PERSONNEL - COMMITTEE

Wednesday, March 23, 2022 - 10:00 AM

Stephanie DeZalia, Chairperson

Joe Pete Wilson, Vice-Chairperson

Chairwoman DeZalia called this Personnel Meeting to order at 10:00 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Robin DeLoria, Stephanie DeZalia, Shaun Gillilland, Ken Hughes, Steve McNally, Noel Merrihew, James Monty, Matt Stanley, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Charlie Harrington, Roy Holzer, Tom Scozzafava and Davina Winemiller was excused. Derek Doty was absent.

Department Heads present: Jim Dougan, Judy Garrison, Dan Manning and Dan Palmer. Jennifer Mascarenas was excused.

Also present: Erica Sadowski, Bill Tansey and Alice Halloran.

News Media: Sun News – Tim Rowland.

DEZALIA: I will call the Personnel and Administrative committee to order and we’ll start with the Personnel Officer and I see Jen’s not here, so we have Erica here today. Did anyone have anything for Erica today?

MONTY: Just curious Erica, since things are loosening up with the pandemic are we seeing any increase in all in interest in any jobs?

SADOWSKI: Well, not really. I mean, we continue, Jaime Douglass she’s doing I feel, a wonderful job getting the postings out on social media, word of mouth – not so much, it depends on the departments if they want to advertise in papers but we’re doing a lot via Facebook and now we’re up and running getting our continuous recruitment exams back every six months so we are giving those next week, we also have been giving them in our office having people scheduled to come in to try to help with the urgency with like Social Services for the caseworkers and such. We’re starting now, the State is back up and trying to get caught back up on exams and such which will also help with that but we’re not seeing now that things are let up.

MONTY: Thank you. I just kind of thought since the pandemic was winding down we might see an increase of people trying to get back into the workforce.

SADOWSKI: Yup, we’re not seeing a big difference yet. Yet. Hopefully.

MONTY: Thank you.

DEZALIA: Anything else? Anyone? No? Okay, thank you Erica.

SADOWSKI: Thank you.

DEZALIA: Next up would be Judy.

GARRISON: Good morning. I submitted my regular, monthly report and I do have one resolution. I gave everyone a copy of it. It’s a resolution accepting and placing on file the 2021 Workers’ Comp. Self-Insurance annual report.

RESOLUTION ACCEPTING AND PLACING ON FILE THE 2021 WORKERS’ COMP. SELF-INSURANCE ANNUAL REPORT. Hughes, Wilson

DEZALIA: Thank you. Any questions on that? All in favor, so moved. Thank you Judy. Anything else for Judy? No? Thank you.

GARRISON: Thank you.

DEZALIA: Dan?

MANNING: I just have a couple housekeeping resolutions. As everybody knows, from time to time I’m called upon to represent the towns in various matters Article 7, tax sale proceedings, doggie law proceedings, contracts, deeds, various miscellaneous things and the board has authorized that but there’s been no real formal resolution so I think it would be appropriate if we formally pass a resolution that allows me to continue, my office excuse me, to continue to represent the towns when not in conflict with the town or county work so I would ask for a resolution authorizing the county attorney’s office to provide representation and legal advice to the towns of Essex County on town matters when not in conflict of interest to county pursuant to county law 501(3) and 501(4) which basically are duties of the County Attorney, that section sets forth County Attorney laws and also states that section three and four I can do whatever additional work the board authorizes and sub 4 says I can do any work for the towns provided it’s not in conflict.

TYLER: Real quick Dan, that’s not you, it’s out of your office?

MANNING: Myself or Bill Tansey.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY ATTORNEY'S OFFICE TO PROVIDE REPRESENTATION AND LEGAL ADVICE TO TOWNS OF ESSEX COUNTY ON TOWN MATTERS WHEN NOT IN CONFLICT WITH INTEREST TO THE COUNTY, PURSUANT TO COUNTY LAW SECTION 501(3) AND 504(4). Stanley, Barber

DEZALIA: All in favor, thank you.

MANNING: The second resolution is as you all know, we contracted with the various towns to provide EMT, advanced EMT services and to pay for equipment pursuant to request. We have certain contracts that are set to expire, I would like to ask that we pass a resolution. These contracts are only for a one-year period; I think it would be prudent if we made them for a five-year period and what I’ve done is I’ve changed them a little bit to provide three separate areas that the county will provide the funding under its new program for EMT’s and advance EMT’s upon a request by letter or agreement or a letter of authorization from the town or emergency services group that represents the town and that way we don’t have to keep redoing the agreement, that’s one aspect, the second aspect is they’ll provide funding for equipment again, pursuant to a letter of authorization, the third is that they will provide intercept a fly car provided pursuant to a letter of authorization so this would be a master agreement for a five-year period that says we’ll provide these things to you, has all the nuts and bolts as to how it should happen but it’s got to be by separate letter of authorization so every time a town would want something we would just have this blank letter of authorization, sign it up, we agree to it and then away you go. We don’t have to keep amending the contract, it’s just driving me nuts there’s a lot of towns so I think we would approve to proceeding this way. I’ve run it by Rob Wick and Max and they seem to feel it’s fine so would I would like is a resolution authorizing the extension of all agreements for the provision of EMT, advanced EMT, payment for equipment and fly car use for a five-year term between the County of Essex and the various towns with further provision that the County Chairman or County Manager be given authority to execute any and all letters of authorization or contracts.

DELORIA: Steph, I’ve got a question. I’m not on the committee. I am the Chair of the EMS committee Dan, for towns like Newcomb that just began a contract for us to get into a five-year contract, wouldn’t that over – this maybe different for the town that may be just getting into it because based on the town that are –

MANNING: Yeah, I think I would have you sign a new one because the agreement you have right now I don’t believe, but I’m not sure it doesn’t apply to a fly car.

DELORIA: It doesn’t but we’re right now our reimbursement is all with the grant program and then next year it’s going to be an entirely different contract, is it not because you won’t be providing the funding for the wages.

MANNING: That I don’t know.

DELORIA: Dan, you following me on that?

PALMER: Yeah.

DELORIA: Newcomb just got into it, the other contracts that are going to expire I understand.

PALMER: But I think that’s built into the contract language that at a certain point in the process the county begins to pay the benefits you pay the wages.

DELORIA: Right. Just for Newcomb if you can keep that in mind because we don’t fall under a five-year contract that you are going to renew for someone’s that is about to expire if we just got into ours.

MANNING: Yes, just the process is different and it’s by letter of authorization so if you don’t want something –

DELORIA: Well, we wouldn’t be able to able for anything until after we fulfill the first term of the contract anyway.

MANNING: Right but we could, we would – the contract would say the same thing as your contract now, it would just supersede what you got and then it would have a provision for letters of authorization.

DELORIA: I don’t know if it would because under the new contract we are actually reimbursing the county for the wages –

PALMER: You could define what year that occurs.

DELORIA: That’s true too.

MANNING: Maybe your contract is different.

DELORIA: I just wanted to point that out.

PALMER: You could define in there when that occurs.

MANNING: Okay, sounds good.

MONTY: Where there is two communities that share the service, both communities need to sign a contract is that correct?

MANNING: It depends on how you’re set up. If two communities are using, yes, I would say yes.

MONTY: Because I have a contract and Noel has a contract independent contracts we share with one service.

MANNING: Right.

MONTY: So those communities should have to sign a contract agreeing to the use of the program I guess I should say?

MANNING: Yes.

GILLILLAND: That is what Essex and Willsboro do, they one contract.

MANNING: I will check it and see what we got but I would like it to be two contracts.

DEZALIA: That would be the case with Schroon Lake and North Hudson too because we share.

MANNING: I think they are separate.

McNALLY: A five-year contract would extend past the actual grant money we have correct? There is a closure on that.

DELORIA: Termination date, that’s what we were talking about.

McNALLY: Right, and as of now I haven’t seen or have no funding source for fringe and everything after this grant and I think if we are going to extend these contracts five years we should have a funding source at least set up, we’re trying to tackle this I understand but we need to have a funding source set up for the next five years.

MANNING: Well, there’s reference to the grant in it and when the grant terminates, I don’t know how long the grant is going to be? Was it two years I think? And then there is a termination clause in the agreement.

McNALLY: Not that I want the program to end after the initial grant but we need to have a funding source for this rather it be a county wide taxing district or some kind of an agreement.

PALMER: Well, at this point I had planned on it being a budget item for the county but once we reach that we know about what it will take to run the program as I had talked about previously with the board, we’re coming to the end of the jail bond and the radio project bond, that frees up budget money that I think I can fit this program in under the budget without having an impact to the levy based upon that reduction and what we are payi8njg in bonds now because our jail bond and our radio project bond are both scheduled to end in 2024 or ’23, something like that.

MANNING: And the agreement does say, subject to availability of funds on each of the three sub sections EMT’s, equipment and fly car.

PALMER: And again, I don’t want people to think that we’re just going to arbitrarily decide this obviously you know, when we get to that point and we propose a tentative budget within that tentative budget is going to be funding for various programs but it is specifically for this EMS program you would as a board, would have to consider how we were going to fund based upon what the levy looks like at that point.

DELORIA: And as we discussed in committee, this is incentivizing the program where it’s actually going to save the towns but you’re going to make sure you have the man power manning the ambulance calls so it’s all about the time basically that we have in the State program that got us started so it’s simply.

STANLEY: How is this going to work with like the Ausable Forks ambulance service which goes into Clinton County and also Chesterfield with the Keeseville emergency that goes and is in Clinton County?

MANNING: That I don’t know. I received a request from Emergency Services to do with the contract for Town of Jay/the Ausable Forks Volunteer Ambulance Corporation. The way the new law, they revised Section 121 of the General County Municipal Law which provided and now there is something going through Legislature similar which provided that we need to contract with both Town of Jay and anybody you contract with and anybody else on the same page so I don’t know, that would be something you might want to work out between Jay and Black Brook if you’re paying for anything but other than that, I don’t know –

PALMER: Well, again I think it goes back to you, the process that’s been used up to this date is that Supervisors who either need a service or want a service go back to the EMS committee that Shaun had formed and there’s discussion at that meeting on how to go forward, a resolution comes out of that meeting to go to the full board for consideration for any changes that may occur within the program based upon that EMS discussion. It isn’t like Max, or myself or any of the county administrators are going to decide what’s done it’s really decided at that EMS level what services are going to be offered and what we can afford to provide.

GILLILLAND: We don’t have the authority currently to form a district and a EMS district within the county or county wide or a major portion thereof, so it comes out of the general fund to pay for county services. So as Dan eluded it’s been structured in order to, that there’s no change to the total levy so there’s no increase impact upon taxpayers for this from what has been gone on in the past because we don’t have authority to do the countywide district so a town cannot opt out of the general fund so, and also it is a countywide system so if any town, no matter where they are is not going to be told oh, you’re from this town and you’re not part of this so we’re not going to take care of you. Currently there is a piece of legislation in the legislature, it’s not what we wanted precisely because Mr. Stec wrote it his own way but it does allow in there for within the Adirondack Park the formation of countywide ambulance districts or emergency medical services districts. If that gets approved and passed into law, then we would be able to form a separate taxing district for EMS services. It is to our great advantage because a benefit of this is we have a reach for more revenue from properties that currently would be excluded from the general fund so, that would be an advantage now what do we do, if it goes through and it’s authorized and this board says form the district then we’ve got to go through the whole local law subject to, we have to have a public hearing but is that subject to public referendum?

MANNING: Yes, the law is not the way I would have written it either but yeah, a public hearing and then the board has to make a determination whether it’s public interest.

GILLILLAND: But if we form the district and some towns decide that they do not want to play in that district then they would be able to opt out of doing that but I will tell you, that the beauty of what we have formed here is the fact that if anything falls out, any service falls out it’s incumbent upon the county to continue to provide the service to that town so, if like the Town of Black Brook or Ausable suddenly folds one day, and it’s happened in many counties around the State where the EMS Director gets a call and said, we’re done in a certain town okay, when will you be done? We’ve already pulled out. You know, those things do happen and they happen basically around the State and it is an unfortunate regularity so that’s why we built the structure so that we own property and those services if a town has opted out of the structure, then that doesn’t happen and if you want in, three, four, five years down that probably the board is going to say you’re going to have to buy in to make it fair.

MANNING: And just for edification this contract has to happen because we do not have legislation allowing us to form a district so, 121, we can enter into inter municipal agreements with various towns and the service providers they have so that’s why we do this. I can change this to one-year again, it’s just doing eighteen of these or how many we do is just a pain in the neck but one-year is fine so I will do that.

DELORIA: And the fact that it comes out of the general revenue now is an expense, one of the things that we talked about prior to you coming on the board is that there’s a lot of programs offered by the county through the county tax levy such as Social Services or providing medical cars and things of this nature, County Sheriff we’re kind of offset, we don’t participate in any of that however we do contribute greatly to that I think we’re like five on the list of high contributors in lobby money so it’s about eighteen towns having this taxing district and making it worth the effort for everyone so, it’s a project.

DEZALIA: Okay, thank you. Nothing further on that, so are you putting that resolution through as a one-year?

MANNING: Yes.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRMAN OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A ONE-YEAR MASTER AGREEMENT WITH THE COUNTY OF ESSEX AND THE VARIOUS TOWNS OF ESSEX COUNTY ON THE PROVISION OF ADVANCED EMT PAYMENT, EQUIPMENT AND FLY CAR USE. Merrihew, Wright

DEZALIA: Any more questions or anything on that? All in favor, aye – thank you.

MANNING: That’s it.

DEZALIA: Does anybody else have anything to come before this board committee?

WRIGHT: One question Dan, different subject matter, do you have the status on the county agreement with Ti Alliance and the subsequent closure of the Hacker property?

MANNING: I’m starting work, Sandy Morehouse has contacted me by email a couple of times, I haven’t gotten back to him a couple weeks ago but I’ve got a trial coming up next week, I’ve got stuff on my plate but we’re working on it and I think we will have it done sooner rather than later but we’ve revised the contract and will have it done by August 1^st, we’ll have it done before but with the new changes to the foreclosure laws I have to make sure I have every I is dotted and every t is crossed. Thanks.

PALMER: I just have one thing, we’ve got a few minutes here so I thought maybe, I’ve been getting calls from town on the American Recovery Funds reporting requirements that are coming up at the end of April. I talked to the auditors, they have availability the week of April 11^th and what I thought we could do is ask the board, set up a date on that week, have the board come in and bring in your financial people and have your questions answered directly by the auditing firm as to the process of reporting under the American Recovery Act and any questions you may have related to spending of the Act.

GILLILLAND: What date is that?

PALMER: It’s the week of April 11^th I haven’t gotten back to them yet on which day. I didn’t know whether it would be preferable for the board to meet, you know they can’t do it Monday morning but they could do it either later in the day or on a separate day during that week so that’s kind of what I’m trying to get a flavor from you as to whether you would prefer to make a separate trip in on Wednesday or something just to meet with them and bring their financial people with you. It’s really up to you guys.

DELORIA: Just a quick question, any of the towns set up that IDME account for this filing? Did you have trouble with doing it?

MONTY: I still can’t do it.

DELORIA: That’s a big problem because they are pushing it.

PALMER: I know they are; they are pushing it. I actually had to set it up here for the county myself, I had to actually take a photo and send it.

DELORIA: Yes, I did for me but I haven’t done one for the town, I’m sure there’s going to be a conflict there. I haven’t done it yet. I did one for me because I needed to know what my stimulus check amount was because I didn’t have it written down so I had to do one of these at least now when I do an IDME for the town I’m really uncertain what is going to happen?

PALMER: Yeah, I think you can do it. I have two. I have one for myself and I have one for the county and really the only difference that drove that sign up was a different email so in other words, when I did the IDME for myself I did it with my own personal email when I did for the town I did it the county’s email, countymanager@ so when I did that IDME it was -

DELORIA: Very good I will do that this week because I’ve been pushing that back. Thank you.

PALMER: The other thing you have to have is the SAMS number, you have to register with a SAMS number, I think a lot of you may already have those numbers. I know that Community Resources has always worked with you in developing that with any of the Federal money that you get, you need that SAMS ID and that’s a renewable thing you have to do on a yearly basis. So, yeah, if you want to pick a day I mean, I certainly can do that. Like I said, the only day they said on that week they couldn’t do was early Monday so if we want to do an off day we can do that it’s whatever you guys prefer.

HUGHES: Wednesday morning?

PALMER: Wednesday work?

DEZALIA: The 13^th?

PALMER: Okay, so let’s do that. I’ll get back to them and set it up for Wednesday the 13^th, maybe starting at 9:00 or something. I’ll see when they come in but maybe they’ll want it later but I’m not sure but I think this will give you and your financial people an opportunity to ask them questions and go through the process.

DELORIA: One other question, we received half of the first allotment from the Feds and the other half is coming sometime in June so essentially what I’m going to be reporting is what I spent on the first round?

PALMER: Right.

DELORIA: And indicating where that went and whatnot?

PALMER: Yes.

DELORIA: With the county funding, that has to be spent this year?

PALMER: No.

DELORIA: It doesn’t?

PALMER: No we are pretty much the same obviously we’re not any of you but yeah, we still have up to the December 2024 date to spend and it doesn’t matter if you spend it all in the first half or whether you spend it in the second half.

HUGHES: And when it comes reporting that money for the county you guys are on a different timeline than the towns are?

PALMER: They switched it. We were originally. We were actually due January 31, I went in to get ready to do it and couldn’t get it to work and so then I actually called the auditors and they said, oh, don’t worry about that the Feds switched it. They switched anybody that got less than $10 million they changed the reporting date to April 31^st.

HUGHES: Now if we spend any of the county money by that April deadline you need to know that information prior to that deadline?

PALMER: Yes.

HUGHES: Okay thank you.

DEZALIA: Anything else? Alright we’re adjourned. Thank you.

As there was no further discussion to come before this Personnel Committee it was adjourned at 10:25 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors