REGULAR BOARD MEETING
Monday, June 7, 2004
George Canon, Chairman
Noel Merrihew, Vice-Chairman
Vice-Chairman Merrihew called this Regular Board Meeting to order at 10:00 AM with a salute to the flag. Upon roll-call, the following Supervisors were found in attendance: Robert Ashline, Jeanne Ashworth, Thomas Both, Daniel Connell, Robert Dedrick, Robert Dobie, Randy Douglas, Dale French, Anthony Glebus, Ronald Jackson, Joseph Kelly, Noel Merrihew, Joyce Morency, Gerald Morrow, Cathy Moses, Thomas Scozzafava and Shirley Seney. (George Canon had been previously excused).
Department Heads present were: Fred Buck, Cliff Donaldson, Henry Hommes, Rick Meyer and Debbie Palmer.
Also present were: John Bernardi-ACAP; Barbara Papineau-ACAP; Kevin Defayette-ACAP; Daniel Wachowski-ACAP; Barbara Allen-ACAP and Alan Jones-ACAP.
News Media present were: Patricia Storm-WIPS Radio; Whitney Jackson-Denton Publications and Lohr McKinstry-Press Republican.
MERRIHEW: Good morning, I will call this Regular Board Meeting to order. Please join me in a salute to the flag and remain standing please for a moment of silence in honor of President Reagan. Thank you.
We will start today with our guest on the agenda, Mr. John Bernardi from ACAP.
BERNARDI: Thank you and good morning. I would first like to thank the entire Board of Supervisors for having us here this morning, this has become an annual visit for us where we are able to come and bring new developments and annual updates if you will to the board’s attention in an effort to keep our good communications and good relationship with the county government strong and vital like it always has been. We take a great deal of pride in our agency so we appreciate the fact to be here today and to talk about some of the great things that we are doing. Most of you have heard our presentation at least once, probably several times, so some of it will be repetitive but I think there are some key points we would like to put out there nonetheless. As you know we are a private non-profit 501C3 organization. We have been in business since 1965. As you know we are a community action agency, we are one of over 1000 such agency’s nationwide, some of our immediate neighbors are JCEO of Clinton County and ComLinks of Franklin County, they are also community action agency’s and we partner with them in various ways. We are also a United Way member agency and we receive funds from the United Way specially to fund some of our community serviced programs, those are our food shelves which we have a network of throughout the county, we also provide homeless assistance and emergency utilities and again the United Way funds these and we are meeting those needs. We are also an agency who takes great pride in our collaborations and partnerships and we have many of them including some very, very important partnerships with county government. As you know we contract to provide a myriad of services on behalf of the county under contract and again we take great pride in that. We are a mission driven organization, we are rooted in fighting poverty, community action was borne under Linden Johnson, the war on poverty, and has been going strong ever since in fact this is the 40th year of community action even though ACAP was started in 1965, the community action network was established in 1964, we are celebrating our 40th year.
While our mission is rooted in fighting poverty we have expanded into meeting the needs of the community regardless of income guidelines, many of our programs continue to be driven by income guidelines but many are not. For example, we are operating after school programs in Moriah and in Crown Point where there are no income guidelines so that is an example of meeting the needs of the community without necessarily focusing on income guidelines and low income individuals; however again, that is the root of our mission.
Our agency’s evolve with the needs of the community, we are currently conducting a community needs assessment with partners from throughout the county, mostly human service providers, including several of the county department heads who are sitting on our task force to complete this community needs assessment. Most of us know what the needs of the people are, however, it is important to get good current information so that we can design our programs accordingly and we are in the process of doing that.
A little bit more about our agency, we have multiple sites throughout the county, we are represented in some way in all 18 townships. We have 150 staff roughly and like everyone else we have had to take some reductions in funding and to do more with less and that seems to be the trend right now and we are sort of weathering the storm if you will and we are continuing to be effective and strong in providing our services despite some temporary setbacks.
I have asked the department heads from our agency to be present to talk a little bit about some of the specifics of their department. In our Aging Services Department, Barb Papineau is the department head there. Child and Family Services, the department head is Kevin Defayette. Community Services, I talked a little bit about and I serve as the department head there. Employment and Training, Dan Wachowski. Weatherization and Energy Assistance, Barb Allen. I have also asked our Director of Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer, Alan Jones to be here as well and so they are going to say a few words too if that is okay.
PAPINEAU: Good morning, it is nice to be here, thank you. Aging Services, the department that I manage, consists of three different programs. The first is our beloved nutrition program, we continue to put out about 700 meals a day. The nutrition program has two components, the nutrition sites and home delivered meals. I know you are familiar with our nutrition sites of course, there are 12 sites plus a brand new one, a 13th one in Wilmington which I think is going very well. I would like to describe to you our home delivered meals programs at this time whereby more than 650 different elderly receive the meals each year, there is no income criteria for that program either. The meals that I am talking about, the meal plan - the first meal plan that is available for the elderly is a traditional noon time meal, Meals on Wheels. The second plan would be the evening bag or the supper bag. The third meal would be the weekend bag, the weekend bag consists of frozen entrees that we prepare in our kitchen ourselves and we deliver these to the elderly on Friday afternoon. The fourth meal plan is a dinner box and the fifth is a breakfast box, these grocery boxes consist of raw foods, food for 7 dinners or food for 7 breakfast that the elderly can prepare themselves, this obviously contributes to the elderly’s ability to maintain an independent lifestyle in their own home. With doctors orders, by the way, we are also able to provide special diets for our clients, these special diets include low fat, low sodium, lot cholesterol, pureed or ground and we also prepare these meals ourselves from scratch. We are able to do this, the volume and the quality of the meals, we are able to do this because of the great staff that we have in the nutrition program and I thank each and every one of our employees every single day for the hard work they put into this.
Aging Services, I talked about the nutrition program, the second component in the Aging Services Department in ACAP is the Title V program, this along with the Nutrition Program is operated on a contractual basis with funding coming from the Essex County Office of Aging. Title V itself is under the federal Older Americans Act, it is a relatively quiet program at this time with three low income elderly working at three nutrition sites but I think I can say with all the talk about the baby boomers turning 60 in the year 2015, at the forefront of these discussions will be the need for employment for older workers and it is indeed a priority at this time with ACAP, we are working hard now to begin to develop and find positions for older workers so you will be hearing more about this initiative.
Our third program in Aging Services is the rural transportation program, this program in one form or another has been in existence in Essex County for 20, probably 30 years. Mrs. Elizabeth Schubert probably 30 years ago developed the voluntary transportation center and she utilized volunteer drivers, today we have RSVP. I am also pleased to say that this program is partially funded by a grant now, for two years, by United Way of Clinton and Essex County’s. This transportation program is a great service in Essex County and it depends upon the private auto, it is the private automobile that is providing these services, volunteer drivers transport the elderly to their doctors appointment be it Burlington, Glens Falls or Plattsburgh and we are doing about 30 trips per month, a tremendous service. That is the Aging Services Department within ACAP and I thank you.
MERRIHEW: Thank you.
DEFAYETTE: Good morning, I am Kevin Defayette, the Director of Child and Family Services at the Adirondack Community Action Program. There are six different programs in the department so I will be brief. We have recently wrapped up our after school programs in Willsboro and Moriah and are excited to add Schroon Lake and Westport schools to our roster this fall. Our child care start up in resource and referral program continues to work with providers throughout the county. Family development is in its 10th year of operation as we support individuals and families in their pursuit of self-sufficiency. Head start continues to provide comprehensive early childhood development services to 135 children and their families throughout the county. We are pleased to maintain a strong and productive partnership with Champlain Valley Educational Services while jointly operating the Even Star program serving children and their families with home based literacy services. That leaves me with Stepping Stones, our fee for service community pre-school whom we are currently considering a future for while taking a look at enrollment as well as the needs of the community.
Are there any questions on these programs. Thank you. I also just want to call attention to the fact that I am very happy to be here today, thank you for the opportunity and I am also very happy to work with such a talented team of professionals at ACAP, it has made by six years here fly right by. Thank you.
WACHOWSKI: Good morning, Dan Wachowski from Employment and Training. We have a couple of different programs that go on with Employment and Training, one is the Career Opportunity Center and that serves our DSS contracts. A couple of things that go on, we do the assessments for the Dept. of Social Services and that includes the assessment for food stamps, the assessments for the cash programs as well as the assistance for the safety net programs. When posting cash you have to work off those grants, we also run the job readiness and work readiness programs and what that means is we are going to prepare these folks to get back into the work force. We have employment specialists that provide very skilled training requirements, they prep folks into soft skills, back to work, dress appearance - all the things that folks need to get back to work, we help them get to that next level. Once they are ready we help them find a job, we do resume service. We put all the components together, we put that puzzle together for them, get them work ready, get them job ready and find them a job and then we provide follow care with the post employment program. The post employment program is a great follow up mechanism for us to afford the opportunity to our clients to just move forward and just continue services until they are comfortable and once they are comfortable and ready to roll and happy with their job and happy with everything that is going on, we back off a little bit and say okay it is time, if you need some more help come on back and we will be more than happy to lend you a hand.
A recent addition to our program structure is wheels to work and it is really great. Essex County is in dire need of transportation and this program is primarily focused for folks who are in the work force but have a need for transportation, they just don’t have adequate transportation to get to and from work. There are very strict requirements to get into the program but once the folks are in, qualified and the selections are made the program provides a vehicle, a relatively late model vehicle to the individual so they can do that back and forth work and gain that super employment.
Another part of the One Work Source Program, ACAP is very proud to be the host organization for the One Workshop, One Work Source here in Essex County, that is funded by the Workforce Investment Act, it is a federal program run down at the state level and we are part of a tri-county network, Clinton, Essex, Franklin County, to provide employment and training services for folks who are unemployed or underemployed - it is a great program.
As far as partnerships, we partner with the NYS Dept. of Labor, North Country Community College, the VESID folks who are the folks with vocational and education services for individuals with disabilities, we also partner up with Champlain Valley Educational Service and the North Country Center for Independent Living so all these programs come together to provide services for folks that are either unemployed or underemployed. We also work with the dislocated worker population, these are folks that have been laid off through a massive lay off or they have been outsourced, their program has gone away due to technology and we provide programs that get them back into the work force by on the job training or many different mechanisms as well as the possibility of going back to school for a level of college if there is money available.
As far as other programs that are out there, they are many with ACAP. Thank you.
ALLEN: Good morning everyone, my name is Barb Allen and I am the Director of Weatherization and Energy Assistance. We are committed to reduce heating and cooling costs to low income families and elderly in Essex County, people with disabilities and children. We are approve the energy efficiency of these homes and ensure the health and safety and how we do this is by inspecting the homes with heating and cooling equipment. Under our current contract our goal is to weatherize at least 80 homes in Essex County this year and we did that also last year, most of our deliverables are done by in-house professional trained staff and we are required to be certified in different areas.
Just as a footnote of interest, the NYS Weatherization Program is the largest in the country and every county in New York State has a presence. ACAP also offers other energy services through a couple of programs which include the weatherization network initiative and the assisted home performance energy star and these programs are a result of a joint venture and collaboration with three other county’s - Clinton County, St. Lawrence County and Franklin County - funding is being provided by the New York State Energy and Research Development.
We also partnership with utility company’s and this program will provide energy efficiency services and energy education to eligible low income customers of Niagara Mohawk and also NYSEG and this program is sponsored and supported by funding from the utility company’s.
Lastly, I would like to extend to everyone here if they would like to see first hand the services that we provide, you are more than welcome to spend a day with us and go into the homes and see what we do, just give me a call and we will set up a date. Thank you.
JONES: Good morning. As John mentioned my name is Alan Jones and I am the Director of Business Affairs and Chief Financial Officer with ACAP. My areas of responsibility include, but I guarantee are not limited to, accounts payable, accounts receivable, budgeting, human resources, benefits administration, contracts administration and I work with 5 dedicated staff to ensure the fiscal stability of our agency. Thank you.
BERNARDI: As you know we have provided a packet of information for everyone so take that with you and feel free to review it and call us if you have any questions, comments or concerns. Are there any questions, comments or concerns at this point?
ASHWORTH: Of course I just wanted to be first to say thank you and it seems like we shouldn’t have anybody who is cold, hungry or without a job in Essex County. You are doing a lot of good work and I would like to thank Barbara for her work in the nutrition site in Wilmington, it has brought a lot of warmth and energy and we are working hard to get the word out about that and get as many people as possible to come. Thank you.
GLEBUS: I would also like to thank John and his staff for doing such a fantastic job. I know anytime I have had a question about anything that happens in Lewis, if I pick up the phone and call John and his staff they are always right there ready, willing and able to help you out in any way that they can and if they can’t they will put you in touch with somebody else that does have the possibility of helping you, therefore, the people who are leading this organization are great people, they are very knowledgeable people, they do a fantastic job and meet the needs in the county force and I think it is just great what you are doing - continue with your good work.
BERNARDI: Thank you, we appreciate that.
DOUGLAS: I just want to reiterate what my two colleagues just said - ACAP is a wonderful program, they go out of their way to make sure that every service they have listed they provide and any questions you have there is a quick response, if you call there within an hour they are back with a response trying to help. Numerous times this past winter I have used their support and this program is near and dear to my heart, my Grandfather helped create this program way back in 1965 along with Alice Beckel from Lake Placid and you guys do a wonderful job.
JACKSON: I would just like to echo that, you folks do a great job of helping a wide assortment of people, mainly the low income and the seniors but it is not limited to that. I try to go over to the senior center half a dozen times a year, the food is always very good, the people there are happy with it and they are well nourished, balanced meals and I think you folks do a great job.
BERNARDI: Thank you very much.
DEDRICK: It sounds like a tape recording - I am certainly going to jump on the band wagon John, the two years that I have been Supervisor and as Dan mentioned, because you are an umbrella organization you provide so many services to the residents of the county it is incredible. I have worked with several of you in the last two years and I want to again echo what Kevin said, the professionalism of your department heads and you John is just exemplary and I certainly want to thank you not just from me being from the Town of Ticonderoga but from the residents of Essex County.
BERNARDI: Thank you, we appreciate that.
SENEY: I just want to say that the adding of the evening meal has been a tremendously great success in North Elba, it is amazing the people that don’t come to the noon meal that come to the evening meal, it has encouraged more and more people to get out. I know we have a problem with finding a spot right now for Head Start but be assured that we are looking and I will keep both of you posted. You are a great group and we are fortunate to have you - thank you.
SCOZZAFAVA: I am certain that each and every one of us feel the same way about your organization so I am going to move a resolution of appreciation to ACAP for all that they do for the people of this county.
RESOLUTION #136 - OF APPRECIATION TO THE ADIRONDACK COMMUNITY ACTION PROGRAMS, INC. (ACAP) FOR ALL THEY DO FOR THE RESIDENTS OF ESSEX COUNTY.
This was offered by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded unanimously.
MERRIHEW: Unanimous second - thank you. Any further comments?
BERNARDI: I really appreciate that, thank you very much. I also appreciate all of your support, individually and collectively, it has really helped us. We have a lot of support from the county government and the county officials and so it is a collaboration and a partnership and so I want to express our appreciation to all of you as well.
MERRIHEW: Thank you and thank you to your staff members as well.
Being as there are no other guests on the agenda we will move to resolutions.
RESOLUTION #123 - CONGRATULATING NICOLE BRYANT ON BEING ELECTED AS CHAIRPERSON OF THE NEW YORK STATE CONFERENCE OF LOCAL MENTAL HYGIENE DIRECTORS.
This was offered by Mr. Jackson, seconded unanimously and adopted.
RESOLUTION #124 - AUTHORIZING APPOINTMENTS AND CHANGES TO POSITIONS IN COUNTY SERVICE.
This was offered by Ms. Seney, seconded by Mr. Glebus and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2173 votes
NOES: 631 votes (Kelly, Scozzafava, Morency, Connell)
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
MERRIHEW: Discussion?
CONNELL: I am still not going to support this for the reasons I stated at Ways and Means. It seems in a number of these we tend to get into a discussion of the individual, I don’t know the individual, but I don’t think that matters because what we are really talking about is the position and not individual people and this person may be doing an excellent job I just have a problem with these coming up at this time of year, I think they need to be done through the budgetary process and for that reason I am going to vote no.
KELLY: As I expressed at both Ways and Means and at the initial committee meeting, I agree with Dan Connell, this was brought up at budget time and it was rejected and then the position actually was changed in order to add responsibilities in order to achieve the same goal that wasn’t achieved at budget time. As I pointed out, I certainly could agree to pass this and make it effective as of budget year 2005 and have the department head budget that increase into 2005's budget but I can’t support this at this time.
MORENCY: Even though I know why I should because of the duties I am not going to either and I think we have to be extremely careful through the rest of the year when a department head comes to us and says they have money in their budget to support something, well that something is always going to be in next years budget so the budget officers hands are tied before he even gets to that point so I think we just really have to look at things carefully all through the year - I have always said that but especially now. I am going to vote no again.
SCOZZAFAVA: I think Mr. Scozzafava said it well and that is the fact that I don’t believe that there is anyone on this board that doesn’t feel that this individual is entitled, they did the evaluation on the position and the extra duties and so on but again this should have been discussed at budget time, we have adopted the 2004 budget with those salaries in place and I just think the timing on this is wrong and so I can not support it either and I will request a roll-call vote on this.
MERRIHEW: It will be. I also had those same feelings at committee and Ways and Means. At that time the County Attorney did explain the consequences of someone working out of title at the time so I kind of concur with the feelings and the nay votes right now and the possible problem that is created by a department head allowing a position to assume or relays extra duties to that position that gets us in this type of situation where we are either illegally having someone work out of title so possibly it is a top down problem that we need to address.
ASHLINE: This was brought up at budget time and I don’t know whether Dan was aware of the duties that she was performing at that time but he did a full evaluation of this employee and deemed that she was doing the work and deserved this pay and I think we need to go with our department head’s recommendation, both Linda and Dan’s recommendation, so I would be in favor of this.
BOTH: I am going to support this also because I recall Dan saying that this person is performing the tasks and it seems to be totally unjust to ask her to continue doing this without getting the appropriate pay.
FRENCH: I will support it also, it is really a minor budget issue for the remainder of the year. We put Dan Palmer in a position to be our liaison and he has done a good job. I have been here about nine years now and we have only had two or three of these come in the entire time I have been here and if he recommends this, it means it is warranted.
GLEBUS: Again I support this, I feel it is the right thing to do. We have looked at it very thoroughly as far as I am concerned. Our Personnel Officer, Dan Palmer has been here giving us the complete scoop on this and I feel a great deal of confidence in the information that he has given to this board and I think that is why I feel so comfortable making this decision in support of this measure.
ASHWORTH: I am going to support this too. As I understand it, for the person in this position to continue doing the job that she is doing, she would have to be paid more money whether we raise the salary or not so I think it is the proper way to go about this change.
SENEY: I am going to support this based on the information that was given to us by Dan Palmer whom I have always said I am not going to try and micro-manage a department head and also on the advice of our County Attorney. We all heard what they said and I just think it is important that we move with this now and I will support it.
JACKSON: I kind of share your concerns Mr. Merrihew about the way this has developed but I have to go along supporting Dan and Linda on this - I will support this even though I certainly have concerns and I actually would prefer to have it effective next year but I will support it.
MERRIHEW: Further discussion?
MOSES: I think it is my impression that we are the ones that actually set this process up for the department to follow and I think it is also noteworthy that a lot of these desk audits are refused by Dan and in view of the fact that we have very few of these coming before us, I think it is really important that we not start micro-managing our department heads so I am definitely going to support this today.
MERRIHEW: As there is no further discussion, roll-call vote please.
RESOLUTION #125 - OF APPRECIATION TO RALPH JAQUISH.
This was offered by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded unanimously and adopted.
RESOLUTION #126 - ACCEPTING, ADOPTING AND PLACING ON FILE POLICIES, PLANS, PROCEDURES AND ANNUAL REPORTS.
This was offered by Mr. Glebus, seconded by Ms. Moses and adopted.
RESOLUTION #127 - AMENDING THE 2004 ESSEX COUNTY BUDGET AND AUTHORIZING ACCEPTANCE OF A BYRNE GRANT FOR THE SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT.
This was offered by Ms. Morency, seconded by Mr. Dedrick and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
RESOLUTION #128 - AUTHORIZING A CONTRACT WITH SCHOHARIE COUNTY FOR THE BOARDING OF INMATES.
This was offered by Mr. Jackson, seconded by Mr. Douglas and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
MERRIHEW: Discussion?
BOTH: I assume this doesn’t mean this is our first choice, if we can place a prisoner in Clinton County or nearby Warren County we would do that, right? It is just that we need to have a contract in place to send somebody to Schoharie?
MERRIHEW: I can’t answer that, can I offer the floor to the Sheriff? Seconded by Mr. Scozzafava.
HOMMES: Good morning. It has been very difficult finding housing for our inmates. We have had them in as many as 7 and 8 jails at one time. We worked this out with Schoharie County, it was more reasonable than anywhere else and they are taking the majority of my inmates right now. If Clinton County, actually we just got a letter from Clinton County, their rent will be going up too but we will have to look at that when it happens for time versus the extra rent but at this time we have had them in so many counties it is just so much easier to keep them in one place at a more reasonable rate than to truck them all over.
BOTH: What is the drive time Henry to Schoharie County?
HOMMES: A little over two hours. We have had them in Oneida County, we have had them in Onondaga County, we have had them in Broome County, we have had them in Albany County and it is not that much further than Albany and it is a savings of $20.00 per inmate per day to have them in Schoharie versus Albany.
SCOZZAFAVA: How long is this contract for?
HOMMES: Well actually the Sheriff called me up and said he would rather do it by a letter of agreement than a contract but -
MEYER: It is the same thing.
HOMMES: Whenever Warren County opens and it is easier for us to go to Warren.
SCOZZAFAVA: So there is nothing that binds us there?
HOMMES: No, we can abandon it at any time.
SCOZZAFAVA: It is my understanding that there will be a certain number of cells that will be reserved for Essex County, correct?
HOMMES: They will reserve up to 15 for us.
SCOZZAFAVA: Regardless if we have an inmate in one of those 15 - in other words we are going to be paying for 15 cells?
HOMMES: No, we will pay for them as we use them.
SCOZZAFAVA: Very good, thank you.
MERRIHEW: Thank you Henry.
JACKSON: I think it is a win-win, it will make Henry’s life easier and save us money and certainly save trips out to the far western part of the state and everything else.
MERRIHEW: Thank you. Roll-call vote.
RESOLUTION #129 - AUTHORIZING THE EXPENDITURE OF $55,613.60 FOR THE ALDER MEADOW BRIDGE PROJECT CLEAN-UP.
This was offered by Ms. Moses, seconded by Ms. Morency and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
RESOLUTION #130 - URGING THE ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY TO REFRAIN FROM LOOKING AT ALTERNATIVE SITES FOR THE COVERED BRIDGE PROJECT.
This was offered by Mr. Douglas, seconded unanimously and adopted.
RESOLUTION #131 - APPROPRIATING FUNDS FROM THE CONTINGENT ACCOUNT FOR TRANSFER TO THE 2004 ESSEX COUNTY BUDGET.
This was offered by Ms. Morency, seconded by Mr. Glebus and adopted, as amended, upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
MERRIHEW: Discussion?
DONALDSON: We need an amendment on this - Jim Pierce told me this morning that we do not need, under 1(b) the Dept. of Social Services, this $6108.00 we do not need out of contingency, they have that within their departmental budget so that needs to be eliminated.
MERRIHEW: Would someone care to offer that amendment - moved by Mr. Jackson, seconded by Mr. Kelly. Discussion on the amendment? All in favor of the amendment, opposed, carried. On the resolution - further discussion? Roll-call vote.
RESOLUTION #132 - AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY PURCHASING AGENT TO GO TO BID, ACCEPT AND/OR REJECT BIDS AND PURCHASE VARIOUS ITEMS.
This was offered by Mr. Dobie, seconded by Ms. Moses and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
RESOLUTION #133 - SUPPORTING REAL PROPERTY TAX REFORM LEGISLATION - S.6602, S.6603, S.6604, S.6605 AND S.4924.
This was offered by Mr. Jackson, seconded unanimously and adopted.
RESOLUTION #134 - CORRECTING CERTAIN 2004 TOWN AND COUNTY TAX ROLLS AND AUTHORIZING AN ADJUSTMENT OF THE AMOUNT OF TAXES DUE.
This was offered by Ms. Moses, seconded by Mr. Connell and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
RESOLUTION #135 - AUTHORIZING THE ESSEX COUNTY TREASURER TO USE ONLINE INTERNET BANKING SERVICES FOR COUNTY BANK ACCOUNTS.
This was offered by Mr. Glebus, seconded by Mr. French and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
MERRIHEW: Resolutions from the floor?
SENEY: I have a resolution from the floor and I don’t know if everybody has had a chance to read it today, maybe somebody else was going to do the same thing but Schoharie County sent us a copy of their resolution on the registered voters and so much information is being taken from the voter and it is just an interesting resolution that I would like the Essex County Board of Supervisors to support, it is taking away the protection of the voter as far as some of the things that the information is being required. Have you read it Rick?
MEYER: No, I have not.
SENEY: For the State Board of Elections to tell people if they don’t want the personal information released you can choose not to register - that is a horrible thing to tell a voter. I would like to - perhaps the board would like to read this over before they act on it but I think it is something we should address, it was in our packets this morning, and I think to protect our voters in not only Essex County but throughout we should support this, perhaps rewording it a little differently but it is something we should take serious consideration in doing.
I guess I would withdraw my motion to make a resolution but ask everybody to look at it and then I would like to bring it up again.
MERRIHEW: Would you like to bring this up through committee first?
SENEY: Could we do something at Public Safety? We should look into this because there is a lot here that I think we all should digest and perhaps do our own resolution and I would appreciate it Rick if you would guide us in this.
MEYER: Okay.
MERRIHEW: Thank you Mrs. Seney.
Are there resolutions from the floor?
MORENCY: I have a resolution but I would also like to mention to everyone that on the weekend I was at an event where Senator Little was and she informed me that the sales tax increase request for Essex County had gone through the Senate and so it is headed through the Assembly and I am hoping by September and I don’t know that that is the date, but it is moving along and I wanted to make you all aware of that.
SENEY: Thank you because we haven’t had the decency of a report from any one of them yet.
MEYER: Just so everybody knows, there hasn’t been any action on it until last week because neither house was doing anything on those bills.
SENEY: Doesn’t it usually have to go to the Assembly before it goes to the Senate?
MEYER: No, but there has been nothing going on with either bill until last week.
MERRIHEW: So that is encouraging.
MORENCY: With that remark behind us - I would like to offer a resolution of condolences for President Ronald W. Reagan. Whereas, Ronald W. Reagan was our nations 40th President; and Whereas, Ronald W. Reagan was a beloved leader of our nation, well respected by friends and opponents alike; and Whereas, that respect was reflected in the fact that he was reelected to a second term by the largest margin in history; and Whereas, President Reagan lead the Nation out of the Cold War and into an unprecedented period of peace and prosperity; and Whereas, President Reagan’s presidency is regarded as the defining period of the second half of the twentieth century; and Whereas, President Reagan has suffered for ten years with the terrible affliction of Alzheimer’s disease; so Therefore Let it be Resolved, that the Essex County Board of Supervisors, our Clerk, our County Manager, our County Clerk, our County Sheriff, our County Treasurer, our District Attorney, our County Attorney and all other elected and appointed County Officials morn the passing of President Ronald Reagan and extend our sympathy to his family and many friends.
RESOLUTION #137 - OF CONDOLENCE - PRESIDENT RONALD W. REAGAN.
This was offered by Ms. Morency, seconded unanimously and adopted.
MERRIHEW: Any other resolutions from the floor?
SCOZZAFAVA: I would like to move a resolution to approve the Board President of the Moriah/Port Henry/Essex County Economic Development Zone Corp. to act as the interim certifying officer in the absence of the designated certifying officer which is our County Treasurer and as you are aware he hasn’t been in and Dale was at the meeting and so this has been a problem for certifying new businesses. Currently as I said it is the Essex County Treasurer so we need to have someone available who can sign these certifications for new business in his absence. I believe Rick and I don’t know if you can do this according to the statute or not but -
MEYER: I don’t know, I know that the Treasurer is and I don’t know if anybody else can be designated frankly.
SCOZZAFAVA: Can we move this pending investigation by the County Attorney?
MEYER: You can make it subject to statutory authorization.
SCOZZAFAVA: Right because we do have some businesses that are waiting for certification. I would move that with the language that Mr. Meyer will include.
MERRIHEW: Do I have 12 Supervisors to put that on the floor?
PALMER: Yes, you do.
RESOLUTION #138 - AUTHORIZING THE BOARD PRESIDENT OF THE MORIAH/PORT HENRY ESSEX COUNTY ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT ZONE CORP. TO ACT AS INTERIM CERTIFYING OFFICER, IN THE ABSENCE OF THE CERTIFYING OFFICER, AS AUTHORIZED BY STATUTE.
This was offered by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Mr. French.
SENEY: Isn’t there a Deputy Treasurer for Mike when he is away?
SCOZZAFAVA: We asked that question - yes, there is a deputy.
SENEY: So why wouldn’t that just automatically be part of their duties to do this rather than to appoint somebody else?
SCOZZAFAVA: Good question.
SENEY: Normally when the Treasurer is not available you have a deputy that fills in for the Treasurer so why would you want to appoint a person that is not familiar with that office procedure?
FRENCH: It is not familiarity but a technical problem getting that signature, it is a minor problem actually. We had a state rep at that meeting and he said there was no problem with that at all, the girl from the state. It is really a minor problem but a technical issue.
MERRIHEW: Certainly with the additional language being added by the County Attorney I am sure we will look at the legality of it. Further discussion?
SENEY: I am just wondering if perhaps we should include in that resolution something about pending the thoughts of the County Treasurer or some such thing to get his thoughts on this before we do a resolution?
SCOZZAFAVA: No, this came from the Economic Development Zone Board and as Dale pointed out, we had a representative from NYS Dept. of Economic Development at our meeting and the recommendation was that in the absence of the Treasurer the President of the Board would sign the certifications and again it is just a technicality, it is no big thing.
SENEY: Okay, I was just asking a question.
MERRIHEW: Any other discussion on the resolution? All in favor, opposed, carried.
Other resolutions?
DEDRICK: I would move a resolution of congratulations to Jamian Shapiro, he is with Boy Scout Troop 72 of Ticonderoga and he just earned the honor of Eagle Scout.
MERRIHEW: Do we have 12 to let this on the floor?
PALMER: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #139 - OF CONGRATULATIONS TO JAMIAN SHAPIRO OF TICONDEROGA ON OBTAINING THE EAGLE SCOUT AWARD.
This was offered by Mr. Dedrick, seconded unanimously and adopted.
FRENCH: I would move a resolution of congratulations to the Crown Point Girls Softball Team on winning Section 7 CVAC Championship.
MERRIHEW: Do we have 12 to allow this on the floor?
PALMER: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #140 - OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE CROWN POINT GIRLS SOFTBALL TEAM ON WINNING THE SECTION 7 CHAMPIONSHIP.
This was offered by Mr. French, seconded unanimously and adopted.
MORROW: In the interest of time because it is of essence with the State Police and the Public Safety building, I see we have received a letter back from Colonel Christler and I think it is a very generous letter that at the end of the first year the lease be written up, at the end of the first year there will be a base set and there will be an escalated price on top of anything that is extra after the first year and I would like to get a resolution to that affect that we do this lease according to the way the State Police would like to have it. Heat and electricity to be a base rate at the end of the first year and then we will escalate it after that and any other costs that should be escalated.
SENEY: I second it.
MERRIHEW: Do we have 12 Supervisors to allow this on the floor?
PALMER: Yes, we do.
MERRIHEW: I think we have a comment from the County Manager.
DONALDSON: That is one of the items that I need to speak to you today about and I guess procedurally this would be an amendment to the resolution that had already been passed?
MEYER: Yes, we will amend it.
DONALDSON: We would have to amend the resolution.
MEYER: I will word it.
MORROW: Then that is what I would like to do.
RESOLUTION #141 - AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 122 OF 5/12/2004 TO ADD - THE LEASE AGREEMENT WITH THE STATE POLICE WILL ESTABLISH A BASE RATE FOR UTILITIES (HEAT AND ELECTRIC) AT THE END OF THE FIRST FULL YEAR AND THE STATE POLICE WILL REIMBURSE THE COUNTY FOR ALL UTILITY COSTS ABOVE THE BASE CONSISTENT WITH THE SQUARE FOOTAGE LEASED.
This was offered by Mr. Morrow, seconded by Ms. Seney and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2804 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 39 votes (Canon)
MERRIHEW: Discussion?
MORENCY: Cliff, you have been dealing with them, is this something you are in favor of?
DONALDSON: All I did was once the resolution arrived in the hands of the State Police, Peter Persons called me, Bob LaFountain and finally Dave Christler called me and they agreed with everything except for the escalator, that the Division of the Budget would not accept an automatic 3% so he put in writing this proposal as a way to address costs, getting a year behind us and then addressing what those actual costs are and he felt that this was a way we could get it through the Division of Budget.
MORENCY: And probably our original 3%, these were the types of things we were concerned about covering anyway.
DONALDSON: Right, heat and electricity and according to his letter they are going to pick up all the costs of the phones.
MERRIHEW: On the resolution that you are offering, I would question and certainly I can understand that they don’t have the possibility for an annual escalation but I would hate to exclude any escalation throughout the term of our lease, we are talking 30 years here and I am not sure if this doesn’t lock us into no escalation of cost of living increases and things like that and I just want to make sure that that is not part of that.
MORROW: That is not part of it and I am sure our County Attorney will word it that way because after the first year you are going to get the base set. When we discussed $12,000 a month, $144,000 a year, I can understand where they are coming from and we probably didn’t think of it but 3% on $144,000 and then 3% the second year on top of that, it would budget them right out of our process, we want them to stay in our building for the rest of eternity and this way it will be there, they will be there. When they talked in Albany about 3% they weren’t talking 3% of $144,000 a year on another facility, it was 3% on a small lease of $25,000 a year or something like that. It would have priced them right out of the ball park.
MERRIHEW: Further discussion on the resolution? Roll-call vote.
Any other resolutions from the floor to be offered today?
DOUGLAS: I need a resolution to approve the reappointment of Mr. Harold Hance for a four year term to the Moriah/Port Henry Essex County Empire Zone Board.
MERRIHEW: Do we have 12 Supervisors to allow this on the floor?
PALMER: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #142 - AUTHORIZING THE APPOINTMENT OF HAROLD HANCE FOR A FOUR YEAR TERM TO THE MORIAH/PORT HENRY ESSEX COUNTY EMPIRE ZONE BOARD.
This was offered by Mr. Douglas, seconded unanimously.
MERRIHEW: Thank you.
JACKSON: First a question and then a resolution - do we have a meeting scheduled for June 23rd as mentioned in the letter?
MERRIHEW: That will come after resolutions.
Further resolutions from the floor? We will move to other pertinent business.
DONALDSON: As some of you have computers that have a virus in them and can’t pull off emails, you will have an email from me that I sent out on Friday regarding the public safety building and there are some things that I need for you to approve so that we can continue moving this process forward. As I said in my email of Friday, Joe Roblee and the Sheriff and I did sit down and we did go over a preliminary power point presentation to the board that we are hoping to do the last full week of June, BBL will be here as will be Clough, Harbour as well as representatives of the State Police, Emergency Services and the Sheriff to answer any and all questions that the board may have.
I mentioned in my email to you that I would like the board to seriously consider having a Special Meeting on June 23rd, that is a Wednesday, where we do nothing but the public safety building, it is a day that you are not normally scheduled to be here but Mr. Roblee feels that the presentation will take over an hour as he walks you through this entire facility and then at the end of it after all the questions and if the board so desires, we will need a resolution approving the final design of the facility, we need that in order to proceed with the APA application so I guess that is first on the floor if the board is willing to meet on the 23rd of June so that we can get that on the calendar because I have told them so far in anticipation of that to have all their preliminary documents to me by the 18th so I can have them in the mail to you so that you will have them on the Monday prior to that meeting on that Wednesday.
MERRIHEW: Any comments from the Supervisors on the June 23rd proposed meeting?
MORROW: I won’t be able to make it that day because I have to bring my wife to Burlington to the doctors so that is a day I won’t be here.
KELLY: At this time I can’t be there, I have already scheduled something.
MERRIHEW: Any other comments or conflicts? How about the following day on the 24th, Thursday, any conflicts?
KELLY: I would prefer that.
MORROW: I would too.
SENEY: Thursday would be better for me.
MOSES: I would have to be back at my town by 1:00 on Thursday.
DONALDSON: I would anticipate starting at 10:00?
MEYER: Why not 9:00?
MERRIHEW: Let’s shoot for 9:00 AM on Thursday, the 24th of June. Tentatively do I have agreement?
MORENCY: Are you going to verify that time with the folks that are coming to talk to us?
DONALDSON: I will just notify them that it is 9:00, that is when we will have everybody here to do the presentation - 9:00 on Thursday the 24th.
Also in my email you will recall that I have asked permission to meet with the Town of Lewis and Mr. Glebus got back to me and informed me that their June 8th meeting had been postponed to June 15th and there are some issues there too that are going to impact upon the APA permit process and that is are we doing a special water district, who is going to be included in that water district, a number of questions that have to be resolved. So, I was proposing that the Sheriff and I and Joe Roblee and Vic Putman go to the Town of Lewis that night and have a discussion and certainly anybody else who is interested or who you believe should be a part of that discussion should be there so that we can hammer that out and come back to the board with some sort of resolution as to the water system in the Town of Lewis in relation to the public safety building so I need some guidance on that issue.
GLEBUS: I would only like to say to the board that we did a small survey of the people and the residents that live along Stowersville Road from the top of the hill there until you get finally down to the northway. What we were looking to determine at that time was to try to figure out if there were any residents that were maybe in favor of attaching to a town water line or a county water line and from that survey we didn’t have anybody that really responded in a positive way. The building that is right next to the proposed county site for the new jail, NYSEG, they indicated that they would like to be a part of the system and then there is one residence across the road that indicated that they would like to be a part of the water supply. At this point and time I am not sure what the county wants to do with this. I am not sure what my board is going to be doing with this, if we are going to elect to implement maybe a water district or if we are just simply going to contract with the county for supplying them with water? I prefer the second method myself but that is up to my entire board.
MEYER: I don’t believe we can legally, if it is not a district, provide water to anybody else at no cost for the construction of that line without there being some type of district to take ownership of that line, etc.
GLEBUS: Right and maybe NYSEG would be willing to pay the costs of that if they were able to receive water from that line.
DONALDSON: You mean extending it from our public safety building to their property?
GLEBUS: Yes.
MEYER: One thing the town can consider is to create another water district out there that is not contiguous with the existing water district, you can do that and just cover those 3 or 4 property’s that are interested in having water services.
GLEBUS: I think one of our largest questions as a board - if we elect to improvise a district or something like this, I am not sure what that entails myself or how much work is involved or if it is just simply easier to deal with the county related to the jail itself, it seems to me that would be the way to go but we need somebody that has some knowledge of this, I don’t.
DONALDSON: That is why I am saying I want to bring Vic Putman with me because I can’t think of anybody better who knows the ins and outs of these issues better than Victor.
GLEBUS: Also I would like to conclude by saying that in that list of people that you plan on attending, I don’t know if Wayne Ryan should be included in that, I thought maybe he was liaison and knowing full well the water system as it is in the Town of Lewis from completing it last year for us that maybe he should be invited but do as you please but that is my thought about that.
DONALDSON: I think he will be there because he is now on contract with Clough, Harbour for this project so I think that he would be there.
GLEBUS: Also I would like to welcome any other Supervisors that maybe wanted to participate in this as well, I think the more that people know about what is going on the better off we will all be so I invite everybody to come if you want to come.
MERRIHEW: Is there any possibility that you are going to have work sessions prior to that with just your board members so this isn’t a brand new thing when they finally do sit at the meeting. Mr. Ryan should be able to explain most of the technicalities in districts so that at the time that you have your board meeting it would be nice to be able to have a resolution that is able to be adopted - your board can’t get together prior to that meeting just to lay out some of the questions?
GLEBUS: I think what my board really wants to do, we have an idea as to what we are looking for and we need to talk to the county officials - that is really what my board wants to do, they want to meet and discuss with some of the county officials some of their needs and concerns and we will take it from there. The only thing they are looking for is a discussion between the two municipalities.
MEYER: Can we get an idea what those concerns and ideas are before hand so we can be prepared?
GLEBUS: I think we have already discussed a couple of them here this morning already as to whether or not we can supply water to NYSEG and that residence across the road and I can’t remember exactly what some of those questions were that some of the others had. They really want a face to face meeting I guess with the county officials.
MERRIHEW: Right and are most of the concerns, the letter that was cc’d to the Supervisors prior to that that concerned and I think the question was - would the county agree to hire an independent attorney of your choice at the county’s cost?
GLEBUS: They will probably want to discuss that, I think we have all received the information from Cliff in regards to his feelings in regards to this and I must say at this point and time I agree with that assessment but I can’t speak for the other members of the board.
DONALDSON: My only concern was the perception that would lead that they are your attorney and are suppose to be representing your interest and then we are paying for them so who do they really work for?
GLEBUS: I think this is maybe something that the board needs to hear from Cliff as well, they have received your email.
DONALDSON: I know the APA is going to be interested in knowing, since you have surveyed, they have asked informally people or businesses that would be interested in attaching to this line so that will definitely be something that Clough, Harbour will be wanting an answer to as part of this process.
GLEBUS: If you wish I have documentation to attach to the APA permit.
JACKSON: I just think if you are discussing contracts that our County Attorney should be there if he can and you can work out all the wording at this point and time and it may speed things up.
SCOZZAFAVA: Years ago in the Town of Moriah when I was Supervisor, we went through something very similar to the situation we are having right here and that is when they put Moriah Shock in and as Mr. Meyer pointed out, you have a lot of legal issues here. First of all, is it an extension of an existing district? Is it the formation of a new district? Is it going to be ad valorem? Who is going to pay the debt service? Is it going to be a benefit district, etc? I know the State of New York finally determined after numerous conversations with the Comptroller’s office, some of this is subject to permissive referendum. Who is going to pay the cost, so on and so forth and they put a well in, they drilled a well and put a small treatment plant in with a ground water supply and actually I think saved thousands of dollars by doing that. So, I am just forewarning you Mr. Glebus that this is not as easy as it seems to do because we have been through it and after looking at all the different options the State decided the best thing to do here is to put a well in and have our own water supply.
MEYER: Well we might as well get down to brass tacks and that is that it really doesn’t matter what the county and the town agree to unless the APA and DEC are in agreement because they are going to have a say over what we do there and it is all going to be a part of their permitting process and if we really want to whittle this down to what has to be done we ought to consult with the APA and DEC first on what it is that they propose needs to be done in order for us to get our permit from those agency’s for this project. I would suggest that we contact them and find out what they say should be done and that is pretty much what we are going to end up having to do because if we don’t we are likely not to have a permit from the APA to build this facility.
MORROW: Well talking about getting down to brass tacks, it is a matter of creating a district is a map planning report and then you create your district and as Tom said, you decide whether it is going to be ad valorem and in this case it will probably be water usage and you should have a district out there, you should not do a contract without a district, that would be ridiculous. It is the town that has to create the district and Wayne Ryan has created many districts, we created two of them in our town with no problem and Wayne Ryan is a good engineer, his company is a good company and they should be able to help the town do this. As far as extending water to two other private property’s, I think it was said very well if I remember right that that would be a gift of taxpayers dollars and we can’t do that. If the town wants to do that that is fine after the water line gets down there, let them do it and create them into their district also, whoever needs to be into that district. The attorney the same way, we got an attorney, they need to get an attorney but after all, enough is enough and we need to go forward with this project and they have a resolution that they want us to go forward with it so they have to meet us half way and it is going to be a big benefit to them. We are putting in a water tank, we are putting in a whole water line that they can just hook on and go wherever they want to go but let’s get with it and get this thing done.
FRENCH: I agree with Rick about finding out what the agency’s want but also this is not going to be charged to the town, there is no debt service out there, no ad valorem because the county is paying for the whole shot, the only thing a user would pay for is the water if they use it O&M so there is no debt service out there for the town.
SCOZZAFAVA: If I may and you are absolutely right and that is where you are going to run into problems with the Comptroller’s office as the State of New York doesn’t pay any tax in special districts, they are exempt from it and I assume that the county would be also and that is where you are going to run into the problems if you go with an ad valorem district.
FRENCH: There is no debt service for the town, the only thing the county is going to pay is water usage. We are going to pay for the system and then pay water usage so it is not a matter of taxes or bond payment. We pay for the system and then we pay for water usage.
SCOZZAFAVA: How are we paying for the system? Are we borrowing?
FRENCH: We are bonding it.
SCOZZAFAVA: Are we borrowing the money to pay for the system?
FRENCH: The system is for the jail for a capital project.
SCOZZAFAVA: How much pipe are we running here?
MERRIHEW: About a million dollars including the tank and the line.
SCOZZAFAVA: Have we looked at the option of putting a well in?
MERRIHEW: No, they have their own wells with sufficient water supply.
FRENCH: A tainted system possibly.
SENEY: We have gone through this with ORDA, the state authority and everything when they put in some of the water lines that they have. The state pays for what they do but if the town wants to do anything they just go forward with their own and they don’t mix together. The state has theirs and the town has theirs and the people have to be willing to pay the water district taxes, whatever is included and it is part of a town project, it has nothing to do with any of the ORDA groups that are there so the state keeps themselves totally separate from the town and I assume it would be the same for the county.
MORROW: It is the Dept. of Health that won’t allow us to drill wells down there. If we had and that would be border line marginal also but if we had a sewer plant down there that the town had a sewer plant that might be different but we are using on-site septic systems and there is a aquifer under there and they have had problems in the past with it so the Dept. of Health has come out and said that we will not allow anything but public water down there, we can’t drill wells, that is not even an option.
DONALDSON: My intention is if I am to go to this meeting on the 15th I would be asking Clough, Harbour and Joe Roblee to do exactly as Rick said - reach out to the two agency’s first and find out what their thoughts are on it so that we can be ready for the 15th to zero in on what will be acceptable and be able to say no what won’t be acceptable. I wanted to have that lead time in order to get them moving on this so that when we get to the 15th we will have all the information that we need to hopefully allow the Town of Lewis to make a decision so that they can make that decision ASAP and we can move forward.
GLEBUS: I am sure that everybody realizes we have made the decision to supply water to the jail already, that is not the problem at all. It is just that the board feels that we need to have a face to face discussion with the county officials and also I would hope that also Rick would be there, he has a wealth of knowledge there that could provide us and everybody at the meeting with a great deal of information regarding the legality of some of the things that may end up being discussed. I would like to see some type of legal counsel there that may be could give us some advice that evening if we are doing something wrong and talking about something we didn’t need to be talking about we could stop the discussion right there because Rick pretty much knows many of the laws as you know.
MERRIHEW: Right and I think preemptively Rick would have the opportunity to review questions and concerns and things like that so that the county representatives would be able to bring forth those proposals that would be more suitable to the county’s position.
MOSES: Do we need a resolution or a directive?
MERRIHEW: I don’t believe we do at this time. Mr. Donaldson will help coordinate the representation prior to that and some of the discussions and answers that we will have.
Further items?
DONALDSON: The only other part of the email was to advise you that it was determined that we need to go into a Phase Two archeological study at the site and due to the schedule of the archeological consultant this may take us six to eight weeks to complete; however, Mr. Roblee feels that this is not going to at all impact upon our starting date next spring and that we are going to be pressuring the consultant to get this done as quickly as possible so that was a glitch that we were not anticipating but that we will address as best we can to get that part of the study done.
JACKSON: Probably you are going to need to do that along the water line too, I know in Essex we had to and you might want to include that in the study.
MERRIHEW: I believe that would be in the right-of-way which makes that a little bit simpler because it is right on a county road.
GLEBUS: He is absolutely right, that will have to be right along the right-of-way on the Stowersville Road. When we did our water project last year we had to do exactly the very same thing with the Brownfield.
MOSES: Let me just say from personal experiences with the Alder Meadow bridge, get that archeological study done ASAP. You may not say it has an impact but I am not buying it.
MERRIHEW: Is there any other business to come before this board?
DEDRICK: Rick, have you heard anything from Judge Halloran about his decisions on foreclosure?
MEYER: Believe me, if I hear anything I will let you know.
DEDRICK: Is there any way we can expedite it? Is there anything we can do?
MEYER: My suggestion is that you stop bringing it up at public meetings and make it look like you are putting pressure on him because that is not a good thing.
DEDRICK: Well delaying it is not a good thing either.
MEYER: No but first of all you have to understand that he handles three courts. Number one his priority’s are criminal and family court jurisdictions and I know his courts have been inundated recently, he has a lot of cases pending so I am sure he really hasn’t had a chance to address the civil proceedings that have been filed. I know he will get to it. I have talked to his office, they know it is there and they will get to it I am sure as soon as they can.
SCOZZAFAVA: I am glad Mr. Dedrick brought that up - the fire that was in Witherbee last week was in an abandoned house on Middle Road and that is a house that currently is in the process fo being foreclosed on by the county. We have that situation on a couple of buildings in that hamlet, can we go in there and board it up? Legally Rick what can we do about it?
MEYER: You can go after the property owner and have them ordered to correct it, either go under the Building Code and proceed that way and proceed for criminal fines and civil fines and go after them.
SCOZZAFAVA: So you can use criminal? I was reading the law on that.
MEYER: I believe under the Executive Law regarding building codes -
SCOZZAFAVA: We can charge them back on their property taxes?
MEYER: No. When you violate the building code you are subject to criminal penalty’s and I believe it is a misdemeanor for failing to comply with an order issued by the Building Code Officer so your Code Enforcement Officer has to go out there and he has to issue an order to remedy the condition under the Building Code and serve that on the property owner and give them time to remedy it and if they don’t then you bring them into court.
SCOZZAFAVA: What happens once the county takes title? Let’s say they sign that today, do we serve that on the county?
MEYER: If we take title. You have to understand the Treasurer can say that is a liability for the county and we are not going to take it.
SCOZZAFAVA: Then what happens to it?
MEYER: Then it stays with the owner. We decide that it is not worth our liability, our financial exposure to take that piece of property, it is better to forget about collecting any money out of that property and just keep it where it is and then the property owner remains the owner and you have to go after him or her.
DOUGLAS: I am in the same situation and if is public pressure then I think it is time to put public pressure on, we are the ones taking the heat for this. That is our job to put the public pressure on him. We need to get this done and get it signed and get it over with - there are a lot of property’s out there and we are the ones getting the phone calls on the Sunday afternoons about the property, he is not.
MEYER: But the towns have a remedy to get those things paid up.
DOUGLAS: And we are dealing with that but it would certainly make our job a heck of a lot simpler if the Judge would just sign the darn thing.
MEYER: The other thing as I said is the County Treasurer may decide not to take those property’s.
SENEY: I just agree that we have people who are just waiting to do something with these property’s and now is the time that if they are going to do anything, it is the building season. I have people in my office every day looking at has this been accomplished, when is it going to be and public pressure or no public pressure, this is a situation that is affecting a lot of towns in this county and maybe there is a different route we have to take - I don’t know what it would be. Can we change the law or anything on that? We have changed the law on other things that maybe perhaps we could do something to get this moving?
GLEBUS: I would only like to say I certainly sympathize with everything you are saying here this morning but by the same token I think Rick has done all that he can do for this. We have to remember that it is totally out of his hands at this point.
SENEY: I don’t think we are blaming Rick.
GLEBUS: Well I don’t know, I think some people are pointing some fingers here and I think it has to stop. What I would prefer to see is let’s go on with the process. We are looking for alternatives here, people are looking to pass these property’s along to the county and let the county deal with the liability issues. As Rick said, maybe that is not going to be the case at all so let’s not get our hopes up here, maybe the county might decide not to take these property’s and leave them as a town liability more so than anything else. I understand where you are coming from but by the same token there are other issues here as well.
MERRIHEW: I agree, it is a very technical, legal process and the last thing any of you town supervisors want is a property to be challenged in court after a tax sale and that is why these things do take time.
DEDRICK: I want to make it perfectly clear, I am not pointing fingers at Rick or anyone. This is a business that sits in the middle of town and we have tried for a year and one-half to occupy this business. I have three owners that want to buy it now, if we sit on this and I am not blaming you Rick at all, if we are sitting on this or Judge Halloran is sitting on this that building is going to become dilapidated to the point where the same thing is going to happen to the movie theater that happened years ago, that thing is going to be condemned and fall down and it is going to fall down in the middle of my main street. I am not finger pointing at Rick or anything, I just asked a simple question - how can we expedite Judge Halloran to move on this? That is all I asked.
MORROW: We don’t have a problem with foreclosure on dilapidated buildings but we spent, just for some of these other supervisors information, I spent two hours with my Code Enforcement Officer last Thursday and my Town Attorney and there are building codes like Rick had mentioned earlier, there is property maintenance codes and there are fire codes - there are a lot of codes out there and then is not penalty’s or anything in the State Codes, it falls back on to your town codes, it is your town codes when you adopt it that has the penalty’s and stuff.
MEYER: I believe the Executive Law might have a penalty in there for failing to comply with an order.
GLEBUS: Related to these buyers that are out there that want these actual property’s, I can only say in dealing with real estate over 20 years now that you would be surprised how many buyers have come before me and said they wanted this property and then when it comes down to some action they just turn their back on it so what I am basically saying is people tell you things that they want but when it comes right down to the nitty gritty of it they end up not even wanting to be a part of it.
SCOZZAFAVA: I am not blaming Mr. Meyer, he has done all that he can do and if it is Judge Halloran I am sure he is busy but this is a real problem in our community and I think that even to and I will blame Mr. Meyer on this one though - even to make the remark that we may not take these buildings if they are dilapidated then that falls right back on to the towns. As far as your Code Enforcement Officer going out there, I have a part time Code Enforcement Officer, I don’t know about the rest of you, but he could stay busy just on some of these buildings. Right now in the hamlet of Witherbee we have four of them going up for back taxes. You board them up and they get right back in there again. They are a real problem and we need to deal with this problem and I don’t think the solution is for the County of Essex to say we are going to dump it right back on the towns and not take the property. I think what we need to do is take the property and get down there and level it or do whatever we need to do with them but there is a real safety concern there and I am not trying to pass the buck here but I don’t think that that is a very good team - I am trying to be a team player here and have been since January but don’t get me going on some of these issues.
MEYER: Well then one thing you are going to have to do because you haven’t done it is you are going to have to appropriate money to pay for all the demolition and clean up costs on all these property’s and boarding them up and possibly insuring it because once you go on that property and assume ownership control by taking some affirmative action, you are liable for anything that happens on that property. Now normally when we take title to property’s we are not liable to anybody for anything that happens on that property unless we take some affirmative action to take ownership, that is why we don’t go out there and do anything. So, if you want us to now do this, if we take title and you want us to go out there and demolish the building and clean up the property and all that, remember it is a liability to the county that we have to assume and you have to appropriate funds to pay for all these costs so that is something you are going to have to do at some point.
SCOZZAFAVA: Well hopefully someone will bid on these property’s and fix them up and put them back on the tax roll, that is what we are all hoping for. If that situation doesn’t occur then obviously we have to go to the next step.
MERRIHEW: Okay, further discussion?
GLEBUS: I just wanted to make the point again, I don’t see this as a county issue - I see it more as a town issue - period.
MERRIHEW: Thank you. Any other business to come before the board?
JACKSON: Horace Nye Task Force in five minutes.
MERRIHEW: May I have a motion to adjourn - moved by Mr. Dobie, seconded by Mr. Connell. All in favor, opposed, carried. We are adjourned.
AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE THIS
BOARD MEETING, WE ADJOURNED AT 11:30 A.M.
Respectfully submitted,
Deborah Palmer, Clerk
Board of Supervisors