By: Sarah Wright | Shelby-Utica News | Published January 14, 2026
UTICA — The city of Utica is considering relocating city facilities, as Plante & Moran PLLC will be studying the feasibility of this move and will provide a report on its findings to the City Council.
At the November City Council meeting, the council accepted the proposal submitted by Plante & Moran. The proposal included:
• Reviewing the city of Utica’s budgets and audited financial statements over the past several years to assess financial trends and opportunities.
• Conducting interviews with key stakeholders to understand priorities, constraints and potential areas for improvement.
• Identifying revenue-generating opportunities and cost-reduction strategies within current City operations.
• Evaluating the feasibility and impact of proposed options on the city’s ability to support debt service for relocation and redevelopment projects.
This will lead to a comprehensive report summarizing options, estimated financial benefits and strategic recommendations and later presenting the findings with steps to enhance fiscal capacity and support downtown revitalization goals.
At the November meeting, Utica Mayor Gus Calandrino originally voted no on this and Mayor Pro Tem Faith Terenzi was not present.
During the December meeting, the City Council voted on an amendment to the general fund budget, which increased by $18,000 the amount for consultants on special projects. Terenzi voted no, though the rest of the council voted in favor of the amendment.
“I was not here last month and I feel that this should have been waited on to be in the budget, because at the end of when we finished our budget, we had $61,912 of unassigned monies. . . . For us, that’s a lot of money, and last month we used $10,000 that had to go to the audit and that was a necessity, so we had to take out of that $61,000,” Terenzi said. “We’re already down to $51,000, and to use another $18,000 that’s not in the budget, I feel we should have waited for the budget. I’m in favor of Plante & Moran coming and doing the study. I feel that it’s great for our city; I just don’t feel that this is the right time.”
Calandrino agreed with Terenzi on this matter, though he voted in favor of the amendment.
“I was the lone ‘no’ vote on this for similar reasons as Mayor Pro Tem Terenzi mentioned,” Calandrino said. “I’m all for it. I realize if we want to move the city forward, especially our downtown area, there’s things that we have to do. Personally, I thought that it was more prudent to wait and budget it for the next fiscal year. It would also give us the opportunity to have more in-depth discussions among council members and also to get feedback from the public about how we spend their tax dollars.”
This feasibility project is estimated to take approximately 65 to 80 hours and should be completed within the next year.
For more information, visit cityofutica.org.