Dec 28, 2020
Mayor Edward Sundquist may have followed the city’s procurement policy, but he still shouldn’t have leased a new vehicle without approval from either JURA or the City Council.
Sundquist said the city requested bids for proposal, receiving five. The only difference with his vehicle is the cost of the lease is a line item for the mayor’s office instead of being a part of JURA’s budget.
But that’s not exactly true.
Former Mayor Sam Teresi’s vehicle was a city fleet vehicle. While driven largely by the mayor, it was available for other city employees should the need have arisen. And, the cost for a fleet sedan was likely much less expensive than the lease on an SUV. The upgrade from a sedan to an SUV counters Sundquist’s assertion that his vehicle was a replacement lease.
Dec 17, 2020
If Mayor Edward Sundquist and the Jamestown City Council are serious about fixing parking downtown, they have an unused asset in Pete Miraglia.
Miraglia, a former board member of the Jamestown Renaissance Corporation and a longtime downtown business owner, presented a report to the council on downtown parking. Between May and August 2015, Miraglia conducted 17 surveys of on-street parking, surface lots and the three downtown parking ramps.
In other words, other than parking enforcement officers, there aren’t many people who know more about parking downtown than Miraglia.
“In the almost 20 years that I have been actively involved downtown, I have felt that the parking system has been downtown’s greatest impediment to growth,” Miraglia said recently to The Post-Journal. “When I visit very active and successful downtowns like Saratoga Springs, and Owego, who offer free on and off street parking, I wonder why Jamestown continues to make coming to downtown so
Dec 12, 2020
It’s ironic that Mayor Edward Sundquist started this budget process saying there wouldn’t be much recreation or many events in the coming year only to end the budget process fighting to keep that very position in the budget.
Sundquist noted in his budget presentation that most city-sponsored events will again be canceled, both as a cost-savings measure and from a safety perspective.
“Our recreation coordinator will focus less on specific yearly events and more to fostering community involvement, lifestyle and year-round recreation,” Sundquist said in his budget proposal.
Frankly, the council should have furloughed the position last April when it became apparent that there would be no city events in 2020. The position was turned into a public relations/grant writing position. Grants are tough sledding right now given the dearth of federal and state money available. It’s funny, frankly, that a news release announcing Sundquist’s veto of the council’s fu