Dunkirk officials continue to work through the city’s deep financial troubles. The task looked daunting Monday.

It was clear at the Common Council Finance Committee’s meeting that the problems are many-layered and won’t get easily solved.

Councilors silently and grimly looked over a financial report from Fiscal Affairs Officer Ellen Luczkowiak. She said the city has had $3,749,458 in expenses, against just $837,257 of revenue, through June.

Luczkowiak added that the city has not made its mandated retirement fund contributions yet. Treasurer Mark Woods said those will most likely be made from funds coming out of the city’s latest Revenue Anticipation Note (RAN).

Woods said a request for bids on the RAN would go out Tuesday. Bids will close on July 9. He anticipates that the city will get money from the RAN July 24-25.

Combing through Dunkirk’s finances is proving to be challenging, in part because city departments are on different reporting systems. Luczkowiak has repeatedly criticized that and did so again Monday. She’s taking steps to get everything into one database, a process she called “arduous and long.”

Luczkowiak did offer “a little bit of positive news,” as Department of Public Works Director Randy Woodbury put it. She said the city still has $265,520 in American Rescue Plan Act funding left and must use it by year’s end “to improve systems or machinery that impact the health and well-being of citizens.”

Woodbury wants to use the money on the city’s drinking water system, possibly including replacement of old lead pipes.

However, speaking of the big picture as laid out in Luczkowiak’s report, “Most of this document is not the color we like to see.”