Financial problems in the city of Ogdensburg continue to grow. Its city manager — presented city council with three proposals — that he says would help get things on track.

One would eliminate the entire police department, another would make major cuts across the police, fire and DPW departments and the third would raise taxes.

“The 2023 budget is nothing but devastating to city services,” Ogdensburg City Manager Steve Jellie said as he began to present his budget proposal to the city council.

Just days before stepping down from his job, now former Ogdensburg City Manager Jellie presented the city council with his plan, a harsh reality he says, to help get the city back on financial track.

“There is no other word to describe it. It will not matter what council does, what decisions it makes, it will have deep impact on city staff and city services,” Jellie followed up with.

It’s a reality that Ogdensburg Mayor Mike Skelly is feeling.

“It’s very scary Brian. These are people’s lives and these are necessary services,” the mayor said looking over the proposal.

Before leaving, Jellie presented the council with three options he believes may be the only way to help close a multi-million dollar budget gap:

• Cutting the entire police department and contracting with the county
• Cutting 27 jobs from within the Police, Fire and DPW Operations
• Raising taxes and still cutting 15-20 jobs

All options left Skelly shaking his head, but understanding something needs to be done.

“It’s going to be very difficult for public safety, for maintaining our city, snowplowing, everything,” Skelly said.

Realities that Jellie felt he had no choice but to include in his official budget proposal. He added option 2: Cutting 27 jobs from within the police, fire and DPW operations.

But not all councilors feel that way and rather than accepting the proposal and spending the next few weeks working on changes, a majority of council decided to table the entire thing and use the next few days to come up with something else.

“There’s seven people on council. Everyone is going to have their ideas and hopefully some of them will bring a solution to a few less jobs lost," Skelly added.

The hope is, that will happen. Four years ago the city had 129 employees. If 27 jobs were to be cut, that number four years later, would be 67.

Council Members will have to work fast — as they only have until November 15 to adopt a proposed budget and then need a final budget approved by December 20. Plus, it will be doing so with an interim city manager.