Mayor's office budget increased

Apr. 25—Mayor John Lombardi III's office budget was increased by $2,000 by the Common Council this week. This followed the office spending roughly $3,000, more than twice its 2024 allotment, since early January.

In a work session prior to the council's business meeting Wednesday, the aldermen reviewed a resolution proposed by council president Kathryn Fogle raising the mayor's office supply budget to $3,200 from $1,200, and drawing the additional funds from contingency.

There was a lengthy silence when the aldermen were asked which one would second the resolution, prompting Lombardi to ask aloud, "seriously?"

Finally 1st Ward Alderman John Craig agreed to second the resolution. Once it came up for a vote in the business meeting, it passed 6-0.

Aldermen Margaret Lupo, 5th Ward, and Anita Mullane, 2nd Ward, both said they cast their "yes" vote reluctantly. Privately, they had expressed their upset with the overspending, but said they saw no alternative to granting Lombardi the money he sought to keep his office running.

Lupo and Mullane met with this reporter Thursday, Lupo having brought documents showing what the mayor's office purchased between Jan. 1 and March 31. Expenses included, in the first week of January, $220 for a frame for a map of Lockport and $468 for office supplies. More office supplies were purchased in late February, totaling $884. Also early in the new mayor's tenure, his office spent $300 on an unspecified number of chairs. In late March, the office purchased a fax machine for $188.

There is a fax machine at the city clerk's office next door, Mullane noted.

Lupo pointed out purchases for the mayor's office that were charged to other lines in the city budget, building maintenance and finance: Two air purifiers, $220, and window blinds, $300, in late February, and a laser printer, $430, in mid March.

In total, the amount spent by Lombardi's office in the first quarter of the year, from the office supply and other budget lines, exceeded $3,000.

Mullane said it's important to maintain the "integrity" of the city budget. She noted that the state Comptroller approves each line of the budget, and recalled the practice of taking of funds from one line to cover shortage in another played a role in the city's fiscal stress designation, in 2013-2014, which ultimately brought the Comptroller's oversight.

"You're messing with something that's already been approved and OK'd by the comptroller. They took a look at each of those lines and now you're taking money from each of them," Mullane said.

Lupo said she'd like to see fiscal training for all council members.

"They offer all kinds of online training you can take. ... I did fiscal training when I got on the council last year. You sit through it, everything's online and once you sit through it, then you can keep it forever so you can refer back to it," she said.

In an April 18 email to city Finance Director Daniel Cavallari, Lombardi's confidential secretary Paula Travis stated there were no office supplies in the mayor's office when she came on board — no shredder, no pens, no folders, no notepads. She further stated she had bought supplies out of her own pocket.