city council

The Batavia City Council will have a full agenda when it meets at 7 p.m., Monday, at City Hall.

• The council will be asked to act on awarding a contract for removal of liquid lime sludge from the water treatment facility to A.D. Call and Sons.
• Up for review are a number of requirements related to receiving Community Development Block Grants for neighborhood improvement efforts.
• A request to seek qualified consultants to help with the city's strategic planning.
• Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian has asked for a discussion about proposing legislation regarding the residential location of sex offenders.
• Councilman Sam Barone has asked for a discussion on compliance letters for code violations and local representation of out-of-state landlords.
• The public items on the agenda are then followed by a closed session for a personnel matter and union negotiations.

Charles H. Wroten, the Level 3 sex offender who lives at 214 S. Swan St., upper, was originally classified as a Level 2 offender at the time of his scheduled release from state prison for raping a 15-year-old girl.

But after the order was signed, prosecutors in the case learned that his prior conviction for burglary in South Carolina was a little more than breaking into the house.

According to court documents (PDF):

[Defendant] did enter into the residence of [the victim] with intent to commit a crime, in that he did enter into the bedroom of a 12 yr old female and did feel her body and did make an effort to get this 12 yr old girl to have sex with him.

Entrance into this residence was at 4:30 AM in the night time.

Wroten appealed the re-evaluation. The document linked above is from the appeals court that heard his case and ruled against him.

The risk level of sex offenders in New York is determined by a worksheet that assigns points for various factors to gauge the likelihood of a person repeating an offense. Wroten's points initially put him at the high end of a Level 2 sex offender, but when prosecutors found out the violent nature of his burglary conviction in South Carolina, it added 15 points to his evaluation, so they sought to have him immediately reclassified as Level 3.

Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian raised the issue of Wroten's residence at the Batavia City Council meeting last night, saying she had received numerous inquiries from citizens wondering what could be done about it.

At her request, an informational meeting has been scheduled for 7 p.m., March 16, with Police Chief Randy Baker and Det. Rich Schauf at the Batavia Police Station.

It's now official -- city property owners can expect a 1.5-percent rate increase in property taxes.

On a 7-2 vote last night, the Batavia City Council approved the 2010/11 budget, which comes in at $21.7 million in expenditures.

The no votes came from Councilman Sam Barone and Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian.

"If this budget passes, the only thing we will be doing is squeezing and choking off the middle class," Christian said.

Christian's areas of concern, she said during the meeting, were legal fees, community celebrations, a drop in sales tax last month, the high cost of youth services and she called $527,000 for parks "outrageous." She also objected to the transfer of water funds to the general fund and said the contingency fund is much too low, especially since it's likely that police officers will win an arbitration case granting them retroactive pay raises.

Christian also complained that constituents in the Sixth Ward have reported high reassessments, from $7,000 to $11,000 more, for their homes.

"This is really going to hurt these people," Christian said.

During the public comments section of the meeting, before the budget vote, city resident Daniel Del Plato spoke vehemently against the proposed budget, saying city taxpayers couldn't handle any further tax increases.

"You're trying to get blood from stones," Del Plato said.

She also objected to a pay raise for non-union employees, which did pass in a separate motion on a 5-4 vote. Voting no were Christian, Barone and council members Bill Cox and Bob Bialkowski.

The council also approved plans to raise water rates and seek bonds to fund the start of a five-year or longer process of water infrastructure upgrades. Barone voted no on both resolutions.

A proposal to consolidate Batavia's city and town governments is moving forward again.

It appeared that the consolidation effort stalled in August when, on a motion by Councilman Sam Barone, the city council voted 5-4 to table a resolution calling for a public hearing on the process.

Last night, again on a 5-4 vote, the council passed a resolution to apply for a grant to fund creation of a new city charter for a consolidated government and to sign an agreement with the town to appoint a consolidation task force.

The council members who opposed moving forward with the task force and charter process -- Bill Cox, Sam Barone, Rose Mary Christian and Bob Bialkowski -- said they didn't want to see any further effort wasted on talk of consolidation without a clear understanding that people in both jurisdictions wanted bring the city and town together.

Bialkowski asked if a referendum could be held, but City Manager Jason Molino said there were no provisions in state law to allow for a referendum vote without first writing a charter, so Cox asked if maybe the three local media outlets could conduct a survey.

Speaking in favor of moving forward, Councilwoman Kathy Briggs said, "We’ve got to have the facts. We’ve got to have the pros and cons. There are a lot of people who are undecided because they don’t have the facts.”

Councilman Frank Ferrando said he didn't think the public had enough information to make an informed decision just yet about consolidation. He said he didn't have enough information to make up his own mind. He isn't sure it really will save money, but if there is a chance it will, it needs to be studied further, he said.

"We’ve got to start looking into ways to save the taxpayer money," Ferrando said. "We’re not going to do it staying the way we are. We’re just going to keep spinning wheels and we’re going to be breaking people. We’re going to be taking them down further and further and further. I think this deserves study, clear understanding, before we put it to our citizenry to a vote."

Barone disagreed, saying, "I think the information (in previous public meetings) was very well presented."

Cox and Bialkowski said they had doubts about whether consolidation would really lead to much cost savings, noting the previous 12-month study found only $78,000 in potential cost savings.

After the meeting, Molino told reporters that, actually, the study found a potential of $245,000 in savings. Plus, an extra $820,000 in state aid would be available to a consolidated municipality.

The available state grants would provide the task force/charter review committee with $49,500, most of which would cover legal fees associated with writing a new charter. The city and town would each need to contribute $2,500 to the process.

Bialkowski said he was concerned that pursuing consolidation further would be like pouring more taxpayer money down the same hole and at the end of two years, nothing would be accomplished.

The proposed commission would be comprised of four city residents and four town residents, who could not be elected officials, government officials nor their spouses. The appointees would be selected by a joint city-town committee consisting of the council president, the town supervisor and two council members from each body.

Council President Marianne Clattenburg spoke in favor of consolidation saying that it's an obvious waste of resources to have two government bodies providing identical services.

“You talk about shared services, but what’s the ultimate shared service but consolidation, so you don’t have one government entity over here and then five miles away they have a whole other government," Clattenburg said. "The idea is to put them together to save money. It’s not talking about what’s the state going to give us next year.

"It’s about what’s going to happen five, 10, 20 years from now. As the town grows, their administrative costs are going to go up. If they expand, and we hope they do, because it’s good for everybody, then those costs are going to start to get to be as big as ours."

The much-disputed sale of a tax-foreclosed property at 9 Willow St., Batavia, reached a resolution tonight as the city council approved the sale of the house to Stafford resident Tom Englerth.

He was the second-highest bidder for the property -- contrary to a previously published report by the Batavia Daily News that Habitat for Humanity placed the second-highest bid -- with a bid of $20,500, which was $500 less than the highest bid by Michael Pullinzi.

Pullinzi's bid was rejected by the council two weeks ago for apparently having been cited too many times for code violations. (Pullinzi has noted that his violations are not nearly as numerous as some local landlords and that some of the alleged violations were actually on neighboring properties.)

The contentious decision carried over to tonight's meeting as Councilman Bob Bialkowski asked the council not sell the property to Englerth, but instead re-auction the property at an upcoming county auction.

Bialkowski's motion failed 2-7 with only Councilman Sam Barone backing the motion.

“It’s unfortunate that nobody asked the high bidder what his intention for the home was," Bialkowski said, noting that Pullinzi has previously gutted and remodeled homes on North Lyon and in Le Roy and is current converting a two-family apartment building into a single-family residence on Fisher Park.

Council President Marianne Clattenburg expressed concern that since Englerth had probably been notified of the council's pending vote, to switch directions at the last minute might expose taxpayers to a costly lawsuit.

Councilwoman Kathy Briggs also showed some exasperation with Bialkowski's motion.

"We didn’t accept the first one, now the proper procedure is, we go to the next bidder," Briggs said. "End of discussion."

Councilman Frank Ferrando spoke at length for the council to come up with a better policy for dealing with the sale of tax-deliquent properties.

“I don’t know what alternatives we have, but there have to be better alternatives relative to the vision we have to make our neighborhoods better," Ferrando said.

Ferrando didn't expect an answer tonight from City Manager Jason Molino, but he asked him what the city was doing to hold tenants more accountable, echoing a theme of a recent story on The Batavian.

After Bialkowski's motion failed, the council voted unanimously to sell the property to Englerth.

Pictured, Bialkowski, top, and Briggs.

There is at least some interest among Batavia City Council members in setting up a committee structure similar to what the County Legislature uses.

When voters approved a revised City Charter in November, they granted the council the ability to reorganize the way it does business by going to a committee system.

City Council President Marianne Clattenburg said that the first priority for the new year was getting a budget passed, and with that vote scheduled for Monday, the council can turn its attention to strategic planning, which includes reviewing committee structure and options and deciding what would be best for the city.

"This is something for council to decide -- whether we want to have standing committees or set up temporary ad hoc committees -- as part of our strategic planning process," Clattenburg said. "I haven't really looked at it that closely yet. I’m going to let the council debate that as a group and go with the majority opinion."

At the County Legislature, the legislature has divided itself into three standing committees -- Public Safety, Human Services and Ways and Means. Resolutions are drafted by staff, brought to the committee and reviewed by the elected officials on the committee. Resolutions that involve an expenditure often go through two committees, with one of them being Ways and Means. By the time a resolution reaches the entire legislature, all members have reviewed it in one or more committees. When the legislature meets as a body, the resolutions are usually passed with very little discussion.

That is not a process that received universal support from council members.

Fifth Ward Councilwoman Kathy Briggs said she supports the idea of standing committees, but doesn't believe that issues shouldn't also be discussed when the full council meets.

"I would like to have a committee do research, come up with recommendations and go from there and we have a healthy discussion (at council level)," Briggs said. "I would never want to have a situation where it’s 'here’s the recommendation and here you go.' I don’t think that would go over well."

But operating more like the County Legislature is exactly what the council should do, according to Fourth Ward Councilman Bob Bialkowski.

"I honestly feel we can streamline the way we’re doing our business," Bialkowski said.

At-Large Councilman Frank Ferrando said he's interested in the committee system and believes a majority of his colleagues are intrigued by the idea, but he wants to know more about how Batavia might move forward with a reorganization.

"I think committees, in my personal opinion, are committees working on specific assignments, whether ad hoc or permanently, and they can work more efficiently and effectively to help the council in a way that will make the council better and better able to react to situations," Ferrando said.

In the Third Ward, Councilman Sam Barone isn't sure about committees. He said he hasn't decided one way or the other whether he will support a committee system.

Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian, representing the Sixth Ward, said she needs to know more about how a committee system would work before deciding whether to support it.

Council members Bill Cox, Tim Buckley and Patti Pacino could not be reached for comment.

A number of local landlords are deeply concerned over the Batavia City Council's decision a week ago to deny Michael Pullinzi the chance to buy a piece of property he won at city auction.

The 5-4 vote punctuates a growing frustration with the code-inspection process, which they say puts an unfair burden on the landlords without holding tenants accountable.

Jeremy Yasses (pictured), an Oakfield resident who owns eight properties in the city, as well as several other tenant-occupied buildings outside of Batavia, describes himself as a budding entrepreneur who is trying to build a real estate business.

The 13 citations mentioned by the council against Pullinzi as the reason for denying him the chance to purchase 9 Willow St., is piddling compared to other landlords, according to Yasses. Other landlords, both on and off the record, say much the same thing.

Yasses, for his part, readily admits to getting between 40 and 50 citations a year from city inspectors.

Almost all of them, if not all of them, are for things tenants have done.

And that's the problem, according to Yasses. Tenants are not held accountable, so there's no motivation for them to change. If a tenant puts his garbage out on Wednesday, Yasses gets a notice, so he goes and picks it up on Thursday to correct the violation. Then the same thing happens the next week, and the next.

"Did we get to the root of the problem?" Yasses asks.

"I own the property. I’m held accountable," said Yasses. "I’m not passing the buck, but have the tenant standing right there next to me (in court). That’s how you hold them accountable."

Terry Platt, who operates one of the largest residential rental businesses in the city, said he's no stranger to receiving violation notices for things tenants have done, and he's concerned, also, that the current system isn't really helping to address the problem.

"There's no tenant responsibility," said Platt, who also serves on the city's Neighborhood Improvement Committee (NIC). "We can kick them out, but if they move out, they just move to someplace else in the city and do the same thing over again. How is the city going to clean up the city if there is no tenant accountability?"

(Point of disclosure: Platt is my landlord.)

From the city's perspective, the only option is to hold the landlords accountable. They're the ones who own the property and the only recourse for the city is to cite property owners for any problems outside a house or apartment.

City Council President Marianne Clattenburg said residents want to live in a cleaner city and the citations landlords receive is, at least in part, just the cost of doing business.

"We really don't have a lot of recourse as far as the tenant goes," Clattenburg said. "The only person responsible is the property owner. That's just the way the system is."

Clattenburg is no stranger to getting cited for violations she didn't cause. Two years ago, then-City Inspector Mike Smith wrote her up because her garbage can was next to her house, rather than behind it. The notice came, said Clattenburg, on a day the staff was conducting a citywide sweep on code enforcement. Her trash had been picked up that morning and she was at work, when her father-in-law, who lives next door and has health problems, moved her trash can from the street just to help out.

Still, Clattenburg, a school teacher, thinks landlords need to do a better job of policing the conduct of their tenants, perhaps offering incentives, such as rent breaks, for not getting citations.

"The landlords are in business," Clattenburg said. "If it wasn't a business, if they weren't making money, they wouldn't be doing it. Every business has obstacles and faces difficulties. That's just part of owning your own business. You figure out ways to deal with that."

Yes, it is a business, landlords will tell you, and because it is a business, solutions don't come as easily as city officials seem to think they should.

As we spoke while standing in the front room/kitchen of a house the 33-year-old Yasses is rehabilitating on Thorpe, Yasses said the best he could hope for from that piece of property was $250 per month net profit. That's after mortgage, flood insurance and taxes are paid, and only if the tenant paid the water bill and pays rent on time and there was no maintenance on the 100-year-old building.

“That’s not a lot, especially when you look at the fact that I’ve got four vacancies and I just spent five grand here," Yasses said. "If you take all that into account, that’s two years income all right here in one house.”

Meanwhile, he's grappling with the city over a tenant's car that has no license plate. The tenant, Yasses said, is a essentially a single mom (her husband doesn't work) who works part-time at a fast-food place. She can only use her mobile phone for text messages because all she can afford is a $10-per-month plan. She couldn't afford insurance on her car, so she had to remove the license plates. The city cited Yasses and said it needed to be covered with a tarp.

"So I hounded her, 'put a tarp on it, put a tarp on it' because Ron (Panek, city inspector) hounded me, 'put a tarp on it,'" said Yasses. "She went and bought a blue tarp, covered it. It’s not good enough. You need to have a tarp that’s fitted to the car. I didn’t even know that. So Ron goes, 'we’re going to have to go to court then.' I said, ‘fine. We’ll go to court.’

"Now wait a minute," Yasses added. "We paid a guy to make three visits and make two phone calls, and now we’re going to pay the city attorney to take me to court for a tenant’s car? And we’re hurting for money in the city? Maybe we need to tighten up our belts and our shoelaces a little bit and figure out what’s going on. That’s my point – I think we’re wasting some money and we’re just masking the problem"

Yasses thinks city officials and some NIC members don't have enough experience dealing with low-income people to really understand what many landlords are up against.

Eviction, of course, is an option, but it can also be difficult and expensive, especially if a tenant has been paying his rent on time. It begins with $500 in legal fees and ends with cleaning up the apartment (which can be especially costly if the tenant took vengeance on the evicting landlord) and then searching for a new tenant. The process can take months, especially if a good-paying tenant fights the eviction.

And in the end, a landlord may not even have improved his tenant situation.

"The new tenant is going to be the same pool of tenants," Yasses said. "The next tenant is going to be the same quality – and I don’t mean it that way, because they’re good people, just down on their luck – the next tenant isn’t going to be any better than what I had. We need to train them and teach them and hold them accountable, along with us."

City officials, NIC members and his Fifth Ward Representative Kathy Briggs need to come down on Thorpe and meet some of his tenants and see what he's doing to rehabilitate his buildings, Yasses said. He repeated several times that his tenants are good people just having a hard time, and that he's doing everything possible to improve the quality of his holdings as fast as he can in order to attract, hopefully, better tenants. But it takes time and money, he said.

“I’m doing the best I can," Yasses said. "You can’t get anybody decent to come down on Thorpe Street. When I bought this about four years ago, there was a ton of drug activity right here and right next door, bad, bad, bad. I got fed up, thought I could be the hero and forced these landlords to sell me these houses to get rid of the garbage. I can say right now, I have no drugs down here."

The property Yasses owns on Watson, Thorpe and Maple were probably bad investments, Yasses readily admits. He's losing money on them and gets by only because his investments in other jurisdictions are doing well.

And that's part of the problem -- Yasses said he doesn't have issues with municipal officials in other jurisdictions that he has in Batavia.

“I rehabilitated a four-unit in Middleport and they absolutely love it," Yasses said. "I’m putting my money where people appreciate it. ‘Wow, Jeremy, you put a new roof on, you painted, new windows – this looks great.’”

If he could walk away from his Thorpe area properties and take a $10,000 loss on he each, he said he would, but he doesn't have that kind of money. So he's committed to doing the best he can with them. He has no choice.

“I don’t want this to be a negative thing on the city," Yasses said. "The main problem is, you’ve got to have tenant accountability. I’m not the one putting the trash out. I’m not the one with the vehicles. If you really want to change, that’s what we need to do. Not by fining me. You can fine me. I can go before the next judge next Friday (on the car/tarp case)  – I hope he doesn’t take offense if this gets out there – but he could fine me five grand. He could put me in jail. But at the end of the day, the car still isn’t covered or taken care of because we didn't go to the source."

Michael Pullinzi says he has a record as a landlord that he will stack up against anybody.

He feels he was treated unfairly by the Batavia City Council on Monday when the council voted 5-4 to deny him a property at 9 Willow St. that he won in a city auction of delinquent tax properties.

"I challenge them to do a fair comparison of all landlords in the city on the same seven-year period, and I guarantee I will be near the bottom of that list," Pullinzi said in a comment left on the site. "I put over $100K into my properties last year alone and have several open contracts for windows, roofs, siding, carpet, already for this year. I have always been very cooperative with code personnel and all issues are resolved promptly."

Pullinzi's comment was removed because The Batavian has a policy of not editing comments, but there was one sentence that ran counter to site standards.

A copy of the memo given to council is thin on details, but lists reported violations that appear to have more to do with tenant conduct than landlord misconduct.

The list violations include failure to remove debris, yard waste and garbage. The memo also cites grass violations in "multiple" years at 4 Swan St.

Other reported violations include "paint" and "interior viol."  There was also reportedly an unlicensed auto reported at 44-46 Walnut St. in 2003.

"If they had bothered to contact me, I could have explained the most of the 13 code citations over seven years were tenants putting out an extra bag of trash," Pullinzi said. "Most issues in the notices were resolved before I even received the notice and I never had to received a secondary notice on any matter."

The memo states that all violations were corrected and that none of the property owners who bought property at the auction had any outstanding violations, nor had any of the property owners been billed for corrective actions taken by the city.

Among the violations Pullinzi said he received notice on was for a driveway that needed potholes fixed.

"The problem was that it was not my driveway and instead was a city alleyway along the side of my property," Pullinzi said. "To date, the city has not fixed the potholes they demanded I fix, and it has been years."

While the city memo doesn't specify police calls to properties owned by Pullinzi, he said any concern about such calls is misplaced.

"I rent to a lot of handicapped and special-needs tenants and the majority of the police contacts were for emergency medical care calls," Pullinzi said. "Others were for my finding a tenant in a diabetic coma about a year ago, and another contact was my finding the tenant deceased and contacting police. I guess (City Council President Marianne) Clattenburg and (Councilwoman Kathy) Briggs are saying no one should rent to ARC or special-needs individuals or those with medical concerns."

Pullinzi owns properties at 4 Swan, 44-46 Walnut St., 25 Fisher Park, 203 Ross St. and 511 Ellicott St.

Landlords, if you expect to buy property through future city real estate auctions, you better make sure you don't have any prior code violations on your record.

At least that's the message the Batavia City Council decided to send tonight when it voted against selling a property at 9 Willow St. to Michael Pullinzi, who has reportedly been cited 13 times over seven years on five different properties.

"Our neighborhoods have problems and go bad one year at a time, one day at a time, one decision at a time," said Councilman Bill Cox in support of the motion to deny Pullinzi a chance to buy the property. "We need to start saying, ‘we’re no longer going to accept the status quo.'"

Pullinzi bid $21,000 for the property, which came up for auction after the city foreclosed on the land for non-payment of property taxes.

The second highest bidder, at about $20,500, will now be offered the property.

Council members Rose Mary Christian, Frank Ferrando, Sam Baron and Bob Bialkowski all voted against denying Pullinzi the land.

Ferrando said it was unfair to deny Pullinzi the property "out of the blue," when the council has never acted before on its discretion to deny an auction winner the real estate.

"We’ve never looked at this," Ferrando said. "It doesn’t mean we shouldn't. This is great. But I think we should from this point on work to put together a procedure and a process and be able to inform the citizens of our community this is the criteria established, if you’re going to bid on property, here are our expectations."

City ordinances allow the council to consider past history and decide whether the auction winner will be a responsible property owner.

Christian argued that the city has a code-enforcement officer and Pullinzi promptly responded to previous citations, fixing the problems in question.

City Council President Marianne Clattenburg favored taking a stand on this case to send a message to other landlords.

"There is a cost associated with opening up (those cases) and investigating them," Clattenburg said. "If you want to make the case that they’re closed that’s fine, but some of us have a problem with the fact that they existed in the first place."

After being interrupted by Christian, Clattenburg added, "The city had to hire another code-enforcement officer at considerable expense because of issues like this. Let’s not forget that we made it an issue to enforce this at considerable expense to the taxpayer."

Also sold at auction were 3 Roosevelt Ave. to Robert Norton for $35,000, and 3-5 Hutchins Place to Greg Post for $600. Both of those properties were sold following property-tax foreclosure.

The following properties were also sold: 432 South Jackson and 438-440 South Jackson to Richard Spicola for $3,100; 618 Ellicott St. Rear to Genesee & Mohawk Valley Railroad for $1,000; East Main Street Rear to Greg Post for $500; and, E/S Clifton Ave. to David J. MonteVerde for $500.

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The audience was quite small for tonight's public hearings on the proposed 2010/2011 City of Batavia budget and a proposed water rate increase.

Between the two hearings, one person -- John Roach -- made a statement.

City Council President Marianne Clattenburg said she wasn't surprised.

"It (the lack of turnout) tells me that they've probably contacted us personally," Clattenburg said. "They've been following things in the media and understand the position we're in and realize we're trying to work through some difficult times. As always we're open to listening to constituents and if they can't make it to the meeting -- lots of people do get their information from other sources -- and they let us know."

There was no vote taken tonight (that will come at the next council meeting), but this was the chance for the public to weigh in on a proposed 1.5-percent property tax increase and the first in a series of planned, gradual water rate increases aimed at raising money to fix infrastructure.

Clattenburg said the council has gotten ample feedback from members of the public prior to tonight's meeting.

"People have come forward," Clattenburg said. "They realize the reasoning behind the tax increase and what we're trying to do with the infrastructure improvements and I think they just support what we're trying to do."

Two public hearings are scheduled for the Batavia City Council meeting at 7 p.m. Monday.

The first public hearing will be on the proposed 2010/2011 city budget, which includes a 1.5-percent property tax increase.

For background on the proposed budget, click here.

The second hearing will deal with a proposal to increase water rates in order to finance infrastructure improvements and maintenance.

For background on the proposed water rate increases, click here.

A public hearing is an opportunity for city residents to give input to the council on matters before the council. If you wish to weigh in on either of these topics in an official setting, this is your time to do it.

What if you were having a heart attack or some other serious medical emergency and it was one of those rare times when all Mercy EMS ambulances were tied up on calls outside of the city?

Wouldn't it be a good thing if a paramedic from the city's fire department -- the emergency responder most likely to get to your house first in such a situation -- was certified to provide Advanced Life Support service?

On an 8-0 vote Monday, the Batavia City Council decided to deny city residents that extra level of protection, even though it wouldn't cost taxpayers a single dime.

"I think we had to decide whether we wanted our fire department chasing ambulances, or do we want our fire department used for the function it's best suited for," said City Council President Marianne Clattenburg.

She characterized the vote as a policy decision that extends from the city's decision to get out of the ambulance business.

She said the council wants the fire department to concentrate on fire prevention, code enforcement, public safety, fire suppression and education.

Fire Chief Ralph Hyde requested the council approve a program that would have allowed the department to become ALS certified, allowing its firefighters that are trained as paramedics -- 16 of them are, and all future hires will be, by state law -- to provide a higher level of life-saving services. Paramedic-trained firefighters can only provide Basic Life Support services without ALS certification for the department.

Because of state reimbursement programs and the ability to recoup training fees from other jurisdictions, city taxpayers would not have been required to foot any portion of the bill for ALS certification.

Among the critical life-saving procedures that ALS-certified medics can provide that BLS paramedics cannot is cardiac defibrillation.

"The Basic Life Support will still be there," Clattenburg said. "Once we divested of the ambulance, and the (new service) ambulance seems to be running fine, they seem to be getting where they're going and they've even added personnel and vehicles to respond to the call volume, so it really is a change in focus, because when you have a whole fire department that's geared toward to ALS but yet there is someone else doing that now doesn't make sense, just to keep that mindset and that training level there when that's not their primary job."

For more on the difference between BLS and ALS, read the following Wikipedia entries:

• Basic Life Support
• Advanced Life Support

It's that time of year again -- when the City of Batavia officials sit down to look reality in the face and try and figure out how to balance tougher-to-get revenue with ever increasing expenses.

Sales tax is expected to be down, some longtime employees are coming up on retirement, the city's infrastructure is aging and some key pieces of equipment haven't been replaced in decades.

So what about that proposed 3-percent increase in property taxes?

Councilman Frank Ferrando asked City Manager Jason Molino if there is any way to cut it back and Molino said that would be hard, especially if the city wants to start replacing old equipment and start planning for the future.

"Rather than my trying to take apart a budget that's pretty complicated, I look at it as best I can," Ferrando said. "You know the budget and the staff better than all of us. I would rather give you a charge and say, here's what I think our taxpayers would take and you make the adjustments as opposed to me telling you what you should and shouldn't be doing."

Molino explained that the city isn't looking at a tax increase just to raise revenue, but to put the city on a sounder financial footing.

"What we’re starting to look at is if we’re going to invest -- and I look at it as an investment -- you’re going to have to maintain certain levels of service," Molino said. "We're going to have to look at a marginal tax-rate increase. That’s what we’re starting to look at here. All right, if we’re going to have to increase the tax rate a marginal amount, what do we get in return?"

Council President Marianne Clattenburg, after noting how much more difficult the budget picture looks because of weaker-than-expected sales-tax projections, said making the cuts necessary to bring down the tax increase could be difficult.

"There’s always a possibility to cut things," Clattenburg said. "But this year we’re trying to bring back some equipment we’ve deferred and purchase things that we’re going to need if we’re going to fix the streets. We’ve really been budgeting conservatively for quite a number of years now, so when you get to the point we’re in now, with the economy the way it is and dropping revenues, it gets really tough to do."

About the only time the staff-council discussion became animated tonight was when Fire Chief Ralph Hyde tried to explain the need for his department to become ALS (Advanced Life Support) certified. It would allow firefighters to provide critical lifesaving care in those few instances when they are on scene before Mercy EMS. Fourteen firefighters are already trained as paramedics, in part because of current state firefighter hiring requirements.

"This will save a lot more lives than just fighting fires in a city this size," Hyde said, "because there are sometimes these four- and five- and six-minute gaps in response time."

The certification would allow trained and experienced paramedics on the Fire Department staff to provide lifesaving services that right now they cannot legally perform, even though they know how.

Some council members expressed concern about training costs and overtime, but Hyde and Molino said the process of getting and maintaining ALS certification can be cost neutral. That's because of state grants and how internal training programs can be set up --  using the City's on-staff trainer to train personnel from other fire companies.

The council also heard reports on the departments of finance, personnel, youth bureau, assessment, police, public works, and water and sewer.

The next budget workshop is at the Council's next regular Monday meeting.

Pictures: Top, Chief Hyde, left, and Molino. Middle, Police Chief Randy Baker with Molino. Bottom, full council at session.

The Batavia City Council meets at 7 p.m. Tuesday to discuss the 2010/11 budget.

Department items are scheduled for the following times:

7 p.m. -- administrative services

7:30 p.m. -- finance, personnel, youth bureau, assessment

8 p.m. -- police and fire

8:45 p.m. -- public works, water and sewer.

No time for public comment is scheduled; however, there will be a public hearing on the budget prior to a vote.

The Batavia City Council meets at 7 tonight.

There will be a regular business meeting followed by a budget workshop.

City Manager Jason Molino's proposed budget calls for a 3-percent tax increase.

Tonight's budget session will focus on sewer and water, and address some of the challenges associated with aging infrastructure.

On the business meeting agenda, there is a resolution to increase spending on legal fees by $35,000, to help pay for ongoing litigation.

Patti Pacino said she showed up to City Hall 10 minutes early this morning ... just to make sure.

Pacino, who said she thought last night's Council meeting was at the usual 7 p.m., missed the 6 p.m. meeting where she was slated to take the oath of office.

So Pacino was sworn in at 9 a.m. by Deputy Clerk Aimslee Cassidy.

The long-time community activist replaces Marianne Clattenburg, who was elected to an at-large seat in November.

Patti Pacino said a little while ago that she thought she was doing really well to get to City Hall a bit after 6:30 p.m.

"I'm normally running late, but tonight I was feeling so proud to show up early," Pacino said.

Problem was, the Batavia City Council meeting didn't start at its usual 7 p.m. time. It started at 6 p.m.  By the time Pacino arrived, almost everybody else had left.

Still, the council approved Pacino's appointment to the Ward 2 seat vacated by Marianne Clattenburg by a unanimous vote.

Pacino will be sworn in at 9 a.m. in the City Manager's office.

Meanwhile, Clattenburg, who won an at-large seat in the November election, assumed the role of City Council president.

"In moving forward, the city needs to focus more on planning," Clattenburg said in a speech after assuming the president's chair. "It will be my recommendation that this council works together to develop a strategic plan for the future. We must set our priorities and develop polices that address the most urgent needs of the city."

AUDIO: Full speech (mp3, courtesy WBTA)

The motion to appoint Clattenburg was made by Frank Ferrando. Democrats Rose Mary Christian and Kathy Briggs rushed to second the motion. Clattenburg was appointed to the chair unanimously.

At the end of the meeting, Clattenburg thanked outgoing Council President Charlie Mallow for his service and, on behalf of the council, presented him with a plaque.

Patti Pacino, most recently an alumni coordinator for GCC, has been selected to fill the Ward 2 Batavia City Council seat by Ward 2 Republicans.

Pacino will replace Marianne Clattenburg, who was elected to an at-large seat in November.

Pacino was born in Batavia and has a long history of community involvement, including membership in Kiwanis and Zonta International. She has been a teacher and worked for both Genesee Community College and Batavia High School, where she was a career center coordinator.

She has also served as on the board of directors for the Genesee county YWCA and the Cornell Cooperative Extension.

In 2004 she was named Geneseean of the Year by the Genesee County Chamber of Commerce.

She's married to James R. Pacino.

In a statement, Ward 2 GOP Chairman Chad Bachorski said, "The committee feels with experience and obvious dedication to her work, Patti will be an excellent fit in representing the citizens of the second ward on City Council."

If approved by the Council, Pacino will be sworn in Monday.

UPDATE: I did a video interview with Patti this afternoon.  Assuming no glitches or interruptions, I'll have it posted by this evening.