“I do not know what the mayor’s talking about when he talks about the discretionary funds,” City Controller Steve Thayer said at the October 22nd, 2022 City Budget Meeting #4. The City Controller serves as the Chief Financial Officer of the city.
“The former mayor,” Councilperson Cynthia Brock interjected, referencing former City of Ithaca mayor Svante Myrick.
Thayer’s statement on discretionary funds was prompted by a request for clarification of City policy by Brock. This was in reference to Myrick stating that he could approve funding requests of up to $30,000 without council approval, through the use of “discretionary funds” under “expenditure authority.”
“The only discretionary funds we have are the contingency funds and obviously anything restricted in those in those funds have to go through Council to be released,” Thayer continued. “We also have unrestricted contingency funds in those funds also to be released have to go through Council or transfer to, you know, another operating account.”
The issue of mayoral discretionary funds arose after planned $10,000 payments to Reimagining Public Safety (RPS) Working Group co-leads Eric Rosario & Karen Yearwood came to light. Brock claims payments made to working group participants and co-lead violated the City of Ithaca’s Code of Ethics.
Myrick had verbally promised Rosario & Yearwood $10,000 each for their work on the RPS Working Group.
These payments, which were not approved by the Ithaca Common Council, formed a major component of Brock’s complaint to the Tompkins County Board of Ethics.
“So I’m not sure exactly when the former mayor talks about discretionary funds that he had, I’m not sure exactly what he’s alluding to there,” Thayer continued.
Acting mayor Laura Lewis seemingly balked at the question. “I would simply ask that for our purposes we focus on the 2023 budget,” Lewis said. “I would ask that we focus on that and not higher issues.”
Brock was undeterred. “It’s a question of understanding for both members of council and the public how the budget works,” Brock said.
“So since this has been raised, just to ask the question of where in the budget this would be, I’m hearing this is not in the budget as a matter of standard and so I’m glad to have that on the record. And thank you, Steve, for your response,” Brock said, concluding the discussion.
