The Council for the City of Corning, New York, held its regular meeting at 6:30 p.m.
at Council Chambers, Civic Center Plaza, Corning, New York on February 5, 2024.
By consent, the “State of the Administration” address, required by the City Charter,
was the last item of business. City Manager Ryckman’s address was lengthy and
supplemented with extensive data displayed by PowerPoint.
What follows is a summary of Mr. Ryckman’s address. It is not a comprehensive
summary. None of it is verbatim. None of the summary quotes Mr. Ryckman.
The 27th State of the Administration Address
Mr. Ryckman believes that the city continues to provide high quality services to its residents at a reasonable cost and in a manner which is compatible with the city’s resources, history, and culture.
The financial condition of the city is stable due, primarily, to conservative and efficient management of city resources. However, the city’s budget will be under pressure because of increased costs of operation. The city’s revenue, raised through fees, taxes, state aid, and grants, must be sufficient to meet increasing expenses. Making it so will be a challenge.
Turnover in key management positions has been high in the past two years.
Because it takes time to train and mentor - to acclimate people to new job
responsibilities and new expectations - stress has increased for others who are
already fully engaged in their own jobs.
PROGRESS AND SUCCESS IN THE PAST YEAR:
A 2021 investment in a new municipal accounting program is paying off. The city’s
accounting systems are improving both in accountability and transparency.
The city conducted a successful property value reassessment, not done to
generate increased revenue but to achieve fair distribution of property owner tax
burden among the various taxing entities. The staff carried out the task with surprisingly few problems, working hard to provide information and help to the many taxpayers who, originally, had questions and concerns.
The City Council increased senior citizen property tax relief eligibility by
raising the amount of income a person may have to qualify for an exemption of part
of the person’s residential property assessed value from taxation. The Council also
added a new property tax exemption for people with qualified disabilities.
The changes combine to give relief to the most vulnerable population of the city
and should help these people stay in their homes in Corning.
After years of delay, development at Northside Place is occurring at a rapid pace.
The project encompasses an entire city block and, when completed, will add
twenty-five single-family rental houses to the city’s housing stock. Many believe
that the project will encourage added investment in housing on the north side of
the city.
A special committee inventoried and studied the city’s ownership of real property to
decide if the tracts have current or foreseeable municipal uses. Acting on the
committee’s recommendations, the Council declared some of it surplus. The first
fifteen surplus properties are in review for sale or transfer. On the surplus
property roster, because of inter-governmental cooperation, is property at 80
Norman Street. In August 2023, the city paid for disconnects and demolition of the
fire-blighted structure at that address. Steuben County hauled everything away
and waived tipping fees.
The K-9 unit is up and running, supplying important support to policing functions.
The dog is Mikey, named after Lt. Michael Schwartz, a long-time and highly
regarded police officer who died shortly after retirement. The K-9 program has
been a success-story of partnership fundraising. The Crystal City Police Benevolent Association itself raised more than $20,000 for the project.
Single unit dashcams and automated license plate readers have replaced the
old dual system that has been troublesome. The city obtained the new units from
the same vendor from which the city bought body-worn police cameras. Getting
the three sources of data on the same platform and on one database will increase
efficiency, particularly in responding to discovery requests.
The body-worn police camera program began in 2022. It has been working
well. In 2023 the city added a add a live-stream function to enable monitoring by
supervisors in real time.
Fire department bunker gear, paid for by a FEMA grant has replaced ten sets of
gear which were out of compliance due to age.
The health worker bonus program mandated by New York State began in the
city in 2023. Health care and mental hygiene workers are eligible for a bonus
payment to encourage retention. The first round of bonus recipients are members
of the fire department. A second round of bonus awards is in the works.
The spaying and neutering program has been successful and well-received. The program has neutered or spayed 79 male cats and 132 female cats in 2023,
beginning a lengthy process of reducing the feral cat population in the city.
Fifty-Six blocks of streets and alleys were repaved in 2023 at the cost of $2.7
million.
The Corning Housing Project continued its successful public-private partnership
to improve the City’s housing stock in 2023. It enabled improvements to eight
properties using $156,000 in public funds and $233,000 in private and other
resources for a total investment in housing of $389,942. The program is now on
hold temporarily pending the work of the Comprehensive Planning Committee,
which will be studying how best to address the city’s housing needs.
A transportation study to review the feasibility of combining city and county
public transportation systems is complete. A New York State $10,000 grant, which
both the city and the County matched with $5,000 each, paid for the study. The
city and the county hope that the results will enable coordination of the current
fragmented system and enhance service.
The city and the current UPS franchisee agreed to renew the franchisee’s retail
space lease at the City’s Transportation Center. It is beneficial to have this
space leased so that the lessee can also staff the Transportation Center itself during
operational hours.
The city updated its shared services agreement with the Department of
Transportation. The purpose of the agreement is to enable fast response in a
time of emergency.
A multiple-year negotiation culminated in a Houghton Plot remediation
agreement defining the process of identifying and cleaning the soil of
contaminants. The agreement establishes that Corning Incorporated is primarily
responsible for this work.
The Flight Center at Stewart Park is coming along nicely. The city installed
rocket launch pads, a kiosk, and a windsock. The City Recreation Department
developed and started a program to teach children the principles of flight and to
train them to safely launch rockets. Plans include sponsoring speakers on various
flight-related topics, the use of remote-controlled planes and drones. Under
consideration is cooperation with the Soaring Museum’s youth programs.
The City-wide Public Arts Strategy is complete, and the Council adopted it.
FOR THIS YEAR:
City personnel reinstated tours of City operations for Councilmembers. The
program began with a recent tour of Fire Department facilities and equipment.
These short tours will help Councilmembers more fully understand how the city does its work, more clearly see the benefits provided, and learn of the needs of each operational unit visited.
There is a risk of funding cuts for paving improvements at the state level. However, with the amounts built into the city budget in the past, the repaving program should be successful again in 2024.
The City’s code enforcement software is 20 years old and obsolete. The city
selected the South Central Planning and Development Commission of Louisiana as
its vendor to install a new program. The new software is in place and is now in the
implementation stage. The city should complete conversion of the city’s information
to the new system by summer. If all things work as planned, it will coordinate and
streamline city planning, permitting, zoning, and code enforcement activities so
important to the orderly growth of the city.
In 2022, the city obtained a Smart Growth Comprehensive Planning Grant of
$80,000 to which the city added a $30,000 match with the goal of replacing a plan
done more than twenty years ago. The Council approved a comprehensive
planning committee selected by the mayor. It has begun its work, hiring and
meeting with consultants. Using smart growth and sustainability principles this
committee will embark on the creation of a new master plan which, when approved,
will guide the city over the next fifteen to twenty years.
A $450,000 federal grant and $297,950 in local matching funds will enable
installation of a trickling filter cover at the municipal waste-water treatment
plant. The city awarded the contract and construction should start next month for
completion by early fall. The project will increase the efficiency of the treatment
plant.
Last year, the Corning Community Impact and Investment Fund awarded a
grant to the city for $150,000. $75,000 will fund green infrastructure engineering
design for Denison Park; $45,000 is to buy Community Planning/GIS software
critical to integrate data for planning purposes; and $30,000 is to upgrade the
police department’s drone program. Work on all of this will occur this year.
The city received a $75,000 grant from United States Fish and Wildlife Service to
develop a comprehensive plan for drainage and pond water improvement at Denison Park. Once the plan is complete it will enable the city to apply for up to $500,000 in grant funds to implement the plan. Together with the Corning Community Impact and Investment grant for Denison Park, this project will serve as a model for green projects elsewhere in the community.
The city received a $30,000 grant from the Appalachian Regional Commission to
work with the Public Art Committee and adjoining owners to convert Civic Center
Plaza into an art park. Work on how best to do this will begin this year.
The developer, with the help of the city, has received a $2 million Restore New York
grant for the Parish Heights project at the former St. Vincent’s building complex on the City’s north side. Applications are pending for other available money. Upon full funding, the building permit process will begin.
A private developer bought the vacant Steuben County Courthouse at auction after the city and others worked to decide who owned what part of the courthouse area. Architects engaged by the developers are working with the city on uses for the structure that will be consistent with the neighborhood.
Upcoming Challenges:
Once again, the Governor’s Budget supports no increase in AIM (Aid and
Incentives for Municipalities) funding. The city receives less money now than it did in 2009. Changing this
will be a priority of NYCOM (New York Conference of Mayors).
At the same time, there has been no relief afforded cities from the effects of the tax cap. In the last session, the legislature passed a bill which allowed cities to treat payments in lieu of taxes in a way that would help cities in their efforts to raise revenue while staying under the cap. The governor vetoed it. So, in sum, the state will not increase AIM resources, but will make it more difficult for cities to find replacement revenue because of the tax cap.
The city’s employees are both its most valuable and its most expensive resource. In
1990 the city had 167 employees. Since 1997, during Mr. Ryckman’s tenure, the City’s workforce has further contracted from 131 to 101 positions. Most of the reductions were layoffs because of budgetary concerns. This 22.9% decrease over the past 26 years has helped manage payroll expenses but has stretched employees thin as they work to provide a consistent level of service with far fewer people available to do so. Increasing efficiency with better technology does help, but it is not a practical long-range solution. In sum, the city cannot cut its way to economic prosperity.
Not having a centralized human resource office in the city is a problem. Effective human resource management creates a positive work environment, stabilizes recruitment and retention efforts, increases available expertise in matters important to employees and the City, and enables consistent analysis and administration of payroll, benefits, grievances, and discipline. The City’s first labor relations administrator started in 2000 but was a casualty of layoffs in 2004. If there is an opportunity in the upcoming budget process, adding a human resources office is a top priority.
The City Hall building is 50 years old. It needs repairs. Last year, the city made
vital repairs to the façade and replaced the elevator lift mechanism. However, the
city needs to address roof leaks and leaks due to inadequate window flashing.
Because of questionable construction quality originally, further maintenance and
repair work is inevitable.
There is also the need to investigate problems at the fire department building
and in the parks and recreation department structure. Cumulatively these pose a large challenge to the city and its ability to provide the services expected of
it. The staff hopes that the comprehensive planning process will create a long-term
strategy for all city buildings.
The staff believes another future priority is a new emergency generator. The
present generator is inadequate for the city’s needs.
A New York State mandate relative to commercial driver’s license training caused a significant unfunded liability for the city. The city is investigating training its personnel through Steuben County, which currently employs a certified trainer. Doing so will be cheaper than using private educational program providers.
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