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Batavia council declines request to spend an estimated $4,000 for auditors after inquiry about budget-meeting food
Summary
At a March 9 special conference meeting, City Attorney George Van Nest told the Batavia City Council it lacks authority to direct city employees after Councilmember Lord asked who paid for food at budget meetings; council members did not agree to spend an estimated $4,000 for auditors to investigate.
Batavia’s City Council discussed a request by Councilmember Anthony Lord on March 9 for more information about who paid for food served at recent budget meetings, but members did not agree to an estimated $4,000 expenditure to hire auditors to investigate.
City Attorney George Van Nest, citing training from the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM), told the council that “City Council did not have any power to direct city employees,” and he reviewed the City Charter and council rules adopted at the Jan. 12, 2026 organizational meeting. Van Nest framed the issue as a governance matter about roles and process rather than a matter the council could instruct staff to resolve on an individual member’s direction.
The exchange began when Councilmember Lord asked who paid for food at budget meetings and where that information could be found. Lord said he had an MBA in finance when Councilmember Geib asked what qualified him to review the records. Councilmember Viele questioned the priority of the request, saying, “if they were really worried about food, there were more important things to handle,” and called the inquiry “a complete waste of time.”
Council President Jankowski characterized Lord’s request as “very extensive” and noted that travel and training for the whole city account for about 0.3% of the budget. Jankowski asked whether anyone wanted to spend an estimated $4,000 for auditors to review the questions Lord raised; no member volunteered to authorize that expense. He told Lord he was welcome to attend the audit committee meeting to pursue the matter in more detail.
No formal motion to hire outside auditors or any vote was recorded in the meeting minutes. The special conference adjourned at 7:15 p.m., and the minutes were submitted by Clerk-Treasurer Heidi J Parker.
The discussion centered on the limits of council authority and on whether to pursue an independent review of relatively small expenditures; the council’s decision at the meeting was to take no immediate spending action.
