Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist will be releasing the 2022 executive city budget during a presentation at 3 p.m. Thursday at the Jamestown Municipal Building. The presentation will be streamed live on the city’s website at jamestownny.gov/live. Submitted photo

At the start of the month, a 17-year agreement between the town of Busti and the city of Jamestown ended.

On Oct. 1, Busti officials ended the shared assessor’s agreement with the city of Jamestown. According to Jamestown Mayor Eddie Sundquist, the agreement not being renewed ended the city sharing its assessor with several towns and villages in the south county.

“Under the agreement, the town of Busti managed the relationship with the other municipalities,” he said. “We have not reached out to the other municipalities because, as part of the original contract, we agreed that we would not go solicit the other municipalities that were part of the original agreement.”

The original agreement, signed in 2004, also included the towns of Carroll, Ellicott, Harmony and Kiantone, and the villages of Celoron, Falconer and Lakewood. Sundquist said in early 2020, the towns of Chautauqua and North Harmony also left the shared services agreement.

Sundquist said Busti officials stated in a letter that the reason they weren’t renewing the agreement is that they can provide the service by hiring their own assessor at a lower cost.

How has the agreement not being renewed impacted the city’s assessors office?

Sundquist said Busti and the city shared the cost of Jamestown’s assessor, Lisa Volpe, under the agreement, which means the city is now funding the full cost of her salary.

“There is no additional change for the assessor’s office because each municipality had their own clerk agreement,” Sundquist said. “Most of the municipalities had their own assessment clerk. They just shared the assessor.”

According to the website for the towns of Busti, Carroll, Ellicott, Harmony and Kiantone, its assessor is Tera Darts. For the towns of Chautauqua and North Harmony, its assessor is Anne Golley.