PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

Monday, January 10, 2022 - 9:30 AM

** This meeting was held remotely **

Steve McNally, Chairperson

Ike Tyler, Vice-Chairperson

Vice-Chairman Tyler called this Public Safety Meeting to order at 9:30 am with the following Supervisors remotely in attendance: Clayton Barber, Robin DeLoria, Stephanie DeZalia, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Roy Holzer, Kenneth Hughes, Noel Merrihew, Jim Monty, Tom Scozzafava, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler Joe Pete Wilson, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Steve McNally was excused. Charlie Harrington was absent.

Department Heads present: Jim Dougan, Dan Palmer, Judy Garrison, Allison McGahay, Sue Montgomery-Corey, Daniel Woods, Max Thwaits, Heather Sheehan, Kristy Sprague and Miriam Hadden.

Also present: Holly Aquino, Bryse Taylor and Matt Quick

News Media: Tim Rowland – SUN

TYLER: Good morning everybody. We will salute the flag please. Veteran’s office, Mr. Merrihew no report. Anything to add? Is he here?

MERRIHEW: Yes, no report. Thank you Mr. Chairman.

TYLER: Thank you sir. County Sealer, Mr. Woods.

WOODS: I have nothing further to report.

TYLER: Anybody have anything for Mr. Woods? Moving on. Allison McGahay, Board of Elections and Sue Montgomery-Corey.

McGAHAY: Good morning.

MONTGOMERY-COREY: Good morning.

McGAHAY: We have a state wide conference scheduled for this month in Albany for all the State Election Commissioners, it was moved to March due to Covid concerns. I know everyone is probably waiting for the political calendar this year, so are we. We have not even received a draft from the State Board of Elections that’s because of the issues where they are redistricting right now. When the district lines are drawn I would image that we’ll probably be getting that calendar we, as Election Commissioners across the State are required to submit a number of enrolled voters per district by the third week of February to the State Board of Elections but we can’t do that without knowing where those lines are going to be drawn. Typically, we would be submitting petitions starting the first week of March, we’ve been told that if redistricting takes a while then that maybe pushed forward a bit but again, no official political calendar. Sue -

MONTGOMERY-COREY: The one thing we do know about is the primary which is set for June 28^th so we know about the primary that’s something we do know and we will be doing our Organizational meeting this afternoon by Zoom hopefully you all received the invitation if you’re interested in being on the call let us know and we’ll send you the link.

TYLER: Thank you very much. Anybody have any questions? Okay, Kristy Sprague, District Attorney. How are you doing today Kristy?

SPRAGUE: I’m doing well how are you? No real report other than trying to get full staffed, had a few interviews so hopefully we’ll keep our fingers crossed. Courts are up and running. Still waiting to hear in getting direction with the new Covid upticks so hopefully we will keep our courts open so we can keep things moving in a safe manner. So we’re plugging along. If anybody has any questions I’m here.

TYLER: Any questions? I don’t see any. Thank you Kristy, have a good day. Max Thwaits, Emergency Services.

THWAITS: Good morning. I have two resolutions today. The first one is a resolution authorizing Emergency Services to apply and accept the 2021 Statewide Interoperable Communications grant SICG21.

TYLER: Can I have a motion for that?

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE EMERGENCY SERVICES DEPARTMENT TO APPLY AND ACCEPT THE 2021 STATEWIDE INTEROPERABLE COMMUNICATIONS GRANT (SICG21.) Holzer, Hughes.

TYLER: Anymore discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried. Go ahead Max.

THWAITS: The second one is a resolution authorizing Essex County to enter into a five-year contract with the option to extend for another four years with Pictometry International for updating our county Eagle View flight imagery in an amount not to exceed $728,552.04.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A FIVE-YEAR CONTRACT AGREEMENT WITH THE OPTION TO EXTEND FOR ANOTHER FOUR YEARS; WITH PICTOMETRY INTERNATIONAL FOR UPDATING OUR COUNTY EAGLE VIEW FLIGHT IMAGERY IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $728,552.04. Hughes, Wright

TYLER: Any discussion?

SCOZZAFAVA: Dan, is this the same that you sent us the email on? The Pictometry and the parcels, I mean, is this the same thing program that we’re talking about here?

PALMER: Yes, it is. This is our, normally this occurs every five-years or so this is an agreement for nine years, a municipality can only enter into a five-year agreement so it’s a five-year with an option to renew for the additionally four-years. Typically, when we do this, we’ve done this for the last twenty years but typically when we do this it’s every, it’s around $400,000, for a five-year contract this is $728,000 for a nine-year contract now what the intent here would be is I’m going to ask that you take this from unreserved, unallocated funds and then move that into an H fund and as the project proceeds we’ll make the payments from that H fund. What that essentially does is it removes it into a reserve account that won’t impact your budgets in years coming because essentially we’re using it out of fund balance.

SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you.

TYLER: Anything else?

HOLZER: So Dan is this company shopped out? How do we go about hiring this company because this is a crazy amount of money?

PALMER: Yeah, no this is a GSA contract. It’s off of a contract, State and Federal Contract and we continue to use Pictometry because that’s all the software that we have in place is software from Pictometry. It would be more costly if you switched over but these are, these are GSA pricing and that’s and honestly it’s a pretty fair price. We were paying $400,000 for a five-year agreement s before so I think we are right in that same neighborhood in terms of that and the other benefit to this I guess is that we lock it in over a nine-year period in one contract.

HOLZER: Thank you.

THWAITS: Our first payment would be $365,926.

DOTY: Thank you. How often is data updated? I talked a little bit with folks here in the town that use the system probably as much as anyone in the county and different parcels come up as being vacant that are not that way anymore so I’m just wondering is this new nine year going to update all the data?

THWAITS: The last flight was 2017.

PALMER: So yeah, as you get the new fly over which we, the reason we’re doing this now is because we want to get that flyover done after the snow leaves and before the leaves come on and then once those images are done we will upload the new system. Now in terms of whether a piece is vacant or not vacant that’s really the Assessors within towns report that directly up to our Real Property Office so that’s part of the process but yeah. These images would update from all of the images we currently have on there.

DOTY: Thank you.

TYLER: Anybody else? All in favor signify by saying aye, opposed – carried. Max, anything else?

THWAITS: That’s all I have unless you have any questions.

TYLER: Any questions for Max? I’m not seeing any. Thank you Max.

THWAITS: Thank you.

TYLER: Mr. Reynolds, Sheriff’s office – I don’t see him on here, no report. Coroners – do we have any of those people here?

PALMER: I don’t see them.

TYLER: Probation, Ms. Sheehan.

SHEEHAN: Good morning everyone. You all have my report. I’m here if you have any questions?

TYLER: Anything? I don’t see anything Heather, thank you.

SHEEHAN: Thank you.

TYLER: Brandon Boutelle – I don’t see him on here. Conflict Defender, Miriam Hadden.

HADDEN: Good morning. I don’t have a report but if anybody has any questions I’m happy to answer those.

TYLER: Any questions? I don’t see any. Anything else to come before this committee? Nothing, we stand adjourned. Thank you.

As there was no further discussion to come before this Public Safety Committee, it was adjourned at 9:44 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors