The City of Troy is once again looking to hire an outside accounting firm to close its 2023 books.
When Republican Mayor Carmella Mantello began her term in the new year, the city had some unfinished business.
In February, the city brought on Dylan Spring as comptroller after the city’s former comptroller resigned weeks before the Mantello administration took office. Spring then resigned in July while under pressure to deliver first quarter finances, which were more than two months late. The city has since been working to fill the role.
That all came after outside firm ProNexus was hired while the city searched for a full-time comptroller.
But Democratic Council President Sue Steele says ProNexus failed to file an accurate report on the city’s 2023 finances.
“The annual financial report that was filed with the state comptroller contained erroneous figures and is not accurate,” Steele said. “And so, it is necessary for us to bring in yet another firm to clean up the mess of the previous comptroller and previous firm.”
Steele, who chairs the finance committee, says the city will have spent more than $200,000 to fix its accounting errors. Steele says as the city approaches budget season, they must work quick to restore its books.
“We need a comptroller to take a look at the departmental budgets and put a budget together,” Steele said. “Hopefully that is on track in some way. Perhaps this firm will assist in in some degree. But we cannot continue in this situation for much longer.”
The fiscal year 2025 budget is due to the council by October 10th.
Brendan Kennedy, an accountant with BST & Co, the firm in negotiations with the city, says they do not plan to work on the city’s budget.
“My goal is to give you the information so that you can make your budgetary decisions,” Kennedy said.
Mantello says the city is working to recover money spent on ProNexus.
“We did send a very, not so nice letter to ProNexus, where we are requesting all funds to be reimbursed to us,” Mantello said. “They did not deliver the product that they told us they would.”
Corporation Counsel Dana Salazar says the city’s finances are not in limbo, despite comments by members of the council’s Democratic minority.
“Our books are balanced,” Salazar said. “There are some errors to correct, but the overall picture is that we are still in strong financial circumstances. It's just shifting within accounts, not necessarily our overall accounts, that that need correcting.”
Also introduced at Thursday night’s meeting was legislation increasing the salary range for comptroller. The current budgeted salary is $103,966. The city used neighboring city and town salaries to justify an increase to between $125,000 and $150,000.
In the City of Schenectady, which has a population of nearly 69,000 people, the budgeted salary for comptroller is $124,800. Mantello says it’s important for Troy to remain competitive.
On another subject, as Troy continues years’ worth of work to inventory and replace lead water service lines, it is preparing to ask the New York state legislature to declare a public health emergency. Legislation meant to expedite the effort and gain state backing was introduced. The package asks the state attorney general and comptroller to support a move by the city to issue bonds for privately-owned lead pipe replacement.
The comptroller's office says it is reviewing the legislation.
Several cities across the state, including Syracuse, have introduced similar legislation with hopes of bonding. Current language in the state constitution isn’t clear regarding the use of public funds for private work, hence the city’s bond counsel’s hesitation to follow that path.
Andrew Golden, Senior Operations Manager for public utilities, says roughly 290 of the 1,354 identified lines that contain lead contaminants have been replaced.
“We're forecasting, you know, to potentially double that number, you know, for total lead lines,” Golden said.
Golden says officials will continuing canvasing unidentified areas and educate residents on the dangers of lead. He adds that new software has been implemented to forecast potential lead service line locations.
“So pretty much, we upload all of our data into the software program and it spits out some areas to check,” Golden said. “We go out and check those houses to see if you know the you know if it was correct or false on the lead or copper. We put that information back into the software, and then it sharpens that even more and puts it back up.”
“OK, thank you,” said council member Katie Spain-McLaren.
“And that software also put it into the DOH required format for submittal,” Golden said.
The city continues to offer free water filters and replacements to residents with lead lines.
Mantello has pledged to replace all of the contaminated service lines in her first four-year term.
The council’s next regular meeting is September 5th.
