Syracuse City auditor asks council to consider two new staff positions, cites audits that produced $5 million in state aid

Alexander Marion, Syracuse City auditor, asked members of the Common Council to consider adding two positions to the Department of Audit and to revisit pay for existing staff as they consider amendments to the city budget. Marion said the proposed additions would help the office maintain its workload of audits, reports and constituent assistance.

Marion told the council the office submitted a budget request that included two new positions — a project leader and an administrative analyst I — and proposed increasing the deputy city auditor’s salary to $85,000 to be more in line with other deputy department heads. He said the administration declined those staffing and salary requests but that he hoped the council would consider them during budget amendments.

The auditor emphasized the office’s small size and output: he said the Department of Audit operates with “just 4 and a half staff and a budget under $350,000,” and described it as “the smallest stand alone department in the city.” Marion said the office’s reports and audits since July 1 covered housing policy, road construction, pensions, the city budget, state and federal aid, police staffing, bike infrastructure and other topics.

Marion recounted outcomes he attributes to the office’s work, including advocacy that he said helped deliver an “historic $5,000,000 of additional state aid,” contributions to the contractor accountability ordinance the council passed earlier this year, negotiating a better deal on the city’s bike-share contract with Veo, and work that helped secure an earmark for the surge link program to expand affordable high-speed internet for low-income households.

He outlined recent and planned work: two full-length audits this year (a licensing audit and a living-wage audit), an analysis of the proposed mayoral budget that he expected to publish next week, and planned audits or reports on claims processing, property tax assessment, tax-exempt properties, vacant-structure fires, parking lots and vacant land, problematic landlords and code violations, and parks facilities.

Marion described differences between audit types: formal audits follow Generally Accepted Government Auditing Standards with formal engagement steps, while shorter reports can draw conclusions from datasets and be produced more quickly; in all cases the administration is given an opportunity to respond. Marion also said the office performs constituent assistance, connecting residents to departments and outside resources when residents raise issues.

The auditor described several line-item details in his submitted budget: total salaries in his request were listed at about $421,000 versus $269,000 in the administration’s version (the difference reflecting the two requested positions). He also said the professional services line was set at $25,000 in his proposal to allow for outside legal counsel if needed under a recent charter amendment, while the budget department’s projected figure was $1,000.

Marion told the council he was not seeking personal pay increases: “I am not asking for a raise, and I do not want one,” he said, adding that his priority was building departmental capacity so the office can produce more audits and follow-ups. He offered to brief council committees or individual members on specific reports and said members of the public had been responsive to the office’s published work.

No formal vote or council action on the auditor’s requests was recorded during the presentation. Marion said the office would publish the next report — an analysis of the mayor’s proposed budget — after receiving the administration’s response.

Marion closed by offering his office as a resource to council members and city residents and noted the audit office is located on the fourth floor of city hall.