Village of Oswego Committee of the Whole met Feb. 17.
Here are the minutes provided by the committee:
CALL TO ORDER
President Ryan Kauffman called the meeting to order at 6:00 p.m.
ROLL CALL
Board Members Physically Present: President Ryan Kauffman; Trustees Jac Cooper, Jennifer Hughes, Rachelle Koenig, Karin McCarthy-Lange, Karen Novy, and Andrew Torres.
Staff Physically Present: Dan Di Santo, Village Administrator; Jean Bueche, Asst. Village Administrator; Tina Touchette, Village Clerk; Jason Bastin, Police Chief; Andrea Lamberg, Finance Director; Curt Cassidy, Public Works Director/Engineer; Rod Zenner, Development Services Director; Joe Renzetti, IT/GIS Director; Kevin Leighty, Economic Development Director; Maddie Upham, Asst. to the Village Administrator; and James Murphy, Village Attorney.
PUBLIC FORUM
Public Forum was opened at 6:02 p.m. There was no one who requested to speak. The public forum was closed at 6:02 p.m.
OLD BUSINESS
There was no old business.
NEW BUSINESS
F.1 CY25 Q4 Quarterly Financial Update
Director Lamberg addressed the Board regarding quarter four of calendar year 2025. The information is not the final audited numbers. They still need to enter accrual entries. She presented the following:
General Fund
∙ Planned use is for the new Public Works facility
∙ Surplus will not be this high, but will be a multi-million surplus
∙ Community Relations being over budget had nothing to do with overspending
∙ $600,000 was a re-classification of use tax to sales tax
Water & Sewer Fund
∙ Budgeted surplus intentionally
∙ Slow ramp-up
∙ Actual numbers are slightly above target
∙ Significant increases in electricity when budgeting
∙ Budget will meet or exceed
Parking Fund
∙ Will increase compliance; revenue should increase in 2026
Other Funds
∙ Planned use of the reserves and not overspending
∙ Assumed there would be an increase in the EAV, but there was a decrease in the EAV ∙ Still seeing more 2025 invoices coming in
∙ Grant revenue- line item appears less than budget, but it hasn’t been completed yet
∙ Budgeted on the side of caution
Board and staff discussion included: this is the fourth year there has been a multi-year surplus; use tax is online sales and origin of the sales; use tax is now classified as sales tax; projected revenue has not been applied yet; it is part of the accruals; excess road funds are added to the next year’s program; once accruals come in, the debt expense should be under $100,000; kudos to everyone being under budget; water payments will be made in 2026; several years of surplus; a lot of the surplus is from sales tax and interest income; these are out of the Village’s control; using the excess for one-time costs; could lower our rates, but any downturn in the economy could put us in jeopardy; RET is only from those coming to the Village; staff does not track RET; budgeting at what it costs; excess is consumer driven and not due to overcharging residents for services; study shows 45% of sales tax is coming from non-residents; the more opening in town, the more we could have surplus; we have an incredible amount of capital needs; would prefer not to borrow and increase our debt; store away surplus to help pay for massive projects; infrastructure; we hear from residents that we need to get Wolfs Crossing done sooner; grocery tax; thank you to staff for a great job; good news all around; thank you for your hard work. There was no further discussion.
CLOSED SESSION
There was no closed session.
ADJOURNMENT
The meeting adjourned at 6:30 p.m.
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