Geneva has canceled its Oct. 19 City Council budget workshop, with the next session set for Monday, Oct. 26, at 6 p.m. The change follows Tuesday night’s department reviews, which left requests for a grants position, downtown maintenance funding and recreation facility repairs unresolved.
The proposed $33.97 million budget covers the general, water and sewer funds and calls for a 3% property tax levy increase. Council made no budget changes Tuesday. Mayor Jim Cecere had asked members to submit detailed amendments ahead of the Oct. 19 meeting, with the goal of debating and potentially adopting the plan that evening. City Clerk Nicole Tillotson announced the cancellation in an Oct. 14 notice and said the agenda for the Oct. 26 workshop would be sent out the following week.
“If you want to, for example, move the levy to 2% or 1% or 0%, how are you going to get us there?” Cecere said. “So give us that path.”
Tuesday’s workshop covered city administration, planning and economic development, recreation and the Geneva Business Improvement District. Acting City Manager Taylor Youngs said council has now reviewed every department.
The session followed reviews in which public works officials warned that staffing cuts would reduce services and the fire department outlined a plan that preserves current coverage while deferring additional staff and equipment. Tuesday brought similar questions about how much the city can postpone while keeping services reliable.
Grants position could wait until next year
A citywide grants position has drawn interest throughout the departmental workshops, but Youngs recommended giving the city more time to determine how to pay for it.
The proposed role would handle applications, grant administration and reporting across departments, potentially with an emphasis on public works infrastructure. Youngs said finding someone with technical infrastructure experience could free the city’s existing grants coordinator to do more work elsewhere.
The $75,000 estimate discussed for the position includes salary and benefits for part of a year, assuming the employee would not start Jan. 1. A full year would cost approximately $80,000 to $85,000, Youngs said.
She told council Geneva received $17.1 million in grant awards between December 2025 and September 2026, well above its usual target of $3 million to $5 million. The city also has more than $10 million in active grants from earlier years and is awaiting decisions on just over $4 million in applications.
Winning the money is only part of the work, she said.
“The grant writer can apply to tens of millions of dollars of grants,” Youngs said. “But if we don’t have the capacity to administer those grants once we get them, that’s not going to be helpful to us.”
Cecere asked whether the decision should wait until Geneva selects its next permanent city manager. Youngs said staff believe the position would help regardless of the city’s management structure, but suggested revisiting funding after the first quarter of 2027, when possible retirements and staffing changes should be clearer.
Staff could prepare a job description in the meantime and bring a budget amendment forward next year. Council did not approve the position Tuesday.
Downtown maintenance request remains partly unfunded
BID Executive Director Sydney Schumacher sought approximately $188,600 in city support, compared with $137,600 in Youngs’ recommended budget.
The full request includes $153,600 for labor and supplies, $20,000 for a utility vehicle and $15,000 for economic development work.
Schumacher said the operating money is needed to keep two maintenance employees working full time throughout the year, add two seasonal workers during the busiest months and retain part-time expertise.
Staff turnover left office employees planting, weeding and watering flowers this summer while also trying to run the organization, she said.
“I can’t do that again,” Schumacher told council.
The BID’s work includes landscaping, downtown trash collection and snow removal at crosswalks and curb cuts. Schumacher said responsibilities have expanded without enough funding to maintain staffing, equipment and supplies.
She presented a rough comparison developed with Public Works Director Joe Venuti estimating that having DPW perform the work with the staffing she proposed would cost approximately $531,000. Differences in wages, benefits and overtime account for much of the gap, she said.
Several councilors supported her work but questioned whether too much routine city maintenance has fallen to the BID.
Councilor John Brennan said he wants some duties returned to DPW over the next few years so the BID can concentrate more on promoting downtown businesses. Councilor Christopher Lavin also urged a review of the organization’s responsibilities and funding.
Schumacher defended beautification as part of downtown economic development and said the BID had received another $32,000 grant, half of which would be distributed for facade improvements.
Cecere said he was comfortable with the recommended budget but remained open to finding other funding for items such as the utility vehicle. He identified short-term rental occupancy tax revenue as one possible source and said a downtown committee’s forthcoming recommendations should help guide the BID’s future.
No additional funding or change in maintenance responsibilities was approved.
Rink repairs raise longer-term questions
Recreation discussions focused on the cost of maintaining the ice rink and McDonough Park, and whether Geneva needs a different approach to financing them.
Staff estimated the rink would cost just over $350,000 to operate in 2027. Hobart and William Smith Colleges typically account for about two-thirds of ice-time revenue, Youngs said.
A $105,000 refrigeration budget line includes $30,000 for boiler room improvements and $50,000 toward replacement flooring in the high school locker room. Community Vitality Coordinator Liz Toner said the flooring work would still face an approximately $25,000 shortfall.
The rest covers ongoing maintenance of an aging system whose replacement parts are increasingly difficult to find.
Councilor Steve Grimaldi urged the city to plan for replacing the refrigeration equipment. Youngs said potential grant-matching funds appear among the capital requests that were not funded.
Lavin pressed staff for a fuller accounting of recreation costs, including employee time and long-term capital needs. Comptroller Adam Blowers said the city tries to allocate staff time, utilities and insurance to the facilities, but cannot do so with complete precision. He also said past spending figures were higher in years with capital improvements.
Cecere supported the recreation proposal as presented while calling for a broader review next year of the rink, ballpark and neighborhood parks.
Youngs said a three-party agreement involving the city, Geneva Baseball and HWS is being circulated for review. The agreement would clarify responsibilities at McDonough Park before further improvement discussions proceed.
Staff also explained that some apparent recreation spending increases reflect bookkeeping changes. General maintenance expenses previously spread across three budgets have been combined into one line.
Council turns to amendments
At Tuesday’s workshop, Cecere asked councilors to send proposed changes within the next two days so they could be compiled and circulated before the then-planned Oct. 19 meeting. Lavin has already submitted ideas, and Cecere said he plans to offer amendments of his own.
The mayor wants each proposal to spell out its financial effect, including which spending would be removed or which revenue would replace it.
Youngs clarified Tuesday that the Oct. 20 meeting is an operations meeting. The city’s budget adoption deadline is Oct. 31.
Youngs’ recommended budget remains before council. The clerk’s notice did not announce an adoption vote for Oct. 26.
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