my neighbor. OK. I am here representing the nonprofit Revitalize Dunkirk. I am the volunteer spearheading our 2026 fundraising campaign. I will speak on that topic, our mission, and our gratitude to the city. One of Revitalize Dunkirk's earliest and still most visible projects, the hanging baskets along Central Avenue and East 4th Street. In 2015, Revitalize Dunkirk began with 20 baskets and asked for donations from local businesses. Eleven years later, there are 55 baskets. Many businesses have changed ownership, closed, or have been reimagined. The cost of a hanging basket is now $100 times 55. Revitalize Dunkirk is proud of the baskets and thankful for the care given them by the City Department of Public Works. For those who may not know, the City Department of Public Works delivers the empty baskets to the greenhouse, picks up the fully planted baskets to hang in late May, waters and fertilizes them all summer, takes them down in the fall, and stores them all until it is time to start again the next spring. In order to fund the hanging baskets and our many other projects, we have expanded our fundraising campaign. The social clubs of Dunkirk, the small businesses, and many individuals have always contributed. Our most common donation is $50. And last year, we raised $8,500. If you've been doing the math, you know this barely covers the baskets, we are hoping to reach 10,000 this year. I think you would be amazed at what we accomplish with donations and membership fees. It's possible because Revitalize Dunkirk is a volunteer organization with no paid staff and no headquarters, just invaluable help from the city and the Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation grants. We thank Department of Public Works, Randy Woodberry, Deputy Director Mike Provision, Andy Bone, Park Supervisor Jason Cieslewicz, and EJ Hayes. Since a flyer in the mail or an email can easily be ignored by busy recipients, I have walked into at least 25 Dunkirk businesses and talked with an owner or manager personally. I've discovered they either know nothing at all about revitalized Dunkirk or are aware of some projects. There is a lot of buzz currently about Discovery Way Nature Trail at Point Gratiot. Like the small business owners with whom I spoke, I am personally asking you as an individual to make a donation to revitalize Dunkirk. In the fall, we will publish in the Observer a list of donors. The social clubs, the small businesses, and the individuals will be listed. I know you want your name on that list, and I thank you for the support. Do I have time left?

Good.

I'd like to tell you about Discovery Way Nature Trail at Point Gratian. It was September 1, 2023, when the Board of Directors of Revitalize Dunkirk approved $2,500 for grant writing, a survey of the area, and the initial clearing of the trail. After receiving a $6,700 grant from Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation in 2024, that was for trail design, the Discovery Way Trail Committee was formed. Spanning 2025, 2026, there were contributions of 10,395 from Revitalize Dunkirk. Another Northern Chautauqua Community Foundation grant of 12,000. Give 716 was $1,926. And donations from individuals and social clubs of 4,200. And that included $1,000 from the First Ward Falcons. The Ralph C. Wilson Jr. Foundation engaged Kaboom for that key formidable piece of the project. And if you've seen it, you know what I'm talking about. Untold volunteer hours starting back in 2024 and a build week the first week of June created the trail. There will always be ongoing maintenance and enhancement to the project by again, volunteers. I hope I've shown you that Revitalize Dunkirk is an asset to our city and that it has your family's support. By the way, along with financial support, we welcome your membership and volunteering. I have to stress how great the city of Dunkirk has been in supporting the things that we want to do. I have an envelope I'm going to pass out to you so you have your own information about it.

Thank you, Ms. Bradigan, and for the organization's continued work in the community.

Thank you.

Good evening, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Benjamin Bennis. I reside at 8 Crooked Brook Drive, Dunkirk, New York. Okay, there's a dilemma here that needs to be addressed. There are certain individuals who are purposely damming up the mouth of Crooked Brook with beech wood. This prevents creek water from properly draining into the lake, thereby disrupting the natural flow of water exiting the creek, and thereby posing a potential environmental safety hazard such as flooding. Especially during periods of prolonged rainstorms and this has been ongoing Okay that my solution or Suggestion would be to install hidden surveillance cameras near the mouth of the creek to identify any Perpetrators that would be all creeks not just crooked brook also place violation warning signs near the mouth of crooked brook at all subsequent creeks as well and citywide. Okay, every time I use the beach and I go down there and I swim periodically and use the beach, I always find that the mouth of the creek is dammed up with beach wood. And I've had to manually remove these big heavy logs from the mouth. And it's getting a little old and I think it needs to be addressed. And I think any perpetrators that are caught or identified should face certain sanctions. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Bennis.

Hello, my name is Rich Catalano. I live at 116 West Chestnut Street, Dunkirk. And I'm here to just, I guess, be on record of discussing the condition of my street and Perry Street in Dunkirk. They've been, for four months, putting in water line from Perry Street down across to West Chestnut over to West Point Drive or Avenue. and then left to Finch Street, which is fine. We needed new water line, but what we really needed was fire hydrants, which there weren't any in the area. The issue, though, is the work has been done for the last two weeks since four months we've been in this process, and there's nobody that's saying anything from the city of how they're going to repair the streets now. The streets are terrible. I had to call the... Public Works Department on Thursday because all they did was when they filled in the water lines and they went into each house line and the street was completely a mess, Perry, West Chestnut. They just backfilled it. And finally that backfill was getting very dangerous and at least Friday they did come up with tailings from asphalt to fill it in, which is a little bit better. but the bottom line is it needs to get fixed. If you can imagine the front of your house being torn up for over four months, which my neighbors here also, um, and dealing with the dust, the dirt, the road condition, and nobody says, well, we don't know when it's going to get fixed. We don't know how it's going to get fixed. And you know, the same issue of there isn't any money. Well, I understand that, but I think it comes down to public safety to an issue of a road that is in really bad shape. So all I can say, anybody who lives in Dunkirk, I can imagine if your road's been torn up for four months, dealing with dirt, dust, and noise coming at 6.30 in the morning, which is fine, because we appreciate the new water line, especially the fire hydrants. But there just seems to be no answer of we don't know when it's going to get fixed and we don't know how it's going to get fixed. So I just wanted to go be here and alert people, be officially on notice that the neighbors don't like it. We want something to happen at least before winter because I can't imagine what them streets are going to be like in the wintertime if nothing's done.

Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Catalano. Anyone else who wishes to speak this evening?

I'm Wanda Zawadzki, Housing, Building and Zoning Officer for the City of Dunkirk. I just want to make a few brief points before the council votes on local law number 5-2026. First, the contractual grievances regarding the reassignment of these licensing duties remains unresolved. I believe that it is important for council to consider before making this reassignment permanent through a change to the city charter and code. Second, the Clerk Treasurer's Office already has access to the licensing system and has processed plumbing license renewals, electrical license renewals, and new applications. We are also currently in the process of building and implementing new software that will significantly change how these processes are handled. The licensing portion of that system is still being built and the new software will be implemented soon. I also want the council to be aware that our operations assistant will be going on leave beginning tomorrow afternoon, further reducing our available staffing at a time when our department is already stretched thin. Given these circumstances, I respectfully ask the council to vote no on this proposal or at minimum postpone any vote until the contractual grievances are fully resolved and the operational impacts have been fully evaluated. Thank you.

Thank you, Ms. Zawadzki.

Good evening, my name is Albert Dawson of 46 East Pine Street, Dunkirk. I'm here tonight as a taxpayer to address municipal budget allocations, statutory compliance, and transparency regarding administrative expenses. Looking directly at the city budget ledger I've talked about before is line item 001-1410-1025, reflects a jump from 40 to 55,000, a 37.5% increase on paper. As we know, under New York State labor law, an exempt salary position actually makes over $62,000 per year. That means we're actually looking at a $22,000 pay jump, 56% total compensation increase in just 23 months for an office open to the public only 24 hours a week. Paying $62,000 to avoid paying minor overtime on a 24-hour weekly schedule while simultaneously trying to offload duties is fiscal mismanagement. In layman's terms, paying $62,000 to avoid overtime on a 24-hour schedule is like paying an expensive unlimited phone plan only to hand the phone off and pay by the minute anyways. It's fiscally irresponsible. State public records from August 16th confirm that the statutory notary licensing attached to these administrative duties still currently is inactive. Taxpayers should not be funding a sixty two thousand three hundred fifty dollar salary for a position that lacks basic state certification required to fill its core duties Furthermore on August 6th a foil request was submitted seeking basic time and payroll records Associated to this line item and under state law this statutory five business day response deadline expired August 13th at 5 p.m zero compliance zero communication when simple public records request non face non-compliance, it creates an unnecessary lack of transparency and undermines public trust in basic fiscal oversight. During that exact same five-day window, rather than complying with the FOIL request, the billing department used municipal software to cross-reference my personal property records in a retaliatory effort regarding my utility fees, in an effort the DPW director thankfully dismissed in writing on August 12th. Rolling back unbudgeted salary increases will not solve Dallin Kirk's financial challenges, but enforcing strict financial discipline and holding municipal operations accountable to state law is where we must start. When a resident asks legitimate questions about a $62,000 compensation threshold, the response from City Hall must be full compliance with state law. Taxpayers deserve public transparency, not retaliatory fishing expeditions. Thank you.

Thank you, Mr. Dawson. Is there anyone else who wishes to speak this evening?

I'm Dan Virgo. I've got property on Perry Street. We're 30. The two couples that are behind us are both neighbors. There's one across the street, one next to us. When they tore up the road, we got the same answer to anybody that we asked. We have no idea if they're even in a black top it this year and I guess the city's got a problem with cash or something for the black top and do we have any idea if they're gonna do it before the snow flies I had to cancel my My appointment with two bone who's gonna come and do the driveways Do we have any clue?

How's that I answer third second Ward report we I That's definitely on the schedule for going out to bid. We hope to award the bid at the first meeting in September. And I don't want to just patch the trench.

No, they did that a lot of times down the road. Perry's been patched half a dozen times.

I don't want to interrupt you. I don't want to patch just the trench. I want to do that with a base and then cover the entire road to full width. And Perry Street to me has never really been a nice straight edge of road. I want to fix that. I want to do all those roads right, Finch and Perry the same way. So it is scheduled. The reason it didn't get done first is because I didn't think the guys would work that fast to finish the water line. They did. They did a great job. They got a whole new... And you know, you got a whole new fire suppression system that you didn't have there before. And there was a year or so ago and there was a fire, not too fire in your neighborhood. And that scared me when I went over there and saw that none of the hydrants were suitable. If that fire, fortunately the fire department did a great job and got that out quickly, but God forbid something worse could have happened. So we wanted to make sure you got good fire protection. We did that. And we also replaced all of the services. So many of the services in your area were lead services. So those are all replaced. So now you don't have anything to worry about. Those are the lead service. Now that, and really nobody in the city of Dunkirk had a problem because our water in Dunkirk, it's not corrosive. It does not corrode the lead service. Our pH is 7.6 all the time. Other communities go up and down. I know I'm telling you more than you need to know, but I'm telling, I want to illustrate that we do appreciate your neighborhood and the road needs to be done because it needed, it needed the work and we're going out to bid. We hope to have a contractor in September, get this work done in the last few weeks of September, maybe into October, but I don't want to just cover it up. I want to cover it up and then put over top a nice finish because it's been more than 10 years where you got something that was kind of an oil and stone type of thing with the old type of version. It didn't have the polymer in there. I think the whole roadways that you just talked about needs to have a good cover on it. Very good, thank you Thank you, sir Thank You director Woodbury Anyone else who wishes to speak this evening?

Ed Delgado, Dunkirk, New York. You guys don't need to know the word. You guys already know from the emails. I've submitted multiple FOIL requests all the way back from November 14th. The county has already completed all of them without any rejections or hesitations or anything else like that. If there's any concerns about ongoing investigations, I could submit to you all the stuff that they gave me. I could tell you the serial numbers for everything that they found, the DNA swabs for what. I know which officers were at my house, what car they rode in, what radio they used, their badge numbers, your jurisdiction numbers, everything. The only thing I'm missing is the body camera footage and the warrant affidavit, which I asked for you nine months ago. Oh, and the county took 20 of those emails for FOIL. I sent them to the sheriff, and he knew to send them to the legal department all within 10 minutes. And they completed it within 20 business days, and they followed the letter of the law and told me when they were expected to have it, and then that day they were there. So that's one thing I'm asking. Can we just follow the law and complete it to standards? That too hard? That's all I'm asking. Thanks. Thank you, Mr. Delgado.

Anyone else who wishes to speak this evening? Going once, twice. Privilege of the floor is now closed. Next, we move to communications from the mayor, including disapproval messages. Seeing that she is not here, we'll address communications from the public and petitions.

Request from the Dunkirk City School District for police coverage at the Dunkirk Secondary School for the 2026 and 2027 fall football home games.

Any discussion, Council?

Chief Schweitzer, is that going to be an issue with coverage for the police? We usually handle that every year. So nothing's changed this year.

Okay. Anything further, Council? Okay. In that case, I'd entertain a motion to refer this request to the Police Benevolent Association for review and appropriate action. Moved by Council Member Fredrickson, seconded by Council Member Terrain. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Laskoia. Aye. Council Member Terrain. Aye. Council Member Fredrickson. Aye. Council Member Civiletto.

Aye.

Council Member at-large Weiser.

Aye. Motion carried. And a quick point of privilege. Chiefs Weiser, could you please close that door?

Request from the Dunkirk City School District for EMT coverage at the Dunkirk Secondary School for the 2025 varsity and modified football season home games.

Is there any discussion, council? I would just point out, with respect to this request, the letters dated August 2, 2026. Although the letter body actually says 2025, I would assume this is in reference to the 2026 season. So if there are no objections, we'll proceed with that as the assumption. Any discussion, council? Do I have a motion to refer to the appropriate departments as well as approve subject to appropriate insurances and usual conditions? Moved by Council Member Civiletto, seconded by Council Member Leskowiak. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Leskowiak. Aye. Council Member Terrain. Aye. Council Member Fredrickson.

Aye.

Council Member Civiletto.

Aye.

Council Member at-large Weiser.

Aye. Motion carried.

Request from the Dunkirk Secondary School requesting police coverage for the 2026 homecoming dance Saturday, October 17th, 2026, and the 2027 prom, Saturday, June 12th, 2027, from, that would be 2026 too.

Looks it.

Or no, it would be 2027. You're right. From 7 p.m. to 10 p.m.

Thank you. Any discussion, counsel?

Yes. There's no locations on here, so... Do the police know where to go?

The homecoming dance is usually at school, the prom we're unsure of.

Anything further, counsel? Okay, do I have a motion to refer to the Police Benevolent Association?

Move by Council Member Fredrickson, seconded by Council Member Civiletto. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Leskowiak. Aye. Council Member Terrain.

Aye.

Council Member Fredrickson.

Aye.

Council Member Civiletto. Aye. Council Member Atlarge-Weiser.

Aye. Motion carried.

Notice of claim from William Harris of 218 Robin Street for damages to his residence allegedly caused by the city's failure to maintain the adjacent property it owns.

Okay. I need a motion to refer this to the Law Department and Department of Public Works. Moved by Councilmember Terrain. Is there a second? Seconded by Councilmember Laskowiak. Clerk, please call the roll.

Councilmember Laskowiak. Aye. Councilmember Terrain.

Aye.

Councilmember Fredrickson.

Aye.

Councilmember Civiletto.

Aye.

Councilmember at-large Weiser.

Aye. Motion carried. We'll now move to reports of standing committees, boards, and commissions. Councilmember Laskowiak.

Yeah, I wish to seek expanding the fishing season, keeping open the boat launch even this year. It'll increase tourism revenue with hotel nights, gas, sales tax, job stability. Waterfront homes will sell better with year-round fishing access versus seasonal. Benefits are endless. I met with fishermen and captains at the Lake Erie VIP experience we had about a month ago and learned a lot. So I'm hoping for support to move forward with expanding our fishing season. Captain Switzer, would you kindly address the issues our city encounters when motorcycle groups and gangs come through? I've received a lot of complaints these past few weeks, and I've heard a group is coming through again on the 3rd of September.

Yeah, there's a large group gathering that comes out of the city of Buffalo. It's an issue up there. It's an issue in a lot of cities. They overwhelm local departments. They get together, their bikes, motorcycles, side by sides, and they all boot together and ride down the road, public roads. They usually come in at around 5. We do get a heads up from other departments in Erie County sometimes at a large number, sometimes 100, 200 total come. For some reason, they seem to end up here. This is their finish spot. They come down Lake Franco. we do ask for assistance from outside agencies but the number of them is just, we try to maintain and kind of get them out and back up towards Erie County but it's random. Sometimes they plan it but it's more of a, if we do entertain or deal with one problem, another problem breaks off and it's just

try to just maintain it okay thank you so much for your efforts they're working um uh madam treasurer i've had um multiple residents contact me about the city hall hours people get frustrated really can't get a receipt right away and they come in for their tax and water payments and have to use a drop box. That works for some, but some people need proof for their heap or their mortgage and they can't wait. And I can't wait the five days for the receipt. And, you know, when you take away convenience, you lose goodwill. So if the mayor was here, I would have asked for a timeline to get City Hall back to normal, counter hours, and respectfully ask her for a date. So I will next time. And that's all.

Thank you. Council Member Terang.

Okay. Thank you, Council Member Large. I want to address a couple things that... Councilwoman Leskowiak was talking about. First of all, I want to discuss staffing changes. They do present challenges because of workload shifts. Anytime you have, when you're short-staffed, workloads have to shift to other people. That also presents some stress points. And I'm pretty sure that there have been some stress points because whenever you have change and whenever you have staffing concerns, that happens. Turnover has been a concern and has prompted personnel departments to start conducting exit interviews. What we found is that most of the people who left did so for opportunities that better fit their goals, not because of alleged culture, you know, And the other thing too, is that, uh, the decision to reduce the hours of city clerk courts clerk, city court clerk's office was made. I mean, the city, uh, clerk treasurer's office was made due to, to get the department of the position to be more effective because of these staffing shortages. And, um, which is the reason why, uh, and this is something that, that we, that we've been working on is something that, uh, uh, we thought we had solved. And then we hired a couple of people who decided to leave for other, for other opportunities. So once that happens, it's my belief that you'll start seeing that office become more effective once it's fully staffed. And right now it's not. The city to combine the city court clerk's office and the treasurer's office was made after residents spoke to the need for change when they unanimously voted to make the treasurer's office a non-elected position. Once that happened, we've approved that we pass a resolution not only to combine the city court clerk and treasurer's office, but to approve the person who would lead that department, that newly formed department. I believe we made a good decision then, and I think it's a good decision now. Based on observations and reports from the personnel director, Ms. Dobick has been working very hard to create an effective office while overcoming these staffing issues. One of the things that is presently going on is the implementation of GovSense, which we believe will also make the office more effective. It'll make all offices that are collected and doing any kind of, you know, collecting of payments or anything like that, it'll make them more effective. I think it was spoken to by someone from the Housing and Zoning Office that it will make the city court clerk's office more effective. It'll also make their office more effective because they'll have the use of this program too. So we do hear that. I want to also speak, at this point right now, GovSense is being introduced. It's going to be implemented. And I'm looking forward to the point where we get this thing up and running and effective. Then I want to speak on lists. Lists effort to guide us through charter revision, which is very, very, very needed. that we revise our charter. And so we have submitted people to be on that commission. We're going to be well on the way to getting the city charter and the city code revised. What I've said about that entire thing is that you can get all the money you want, but if the system doesn't work correctly, it won't make a difference. So we got to make sure that our systems are working correctly. I want to speak to, now it kind of stole my thunder because When I did get the information, someone sent me an email about Perry Street. I immediately sent that to Randy. He immediately responded. That's how we talk about communication, but that's how we communicate. Somebody from the public sent me an email. I looked at it, and I immediately sent it to Randy because I couldn't provide those answers, but Randy could. And so thank you, Randy, for providing that information for the people from Perry Street. And then the other thing is the I was contacted about the hearing for the for the best project of the battery energy storage system the latest one that we that was that we've been presented to the And one of the things that I did was I sent that email to Vince Because they were saying that they didn't know about the public hearing now those public hearings are published in the newspaper And I think they're also published in other places. So Vince did respond to me right away. So I appreciate you responding, Vince. Again, that's how we communicate. You responded right away. You gave me information that I could then answer the public that's contacted me. Now, last but not least, Mr. Dawson, we heard you last week, last meeting. What you were talking about, we heard that at the last meeting. We hear what you're saying about your concerns. So we didn't turn a blind eye or ear to that. We did hear you. And from what I heard, I didn't hear anything much different from what you said the last time you spoke. And I agree with you. However, some of the things that we do and that's being done had already been published before. So if you would like to talk more about that later, we can. But we've heard you I'm certainly hoping this is something different. You don't intend to bombard us every week with the same information. So we appreciate you coming up and speaking, though. And my next meeting for the personnel committee meeting is going to be September 9th at 11 o'clock. And I will get that information out so that everybody can get the invitation. Thank you. Thank you, Council Member Fredrickson.

Thank you. I just want to thank the police department fire departments for your work during a busy time. It's appreciated. Keep us safe. And it's a lot of work for you guys in the summer.

So thank you. Thank you. Council member Civiletto.

Um, yeah, first, uh, the economic development meeting, I'm, I'm, weighing towards canceling it for August, knowing that the Economic Development Department really has a lot of stuff that they're trying to wrap up for the end of the summer. So we'll cancel the August one, and we'll have one in September. And I'll announce that at the next meeting, if that's OK, Vince? Yeah, of course. All right. And I have a couple of questions for Randy. got a drain that's on Courtney and Franklin that, um, I've talked to a couple of people at the streets department about, and haven't really gotten that far. There's a customer, a constituent that lives right on the corner, Courtney and Franklin that parks his car there. And every time that, uh, that it rains, that drain, um, doesn't, doesn't drain. And it goes all the way from the railroad tracks, almost all the way to COI. Um, with six to 10 inches of water, and it creates a huge waterfall going across the street. Is there a way that we can schedule the vacuum cleaner to come and get that? I've been asking for it for a while.

I think that next time it rains, if you're available, give me a call. The best time to look at these problems is during a deluge. So if we got one, give me a call and I'll meet you over there. This is right in front of my house too, so I can see it. That's kind of why I offered to do it. Let's get together and take a look at it. I think we have vacuumed it before, so there could be a problem with a plug pipe or something. Maybe it's going in the wrong direction. But you really can't analyze drainage problems until it's until you got Noah's Ark out there, so.

Okay.

You and I will get the Ark and go take a look at it.

All right. And I may be overstepping my bounds here, but the notice of claim on about 220 Robin Street, I did take a look at the Chautauqua County GIS, and everything that I can see is that the city owns that plot of land that goes in between that man's house and the railroad tracks. And I see where he's saying that the grass is really high and it's a small little swath of grass. And I was wondering if the streets department could, by any chance, take a look at that and maintain it. Because maybe I'm overstepping my bounds, but legally, from what I can tell from the county GIS, We own that. It says city of number and that's, that's a half of a lot. So I'm just putting that out there. If you could do something with that, I would appreciate it. Um, that's all I have.

Thank you. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Go ahead. Did you have something to say, Randy?

Yeah, just, I, I know I'm, I department's working with the assessor department on that issue. There's things we'd like to do. Um, it's an orphan piece of property that had to do and probably was acquired in 1940 when New York central and the state of New York worked together to raise the railroad tracks off of the great crossings on third street. And correct me if I'm wrong, Erica, but I think it's something we'd like to maybe convey to somebody next door, right? Okay. So we're community, we'd like it not to be a city problem and we'd also like it not to be the neighbor's problem either. Yeah. Unfortunately on the GIS, it says it's a city's problem. Well, the GIS is used for tax purposes. It's not used for surveying purposes. If you take a look at the actual deed, if you go into the GIS, you can see what the deed is and you can go to Mayville or you can go to Erica's office and actually read the deed. how we happen to acquire. I think it was either foreclosed or resorfened when they did the railroad thing. So we've had it for almost 100 years. And it hasn't been a problem before. Now it's a problem. Let's take care of it. We have another problem right next to it with a tunnel that I'm working with a railroad. They would like to close it, but it takes administrative law, judge, to determine that. So we've got a lot of things in that area. So I'd like to work with you on that area. I'd also like to work with the second ward council person on that area because it is the second ward issue. Yes, it is. So with all of us putting our heads together, I think we can solve both problems. Okay. Thank you.

Thank you. As chair of the finance committee, I'd like to give the floor to our new comptroller, Ms. Smith-Dangler, for a brief update.

I just have a couple of things to add. We have recently received a couple of large sources of revenue. 1.04 million in sales tax has come in. That will certainly help our cash flow for the foreseeable future. We also had a lovely surprise from the state of New York. A temporary municipal assistance aid was received, totaling $548,000, just under 549. um although all municipalities received some of that money we did receive a larger share than we were anticipating so that is a blessing the 2025 audit the field work has been completed and all of the information is in the hands of our auditors they are busily working on the final statements which are scheduled to be completed as anticipated this fall I will be meeting with the representatives, our handlers from the OSC next week in addition to our insurance agents. Just meet and greet with both teams and find out where we stand from the state's perspective and find out what sort of other benefits our insurance agents can provide for us. They have a very large comprehensive menu of services and many of them are included with the fees that we already pay. Hopefully there will be some things there that will be a benefit. A couple of things we've been working on over the last month. The budget, in my opinion, when I first met it a month ago, was more than a little challenging. So we have done some restructuring and tried to streamline and simplify that document. I'll use Department of Public Works as my example because it is the most impacted. When I took a look at that budget, I found most of DPW in the early part of the budget. I then found another three or four programs midway through our budget, and then there was another small handful that was at the end of the budget. So all of those individual sub-components have been brought together under an overarching DPW umbrella. Any lines that didn't exist within the 1620 category of codes, Has been added and I've left tools for everybody so they can see where this code existed in previous budgets The same approach has been taken with our Treasury Department now that we have an account treasurer Fiscal Affairs office and my own we put that all under an umbrella and I've done the same for development and planning so I hope that you guys will all see this is a little bit more easy to read easy to interpret easy to understand document and Another thing that has resulted because of the many changes that have taken place is we have a revised organizational chart, and I believe that Carol has emailed that to all of you, so you have that in your toolbox as well. Unless there are any questions from any of you, I'm going to pass it over to Ellen, and she's going to give you a more detailed update on our GovSense conversion, which we are in the middle of right now. Thank you.

Thank you, Tracy. As you are aware and Councilman Terrain mentioned, we have worked over the last almost two years to find and implement GovSense, which is our new software program that will take effect we hope at some point in October. We have been working very, very diligently with them to move over the existing software and then learn and train on what they have here. And I just have to say to the citizens of Dunkirk that this software is eons above what we have now. The current software that we have is old and antiquated, and the transparency is just not there and it's caused problems i know the mayor recognized that right away in 2024 actually when we both came on board so this is something that we are very very excited about and we just hope to get this done and implemented and working at least with our phase one which is our finance area So with that, we are lucky enough today to have GovSense managing partner, Paul Knies, who is here in the audience. I would ask Paul to come to the podium if it's okay with the council and just kind of tell us a little bit about the one big surprise that we have for our citizens.

Good evening and thank you for the invite. Thank you, Alan, for the kind words. Again, my name is Paul Camisa. I'm the managing partner at GovSense. And as Alan said, we've been working very diligently with not only the finance team, but Randy's team and Vince's team and all the rest of the teams here. And we spent a little bit of time with Amy today up in the clerk's office. We're very excited about the opportunities that we have in front of us to be able to assist the city and more importantly the constituents and the citizens of the city not only the residents but the contractors and the industrial and commercial customers that you have that reside here. We were able to demonstrate this morning some very very very futuristic if you will almost portals that the citizens can be able to log on I heard one of your things, Mr. Terrain, around the issue of being able to get receipts and extend hours and things of that nature. One of the things that we like to address, because we hear this all the time from a lot of our clients, is the ability to be able to offer services online. So they can be able to submit a permit online, do an inspection request online, pay a utility bill online, pay a property tax bill online, and things of that nature to really help people so that there's instant processing, there's instant receipts. So if they do need to do something and get it to the mortgage company right there in that point, they'll be able to do so without any hesitation. So we're very pleased about that.

Thank you.

excellent any questions for paul any questions no just to make for the record that uh that statement was made by a councilwoman yes make sure that she gets the credit because she brought that up but again i agree i agree wholeheartedly with what she's saying and this is so exciting because i think it's something with all the other stuff that we've been getting this is a positive and i hope that we get that out to the public, that this is a positive going forward. So thank you for what you're doing for us. Thank you very much.

Thank you. Appreciate it.

Thank you, Mr. Kanese. Thank you, Officer Leskowiak. Finally, our next Finance Committee meeting will be held Monday, August 24th at 9 a.m., and it will be in the Economic Development Conference Room. Okay, moving on to unfinished business. Clerk, please introduce the local law.

Local law number five dash 2026, a local law amending the city charter and the city code of the city of Dunkirk to assign administrative responsibility for electrical and plumbing licenses, permitting processing enforcement coordination and board administration to the department of building and zoning.

Okay. Before we take action on local law, number five of 2026, I want to briefly acknowledge that council has received additional information and concern regarding the proposed reassignment of electrical and plumbing licensing responsibilities to the Department of Building and Zoning. In particular, there are still questions concerning the department's existing workload and staffing capacity, the implications of the proposed reassignment for the city's CDBG-funded position, and the related personnel and administrative considerations. I believe those questions deserve to be fully resolved before council takes final action on a permanent change to the city charter and code. It's not a question of whether the council is opposed to modernization or to improving the city's licensing process, it is a question of making sure that before we permanently assign these responsibilities, we understand the operational, fiscal, and compliance implications of doing so. So for that reason, I would recommend that council postpone consideration of the Local Law No. 5 of 2026 either to date certain or indefinitely so that these outstanding questions can be addressed. Is there a motion toward either of those ends?

CHAIR WEISER, I MOVE TO POSTPONE INDEFINITELY LOCAL LAW NUMBER 5, 2026.

IS THERE A SECOND? SECONDED BY COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKSON. ANY DISCUSSION OR DEBATE, COUNCIL? OKAY, CLERK, PLEASE CALL THE ROLL.

COUNCILMEMBER LASGOEAC. AYE. COUNCILMEMBER TERRAIN.

AYE.

COUNCILMEMBER FREDERICKSON. AYE. COUNCILMEMBER CIVILETTO.

AYE.

COUNCILMEMBER AT LARGE, WEISER.

AYE. MOTION CARRIED. We will now proceed with the prefiled resolutions. Clerk, please introduce resolution number 65 of 2026.

Resolution 65-2026. Resolution accepting downtown revitalization initiative expand the city of Dunkirk Marina through new docs contract addendum number one field testing program.

Any discussion council?

I wanted to ask Vince if we're adding as well as rehabbing docks on the east side of the pier and will this begin next spring?

the change order is about. The initial design from our engineers called for removing all of the existing six inch pilings. The cost was significant and with that, we likely would not have been able to expand the capacity to the level that we, the scope of the grant would allow. So what we're doing with this is basically doing some testing of those existing piles and to see if they could still be utilized. Uh, they've been in there probably at least 40 years is my understanding. And they're going to do some, uh, Ultrasound testing they're gonna pull a couple out to see what they look like see how easily they pull out and so we're hoping that The study will come back that we can retain what's there and we can kind of build around that and Hopefully fill up the entire marina with brand new docks Thank you Okay any further discussion counsel

Seeing none, clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Leskowiak. Aye. Council Member Terang. Aye. Council Member Fredrickson.

Aye.

Council Member Civiletto.

Aye.

Council Member at large, Weiser.

Aye. The resolution is hereby adopted. Okay, is there any new business to be discussed this evening, council? Hearing none, I'll entertain a motion to adjourn. Moved by Council Member Fredrickson, seconded by Council Member Terang. Clerk, please call the roll.

Council Member Leskowiak. Aye. Council Member Terrain.

Aye.

Council Member Fredrickson. Aye. Council Member Civiletto. Aye. Council Member Atlarge-Weiser.

Aye. This meeting is now adjourned.