Mayor Kim Ecklund’s first State of the City address is very much the new mayor in a nutshell.

It’s a 20-page document full of Joe Friday, “just the facts” statements of what Ecklund’s administration has done over its first four months. There isn’t a lot of flowery rhetoric, nor is there page after page of lofty goals and ambitions that Ecklund wants her team to achieve this year.

The mayor notes the administration’s work setting a final cost for the Washington Street fleet maintenance facility – a bigger undertaking than one would think – as well as administrative changes to the way city offices are staffed so that offices are less likely to be closed when city residents try to take care of city business on a lunch hour.

The speech is very much a reflection of the new mayor. Ecklund isn’t trying to win points with speeches. Quite the contrary, Ecklund knows the game of municipal government is won on the balance sheet. Lofty goals will remain unachieved goals if the city can’t pay for the flowery words some elected officials throw into the air in their various yearly addresses.

And that’s where one paragraph of Ecklund’s State of the City makes the rest of the address make total sense: “Addressing the budgetary challenges facing our city is a top priority for our administration. Currently, our budget exceeds projections, necessitating decisive action to achieve balance. We have diligently worked to reduce overspending over the last several months and will continue to do so in the future.”

After seeing what has happened in Dunkirk over the past few months, Ecklund’s focus on the bottom line is needed. City residents need to know whether or not the type of financial pitfalls that have befallen our north county neighbors are going to hit Jamestown – a city that before the COVID-19 pandemic was on the verge of serious financial issues. Perhaps the most important thing Ecklund can do right now is make sure Jamestown doesn’t find itself relying on a state bailout loan if things weren’t properly accounted for over the past few years – and that’s a real possibility given the lack of a reliable presence in the city comptroller’s office during the second half of former Mayor Eddie Sundquist’s term.

The big goals can come later. First, Ecklund needs to make sure the city isn’t falling over a fiscal cliff that will cost taxpayers more of their hard-earned money.