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| City Hall Struggling Financially? Not According to Their Own Documents |
By: Christopher J. Wilmot
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Posted: Thursday, January 14, 2010 6:36 am
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Thursday, January 14, 2010 Rochester, NY - The City of Rochester raises, through their tax levy (and state & federal outlays), and then spends hundreds of millions of dollars each year. In the last 15-20 years, whole cities, like Bridgeport, Conn., and Buffalo, NY have been declared 'insolvent' (to you and me, bankrupt). I don't recall how or when Bridgeport returned to fiscal solvency (if it ever did), and Buffalo was taken over by the State of New York, using a municipal vehicle called a 'Control Board'. Last I heard, things financial were turning around in the Queen City.
Rochester may be, traditionally speaking, better run than cities like Buffalo and Bridgeport, and therefore, has never declared itself, or been declared insolvent. But, projected budget deficits in the next couple of years run into the tens-of-millions of dollars. Yet, all the while, the cash strapped coffers at City Hall, at Fitzhugh and Church Streets, were able to cobble together $22,400 for golf outings and advertising at golf tournaments ("Ravenwood Golf Club"; and, "PGA Tournament Corp."), while hungry City Hall civil servants and their appointed (and elected) bosses spent $75,623 on food and beverage, with 30 different vendors, in one year (2008).
The following is a list of the food and beverage vendors contracted with, and the taxpayer funded dollar amounts spent with these food service providers:
Al's Green Pizzeria $21,250.00
Atlanta Bread Co. 109.68
Bruegers Bagels 150.00
CAM's NY Pizza 253.45
Craving's Catering 222.10
Delmonico's Utica 263.75
DiBella's Subs 370.10
Flour City Bagels/Fairport 1,064.00
Fruit & Salad Co. 6,590.00
Georgie's Bakery 1,362.00
Great Ocean Seafood 1,230.00
Guido's Pasta Villa 2,317.50
J. & K. Café 1,087.50
Lorraine's Lunch Basket 318.05
Lorraine's Food Factory 1,542.35
Menezes Pizza 452.83
Monterrey Taco-Public Market 450.00
Mr. Dominics at the Lake 790.15
Nola's B B Q 4,000.00
Papa John's, #1602 Penfield 147.22
Pelegrino's Deli 3,790.61
Pelegrino's 301.43
Salvatores Pizza 115.66
200.00
1,353.40
465.00
914.31
139.00
6,751.75
Sandwich Services 1,679.00
Savory Thyme Caterers 300.00
Signature Beverages 485.00
Subway - North Chili 75.00
50.00
Tasteful Connection 1,675.50
The Pizza Stop 9,262.41
Tops Market - Winton Rd. 2,359.79
Union St. Bakery-Public Mkt. 625.37
Unkl Moe's BBQ Catering 1,109.37
+___________
Total Food/Beverage $75,623.28
City Taxpayers are Hungry for Savings, and Perhaps a Little Loyalty
In the official City of Rochester documents I possess, it is not made clear for what, or why $75,623 was spent on food and beverage in one calendar year. Even less clear are the nature of City purchases, from whom, what service or product is being obtained by City Hall, and perhaps most importantly, why so often goods and services purchased by the City of Rochester Government are transacted with vendors and companies whose headquarters (and main operations?) are outside New York State.
At a time when we are losing population in Upstate and Western New York, as well as shedding jobs and young adults to populate those missing jobs, Mayor Duffy and his purchasing agents at City Hall routinely are buying 25% of all goods and services from out-of state vendors.
If one scours the hundreds of pages of City Hall purchasing information we at the Smugtown Beacon have in our possession, disturbing trends emerge. First, though, a caveat: What is not clear from the purchasing documents is; 1.) Were some out-of-state vendors significantly less expensive than NY State vendors, with similar quality? 2.) Since 25% of City Hall purchases were made with out-of-state companies, then obviously 75% of Rochester governmental purchases were made with NY State firms (though certainly not all from the Greater Rochester area).
Here is what I gleaned from my hours of reading over hundreds of pages of purchasing records, allegedly from fiscal year (FY) 2008:
1.) Page headings include, left to right: Vendor; Address 1; Address 2; City; Sate; Zip; Quantity Purchased; Cost; Reference #.
2.) Each page contained 79 lines, which doesn't always translate into 79 different companies / vendors.
3.) On a typical page listing City purchases, the average number of out-of state vendors was 19.25 (or very nearly 25%).
4.) Some of the purchasing contracts were quite small; some as small as $35.00. Others, though, represented very large purchases, some as large as $900,000.
5.) Far more often than NY State purchases by City Hall, out-of-state purchases frequently were accompanied only by "P.O. Boxes" under the heading of "Address". In rare instances, along with a Post Office Box as an out-of-state address, some vendors included bin numbers instead of addresses, or the term "Lockbox" in place of an actual address, out-of state.
6.) Invariably, NY State headquartered vendors provided, or at least were denoted far more often with legitimate appearing addresses with street numbers and names.
7.) A number of vendors, mainly of the 'out-of-state' breed, were relatively small to moderate purchases--in dollar amounts--with individuals, not companies.
8.) In no case, not anywhere in the hundreds of pages of City Hall purchasing information, did any actual service or item appear (SEE Number 1 in this Section).
A Few Examples
For instance, City Hall spent the paltry sum of $75.98 with a company called "Hal Leonard Corp." This in another "bin number" example, where this Milwaukee, WI vendor lists nothing else under "Address 1" or "Address 2" other than a bin number. Of course, we'll never know what business the City was transacting with the Hal Leonard Corp. in Wisconsin, for $75.98.
In another case, and on the other end of the financial spectrum, Mayor Duffy authorized the expenditure of $900,342.50 with a vendor listed simply as "Guardian". Guardian, apparently, has no street address, and simply provides a P.O. Box, in Atlanta, Georgia. Again, $900,342.50 is quite a bit more money than $75.98, yet neither City purchase bothers to list a service or product obtained on behalf of the taxpayer, at least on the official City of Rochester documents the Smugtown Beacon has in its possession.
Conclusion: Simple Volume Does Not Equal Transparent Government
Let's assume for a moment that every golf outing (or City of Rochester advertising opportunity at a golf tournament); every meal purchase; and every transaction with a vendor, either in-state (preferable), or out-of-state, has a perfectly logical explanation behind it, and is completely above board? I guess we'll never know, unless the City of Rochester government is willing to provide additional documentation to explain the $22,400 spent on golf in one year, or the $75,623.28 spent on food & beverage (of which we know); or what products or services were obtained by millions of taxpayer dollars, listed on hundreds of pages of voluminous governmental documents, yet never knowing why any of this money was spent, on behalf of taxpayers, by Mayor Duffy, the Rochester City Council, and various City Hall department heads.
I have a feeling this article will generate more like it. We at the Smugtown Beacon will file a Freedom of Information Act (F.O.I), requesting the City help clarify, for you the reader, especially if you pay City taxes, exactly where your hard earned money goes, once City Hall cashes your property tax check.
Christopher J. Wilmot served as a Legislator in the Monroe County Legislature, from 1996-2005. He currently is the owner of several small businesses, headquartered in Downtown Rochester.
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Member Opinions:
By: mfisher on 1/23/10
"Of course, we'll never know what business the City was transacting with the Hal Leonard Corp. in Wisconsin, for $75.98." It's true that we may not know the exact nature of this transaction, but Hal Leonard is a major sheet music publisher, so this is most likely a youth/recreation center expense. There've got to be music store resellers (within the county) for the products, but who knows whether they are able to give a better price for a government entity than the source. Since you bothered to get this documentation, is there a way that you can republish the actual data? Mike Fisher Rochester, New York
By: macreferee on 2/24/10
I would think that a good starting point to this issue is to get a copy of the Purchasing Procedures for the City so that it can be determined if purchases were made inside or outside of this procedure. It would also allow for some critiquing of the procedure to understand at what price level is there a bidding requirement and if there are clauses that deal with out of City, County or State purchases. Someone probably googled the item that was purchased at this Hal Leonard site. I would be more concerned about how the procedure deals with higher purchase cost thresholds. I would also say that it was probably not the purchasing agent who decided and it was the requisitioner of the item that researched and decided. Mac McGonigle Brighton
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