Paul Szmal: She came in rocking her sunglasses this morning. Geneva City Manager Amy Hendricks is here. Morning, how are you?
Guest: I'm doing well, good morning.
Paul Szmal: It's nice to actually be able to have to wear sunglasses for a change, isn't it?
Guest: It is, it feels like summer's starting.
Paul Szmal: Yeah, and we'll get to some of the summer events that are happening around Geneva in a minute, but I wanted to start off the conversation this morning by getting an update on where we stand with the city budget.
Guest: Yeah, so the city budget process kicks off in early spring, talking about what type of forecasting we can do, and then the city manager's budget's presented in September. Right now, council is looking at some priorities to help the staff develop what that budget looks like. So they'll be meeting tonight at 7 p.m. They have an executive session starting at 6, but at 7 they'll be talking about what those priorities are, acknowledging that the costs of services and goods have gone up, and the major way that a city budget goes up in revenue is often taxes. So beyond that, what other revenues can we look at, or are there reductions that we need to do to continue to operate the city?
Paul Szmal: So, fair to say that we're relatively early in the process?
Guest: Very, very early. We're just in initial projections, so when we talk about gaps or things like that for next year, those are all projections. As we get closer to September, those numbers will tighten up and we'll have more information. We only have first quarter results of the current year, which is positive. We are above budget, which means we have more funding coming in than we expected in that first quarter, but it's the first quarter. It's hard to tell. So we're really early still.
Paul Szmal: And how much of a hold-up is there with the state budget?
Guest: Yeah, so that's the hard part of these projections. So there's certain state aid funding streams that we're projecting in the budget. The comptroller and I took a more conservative approach through some of the discussions with council. We're going to be a little less conservative and make some assumptions about what is in the state budget or what we've seen in different drafts and hope that that comes to fruition. But without that being signed, we don't know yet. So that's another piece to all of this. Once that piece falls into place, it becomes a little bit clearer.
Paul Szmal: Correct. Yeah, it becomes a little clearer. I think the challenge still is, what is it going to look like to operate a city next year? So, you know, the costs of everything from homeowners understand this as you go to the grocery store and you buy certain groceries or you fill up your gas tank. Prices have been fluctuating quite a bit, and we use all of those goods as well.
Guest: Yeah, and because this is an ongoing negotiation process in Albany, like you said, you're basing things off of, okay, this is what we got last year. There's no guarantee that's actually going to be there this time around.
Paul Szmal: Correct. And same with the federal government and some of the grants and funding cycles, they shift all the time. And so it's a lot of crystal ball, tea leaf reading, and a lot of strong assumptions based on what we've seen in the past. So we're talking with Geneva City Manager Amy Hendricks here on FLX Morning. So that's the budget process, which is ongoing. Let's talk about some of the summer events that are going to be happening here in the city of Geneva because, well, the weather's nice enough, we can actually talk about being outside.
Guest: Yeah, so last week actually kicked off the farmer's market, so the weekly market is back down at the lakefront. The lakefront is still having some repair work. We've had some significant flooding events. The lake level had gone down and then it rained all weekend, so we're back up. So we're still repairing down there, but it's one of our most beautiful assets, so we're going to continue to work on that. As far as summer events, one of the things missing at the lakefront right now is our pavilion. So that pavilion that had been there, Gazebo, had come down. It had significant wear and tear, and Geneva Community Projects and the city partnered, and there will soon be a new structure there. It's planned for some time in the coming month, and the concert series kicks off in July in that new pavilion. Also, we'll be doing some activations in the parks in another partnership with Geneva Community Projects as well as the Geneva Parks Collective, so getting the parks more activated, getting people back in our parks. And then things like the turf is in the rink complex, so summer rec will be kicking off. There's soccer there now. Lots going on in the city. Our Geneva calendar is quite full. You will see an event throughout the city pretty much every weekend. There is something going on.
Paul Szmal: Now, something like the repair that you had to do on the lakefront, the actual ground repair, is there like a fund that is set aside for that, or does it become a okay, we got to play the shell game now, we got to start moving money around to be able to do this?
Guest: Yes, and so it's a little bit of all of that. So there's some repair funds because we know things are going to happen. There's a lot going on in the city, so there's some repair funds. Some of that also comes in if there is state funding, federal funding, if it's a natural disaster, can we work with FEMA and other partners? We're working closely with the county. They'll be in next week looking at some of the damages. One of the challenges has been with the high lake levels, we can't even assess all of the damages because we can't get into the lake. We were able to get the boat launch open this weekend, so they were able to go in on the trout derby. That was questionable, but there's some major repairs there. There's also some, they're tunnels, but they're underground tunnels that bring the water down to the lake, and we work with New York State on some of that. So we have a lot of partnerships there as far as the funding. We'll look at what it looks like and then start making some party hard decisions about what amenities continue, are there changes in amenities, how do we handle all of these things with such a beautiful resource there?
Paul Szmal: I'm glad to hear the gazebo is going back up, but is that a tight deadline to get that done in time for the summer concert series?
Guest: It is a little tight. It's going to look a little different too. We really looked at one, why it went into disrepair, and so what on the structure, knowing where we are on the lakefront. We know how to build there. There's certain things that people would love to have, and I get questions about, you know, why aren't there certain amenities there? But I think with some of the damages, you see what the south wind does to the north end of the lake, and so we've done some of that work, and also we use that gazebo more for concerts, and so there's some electrical upgrades that have been done, so those concerts really can push that, but then people can also picnic under it, so mixed use. So the bad thing was the structure had to come down. The good thing was, okay, well, we've got to build a new structure. Now we can incorporate some of these improvements that we've been eyeing that may have been prohibitively expensive to do repairing an old structure.
Paul Szmal: Correct, and I can't say enough about Geneva Community Projects jumping in and working with us. They worked on the old structure and the new structure, and they're going to do some additional amenities and some groundwork there for us.
Guest: Yeah, well, you can check out the new structure once the Geneva summer concert series starts. That's going to be getting going here pretty soon.
Paul Szmal: There was one item of news that came out, which is that you were actually leaving your position on July the 8th and going to Maine. That's true, that's true.
Guest: Yes, so opportunity came up, and you know, you often hear people say I wasn't looking, and I can fully say I was not looking for this, but I had a colleague reach out, and it was the right time. My partner works for Bruno Bach, and so they're going through some significant downsizing, and it just seemed to all work out together. And so while I'll always be cheering on Geneva, it's time for me to move on and someone else to step into this role and take us forward.
Paul Szmal: Now what happens, the deputy city manager takes over in the interim until a new one is named?
Guest: So the city council is discussing that plan. That's why we're set up with that assistant city manager, so he or she could step in that role, and that's something that I think is important for succession planning. This time I'm providing notice, and I'll always be there to help support as needed, but there could be something more abrupt, and so having that succession plan, but ultimately it's up to council. And so they are right now weighing their different options, and there will be more coming from them. I know they're going to discuss some tonight. I don't know how much will be in public conversation tonight, but they definitely are looking at all their options and thinking about what it looks like moving forward.
Paul Szmal: So we have a city council meeting tonight?
Guest: We do, we do have a special city council meeting tonight starting at six with executive session and seven at public session.
Paul Szmal: All right, that's downtown at city hall if you want to check it out, and those are archived on YouTube, right?
Guest: Correct, correct, and the traditional council meeting will be next week, so if there's not a decision tonight there's two meetings in June as well, so they are busy at council.
Paul Szmal: All right, well I'm sure we'll talk again before you head off to the great northern reach of New England, the land of lobster as I like to call it, but I'll take this moment to say thank you for being here and joining us every month, and wish you the best of success in the new venture.
Guest: All right, thank you Paul.
