Auburn officials moved forward with a $13.03 million water system project Thursday while approving new employment agreements, extending the timeline for a long-delayed housing development and opening the door to local restrictions on data centers and battery storage facilities.
The City Council also received an extensive update on efforts to protect Owasco Lake, including the state’s continued legal fight over proposed watershed regulations and findings that agricultural land remains the dominant estimated source of phosphorus entering the lake.
Water system borrowing moves forward
Councilors held the first reading of a bond ordinance authorizing up to $13.03 million in borrowing for improvements to Auburn’s water supply and distribution system.
The work would include upgrades and rehabilitation at the Franklin Street reservoir, the associated transmission main and the lower pump station. The borrowing would have a maximum repayment period of 40 years.
The ordinance did not receive a final vote Thursday. City officials said a State Environmental Quality Review Act resolution is expected to return to the council before final consideration of the borrowing plan.
City Manager Jenny Haines also reported that Auburn has maintained its designation as a pro-housing community for 2026. The certification allows the city to remain eligible for state discretionary funding programs reserved for municipalities that demonstrate progress toward increasing housing production.
Haines credited the city’s planning and code enforcement staff with preparing the building permit and zoning information needed to preserve the designation.
During public comment, residents raised concerns about Owasco Lake water quality, recreational fires, public use of a city-owned access point near Pulsifer Drive and the city’s handling of what one resident described as a paper street.
Andrew Bishop continued to press the city to pursue stable isotope analysis as a way to identify sources of pollution entering Owasco Lake. Another resident urged the council to reconsider rules allowing recreational wood fires, citing respiratory problems worsened by wildfire smoke and neighborhood burning.
A Pulsifer Drive resident asked the city to allow him to install a removable bollard at his expense to limit unauthorized vehicle and boat access near his property. Mayor James Giannettino later said the city has generally refused to sell similar rights of way during the past decade because they may provide access to utilities and the Owasco River.
City manager, senior staff and ambulance contracts approved
The council approved an amended employment contract with Haines in a 4-1 vote, with Councilor Craig Diego opposed.
The agreement aligns the city manager’s benefits with Auburn’s revised senior management personnel policy. It maintains a previously negotiated 2% wage increase, phases employee health insurance contributions from 20% to 25% over three years and eliminates an annual incentive tied to enrollment in the city’s preferred provider health plan.
The contract also adds provisions allowing Haines to receive benefits available to other senior employees when she retires, including payouts for accrued time and the use of accumulated sick leave toward health insurance premiums.
The longest debate centered on a provision requiring the city to pay Haines 12 months of salary and six months of health benefits if the council terminates her without cause.
Diego argued the provision was unnecessary because Haines is already vested in the state retirement system and would remain eligible for her pension if she left city employment. His motion to remove the severance provision failed for lack of a second.
Other council members said the provision protects the independence of the city manager’s office and reduces the risk of political retaliation or litigation if a future council attempts to remove the manager.
Corporation Counsel Nathan Garland said Auburn’s council-manager system places executive authority with the appointed city manager rather than the mayor. He said the severance provision effectively creates a financial safeguard against the legislative branch improperly interfering with the executive branch.
The council also approved the updated senior management policy in another 4-1 vote, with Diego opposed.
Under the policy, senior management employees will receive 2% raises instead of an automatic increase tied to inflation, which would have been about 2.65%. Employees will also pay a larger share of health insurance premiums and lose annual preferred provider plan incentives of up to $1,000.
City officials said the insurance changes could make the policy a net financial benefit to the general fund, although the precise savings will depend on the health plans selected by individual employees.
Diego objected to approving raises weeks after Auburn adopted an austerity budget that eliminated dozens of funded and vacant positions, increased the property tax levy by 8% and raised water, sewer and parking charges.
He argued the city should finish negotiations with rank-and-file unions before increasing compensation for senior management. Haines responded that the council needed to act because leaving the existing policy unchanged would have triggered a larger inflation-based raise.
Councilors approved a separate three-year agreement with the Professional Emergency Medical Technicians of Auburn City Ambulance, Local 5379, by the same 4-1 margin.
The contract runs retroactively from July 1, 2026, through June 30, 2029, and includes annual 2% wage increases. Haines estimated the first-year salary impact at slightly more than $40,000.
Ambulance employees already pay 25% of their health insurance premiums. The agreement also revises sick leave provisions in an attempt to reduce overtime costs.
Diego said he supports better compensation for Auburn’s ambulance employees but would have preferred to delay some of the wage increases until the city’s financial position improves.
The council plans to begin more frequent budget reviews, with Haines proposing a budget debrief in August and monthly discussions afterward.
Housing Visions project receives more time
The council unanimously extended the deadlines for Housing Visions Consultants Inc. to acquire and redevelop four city-owned properties at 17-19 Derby Ave., 19-21 Venice St., 41 Lansing St. and 197 State St.
The 197 State St. site is the former Polish Home. Housing Visions plans to combine that property with the three scattered sites and other properties it owns on Fort Street and Westlake Avenue for a rental housing project that would include permanent supportive housing.
The developer has spent about three years attempting to secure financing but has not yet received an award. Housing Visions expects the state to issue another funding request by the end of July, with applications due in September and awards anticipated by April 2027.
Under the revised agreements, Housing Visions intends to close on the properties by March 2028, begin construction immediately and substantially complete the work by September 2029. The contracts establish Dec. 31, 2029, as the formal completion deadline.
The developer will have 90 days after closing to obtain the permits needed to begin work. The council also agreed to remove reversionary clauses that would have automatically returned the properties to the city if the original deadlines were missed.
Haines said Housing Visions already secured Planning Board approval for the State Street project. Cayuga County also obtained a $1 million Restore New York grant to support the redevelopment.
The city will continue owning and maintaining the properties until the sales close. Garland said the council’s action effectively keeps the properties reserved for Housing Visions while it seeks financing.
Watershed fight continues as council considers data center limits
Owasco Lake Watershed Management Council Executive Director Adam Effler told councilors that the state Department of Health is appealing court rulings requiring it to resume work on stronger watershed regulations.
The city, town of Owasco and Owasco Lake Watershed Association sued the state after the Health Department said it lacked authority to regulate agricultural nutrient management and later abandoned the local rulemaking process.
Courts rejected the state’s interpretation and found that its decision was arbitrary and capricious. A judge ordered the department to work with local petitioners on regulations addressing nutrient pollution from agricultural practices, citing New York’s constitutional environmental rights.
The existing Owasco Lake watershed regulations date to 1984. Effler said local officials began seeking an update after harmful algal bloom toxins were detected in the drinking water supply in 2016.
Modeling used in the lake’s nine-element watershed plan estimates that about 90% of the phosphorus load entering Owasco Lake comes from agricultural land. The plan recommends nutrient management on all farms, restrictions on manure and fertilizer application, expanded use of winter cover crops and streambank stabilization.
Effler said nutrient reduction remains the only proven approach for limiting eutrophication and the growth of cyanobacteria in a large lake such as Owasco.
The council’s watershed inspection division highlighted several recent enforcement and cleanup efforts, including erosion controls near wetlands, stabilization work along a protected stream, response to an agricultural fuel spill and the removal of thousands of gallons of abandoned cooking oil stored near the Owasco Inlet.
The watershed organization is also preparing to implement a roughly $500,000 streambank restoration project in Locke and is working to digitize the decades-old map used to determine which waterways and properties are covered by the current regulations.
Effler said all municipalities directly connected to the watershed now contribute financially to the management council. Auburn budgeted $250,000 for the organization, unchanged from the previous year.
Based on the volume of water Auburn sells, Effler said a contribution of about $352,900 would match the per-gallon commitment made by the town of Owasco and its partner municipalities.
The discussion later shifted to data centers following Gov. Kathy Hochul’s temporary statewide moratorium on new projects.
Councilor Christina Calarco asked the city to consider prohibiting data centers in Auburn and barring the wastewater treatment plant from accepting waste generated by data center operations elsewhere.
Municipal Utilities Director Seth Jensen said Auburn’s industrial pretreatment program already requires detailed testing and permits before the treatment plant accepts industrial waste. The city can reject waste that its system cannot safely process.
Jensen said the council could impose a categorical ban similar to Auburn’s prohibition on accepting wastewater associated with hydraulic fracturing. He cautioned, however, that future state research could determine that some data center wastewater is safe to process, potentially creating a revenue source for the city.
Calarco said she has no interest in allowing a data center near Owasco Lake and wants the council to examine three separate restrictions: a prohibition on data centers within Auburn, limits on battery energy storage facilities and a ban on accepting data center wastewater.
Councilors Terrence Cuddy, Rhoda Overstreet-Wilson and Diego expressed support for further action. Giannettino also supported stronger protections, citing concerns that federal permitting changes could weaken public participation and local control.
City staff will review Auburn’s zoning and wastewater codes and return with options for council consideration.
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