Syracuse council approves reorganization, names Cassie Brown administrative services director and Steve Marshall treasurer

The Syracuse City Council on Jan. 1, 2025, approved a proposed administrative reorganization that moves Administrative Services, Parks and Recreation and Public Works under the authority of the city's recently authorized assistant city manager, merges the court and records functions into Administrative Services, and cleared related appointments and a wage-scale adjustment.

City leaders said the changes are intended to strengthen treasury and performance management, consolidate front-counter services, and free managerial bandwidth for legislative and performance oversight. City staff told the council the reorganization would produce about $231,000 in annual savings through the consolidation and the new director's lower starting salary, and that the city would use some of that capacity to add 1.5 full-time equivalents: converting one part-time finance position to full time and adding a grant specialist.

The reorganization was presented during the council's biannual deep dive of Administration. The city manager described the plan as aligning administratively similar, customer-facing divisions under one supervisor and said a dedicated grant specialist would help the city pursue external funding and reduce pressure on the general fund.

Council members voted unanimously to approve the reorganization and the staffing and pay changes on motions recorded at the meeting. Specific actions the council approved included: - Resolution R25-02: appointment of Cassie Brown as Administrative Services Director. The council approved the resolution unanimously. - Resolution R25-03: appointment of Steve Marshall as Syracuse City treasurer. The council approved the resolution unanimously. - Resolution R25-04: approval of the changes to the city's organizational structure, as proposed. The council approved the resolution unanimously. - Resolution R25-05: amendment to the FY2024—25 wage scale to convert a part-time finance position to a full-time finance manager classification and to incorporate comparable benchmark data; the resolution passed unanimously.

City staff described details for the new structure: the assistant city manager would take responsibility for human resources, finance (including a proposed full-time grant specialist), and oversight of the three departments now proposed to report to that office. Court and records functions would move into Administrative Services to consolidate front-desk and records management tasks under one supervisor. Staff said the grant specialist could be hired as a contractor or full-time employee; even under the full-time option the net annual savings were projected to remain roughly $48,000 after the new positions were funded.

During discussion, staff and the mayor emphasized the reorganization's goal of improving internal controls, spot auditing, and construction management oversight, functions they said had been stretching the city manager's bandwidth. The council recorded no opposed votes and no roll-call tallies were read into the record; each resolution passed by unanimous voice vote.

The council also approved routine business including the reappointment of disaster preparedness committee members (Resolution R25-01). The city manager and finance staff said any savings realized by the reorganization would return to the general fund and be available during the upcoming budget process.

Next steps include implementing the reporting changes if the appointments are formally executed and pursuing the staffing conversions and grant specialist hiring as directed by the management team. The council did not set an immediate timetable for when new hires would begin; staff said those details would be addressed during the budget and hiring processes.