Committee advances local law and approves several budget and personnel changes

Chautauqua County’s Administrative Services Committee advanced a local law to formalize a combined management salary and approved several budget and personnel measures, including a grant extension for elections cybersecurity and reallocations among capital accounts.

Local law intro 1-25: County Executive P.J. Wendell told the committee the local law would provide a management salary plan consolidating the HR director and compliance director into one title (range 23: $114,972 to $199,654). Wendell said there would be no immediate budgetary impact and that the county had already been paying a stipend to the HR director for added duties. “The range will be range 23 of a 114,972, to its cap of 199,654,” Wendell stated. Committee members asked about the future option to split the titles again; Wendell said the existing separate titles would remain on the books and could be reestablished through the same local-law process. The committee voted to advance the local law.

Election Cybersecurity Remediation Grant: The committee authorized an extension of an election cybersecurity grant (funding the Board of Elections) that the county has held since 2019. Sam Zafuto, deputy director of finance, said the Board of Elections had a remaining balance that could be used to reimburse a county IT charge incurred by March 31, and that the county’s IT director confirmed an eligible expense. The action was described as reimbursement and grant closeout; specific dollar amounts were not recorded in the transcript.

2024 year-end budget amendments: Finance Director Kitty Crow presented a year-end reconciliation that included multiple interfund and capital-project adjustments. Crow said the net result of several transactions will return approximately $153,000 to the reserve for capital and that certain ARPA-related appropriations (about $3.7 million) are being carried forward because revenue will be recognized when funds are expended in 2025 (invoices must be paid by the end of 2026). The committee approved the budget amendments.

Jamestown Community College capital reallocation (other item): The committee approved a separate resolution to reallocate funds among already-approved JCC critical-maintenance projects (including underground heating and roofing projects). Kathleen Dennison described the underground heating project as finished at approximately $3.5 million with a small final overrun; the reallocation is self-balancing and will close the underground heating project after amendment.

Personnel and salary-grade changes: The committee approved a set of personnel and classification actions: establishing a senior legal secretary title at grade 14 (presented by County Attorney Jason Schmitt); upgrading a resource assistant/crime analyst from grade 12 to grade 17 (Sheriff Jim Cuatro); upgrading the network infrastructure supervisor from grade 23 to grade 26 (John D’Angelo, CIO); and regrading storekeeper positions (presented by Tim Card, Director of Public Facilities). Jason Schmitt said the senior legal secretary title reflects expanded discovery-compliance duties required by recent state law changes.

All of the above measures were approved by voice vote in committee; the transcript does not include roll-call tallies by member name for these items.

The committee adjourned after completing the agenda.