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Utica mayor outlines higher mayor’s-office salary line, requests travel and mailer funds
Summary
At a budget workshop, the mayor explained a $300,732 mayor’s-office salary line that reflects the return of a chief of staff, defended travel spending for Albany advocacy and asked council to keep a contracted-services line to fund a planned state-of-the-city mailer.
The mayor told the Utica Common Council that the mayor’s-office salary line of $300,732 is higher than recent years because the office is again budgeting for a chief of staff.
“That salary lines currently at $300,732, that is 85,000 more than the FY ’24 actuals and 62,000 more 63,000 if you round up than the 2023 actuals,” the mayor said. He added: “In my opinion, is a vacancy that had to be filled.”
The mayor said travel spending should remain in the budget for more Albany advocacy after a year in which trips were reduced for local work. “This year is gonna have a lot more advocacy work in Albany,” he said, noting recent Albany trips and NICOM attendance.
On vehicle costs, the mayor said he did not use a municipal vehicle and has been reimbursed for mileage at the rate the council uses. “I’ve just been charging mileage, and my mileage reimbursements have been anywhere from, like, a hundred and $50 for the mileage up to if I’ve done a lot of back and forth to Albany, for example, upwards of maybe 2 80 per month for the mileage,” he said, adding the per‑mile rate used was “65¢ a mile.”
The mayor also described a contracted‑services line he reduced from last year but kept to fund a planned state‑of‑the‑city mailer and occasional small research contracts or actuarial work. “I did want to do a state of the city mailer, which I still plan on doing…you’ll see an RFP go out actually for state of the city mailer, fairly soon through engineering,” he said.
Council members asked for clarifications about how actuals were reported and whether travel and mileage reimbursements had been recorded in the presented figures; the mayor said some recent travel had not yet been reflected in the printed actuals. Council discussion also covered whether mileage reimbursements and related social‑security calculations were being handled consistently in salary/fringe lines.
The mayor closed by offering to meet with council for a more detailed line‑by‑line review of debt service and other elements of the full budget.
Ending: The mayor’s presentation left several line‑item questions unresolved in the session’s printed packet; he said updated reports and a follow‑up council session would be scheduled so members could review details such as debt service and fringe calculations.
