A hired Philadelphia consulting firm told City of Williamsport officials its management review with department heads, directors and key staff included some analyses that will be part of the recommendation as ways to close a projected budget deficit next year.

Public Financial Management (PFM) has conducted a management review, meeting with department heads, directors and key staff to discuss budget, operations, and any goals or challenges they wanted to bring up. The firm is working for $124,000, with 90% of the cost picked up by the state Department of Community and Economic Development and the rest covered by the city.

In his review of the departments, PFM removed the City Hall operations allocation. It did so because in 2023, department budgets were showing centralized costs as a line item. To equalize this across the time period, the firm looked at 2020 to 2024, and it removed the City Hall operations allocation just for consistency purposes, said Bob McDermott, director, PFM.

The review was broken into two sections: Elected officials and then senior appointed officials.

McDermott recently presented an overview of elected officials and senior appointed officials and trends seen over the last five years.

There has been general consistency, with the mayor’s office showing 0.3% growth, while council showed 7.1% growth, with the city clerk consistent in terms of full-time employees, he said.

The solicitor’s office was growing at 17% on average over the last four years, largely due to contractual costs related to federal grants. “Those are expected to go away over the next few years,” McDermott said.

The city controller and the treasurer’s offices were looked at. The controller over the time period reviewed has grown at an average of 10.8% annually.

“That is related to some audit costs,” McDermott said. “Trying to catch up on previous audits dating back to 2022.”

The treasurer showed a 10% growth as the office went from two positions to three positions along with some contractual costs.

“All of this makes sense in the larger context,” he said.

The finance department, which covers the core financial and fiscal management functions, has experienced some growth. Salaries and wages grew by 27 %, increases largely due to reorganization of positions and movement in reorganization dating back to 2023. “Positions that already existed moving into finance,” he said.

Information technology has grown at a reasonable pace.

Some costs are growing, which are centralized costs, such as general liability insurance, which was $400,000 to $550,000 over that time period, but that is centralized expense for the entire city.

Human resources critical to costs with one position grew to 5.3% over the time period reviewed and that growth was largely related to personnel costs.

The community and economic development and planning department is considered the “frontline of the offense” as the city tries to better position itself in coming years. If police, fire and codes are the defense, then community development/planning is the offense, said Gordon Mann, managing director, Public Financial Management (PFM).

They noted how the community development department has an executive director, deputy director and planning, and grants administrator – among others who are consistently able to search for state and federal grant opportunities, work closely with consulting firms, realigning the economic development potential with updates to Local Economic Revitalization Tax Assistance Act (LERTA), Act 76, provides tax breaks for commercial and industrial properties in specific areas to incentivize the redevelopment of aging or deteriorated properties and providing a solid base for the city to prosper, with housing and rental initiatives and transit-planning on streets and in parks.

The department has regularly briefed council and shared with council and the public how it is contributing to making Williamsport a safer and healthier community.

PFM is doing the work as part of the process of a strategic management plan the city is undergoing with costs of 90 % paid for by the state Department of Community and Economic Development.

The firm is assisting the city with suggestions on how to make municipal government more efficient while also trying to shrink a possible deficit in 2026 that is at least $3 million to $5.1 million had nothing been done to correct the course. One mill of real estate tax is $866,055, according to the 2025 budget. Two mills of tax increase would generate $1.7 million of revenue, PFM said.

PFM is almost ready to produce a final report with analysis, charts and recommendations the council and administration can take before the end of the year. The city’s budget sessions are to take place mid-November, specifically at 7 p.m. Nov. 17 and Nov. 19 ahead of the Thanksgiving break.