What Utica can learn from Colorado Springs

I enjoy listening to the varied news and special interest programming on the weekend NPR (91.9 FM). On "This American Life" recently, the City of Colorado Springs, Colorado was highlighted. Talk about financial meltdown! The city was so financially drained it actually had to shut off half of it's street lights!

Located in Colorado Springs is a 5 star diamond rated resort hotel, The Broadmoor. Owned by Steve Bartolin, the hotel was once billed as "The Grand Dame of the Rockies." Concerned that the city surrounding his establishment was in severe crisis, he decided to get involved.

Mr. Bartolin got ahold of a city budget and what he discovered shocked him. The city was spending nearly 80% of its resources on manpower to run the various departments. In his resort, 35% for staffing was the level. "If I ran my business like they run the city,"he was quoted as saying, "I would be closed in a year."

Indeed, the staff of the Broadmoor was actually larger than that of the city! So, Steve got to work. He analyzed the budget and came up with ideas to save money based on his business acumen. He met with other concerned citizens and demanded that the city clean up its act. When the mayor refused, he and his group backed a new candidate who eventually won.

Things did not turn around over night. There was a lot of wrangling over what needed to change. Privatization of city services and union concessions were needed to stabilize finances. When he started, Mr. Bartolin had noticed that the city parks were brown and wilted due to the lack of attention from the city. "The parks are green again', said Bartolin. " We have our city back."

Utica, N.Y. A city in similar crisis.

When are we going to figure it out? The same narrative over and over with the same results. Across the nation, municipalities are on the brink of financial ruin. Some get it. Many others do not.

But we live here. In Utica. And at this point, I am afraid we just do not get it. No real systemic changes are ever discussed. It's always a snip here, a cut there. Get to the bottom line, raise taxes just enough to cover expenses but not enough to cause complete anarchy. Breathe a sigh of relief that we got through it-this time. Go back to business as usual and do it all again next year.

Where is our Steve Bartolin? The public needs leadership-from the PRIVATE sector. Once someone gets elected, it's all over. They become entrenched almost immediately. Eyes glaze over, they join the "Walking Dead" of city government. They borrow our way out of disaster, maintain cozy relationships with the unions and promote a no growth policy.

The public will react. Utica will wake up.

The question is, will it be too late?

Utica-"Condition Critical."

The City of Utica is on life support.  The patient is slipping away. Our leaders scramble to triage a method of treatment but it's not working. Can flatlining be inevitable?
None of the ideas that I shared in my last post were considered. No efficiency studies, no elimination of unnecessary departments (Civil Service being the most needless of all.) Instead, we have a proposed 18% property tax increase and a smattering of cuts designed to bring about temporary relief. No long term systemic solutions. Quick, temporary fixes. Isn't that what got us to where we are in the first place?
Now, we hear that if we cut police and fire, people will DIE. If we cut DPW, services will evaporate. Once again, the narrative begins. And the elected officials entrusted to protect our finances look for ways to keep the unions happy. It never changes.
In spite of it, we, the citizens of Utica, continue to love our city. We hope and pray for the best. It just never seems to happen.
Campaign promises are made. Campaign promises are broken. All of our resources, once a trickle, are now gushing out of the patient, our beloved Utica.
We need a second opinion.
We need expert advice. We cannot entrust our future to the people in city hall any more. There is clearly not the will, desire or expertise to handle the management of our resources.
We need to demand the total re-structuring of all city departments. In a city that spends 66 million dollars a year, there needs to be accountability.
The same goes for the school district.
There is great hope for our future. Check out the Oneida County Visitors Bureau new "Getaway Catalogue." It features Utica, Rome, Verona and Sylvan beach. It clearly demonstrates the unbelievable resources and attractions that make this region special.
And, in spite of that, we have a city on the ropes. Broke. Destitute. Status quo being maintained at all cost.
We need, as a city, as a community, to unite as never before. To demand real change. We need to use social media to promote our cause. To take back city hall. To finally, irrevocably, require our leaders, our EMPLOYEES, to manage our resources wisely, thoughtfully, expertly. And, stop making "deals."
Otherwise, the patient will quietly slip into a coma. And, then pass away.
We don't have a mortician as mayor anymore, thank god. But, who will be there to bury the body?

The Utica Budget-What I would do if I were in charge.

Hello Friends!
My last post discussed the sorry state of both the Utica City and The Utica School District budgets. Since that time, the Utica City deficit has risen from 5 to 7 million dollars!
Really? Former Mayor's Roefaro and Julian should be taken to task for the mess that they created. A total disaster.
When I ran for mayor in 2007, my campaign slogan was "Condition Critical." How much worse it is today!
So, If I were Mayor (God Forbid!) here is what I would do:

1. Efficiency Study-  In 2010, I found a consultant to undertake an efficiency study of the City of Utica Public Safety -both Police and Fire. After a presentation to Mayor Roefaro and then Public Safety Commissioner Labella, it was agreed that we needed to retain the services of this company to finally determine if our resources were being spent as efficiently as possible on public safety.

Guess what? Not one hour after the presentation, Roefaro called our committee and changed his mind. He did not want any study done. He did not care.

Today, we are paying the price for his decision. Never mind that we had a grant that was willing to pay for more than half the 100,000 cost for the study. So what that the company we had found had a track record across the country with numerous studies accomplished, saving cash strapped communities millions of dollars.
Not in Utica. Not under Roefaro and Labella.

2. Eliminate Civil service.
Why do we continue to maintain a separate Civil Service office when Oneida County could easily take over this function? Remember the department of Weights and Measures? We consolodated that as well many years ago. The same should happen to Civil Service.

3.Sales Tax
When was the last time the local sales tax formula was looked at? The '80's? The current split is unfair and does not reflect the ratio of what is collected versus what the city receives. We need to DEMAND that the city get a bigger split.

4. Economic Development:
Enough GLDC/ Griffiss/EDGE development already! Put the resources into the city where they belong! HSBC, Harza, M& T Bank, Security Building, Adorondack Bank Building-all in need of tenants. Downtown needs a REGIONAL redevelopment initiative-we need to DEMAND IT NOW!
Downtown could be a high-tech corridor-if only we could get the EDGE big-wigs to realize it!
Put the resources downtown!
Well friends, that's it for now. Let's see of any of my ideas are ever enacted or even discussed!

Utica Government and School District Under Water.

Headlines scream at us all the time about the fiscal instability of the world today. Spain, Greece, Italy, all under water.
It has just edged closer to home with the revelation that the city of Utica could have a 5 million dollar  deficit in the 2012 operating budget. The Utica school district has announced that there may be a 10 million dollar shortfall in their budget.
What is going on here? Could it really be that bad? A 15 million dollar hole is not something that the citizens of this city can just absorb. What do our leaders intend to do about this? How are they going to possibly come up with that amount of money to fill what apparently is a reflection of years of fiscal mismanagement, generous employee contracts that we cannot afford and a vast inability of our elected officials to address these issues and balance a budget.
This disaster did not happen overnight. It started many years ago and was effectively "swept under the rug" by city officials. The simple fact is this: no one in city hall had the resolve to actually figure out what the systemic issues were that created the budget defecit that has blown up in our faces.

What are the issues that have been ignored for so many years?

First, public safety.

Everyone in Utica knows we have a fine police and fire department. Top rated, excellent service, the best of the best. The question is, and always has been, can we afford it? Are these departments operating at top efficiency? Many years ago, during the Hanna Administration, the city faced a similar situation. Utica had a huge budget shortfall in the late 1990's and needed to cut from somewhere in order to avoid a huge tax increase that was politically unpopular and would devistate city home and business owners.

We were on the verge of bankruptcy. Talk of a Fiscal Control Board taking over was a real possibility. Even N.Y. Comptroller at the time, Carl McCall, warned the city to make deep and unpopular cuts or it would be insolvent.

After months of debate, cuts were eventually made to the fire department. These cuts enabled the city to survive that budget year. They were not, however, cuts that made real change. They were a temporary fix. New recruits and men with the least seniority lost their jobs. No real investigation went into this fix. It was unfair and poorly thought out.

But it bought the city time. And, instead of using that time to figure out how to make real change, our leaders made a decision that has created the situation we now face.

Second, the budget process.

The status quo was maintained by taking our water trust fund and using it to balance the budget. Year after year, mayors, common council members, budget directors, department heads, all maintained the same levels of spending by filling the hole with that trust fund. It was as if everyone thought that the money would last forever.

And now, it is gone. Kaput. Drained like a swimming pool in September.

 Our new mayor has to now figure out the mess.

I have ideas, ways that I think we could begin to extract ourselves from this situation. I will reserve those suggestions for a future post. I want to see what the administration comes up with. I know our mayor has some ideas of his own.

As far as the school district is concerned, it's the same story. The new superintendent, a local man with tons of experience, will hopefully be able to mop up the flood of fiscal mismanagement he has inherited.

To that end, both men, Mayor Robert Palmieri, and Superintendent Bruce Karam just announced a series of initiatives that will, for the first time, unite the city and the school district together to explore ways to cut costs by sharing services.

It's a great idea. One that should have happened 20 years ago. Hopefully, it's not too late.

Turning Downtown Around-Will it Finally happen?

Last week, D.U.D.A. (Downtown Utica Development Association) Conducted it's annual meeting at Thornberry's Backstage Restaurant. Elected as President for 2012 was Regina Bonacci. Also voted in were Anthony Trevisani as V.P. , Barry Sinnot as Treasurer and, yours truly, as Recording Secretary.

Regina Bonacci, or "Madame President" as I like to refer to her, is the perfect choice to lead the agency into it's next phase. For those of you who do not know her, Regina and her architect-husband Dave, purchased the old Food Bank/T.R's After Hours on Bleecker St. several years ago. A wreck of a building, it had been slated for demolition and was basically stripped down to its bones. When I was appointed as UED Commissioner in 2008, I, along with Pam Jardieu, who was a grant writer for the city at the time, were committed to saving the entire block.

Enter Dave and Regina. Dave was looking for new headquarters for his firm, Bonacci Associates, and Regina had always wanted a downtown loft space to call home. It was a perfect fit. They purchased the building from the Urban Renewal Agency and, after substantial investment and lots of hard work, today the building is an example of the kind of mixed use project that we have hoped could happen downtown.

So, what makes Regina the ideal President  for DUDA is simply this-she believes in Utica and downtown. There was never a moment when she or Dave doubted their decision. They did not listen to the negative naysayers that say downtown is dirty, unsafe, not a place to invest. They believed in their heart that this was the right move. Along with the others who also saved the block, that decision has proven to be the right one.

The same spirit that propelled Dave and Regina to invest in downtown and make it their home is what we need to harness to turn all of downtown around. And by turn it around, this is what I mean:

We need to stop depending on local government and elected officials to make the changes. We have to rely on ourselves. The downturn of downtown was exacerbated by bad politics and self-serving officials throughout the entire region. The end result-suburban sprawl with no population growth, infrastructure we cannot afford to maintain, and a highway/strip mall culture that will never contribute to the attraction of new business and residents to our region.

And while the people we picked to represent us were delighted in the tax revenue they collected from the sprawl, the city started to feed on itself. Abandoned buildings began being demolished at record speed, sometimes out of need, most times out of greed. Infrastructure crumbling around us, with the exodous of business and people happening so quickly that at times it seemed that there was no one left at all.

The saying, " Will the last one to leave Utica turn out the lights" was beginning to feel like a prophecy and not just the hater's mantra. But, as the pendulum swings, so has the fate of downtown. Slowly, almost imperceptibly at first, things began to happen. Now, there seems to be life again. Halting, tentative steps are being made. It is now up to us to nurture this new growth.

Enter DUDA. No city can be successful without a determined, activist-oriented, promotional organization making sure that what is best for the community is being done. We who live, work, invest in and love downtown, and our city, are the ones that have to make sure that we are in control of our future and in the future of downtown.

DUDA will no doubtedly be at the forefront of that initiative. The new board of directors is made up of new faces and a few old ones. People like Barry Sinnot, the Bank of Utica executive, an always up-beat city promotor, Chris Talgo, a dynamic young restaurateur,who is set to open The Tailor & The Cook, his second location, on Baggs' Sq. West.

There is Emmett Martin, who has leased the front office at the Bonacci Building for his Lefkowitz/M artinInsurance Agency, Jason Nole, who has run the hip bistro "Ancora" for several years, and Brett Truet, an entrepreneur and inventor who owns several signature buildings downtown and who has a passion for Utica and a vision for it's future.

Venerable citizens like Lynn Mishalanie of Utica Monday Nite fame, and antiques empresario Jerry Dischavio of Oneida Sq. and Pam Jardieu, the brilliant grantwriter and all around brain, are some long time downtown contributors who will help round out the board and bring their guidance and experience to the table.

There are so many more contributors, new board and committee members, all excited downtowners who want to get involved with the turnaround. DUDA will become the mechanism that helps us accomplish what has seemed to elude us for so long.

Downtown Utica-a place we can be proud of again!

A new kind of story-Jim and Pauline Harvey

I have been posting for some time now and it seems as if a lot of the subject matter is political in nature. Today, I thought I would tell a story about growing up in Utica. On this, the national holiday to honor Dr. King, I thought this particular story would be appropriate.

When I was a child of about 6 or 7, our neighborhood was a robust mix of nationalities and people of such diverse backgrounds that it was a bit like the United Nations! We had Polish, Ukranian, and Hungarian refugees that were displaced after WW2. There was Tony the Barber, who was Italian, and also some German folks, Irish and even a woman from Argentina!

The one nationality we did not have on our street was African-American. And, if some of our neighbors had it their way, we never would.

Now, the house next door to us was owned by a Hungarian lady. She wore spikey high heels and lots of red lipstick. She also hated us, and reserved her special disdain for my grandfather.

Grandpa was a reserved guy who went to work everyday and came home to my grandmother. They did not have exciting lives, lived for the occasional picnic, and reveled in the fact that they had three grandchildren living upstairs in their little house.

That quiet life was to come to a screeching halt one day in 1967 when the "lady next door" announced she was selling her house. And the buyers were not just anybody. The were a middle aged couple, they had no children.

And they were black.

I had attended Egbert Bagg School on Mandeville St., so I knew plenty of black kids. The thing is, the streets of Utica were still segregated in the '60's. I did not understand it at the time, but there were certain blocks the were quietly "off limits" to black families. And Cottage Place was one of them.

Immediately, the neighborhood was up in arms. The phone calls began. "What do you plan to do about this?" they would ask. One lady down the street confronted my mother, who was president of the Bagg School PTA, at a meeting. "This is terrible, she said, "our lives will be ruined if we let THEM move in! We need to circulate a PETITION demanding that they not be allowed to buy that house!"

The "THEM" she refered to were Jim and Pauline Harvey. Mr. and Mrs. Harvey had lived all their lives in the traditionally accepted black neighborhood near the Aud. Jim was a foundry worker, Pauline had spent her career at G.E. on Broad St. They were a hard working, god-fearing couple. And they dreamt of a better life.

That life was to be found in a little house on Cottage Place. Right next door to us.

My family was in a tough spot. There was not anything that we could legally do to stop the sale. And, my parents and grandparents were not the kind of people who would try to stop them even if they could. They were realistic about the situation and accepted it as a part of the changing times sweeping our society. My mother told the lady at the PTA meeting that she would have no part of any petition. The neighbors who expected us to start the brigade against the Harvey's were outraged.  So, we waited. And wondered. And hoped that things would not turn ugly.

My grandfather had lived in our house since he was born there in 1905. In fact, his family had bought the place in 1890, when the neighborhood was solidly white, mostly protestant, and very upper-middle class. The depression had taken it's toll on that world and so in the 1930's, the big old rambling Victorian era dwellings were divided up into 2 and 3 family apartments.

Then came the war, and the influx of refugees in the 1950's. The Hungarian lady with the lipstick moved in and began to take an immediate dislike to my grandparents. And, her revenge was to sell her house to a black couple named Harvey.

Moving day came. She moved out, the Harvey's moved in. The neighbors peeped from behind their curtains to watch the progress. They wanted to see this new couple, check out their furniture and possessions. We were kids running around, not really grasping the importance of what was happening right there on our street. The walls of segregation were being broken down right before our eyes. And, this was not happening in some strange city in the south, televised grainy images in black and white. This was real, it was here.

And it was exciting!

We got our first look at the Harvey's. He was a solidly built man who resembled Louis Armstrong. She was a pleasant looking woman who you could just tell would be nice. While the adults hid and whispered, the children of the street welcomed the new couple. We said hi, they said hi back. Suddenly, it did not seem so strange. The drama was forgotten, and we went about the business of childhood.

My grandparents and my mom and dad seemed relieved that this event went off without any problems. My grandfather said he didn't care who moved in, as long as miss high-heels was gone. My grandmother commented that she had lovely curtains. And, all was quiet on the street.

Now, the question arose-who is going to talk to the new neighbors? My family was expected to show them that they were not welcome. We were to ignore them at all cost, or risk being shunned by the neighborhood. For the first few weeks we did just that.

Then an event occured that was to forever change the dynamic of the street and pit neighbor against neighbor.

The Harvey's water shutoff burst one day. Located at the edge of our driveway, Mr. Harvey needed to dig a hole large enough to get into and repair the gusher. He asked for permission, and it was granted. Then a strange thing happened. My grandfather returned home from his job at Partlow, my dad from GE. They stood by the hole that Mr. Harvey was digging and, after a few minutes, with no words spoken, got two shovels and helped him dig the hole.

Then, my grandmother and my mom came out and, after a few minutes, began to talk to Mrs. Harvey.
All of a sudden, just like that, we were friends! This mysterious, exotic couple were just two normal, nice, friendly neighbors.They became close friends with my family. And, they would remain that way for almost 40 years.

Eventually, the entire neighborhood accepted Jim and Pauline. It took about 10 years, They became regulars at weddings, funerals, graduations and holiday parties. And, when they eventually passed away, my mom bought their house. We just could not risk just anyone buying the house that the Harvey's loved and lived in for so long!

The house that, in it's own small, quiet way helped to destroy the segregation that had divided our city.

Happy Anniversary Mayor-former and current!

Today is the 1 year anniversary of me, my sister, and our new mayor being escorted out of city hall by the former mayor. Yes that's right, one whole year has passed since that eventful day. And so much has changed!

The day began like so many others. Little did he know that, by proceeding with this foolhardy plan, the ex-mayor would set in motion the beginning of his own political demise. I believe what he did by firing us was to galvanize our current mayor's resolve to mount a campaign for the office.

Already, Mayor Palmieri has accomplished two important tasks. First, he has addressed the blight on the Parkway by pursuing legal action to clean up the ruins of the Manny's Cheesecake fire. Second, he obtained a search warrant to personally investigate the HSBC Building in order to file a notice and order for the owner to make the necessary repairs to prevent further damage to a downtown landmark.

Bravo! If the former mayor had not been asleep at the wheel for so long, these tasks could have easily been accomplished long ago. And they should have. But, that's why he is not mayor today and Rob Palmieri is.

We still have a long way to go, a lot of work to do. I don't think Rob will doze off. If he shows signs of it, it's our job as citizens to nudge him awake.

And nudging is what I do best! Happy Anniversary Mayor!