By JIMMY LAWTON

OGDENSBURG – Ogdensburg will need to reduce staffing levels before it will be eligible for assistance from the Department of State and the comptroller’s office.

In a public update to the city council, City Manager Sarah Purdy said she met with the officials to discuss Ogdensburg’s financial challenges at a recent New York Conference of Mayors meeting.

Purdy said the city’s struggle is known to many officials already. Last year the city was contacted by the comptroller’s office after the city considered borrowing $1 million to close a budget gap. It was later determined that the process was not legal.

In the end the city was forced to raise the property tax rate by more than 13 percent.

“I was encouraged by the fact that several of them already are aware of our financial status. The conclusion from these discussions is that the city needs to conduct more rightsizing before it can receive assistance from these departments. Over the next several weeks we will need to discuss what measures can be taken now, in the 2017 budget, to continue the rightsizing process,” she said in the update.

The term “rightsizing” is used by businesses to describe eliminating staff to an efficient level.

The idea to reduce staffing sizes isn’t new for Ogdensburg, and Purdy has stated that the city hopes to do this through attrition rather than layoffs.

In an address to the council earlier this year Purdy was clear that any open positions would be scrutinized before being filled to ensure they are necessary. She also said the city will work to identify positions that can be combined to find additional savings. The city has already combined some duties.