Syracuse staff: SIRRA budget largely reimbursed by City as ARPA posts expire

Good afternoon, council. So, just to give you an overview of the Syracuse Urban Renewal Agency, it was incorporated in 1962 and operates under a 3 member board, the SIRRA Board. This is- consists of the elected mayor of the City Of Syracuse, the president of the Common Council, and the commissioner of finance of the City Of Syracuse. SIRRA is a public benefit corporation that receives local capital grants for the redevelopment of land in the City Of Syracuse, New York. SIRRA is a blended component unit of the City Of Syracuse, the City and is accounted for as a special revenue governmental fund.

A city staff member presenting the Syracuse Urban Renewal Agency (SIRRA) budget told the Common Council that SIRRA will be run as a "zero fund operation" in 2026, meaning most SIRRA costs are reimbursed by the City or other government partners. "It's a really 0 fund operation. Everything that SIRRA incurs is being reimbursed by the city," the staff member said during the presentation.

Why it matters: SIRRA payroll and program costs are embedded in City budget lines rather than standing alone, and the coming expiration of temporary grants such as ARPA is driving planned eliminations and reassignments of positions. Council members pressed staff for clearer, reconciled figures and a list of which roles were funded by temporary sources versus ongoing City or grant funds.

The presenter said SIRRA's 2026 projections show just under $8.7 million in total revenues, nearly all reimbursements, and roughly $8.6 million in expenses, producing no net change in fund balance per the agency schedule. The revenue sources the presenter listed included approximately $6.7 million reimbursed from the City's general fund, $36,000 from the Water Fund, $17,000 from the Sewer Fund, about $1.1 million from City grants (identified in the presentation as Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grants (ESG), and HOME), and $782,000 expected from SIDA and SEDCO reimbursements. The presenter also noted a line in the New York Assistance Fund related to 109 Washington Street (a parking-lot real estate item) that had an intent-to-purchase on file but that the sale timing remained uncertain.

Staff also explained how SIRRA staffing is presented differently from most City lines. The presenter said SIRRA positions were intended to provide flexibility for roles not covered by civil-service classifications (for example, neighborhood planners and economic development specialists). "I wouldn't say that it's a way around civil service; what I would say is it compliments the workforce with positions that can do work that exists outside of civil service," the staff member said.

Key personnel and payroll figures reviewed during the meeting: - Fiscal year 2025 headcount: 113 positions (89 full-time, 24 part-time). - FY26 changes shown on the SIRRA schedule: elimination of 14 positions (11 full-time, 3 part-time) and creation of 8 positions (7 full-time, 1 part-time), for a net headcount reduction of 6. - Vacancies noted for FY26: 16 total vacancies (the presenter said most were part-time police cadets and that seven vacancies were full-time). - FY25 salaries listed about $6,240,000; FY26 base salaries projected about $6,100,000. The presenter gave a fully loaded personnel cost (including benefits and employer retirement contributions) of about $8,692,000 for FY26 and explained that differences between lines in the City budget and the SIRRA supplemental schedule reflected whether fringe/benefits were shown in the 541700 contracted-services line or embedded in the SIRRA personnel lines.

Council members asked for more transparency and reconciliation between the City budget book and the SIRRA supplemental schedule. A councilor asked for a list showing which positions were previously ARPA-funded and how those positions are now proposed to be funded; the staff presenter said they could provide last year's breakdown and would try to assemble historical funding sources but flagged difficulties pulling older, detailed funding mappings from the legacy accounting system (AS/400).

Questions and clarifications from Council and staff included: - Whether any SIRRA jobs are civil service positions: the presenter said there are few or no civil-service positions now on the SIRRA payroll and that some roles previously on SIRRA were moved back to the general fund when appropriate. - How fringe and retirement costs are recorded: staff said City employees' employer retirement and health insurance costs typically sit in a lump-sum special-objects line in the City budget, whereas the SIRRA supplemental schedule currently embeds fringe for SIRRA positions in the personnel totals. The presenter noted SIRRA receives separate ERS (Employee Retirement System) billing and that the employer portion is reimbursed by the City. - That some positions shown as eliminated had been vacant in 2025 or had incumbents who were promoted, which affected the schedule.

No formal legislative actions on SIRRA budget changes were taken during the discussion; councilors instead asked staff to provide reconciled schedules and the requested position-by-position funding list so the Council could review sustainability as ARPA and other temporary funding ends.

The discussion closed with staff saying they would continue reconciling the supplemental SIRRA schedule so it matches the City budget book and provide the requested historical detail where feasible.

Ending: The meeting moved to adjournment following the SIRRA presentation.