The DeWitt Town Board and the East Syracuse Village Board last week agreed to form a joint committee to rectify the ongoing issue of potential overpayments by the town for East Syracuse Fire Department services.
“This battle has been going on for many years,” said East Syracuse Mayor Robert Tackman during the DeWitt Town Board’s regular June 22 meeting. The entire East Syracuse Village Board attended the DeWitt town board meeting to discuss the issue. “We want to get over this hurdle and make sure you guys understand we will do everything we can to make sure that money is spent on fire and that the residents in the North Town District are protected to the fullest ability.”
According to DeWitt Supervisor Ed Michalenko, the town of DeWitt pays about $1.2 million per year to the village of East Syracuse Fire Department for fire protection in the northern district of the town, which includes the Park Hill, Franklin Park, Parkwood and Collamer neighborhoods. At the June 8 DeWitt Town Board meeting, Michalenko said there has been a longstanding allegation the town of DeWitt was overpaying for fire protection and, after a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request of East Syracuse’s financial records, Michalenko discovered that since 2009, there appear to have been about $1.8 million in unsubstantiated funds the town paid to the village that didn’t go toward fire protection.
“Due to no fault of most people currently on the boards, there seems to be a significant amount of money in the last seven to eight years paid to the village that doesn’t appear to have gone to fire protection services,” said Michalenko. “If we can’t agree the money was used in operation of the village fire department, we’re looking for recovery of it … That amount of unsubstantiated money is too much for me to just walk away and leave on the table.”
Michalenko said DeWitt was looking into the possibility of hiring an independent auditor to resolve this issue.
East Syracuse Deputy Mayor James Carr said this is not necessary as the financial records of the village are open for the town if they request the information.
Tackman said the village was expecting $1 million by May 31 for fire protection from the town of DeWitt, but has only received $700,000 to this date. This leaves the village ending their financial year about $300,000 short from the budget they expected. For this reason, Tackman wants to set up a committee to rectify the current year’s payments and create a contract for the future.
Tackman said he met with the village board and town councilors to discuss moving this issue forward and they thought forming a committee with representatives from both boards would be the best course of action in rectifying the problem.
According to Michalenko, there has not been a contract in place between DeWitt and East Syracuse under the request of the East Syracuse Fire Department, but agrees a committee to resolve the issue is a step in the right direction.
The DeWitt Town Board voted to elect Michalenko, Councilor Jamie Frank, Councilor Kerry Mannion and Councilor Karen Docter to the committee from the DeWitt side. Tackman said himself and Carr are expected to be elected to the committee, but they will not be able to vote on it until their next board meeting.
“We’ve all been handed a can of worms that’s been boiling and boiling since most of us were even involved, let’s just settle it and get it done,” said Tackman.
Hayleigh Gowans is a reporter for the Eagle Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].
