Syracuse city officials defend reorganization and roughly $4.3 million API budget as investment in in-house capacity

Syracuse City officials presented a reorganization of the city’s API (digital services and analytics) functions and defended a roughly $4.3 million budget request as necessary to build in-house capacity and support cross-department technology projects.

The reorganization, administration officials said, aims to better align IT, digital services, API and data analytics to reduce long-term reliance on outside contractors and centralize software licensing costs. Corey Dunham, chief administrative officer, said "the desired direction from the administration is to build that capacity in house and decrease our reliance on outside contractors." He said the administration wants the city to retain institutional knowledge rather than depend on long-term consultants.

City presenters told councilors that the API budget includes two major cost categories: personnel and software. The proposed software line for next year is roughly $2.7 million, up from about $2.1 million the prior year; presenters said that increase is driven in part by Microsoft 365 license consolidation, inflation on software-as-a-service contracts, a set‑aside for a possible payroll/HCM system if the city chooses a different solution, and price increases after two vendor buyouts. Presenters said some of the Microsoft 365 licensing costs were previously double-counted in the IT budget and should be centralized in API’s software line.

Officials said the reorganization itself is intended to be budget neutral and to use existing dollars rather than add new headcount. Presenters also said the administration expects to meaningfully reduce professional-services spending over two to three years as city staff capacity grows; a councilor asked for a timeline and was told the city expects to begin seeing decreases this year with larger reductions over the next two to three years.

Councilors pressed for evidence of cost savings and resident benefits. Jason Thomas, director of analytics and data management, said API’s primary role is adding capacity across departments — helping public works, parks, water and finance coordinate on projects that cross departmental lines. He pointed to the CHIPS program work as an example of cross‑department collaboration: councilors were told that the CHIPS program’s state allocation grew from about $3.5 million annually to roughly $15.9 million, and that the city’s reimbursements in recent years have been in the $8 million to $9 million range. Presenters said API work helped departments document projects and improve reimbursement outcomes, though they did not provide a single consolidated dollar figure for savings attributable to API.

Officials described several ongoing or planned projects that they say illustrate the unit’s value: a Camino rollout to digitize building-permit and business-license applications with a targeted soft launch for residential and commercial building permits in June; the procurement module OpenGov, funded by a Bloomberg procurement-transformation grant for the first three years; a payroll/timekeeping modernization effort that API staff have helped advance after earlier stalls; and a work-order management push for parks and public works. Staff also described efforts to consolidate duplicative software licenses (for example, retiring Lucidchart in favor of Visio through Microsoft 365 to save about $10,500) and to replace a third-party IoT platform with an in-house Azure-based solution that reduced costs by roughly $34,000 a year.

Councilors and staff acknowledged capacity and hiring limits. Presenters reported five current vacancies in API, some open for months; they said sustained understaffing has left team members over capacity and could force a reduction in services if positions are not filled. Presenters described active recruitment strategies that include outreach to local universities and a multi-stage, skills-based hiring process. Council members repeatedly asked where cuts could be made; presenters and the chief administrative officer cautioned that cutting now would reduce output during the reorganization and could undermine the transition to more in-house work.

Fire Department leadership and other department representatives described practical benefits from API assistance. Dan Downs, first deputy chief of the Syracuse Fire Department, said API helped implement data and GIS tools used to map hydrant shoveling and assess traffic-flow changes for response planning. "They always back it up with data," Downs said, praising API’s support for operational and routing efficiencies.

Presenters said an external IT audit by Fox Point is pending; that audit has identified duplicative software across departments and officials said they will follow a deliberate transition process if consolidation is recommended. City staff emphasized that many software licenses are held in API because the systems serve multiple departments; eliminating duplication will require departments to agree to common solutions.

Councilors requested more quantification of savings and clearer timelines for staffing changes and reductions in contractor spending. Presenters said some savings are already evident in discrete actions, such as retiring redundant licenses and rebuilding an IoT system in-house, while others — like improved CHIPS reimbursement rates or benefits from procurement‑tool improvements — are harder to quantify immediately.

The administration asked councilors to weigh near-term budget pressures against the risk of losing in-house skills needed to manage increasing technology complexity across municipal services. Officials said the reorganization and budget request are intended to preserve and grow those skills so the city can manage future digital projects internally and only use contractors for time‑limited, highly specialized work.