Residents Oppose Tax Hike, Request More Transparency

By MONICA CALZOLARI
ONEONTA

The November 19 Oneonta Common Council meeting attracted about 25 concerned citizens, the equivalent of a full house. There were 20 motions on the agenda. The council debated various issues for more than four hours.

Just before 10 p.m., the council approved the proposed 2025 budget and voted to exceed the tax cap. By this time, only three members of the audience remained. Two were city employees, Brian Knapp, the fire chief, and Chris Yacobucci, director of Public Works.

These meetings are livestreamed for remote viewing and recorded for anyone to watch after the fact at https://www.youtube.com/user/CityOfOneonta/library.

Mayor Mark Drnek preempted some of the public’s concerns with a speech near the beginning of the meeting, which started about 6 p.m. He addressed the vacancy of the Seventh Ward Common Council seat.

The seat was vacated in September by Bryce Wooden. Mayor Drnek recommended Michael Forster Rothbart on November 19, weeks after his first nomination was rejected. Forster Rothbart has lived in Oneonta for 15 years and has owned his home in the Seventh Ward since 2011.

“Mike currently serves the city as a member of the Environmental Board. He’s also a member of the Oneonta Greenway Committee, and I think, importantly, he worked on the city’s Comprehensive Plan,” Drnek said of Forster Rothbart. “He is also keenly aware of the city’s increasing difficulties funding and maintaining its quality of life and understands how that complicates efforts of recruitment and the support of our economy…He is committed to this city’s future and would relish the opportunity to play a part in placing it on a path to success.”

There are eight wards in the City of Oneonta represented by eight elected Common Council members. When a seat is vacated between election cycles, the mayor has the privilege of nominating who fills the seat. Council members will have two weeks to consider this nomination and will vote to accept or reject the mayor’s recommendation on Tuesday, December 3.

Mayor Drnek also made a public apology to Carolyn Marks, who was sitting in the audience. She obtained approximately 137 signatures from members of the Seventh Ward to fill this vacancy.

Drnek acknowledged Marks’ service to the community.

“On a personal note…Carolyn, you are as dedicated a citizen as I have ever met,” he said. “You attend every meeting and you will volunteer when no one else does.”

He explained, “Because Carolyn Marks has gone on the record as being against this sale [of 27 Market Street], I can’t further complicate the decision by making it a required 6 of 7 “yes” votes for passage. Carolyn does not share my vision for the city, which is her right, but it is my obligation to nominate the candidate that I believe will be open to all sides, all points of view, and make a well-considered decision in every case and of every initiative.

“That is the litmus test for serving the Seventh Ward on the City Council. Therefore, I will not be nominating Carolyn,” Drnek said.

There is an opportunity for the public to speak at the beginning of each Common Council meeting. Marge O’Mara, a resident of the Seventh Ward, spoke in support of Carolyn Marks. She also asked many questions concerning the impact of the debt service on the city’s budget from the controversial Market Street Project.

Virginia Lee, director of finance, provided the following numbers in an e-mail on November 23.

She said, “The city is receiving nearly $10 million in grant funding for the construction of the new Transit Hub. The local portion is approximately $1 million, a return of 9 to 1 for the community. The $6.5 million will fund the local portion of the parking garage demolition, construction of the new 47 Market Street parking lot, the reconstruction of Market Street and Water Street.”

“And speaking of Water Street…This is important,” Drnek said. “Those businesses have been devastated by months and months of endless construction.”

He is referring to tearing down the multi-level Water Street parking garage, another controversial topic.

“The construction and roadwork on Water and Market is just about finished and it’s going to be beautiful,” Drnek said.

Mayor Drnek announced a community celebration on a reimagined Water Street scheduled for Friday, December 6 from noon to 2 p.m., hosted by the Otsego County Chamber of Commerce.

Southside Mall General Manager Luisa Montanti was the second and only other member of the community to speak publicly on November 19.

She pleaded, “Council, vote down this budget. And stop spending money.”

“Major cuts have to be made,” Montanti continued. “It is the most difficult part of budget management but…we the citizens [who] voted for you entrust and ask you to make these extreme changes.”

Montanti made further references to what she perceives as the city leadership’s “lack of transparency, excessive spending, inefficiency, political motivations and unrealistic revenue projections.”

“The citizens of Oneonta demand and deserve a budget that has a plan of action to address all non-essential spending that’s fiscally responsible after making essential cuts that address the root cause of the problem which, in essence, is a very large city staff and administration,” Montanti said.

The 2025 tentative city budget totals $20,571,061.00, an increase of $1,187,614 from the 2024 adopted budget, or 6.1 percent.

Including current vacancies, the City of Oneonta employs 205 people, among them police and fire personnel, bus drivers and maintenance workers. The 92-page budget is posted on the city’s website for all to see. Wages and benefits constitute 70.57 percent of the 2025 general expenses.

Director of Finance Lee, confirmed, “We currently have 139 full-time positions, six of which are vacant; 48 part-time, 11 of which are vacant; nine seasonal, eight of which are vacant (usually filled in the summer). The 205 total includes nine elected officials.”

“The city was struggling to recruit and retain talented and skilled employees due to the low salaries,” Lee explained. “Salaries were adjusted with Council approval, via union contracts or other agreements, to bring the city’s salaries to approximately 90 percent of the market median.”

Increasing salaries and associated benefits has been controversial, since expenses exceed revenues.