Syracuse Common Councilors on Monday expressed concerns about the city’s department of finances budget during a two-hour-long hearing.

The department of finance is currently broken down into three bureaus: accounts, parking and treasury. David DelVecchio, Syracuse’s commissioner of finance, said the department is also working to develop a Municipal Violations Bureau.

Councilor Joseph Carni voiced concerns over whether the finance department’s budget included enough money to hire qualified employees to make the violations bureau successful. The budget includes $92,000 for salaries, Carni said.

Carni said the bureau’s goal is to make sure residents are compliant with city codes and improve the city, but not to generate revenue to fund itself or other programs.

“My concern is that I don’t believe with what we’ve (budgeted here), that’s it’s going to accomplish what we’re looking for,” Carni said.

The department is looking to hire a chief administrative law judge, who would act as the director of the Municipal Violations Bureau, DelVecchio said. Candidates for the new position must have at least fives years of legal experience, budget records show.

“Do we believe that we’re going to find a qualified candidate that’s an attorney with five years legal experience in this field, that’s going to capable of handling this?” Carni said. Carni also said finding and keeping qualified candidates at the base pay rate is probably a city-wide problem.

Councilor Rudd said the size of the budget for the Municipal Violations Bureau seems small compared to the city’s parking bureau.

Several councilors on Monday also asked DelVecchio about the city’s strategies and policies for tax collection. Councilor-at-large Steve Thompson asked about what the city is doing to collect more than a $1 million in uncollected city taxes.

DelVecchio said the uncollectible tax rate has been pretty consistent in the past few years.

“Right now, the city is moving forward with seizure of property and sale to (the Greater Syracuse Land Bank) as the mechanism to generate revenues,” DelVecchio said. The land bank is a not-for-profit that aims to help revitalize vacant and abandoned properties.  

Councilor Timothy Rudd questioned whether or not the city’s method for charging late fees on property taxes is covering the cost of applying those penalties.

The city currently adds an interest charge of 1.5 percent per month, up to 12 percent per year, for residents who fail to pay property taxes on time, DelVecchio said. DelVecchio was unable to provide specific numbers in response to Rudd’s question.

Rudd also asked if there was a way to add an additional fee on top of the interest already being charged for late payments.

Published on April 16, 2018 at 10:09 pm