Syracuse City budget director outlines OMB priorities and procurement steps, flags equity staffing gap

Evan Loving, Syracuse City budget director, presented the Office of Management & Budget’s (OMB) office budget and priorities at the council hearing, saying the office will pursue a year‑long budget process, revise the city’s capital improvement plan and strengthen revenue forecasting.

“We start on page 73,” Loving said as he introduced the OMB team and the office’s largely flat year‑over‑year budget. He told councilors one employee previously funded on SURA was being moved back onto the city’s general fund because, he said, “people are not on SURA and there should be a rationale for someone to be on SURA. In this case, I didn't feel like there was and so it seemed like a reason to move them back.”

The budget presentation emphasized process changes rather than large new spending. Loving said he has discussed with the mayor the idea of beginning a year‑long budget process in July to give departments, the mayor’s office and the council more time to align priorities. He also said staff will take “a fresh look” at the capital improvement plan so it is multi‑year and integrate it more closely with the annual budget, and will work on improving revenue forecasting.

On procurement, Loving said the office is finalizing guidance on waivers, RFPs and bids and is using remaining Bloomberg grant funds tied to procurement transformation. When asked which grant he meant, Loving said it is “a Bloomberg procurement transformation grant” and later estimated roughly $400,000 remains in the grant. He said city staff are considering whether to use some of those remaining funds to cover an additional year of OpenGov, which he said has an annual cost of about $85,000, while planning for how to transition recurring costs to the general fund.

Loving also acknowledged the city is still developing a framework to measure procurement success. He pointed to an example in which expanding the vendor pool drove per‑vendor pricing down in one procurement and said tracking outcomes requires accounting for factors such as inflation and differences in procurement scopes over time.

Charelle Pace, assistant director for equity, compliance and social impact, described efforts to increase minority‑ and women‑owned business enterprise (MWBE) participation. Pace said visibility and subcontracting have increased but noted several barriers that prevent firms from bidding as prime contractors, including access to capital, insurance requirements and limited experience responding to city RFPs. “There’s a lot of education that has to go into how to do business with the city,” she said, and staff are pursuing education, proactive outreach and opportunities to unbundle large contracts so smaller firms can compete.

Loving said the OMB is also reviewing the intergovernmental agreement (IMA) with the county and alignment with school‑district procurement because those relationships affect how the city runs procurements. He reiterated an equity compliance vacancy in the division and said the administration is refining the definition and responsibilities of a proposed social impact analyst while pursuing cross‑training and succession planning to avoid single points of failure.

Councilors voiced questions about specific line items, contracted services previously paid from SURA, and how city staff will quantify procurement outcomes; Loving responded with item‑level explanations and said the office will work on clearer measures. The hearing closed after councilors thanked staff; the council was scheduled to continue hearings the next morning with the auditor.

The hearing did not record any formal votes or motions adopting policy; comments and follow‑up were limited to the staff presentation and council questions.