Assembly saw it that way and moved it forward and of course we were all delighted that it passed on election day.

And then more recently than that and perhaps more exciting on a lot of levels it is certainly something that touches a lot more people is the finding of funding for the Whiteface Veterans Memorial Highway. That was an issue that was long time coming a lot of discussion and a lot of lobbying over the years by a lot of people but I think as the Governor pointed out the other day we had the right nexus’s at the right moment in Albany and I think its been covered adequately in the press but personally I wanted to make sure that three people in this room are recognized for their efforts because I was there and I saw how they lobbied for this effort but certainly Supervisor Douglas, Supervisor Ferebee and Supervisor Preston lobbied the Governor very effectively on a couple of different occasions and I again that’s how Government ought to work. Is when something comes together and its viewed on its own merits on a case by case basis and certainly you did not need to be a civil engineer to know that road was in tough shape and needed a significant amount of funding so that was a big win too and I was just delighted to be a part of that with you all but it’s been a very enjoyable and rewarding and challenging first year for me and I thank each and every one of you for one, helping make it so and two for the fellowship and the support you have given me this past year and I certainly look forward to working with you next year. Thank you very much Chairman.

DOUGLAS: Does anybody have any questions for Assemblyman Stec?

Well, Dan I want to thank you on behalf of the Board of Supervisors on how frequently you visit, how often you are in Essex County, the touch of the phone you’re right there for our need, the quarter percent sales tax that you worked so diligently with Senator Little, all our county staff, Attorney Manning, County Treasurer Mike Diskin and County Manager Dan Palmer. You worked efficiently to help us get that extra ¼% that is much needed to help offset any future tax levy’s it means somewhere around one and half to two million dollars we are estimating right Dan? So without you that would not have happened to I thank you for your efforts. You’ve done a wonderful job as a freshman Assemblyman. Everybody that we talk to in Albany speaks very, very highly of you and your efforts so thank you.

STEC: Well thank you and I’m not sure that any elected official wants to take too much credit for getting a tax increase through but certainly again, coming from a local Government perspective and knowing what it’s like to work with a county budget and where the revenues are going to come from there are merits to having it come more from sales tax verses property tax. The answer to that is always I want it done yesterday for free and none of us have figured out a way to do that yet so you’re working with both sides of a balanced sheet trying to make expenses and revenues work and when you are talking about revenues you need to weigh what you did and I’m a big believer in home rule. So from that perspective it was very easy to support the county’s request and again, looking at the whole field and you look at the 62 counties around the State after this year there will be only three counties left that aren’t above 7% and the vast majority counties are already eight or higher so for Essex County to say hey, we want to go from 7 ¾ to 8 again, knowing everyone in this room and the effort that everyone put through this is not a spend easy group here. You guys are very tight with the buck, you’re frugal and you often don’t get enough credit for being that way. Again it’s easy to take a snapshot looking at a newspaper article but when you guys are working day in and day out with the individual line items and a very challenging budget and acknowledging that a vast majority of that stuff is not in your discretion control but it’s mandated on you – you know it wasn’t an easy one to carry and I think our timing was good that the mood in Albany was such that I think the Governor and the Legislature realized that and Essex County was the only one that got a sales tax increase but you were one of the lowest to begin with and now you are almost to the State average. I guess, you are very welcome. Thank you.

DOUGLAS: The only other thing I’d like to say about Dan and how accessible he is one time we were preparing again for another disaster Mr. Ferebee and I in our towns for possible flooding and Dan was hiking or about to go hiking and we called him to assist us for a meeting with our emergency services and the hiking as important as it is to him went on the waist side and he was at our town office to meet with our emergency management office to plan and I really appreciated that Dan. You are very accessible and we are very fortunate to have you.

MORROW: I’m sitting here thinking you want to say a few words and I’m thinking should I or shouldn’t I? The answer is yes, of course and I’ve known Dan before he ran for the Assembly. I knew Dan when I ran for the Assembly quite a few years ago and he became a friend of mine and I’ve got to say the voters couldn’t have chosen a better Assembly person than Dan and he not only is a representative of Essex County but a friend to the Essex County voters and constituents also in the Town of Chesterfield like you just said Randy about being so close and how he gets back to you and stuff and when I have called him and he’s been in meetings for our town not for the County but for our town he has called me back I don’t care when it is. He calls me at home or whatever he will get back to you that same day and he cares about our problems because we do have problems as he said earlier and I want to thank you for that Dan. Thank you very much for not only being a representative of the people but a friend of mine. Thank you.

STEC: Well you are both very kind and I can’t begin to tell you what an honor it is for me to be associated with Essex County and to represent you. Thank you.

SCOZZAFAVA: Dan I was reading in yesterday’s Times Union I think it was, about the Governor’s Tax Relief Commission, property tax and the Governor mentioned fleetingly mentioned the possibility of the circuit breaker being enacted maybe one of the recommendations from this commission. My question would be any recommendations that come forth from this commission they have to be approved by the Legislature also correct?

STEC: Yes.

SCOZZAFAVA: I know the Senate has tried to pass the circuit breaker program for a number of years and it always seems to go nowhere but it looks like the State may have enough surplus this year to enact it. I think the estimated cost was $2 billion? It was a lot of money.

STEC: Yes. I suspect that the Governor would like to include something like this as part of his budget package of budget bills as opposed to a standalone bill it likely would be part of the budget process. Certainly I’m in favor if we have the means at the State level to pursue tax relief and the choice again becomes between an income tax and a property tax I too would prefer and I think it’s to the North Country’s great benefit if it’s in the form of dedication towards property tax relief as opposed to income tax relief. Income tax relief I think greatly benefits downstate and so property tax, you know that’s certainly something I too would agree with the Governor I’d rather see his effort go to that than an income tax.

SCOZZAFAVA: The other issue that I just wanted to briefly mention, through the help of our County Attorney as we are struggling with our budget here we were looking to see if there was any authority for the County to create special districts. In other words I’ll use public safety as an example in this radio system. There is a lot of exempt property in Essex County, a lot of organizations that pay absolutely no property tax whatsoever and you know if we were authorized to create special districts these exemptions wouldn’t apply and then everybody that’s benefiting from that service would pay towards the cost of that service. So I think right now Dan there was just a few areas I think water, sewer districts, refuse –

MANNING: Water, sewage, refuse, lake land protection which there is no provision for, emergency services, special districts.

SCOZZAFAVA: So the exemptions have a huge impact obviously on the levy and I just think it’s something that the Legislature needs to address because you have many, many, many property owners out there that pay no tax for any of these services.

STEC: That’s a good point.

DOUGLAS: Further comments, questions for Mr. Stec?

PRESTON: I was going to bring this up later in the meeting I’ll do it now and I’ll try to be brief. I wanted to thank everybody involved with the Whiteface Highway. When Dan had been in office I’d run into Dan all the time actually he’s always around, he said well, how come I never hear from Wilmington? And I said well, when I really need something you’ll hear from me and then the timing was right we made it a couple months in the State without a natural disaster so then I reached out to him about the Whiteface Highway and Dan was in with both feet and from that point forward he was hands on with this Whiteface and he was involved in the thing when we scoped out the Governor in Albany when Ferebee sat up where we cut across the crowd over there to head him off at the path and it worked and I want to thank you Dan for all the support you gave us and I want to thank you Chairman Douglas and Mr. Ferebee who was with us on that conference and everyone else on the board that supported that resolution and I would also point out that there was a discussion that I didn’t agree with about conferences that was a $12 million dollar conference that we went to, that we brought home because we made that connection but Dan I really do appreciate what you’ve done for us. Thank you.

STEC: You’re welcome. It’s hard to golf around here in November so you’ve got to go to those conferences those are the two places that things get done.

PRESTON: I also want to – I would be remised if I didn’t bring up thanking Mr. Politi to allow me to be up on the dais in his town and he sat in the audience so he told me not to get used to that. It wouldn’t happen again. Thank you.

FEREBEE: I think it is also necessary to mention on that day Dan the Governor’s announcement for the marriage of Clarkston University and Trudeau Institute. Trudeau Institute had talked about leaving the area which they employ about 80 people so the Governor announced that day that Clarkston and Trudeau would merge. He’s earmarked I think it’s about $35 million dollars over the next three years so that was a great boost for Saranac Lake you know to keep Trudeau there, bring in some more youth, some more students and keep the economy rolling there so I that was great for Saranac Lake.

STEC: I agree. It was a good day for the North Country.

DOUGLAS: One thing about Whiteface Mountain Memorial Highway, Mr. Preston and I are meeting with Sam Zhou tomorrow at 10:30 in Wilmington they are moving forward just met with Mark Bonafide on another issue in the Town of Jay and they are definitely moving forward so full steam ahead. Dan thank you very much.

STEC: Thank you.

DOUGLAS: Next we have Sue Allott, Director of Preventive Services. Sue come on up.

ALLOTT: Hello I’m here this morning to introduce to you the NYS Health Benefit Exchange market place which we’ve all heard so much of in our recent news. I have with me today two health navigators. One is from the Adirondack Health Institute and the other one is from Southern Adirondack Independent Living. They both chose green for the color of packet to bring today so that’s why you have two green packets in front of you. I did place on the packet though a card that looks like this so if you turn this card over on the back you can see, we put a sticker on there and this is something we did at Public Health because we would like for our clients to have all of the options. So the sticker says Adirondack Health Institute it has a number for them, Southern Adirondack Living and their contact and then also here at Essex County at the Department of Social Services people can sign up for their Medicaid benefits through the marketplace and they have two certified application counselors over there and also a broker. I also gave the number here for Fidelis care who has a certified application counselor to help people navigate that website to sign up for their health insurance. Now Fidelis is of course a private insurance company but you can’t buy Fidelis insurance on the market place because they have not negotiated a contract with our local hospitals. So Fidelis right now is in the game for managed Medicaid. There are two types of managed Medicaid available one is Fidelis the other one is United Health Care so all of these navigators or certified application counselors have been through training. They all are sworn to be unbiased in their enrollment services and to just give you a quick update on Adirondack Health Institute they are formally known as Upper Hudson Enrollment Services. They represent collaboration between Hudson Headwaters, Adirondack Health which is Adirondack Medical Center, and Champlain Valley Physicians Hospital. So the Adirondack Health Institute they have been doing facilitated enrollment for insurance for fifteen years and they are currently using their health centers, Hudson Headwaters Health Centers where would they be located? You’ve probably seen a few along the way.

SCOZZAFAVA: Moriah, Schroon Lake and Ticonderoga.

ALLOTT: There you go. Right, right so those are places where AHI will have navigators and also Moses Ludington Hospital. They are using those as home bases providing services in Franklin, Essex County, Clinton, Warren, Washington and Saratoga so quite a wide range of counties they are covering.

SAIL – Southern Adirondack Independent Living actually I did not introduce to you the AHI person here is Jill Rock and she is here and then for SAIL is Joslyn Blanchard and SAIL has been providing disability related services for over twenty-five years in Southern Essex, Warren, Washington, Saratoga and Hamilton Counties and SAIL provides in home assessment and service authorization for people seeking insurance. So that is one of the difference between these two entities is that SAIL will actually meet a person in their home to assist them with insurance enrollment if they can’t get out to a site but Fidelis will also do in home meetings or meet people at places that are convenient to them.

I think that that’s it unless you have any questions about the two specific federally funded enrollment services so SAIL and AHI both have Federal grants to provide services in our county.

BLANCHARD: Passed through the State Department of Health.

ALLOTT: I’m sorry – through State. Come on up you guys unless Maggie do you have a question for me?

BARTLEY: Yes I was just wondering if you had any kind of written blurb that we could put on our website and we could email out to people just so I’m looking at this thinking I would hate to have to retype this and figure out what to put out for people but the easiest way to put it is on our webpage as a place to start and then it would take them to these various sites.

ALLOTT: It is on our Public Health website so if you go to co.essex.ny.us/publichealth we do have information on SAIL, AHI and we have links that will take you right through.

BARTLEY: Can you send the supervisors just maybe just a paragraph or maybe a blurb that will link to that and what we should call it?

ALLOTT: Sure. Okay.

BARTLEY: I’ll post it on my homepage.

ALLOTT: Perfect. Great question.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else have questions?

SCOZZAFAVA: Yes originally there was going to be an outreach representative that was assigned to Moriah at the town hall in Port Henry they were going to be there on Wednesdays and then it didn’t happen. I’m just curious as to why? Because we’ve had phone calls and actually I think there was a couple of people you may have met with?

BLANCHARD: We have not yet received funding from the Department of Health and because there is no cell phone connectivity we were unable to access Wi-Fi services so since the website is completely internet based I think what we have done instead is meeting in people’s homes in Moriah and if you have questions afterwards Hannah is here and she is the one who has me in touch with Moriah and also will be the one in the future to make future contact. I know as soon as we have more of that technology that’s going to help us quite a bit as far as being able to complete a completely web based application in Essex County. Thank you.

SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you.

ALLOTT: Now would you be willing to open up the courthouse or the town hall for utilization?

SCOZZAFAVA: That is what we planned to do.

ALLOTT: Because there is access there.

SCOZZAFAVA: Right that was the plan at the time and then I don’t know what happened? I see they went to Crown Point which is a good thing for Crown Point I guess but Moriah has like four times the population of Crown Point.

BLANCHARD: We definitely met with people in Moriah.

SCOZZAFAVA: Okay thank you.

ROCK: And the two packets are different but we do have somebody at the Moriah Health Center and its like, totally not, we are doing the same thing but there are so many people right now that need help that we’re just worried about getting the help that they need. I just wanted to mention one more thing that AHI does I’m actually – I went to the navigator training but I’m actually not in the community doing the navigator enrollment services stuff. I’m actually – in one of your green packets there is a card with my name and I’m going around doing a lot of trainings for your towns, I’m in libraries, I’m working with the chambers, so if any of you want, any kind of it’s like an educational session on the market place I’d be more than happy to come anywhere in your community and do that for you. So I just wanted to mention that and that’s a Federal grant. Somebody asked me if I was doing it out of the kindness of my heart I said, I wish but it’s a Federal grant to have people in your community to do that so I’d be happy to do that for you.

SCOZZAFAVA: I’ve got just one – are you reaching out to - there’s a situation I know of that impacted a number of people in my town where an employer that they worked for in Vermont they had health insurance through this employer, they dropped it because it was less expensive for the employer to pay the fine and they continued to provide to health insurance so I know that they are scrambling right now trying to find a plan as crazy as it may sound these people had insurance now they no longer have it.

BLANCHARD: There’s been a lot of frustration with the implementation and as you know any type of new policy being implemented is going to have backlash that may not have been expected. One of those backlashes in particular is the lack of health care that you can use in Vermont and the cross over areas are struggling more than any other with the health insurance roll out and what we’ve found there is some confusion on the State level and with the providers regarding whether or not they are allowed to provide insurance and there is some rule that no one has been able to get in writing for me that we are fighting up against so we’ve made a direct advocacy attempt through Department of Health we’ve documented evidence of both the conversation that we’ve had for both representative in the policy in trying to increase the ability for people to have health insurance coverage that would be accessible across state lines because that is a really big issue. A lot of people do use their primary care, have some level of cross over even if they go to the hospital most typically in Vermont that is a big issue for them but as far as employers dropping people, people losing health insurance coverage from their healthy New York plans or having bought a private plan that is not adequate and now that plan is now no longer available is a big concern for a lot of the people calling us and every case is different. Everybody has a different situation and what we find is we sit down with the application, we talk through their situation, research all the options and really try to explore what is out there that most people are able to find something that is at least adequate if not better than what they had before.

SCOZZAFAVA: So this is all part of the Obamacare obviously.

BLANCHARD: Yes.

ALLOTT: The Affordable Care Act.

SCOZZAFAVA: The Affordable Care Act because I do know a couple of people that went on that website that didn’t have health insurance and by the time they got off it they needed health insurance because it was just so frustrating.

BLANCHARD: Well for example it was down at 8:00 this morning. It was down at 9:00 this morning. It was down at 10:00 this morning so there’s definitely some major issues as far as that goes.

ROCK: Our New York State one has always been a little bit above the Federal one which is positive.

SCOZZAFAVA: Right which is good. Thank you.

BLANCHARD: We really did create a very complex capable body of information that is able to identity proof people with almost no documentation and able to help people reach an eligibility determination at a record speed which is very valuable and it’s unique to New York State it’s nowhere else.

DOUGLAS: Does anybody else have any questions? Thank you very much all three of you I really appreciate it.

BLANCHARD: Thank you.

DOUGLAS: Next Bill do you want to offer the courtesy of floor?

FEREBEE: Sure. Mr. Chairman if I could offer the courtesy of the floor to Tom McCabe from Capital Digitronics. If you recall at ways and means we did have Wells Communication was here. He did make some statements and we felt it was necessary for Capital we grant the same time to come and talk about his company and the installation of the county radios.

DOUGLAS: Do I have a second? Mr. Preston. Under discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye, any opposed? Motion is carried.

Mr. McCabe if you are here please come forward.

McCABE: Mr. Chairman, ladies and gentlemen of the board thank you for allowing me to speak in front of you today concerning the award of the contract for installing the counties mobile radios. My name is Tom McCabe and I’m the President and CEO of Capital Digitronics Inc. Our company has been around since 1975. I’ve been doing this for almost 33 years now and this is the first time that I can remember having to defend a low bid proposal and yes, we are low bid by $26,000. If awarded the contract by this board we would undertake the installation of the Motorola county radios as per a bid response at significant cost savings to the county now and in the future. We have a track record of installing three hundred similar high powered radios for NYS DOT and the counties between Albany and the Canadian border in addition we have installed 80 of the XTL 2500 radios for the NYS Police in Saratoga county which also by the way has a Motorola system not to mention many more for NYSEG, the VA Hospital and others. NYSEG trucks all have Motorola radios in them so if you see a NYSEG truck on the road it has a Motorola radio that we service.

We will warrant our installation work for one year backed by a performance bond if necessary. Our lead installer who I brought with me today Mark Denise so you can see what he looks like, is Motorola shop trained to install XTL 2500 radios and ready to go to work. He has done many dozens of these installs in his career. Our other technicians are FCC licensed which is required by the State Police, the NYS Thruway Authority and others. The FCC general radio telephone operator’s license, GROL is the only license actually issued by the Commission anymore for our line of work. It sets a higher bar and is more difficult to obtain than a technician certification gotten through a correspondence course. All of our technicians have many years of experience and our managing technician from Glens Falls was part of the Ground radio team for Air Force One for many years and that’s not an easy place to work and it requires a lot of technical ability

We can buy genuine Motorola parts and installation accessories from Motorola and have access through their technical assistance center through the 800 number just like everyone else. We maintain a subscription to genuine Motorola programing software and each of our technicians is issued a laptop and the appropriate Motorola cables for programing. NYSEG is the perfect example of that because we have to program their Motorola radios almost every time we touch them.

Much has been made before this board about of the Motorola warranty issue. Since the standard Motorola parts and labor warranty for XTL radios expires after one year the county bought the extended service plan for two additional years. Motorola has said they will not warrant installation by others. No one would expect them to. They would also not warrant damage caused by in proper installation. No different than GE appliances not warranting your new dryer because somehow you plugged it in backwards. Don’t call the Maytag repairman for that one because he won’t want to hear about it.

We will warrant our own installation work thank you and are willing to post a performance bond in the full amount of the contract as proof of our intent. We will be responsible for any depot repairs to a radio damaged by us.

Lastly as you are able to see from the handout that I have given you we are your neighbors in Keene. We were there for Hurricane Irene and I remember the Keene Fire Department asking to park their vehicles in our parking lot because it was one of the higher places in the Village and upstream from the creek. We were there for the rebuilding as well and worked on the radio portion of the new Keene Fire House installing antennas and installing cable to the radio room. We even donated a new $3,000.00, P25 base station to the fire department which can be used on the new VHF system. Our own building in Keene has had some improvements also. We put on a new roof, put in new windows and garage doors and put up a beautiful new wood sign as the picture shows on the cover of the brochure.

Now Charlie Segard wants the building back well, we’re they to stay and we are in Essex County to stay. The old orange garage never looked so good. We have hired people from Essex County to work at our Keene shop and maybe looking to put more on the future if business positions warrant it. The hand out is there with more specific details of our handling of this project and we look forward to working with you on it. You can also visit our website at www.capitaldigits.com and Mark Denise is the lead installer and our Motorola guy is here to answer any questions. Thank you.

DOUGLAS: Does anybody have any questions?

SCOZZAFAVA: You mentioned that we, that the county purchased a two year warranty?

McCABE: I think Mr. Jaquish said it was good until 2015.

SCOZZAFAVA: You also said if I understood you correctly that Motorola, is it a definite that Motorola will not honor the warranty?

McCABE: You have to ask Motorola on that.

SCOZZAFAVA: They have told us because that is the question that hangs out there.

McCABE: The warranty is honored by the depot that the radios got returned to. In other words, if a radio has a problem the radio gets pulled out and sent to the depot because it’s a separate service plan, it’s a depot hardware warranty that was in the brochure so as far as we know if you send the radio down and the serial number checks depending on that two year ESP on it they’ll fix it.

SCOZZAFAVA: How many employees do you have on hand for the install? In other words if you were awarded this contract do you have enough employees on hand to do all the installations currently or would you have to bring on more people?

McCABE: No we have enough people now depending on how staggered the work load is. We have two guys who just went to Ogdensburg to study up there for a week to do DOT installs so our guys travel any place between Albany and up and we have people that are at the State Police that we can pull off if we needed them so we can adjust our manpower as the need warrants. I don’t imagine that they will be doing all of the installs at once.

SCOZZAFAVA: On the install on the RFP you’ve submitted your proposal and if, how do you deal with additional costs? I mean I’m an electrician and you go to a job and you always need to go to the van and add more parts or find something that you’ve got to have to complete the installation are the additional parts and so on is that also covered?

McCABE: Yes it completes one working installation and I think the bid response also called for your labor rate for off contract service.

SCOZZAFAVA: Right so if you run into a situation where the install is not just a boiler plate install the price is the price is what I’m saying.

McCABE: The price is the price. We looked at everything they put out on the bid sheet which separated fire trucks from brush trucks from air boats to pickup trucks so we priced all that out.

SCOZZAFAVA: Bench testing? Are the radios, I don’t even know if the radios have been bench tested yet? Or will be bench tested? Before you do an install I would assume that they test the radio first on the bench to make certain that the radio is going to operate and it’s at the same frequencies and so on? I mean, I don’t know? I’m asking you that question.

McCABE: Normally that’s done when they are programming the radio.

SCOZZAFAVA: So that’s what I’m saying they come right from the factory they’ve been checked out thoroughly?

McCABE: Yes they have been tested at the factory but I think once I load the software in there which is particular to Essex County because Essex County has a unique you know system for staggering the towers and the multi zone and things like that they would be tested after the programing goes into them also. I believe the county; Mike Blaise is supposed to be talking about doing the programming.

SCOZZAFAVA: Now on a performance bond I guess this would be a question for the County Attorney I mean, I don’t even know how much you would ask to post for a performance bond on something like this?

MANNING: It’s usually the full contract price.

SCOZZAFAVA: And we would expect that performance bond from either company I would assume?

MANNING: Yes. I usually have a threshold, a price threshold whether we accept a performance bond or not and also the degree of difficulty so this is a $100,000, we would have a performance bond in this case especially since it’s an installation.

SCOZZAFAVA: Okay thank you.

MORROW: You kept mentioning XLT radios.

McCABE: XLT 2500 I believe is the model of the radios.

MORROW: What’s the difference between them and the P25 Astros that we have?

McCABE: The XLT 2500 is the radio itself the P25 is the software that goes in it.

MORROW: Have you ever installed the P25?

McCABE: Oh sure we’ve done P25 systems for the City of Troy. We did a P25 system for this little place called Globalfoundaries that has a 3P25 digital truck system which is actually unique so we’ve done a lot of 3P25’s also.

MORROW: I guess the question was asked from Mr. Scozzafava but I’ll ask it again, how many CET’s certified technicians do you have in Keene alone? Not bringing them in from other places but in Keene?

McCABE: CET certified technician is a technician standard that is favored by Motorola. We have FCC license. We have our lead technician in Keene who is from Wilmington he has his FCC license. The secondary installer in Keene is working on his FCC license. It takes normally three to four months of study with the guy before he will even let you take the test and everybody from Glens Falls which is only 45 minutes away, they all have FCC licenses and they are up here all the time working on State Police and up to Blue Mountain. We do all the mountain tops for the State Police and NYSEG so they’re up here all the time.

MORROW: The only problem with that is and it said right in your material that you gave us if you are calling in somebody from Glens Falls or Albany you’ve got to pay for time so I would rather have somebody that’s right in our county working.

McCABE: Under the rules that we follow for Harris and the other people if there is any travel we only charge from the Keene Shop so even if the guy has to travel from Glens Falls up here I don’t charge for that it’s only Keene.

MORROW: I guess the other thing I would ask is Harris Shop right, is that a competitor of Motorola?

McCABE: Everybody is a competitor of Motorola.

MORROW: Okay and I guess if Motorola would rather have CET I guess that’s what I would look at and I was a big questioner last week when Wells was here you know, I thought it was $29,000 now it’s even worse it’s $26,000 which you know I have people they read the paper and thank god for that and they come into my office and they’ll say yeah, but $29,000 is a lot of money. I say, yeah on a $17 million dollar system. We saved $100,000 on the $30 million dollar jail and we are paying for it now that’s what worries me on this. It’s $26,000 now you know, that kind of worries me and I just want to make sure. Then I had another gentlemen come into my office and I won’t say the companies but he installs satellite systems. He says I don’t see what the big deal is? I says let me ask you a question, you install this brand of satellite systems he says, yeah. Okay suppose somebody else installs that same satellite system but they are not certified or not you know, from that company will the satellite company warranty it? Hell no. There’s where I’m coming from. That’s what I’m worried about on a $17 million dollar system we’re arguing over $26,000. I just can’t go with it.

McCABE: Well $26,000 is the amount now but you’re looking at a twenty year lifespan of this system okay and I believe over the long run by having our shop here close and we have a half an hour response to most places in the county it’s going to be cheaper for the long run. They have our guys response from here, no travel charges and you’re doing business in the county as opposed to Plattsburgh.

MORROW: Well can I just continue with that. You’re right on that and what you just said is true it’s only $26,000 now but it could be a lot less in the future. I worry about $26,000 now being a lot more in the future so you just said my point there thank you.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions?

FEREBEE: Question – in installing radios and connecting them with Motorola previously had you any problems with your radios and have you had any problems communicating with Motorola?

McCABE: No. With the 80 radios that we installed for the State Police that communicate with the Saratoga County Motorola system they work fine every zone 2 car in the State Police that operates in Saratoga County, they made a deal with the county the county provided the radios through the State Police because the State Police work for and pay for it themselves, we install them and they work fine.

FEREBEE: Thank you.

POLITI: I love competition. Something just came up here that I want to ask a question about and we’re talking about the issue at hand is the installation of the radios alright, so let’s move on. Who’s going to program them? I heard Mike Blaise was going to program them but I don’t think that that’s the case. Now if Mike Blaise isn’t going to program them, he’s going to install the radios who’s going to program them? Are we going to have to RFP again for somebody to program the radios?

McCABE: We can program the radios at no charge.

POLITI: I’m just saying because this is not meant for you sir but I’m asking really Dan.

PALMER: I assumed that the radios would be programed by installer.

POLITI: But that was never part of the RFP?

PALMER: I don’t know Roby. I don’t have it in front of me the language.

POLITI: I don’t believe it was part of the RFP. Which now I’m a little concerned about because now it sounds like we have an additional costs. It would seem to me that it’s logical that the entity that installs the radio might also program the radio otherwise potentially you’re going to have Motorola radios installed by Capital Digitronics and programmed by Wells Communication which to me is kind of a mishmash in terms of the entire project so I guess I’m somewhat concerned for the board here in terms of the next step. Should the RFP had included programing? Is Mike doing the programming? Would somebody confirm or deny that that’s the case and let’s go from there at least with this question.

DOUGLAS: Dan are you looking at the RFP?

PALMER: I am.

SCOZZAFAVA: Mr. Chairman.

DOUGLAS: We are going to come back to that Dan is going to look and check on the RFP to what the wording was on that. Anybody else on this side at this point?

PRESTON: I guess it’s not a question it’s just basically a comment. The reason we went out for RFP was to get the best possible price for the county and I guess I could say if Wells was $26,000 less for the install I’d be probably be trying to make my point in their behalf but again, I think they are both excellent companies and do a great job but everything that I have read from the Capital Digitronics I mean I see no reason why we would not award this to the low bidder? They seem to be very capable and on top of that just realizing that the eyes that are going to be upon them they have a shop in Keene in our own county if they fail at this it’s probably not going to play out well for them. I think there is extreme pressure that is going to be on them for them to perform and I’ve been in the fire service for 36 years I’ve been around this stuff a long time. I found out some very interesting stuff over the weekend. Lake Placid Fire Department installs their own radios always have and I don’t know if they are worried about what’s the story with the warranty but I found that out over the weekend and also I kind of, the light bulb went off that the Emergency Services Director in Clinton County programs all the radios and always have and they are all Motorola’s so things get a little grey here and when they get grey they come back to me. I looked at guy’s track record and again, I’m not saying anything against Wells. I think Wells is an excellent company, very capable but we did an RFP for a reason and I think the pressure is going to be extreme on these people to perform and if they don’t they probably, may want to relocate to some other county because I don’t think it’s going to play well for them. I’m fully 100% supportive of awarding this to the low bidder. Thanks.

FEREBEE: Mr. McCabe didn’t you just state that programming the radio is included in your RFP? Installation and programing?

McCABE: If we were given the template and we were able to sit down with Motorola and work out how they wanted them programed because it is their system the 300 radios for DOT they are vertex radios which is owned by Motorola, we programed every one of those radios at the shop before they go out and my technician has a line of radios going down the hall because we’ve got 300 of them to do. So those are programed, came out of the box plain vanilla we would need a template to do it but we would not charge to do it it would be part of the installation.

FEREBEE: Thank you.

PALMER: That’s true of everybody. It says, the contract shall program the mobile radios with Essex County radio programing template including basic and local channels, program the mobile radios with other channels as directed by the County on a case by case basis, perform problem protection and issue resolution prepare and deliver radio installation and programing and troubleshooting documentations. So it’s part of the contract. They have to program it and in order to program it you’re going to have to work with Motorola that’s just going to be part of the process whoever you choose.

DOUGLAS: I think you answered it. You have worked with Motorola. Have you run into problems in the past with any warranty issues or those things?

McCABE: No because the warranties are handled by the depot. The warranties are not handled locally.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else on this side?

SCOZZAFAVA: Can’t we make a call to Motorola and find out if they are going to work with this contractor? And if they don’t then we should call the Attorney General would be my next phone call because it’s just not right. You know we went through an RFP process here and I agree with Mr. Preston and they came in $26,000, I guess the amount is. I don’t care if it was $16,000 or $6,000, the bottom line is we went through an RFP process they submitted the low proposal. They are in this business this company, forget the fact that they are in Essex County. What does it do to our reliability in regards to RFP’s in the future? I mean Motorola, Wells Communication they do an excellent job. They provided this County, my town, most towns within the county if not all with excellent service but the bottom line is they were higher than the other company it’s that simple. Now Motorola they’ve got the radios, they’ve got it all. They don’t have it all but they want it all and it’s just not right. This company submitted the best proposal, the lowest proposal they are more than qualified to do this installation and it should be awarded to them. This has become more political than it has in regards to actual cost. That’s what’s going on.

PALMER: You know what I don’t care what you guys do. I said this before, I said it in April but it isn’t just price and again I stand by the analysis that we did, that Linda did out of the purchasing office there was points awarded a lot of it was based upon training and those certifications that are available to Motorola authorized dealers and it came out 95 to 93 but it still was the recommendation to go with Wells. It’s not political. It is the RFP process. It is not entirely price it’s based upon experience and what ultimately what we believe is in the best interest of the county. I think we did a fair and accurate job of it and I stand by the recommendation that we made. If you don’t take it that’s not my issue but I still stand by the recommendation we made.

DOUGLAS: Anything else Tom?

HATCH: I talked with our fire Chief and some other members of the fire company they’re very satisfied with Wells Communication and would like to stay with them if possible because they said they get excellent service from them and they do handle all our town radios and our firemen’s radios.

I brought it up the other day and I will again not to be repetitious but I still think that the County should be considering how to get out of the radio business as soon as possible. I mean once these radios are installed I would think you would want to get rid of the liability of them because you’ve got 400 radios out there and you are going to be in the radio business for a long time and I would think that you would want to turn those over to the departments and let them be responsible for them. Thank you.

DOUGLAS: That’s a good point Mr. Hatch and if that is the way this board chooses Dan can draw up a contract with each Emergency Services department and say from here on out it would be your responsibility for any repairs or issues that come forward from this at a certain point. You know we can take a time frame or what have you. We would have a recommendation from the Public Safety committee and Mr. Manning and Mr. Palmer and Dan would draw up a contract if that’s what this board chooses but you bring up a valid point.

I’m going to come to you. I’m going down the line Tom.

Mr. Moore anything?

MOORE: It seems to me that this comes down to the programming. I guess my only question sir, do you feel confident that you can work with Motorola without any difficulties to program these radios? That’s the bottom line.

McCABE: Yes if they provided the template we have no problem putting the template in, putting the ID’s. I’m sure that the County already has a template worked out like everybody else certain call letters are given out for certain new ID’s and I know Kevin Ryan. I’ve known Kevin Ryan since he worked for Wells. He’s the Motorola guy so I’ve been doing this for 33 years. I’ve seen it all okay, I’ve been there and we don’t have any problem working with them if they don’t have any problem working with us.

MOORE: I would agree with Mr. Preston as well. I mean we’ve got 300 radios that you’ve installed for the Department of Transportation, 80 for the Troop G State Police, $26,000, I see no reason why we shouldn’t award this bid.

DOUGLAS: Mr. Harrington anything? Mr. Marnell?

MARNELL: I feel confident that they have the capability. If they issued the State Police radios the State Police rely on their radios almost every few minutes around the clock there is an emergency somewhere and I’m sure if they had problems they would be heard about it and they would be corrected or on the line for it and also the $26,000, I’ve said this same thing at the town to the board one day I said we discuss numbers in thousands and it’s too bad sometimes we don’t pay it in cash and count the money out because $26,000 in twenties and tens and fifties and hundreds is a lot of money and when you say $26,000 it sounds easy to say it but it a substantial amount of money and I feel confident that this company could handle this.

DOUGLAS: Thank you Mr. Marnell. Ms. Malaney.

MALANEY: Yes I feel the same way. Clearly they are experienced, willing to post a performance bond, low bidder I support Capital Digitronics.

DOUGLAS: Mr. Whitson anything?

WHITSON: Not at this time no.

DOUGLAS: Mr. McCabe, Mr. Palmer showed me an email that you sent and can you clarify this for us? It’s an email that you sent on August 22. Dan can you read it please?

PALMER: Basically what you sent to Donna was I downloaded the RFP from the website this morning, since we are competitors of Motorola Solution and Wells I doubt that we’d be able to coordinate a work study with Motorola……

POLITI: You know what I can’t hear.

SCOZZAFAVA: I can’t hear you Dan.

PALMER: Sorry. I downloaded what it says, it was an email to Donna that says, I downloaded the RFP from the website this morning since we are competitors of both Motorola Solution and Wells I doubt that we’d be able to coordinate or work with Motorola as the bid mandates as they would not want to hurt Wells by allowing any competition for this project. It goes on to say, County Government usually gets the best price and the biggest bang for the buck when two or more companies compete for their business while we are more than capable of filling the technical aspects of the RFP we already do so for NYSEG, NYS Police and NYS DOT and we have an Essex County facility in Keene I’m hesitant to respond because of the reasons stated above.

DOUGLAS: You are welcome to respond sir.

McCABE: Well after getting a second read of the bid and downloading the addendums and asking questions to Linda we felt more comfortable in responding because most of the onus would be on us to make it work and we’ve made Warren County work since 2002. We’ve put in the Warren County system from when they had tin cans and strings holding it together so we have no compulsion about taking it on but that was an early email at first read and we did have some pertinent questions and she put out two addendums and we had no problems.

DOUGLAS: Thank you Mr. McCabe for clarify. Anything else from anybody?

SCOZZAFAVA: The only concern that I have is when you replied, if they, being Motorola provides us with the template for the programing.

McCABE: It’s the county’s radios they expect the system to work you know they have to come up with a template.

SCOZZAFAVA: But the word if bothers me so do they have an option not to do that? I mean that’s the question I have.

McCABE: No the radios won’t work and they wouldn’t get the system reception without it so.

SCOZZAFAVA: That’s the question that hangs out there and then in regards to Mr. Palmer who has some valid concerns. I’ll tell one quick story, years ago they were interviewing John Glenn on 60 Minutes and one of the questions asked of him was, what were you thinking when you were sitting on the head of that rocket ready to launch? And he said, the only thought that kept going through my mind was that it was the low bidder that built this thing.

McCABE: I think Mr. Preston is right and we are willing to sit on the head of the rocket because we think it’s a good long term fit for the county.

SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you.

DOUGLAS: Thank you Mr. McCabe.

MONTGOMERY-COREY: I just want to comment. I understand the logic about reading that part of the email at the same time in RFP processes it’s not uncommon for people to ask questions and for the same company to take a first pass at an RFP and say, I’m not sure this is such a good fit and then go back through after getting clarification and say, this is a good fit and we are a qualified bidder and we should bid on this thing. So I personally am not interested in holding that email against anyone. It sounds to me like a very preliminary communication with the county and clearly this bidder went through and thought through the process and got the clarification he needed to be able to compete successfully.

PALMER: Again the only reason I read that was because of the concern of whether they would be able to work with Motorola. They have that concern themselves and frankly we as a county should have that concern as well.

POLITI: I guess my concern is we have spent millions of dollars with Motorola. Millions of dollars with Motorola and I don’t like the way that this is playing out quite frankly. If Motorola is so concerned about this company doing the business you know, I really want to hear that because frankly for Motorola to get involved in with two competitors bids on a radio system that this county has spent millions of dollars on in my opinion, they’ve got some egg on their face to take sides if that’s all this is. So I’m interested personally in hearing from them.

PALMER: The only thing I would say about Motorola and again back in April I said to you, the board had the option of going directly to Motorola and bypassing all the dealers and just saying you know what Motorola is on State contract I’m going to hire Motorola to do the install. Who Motorola uses to do that won’t be my issue because I frankly will be contracted directly with Motorola and frankly I felt at the time was the better option because there wouldn’t’ be anybody saying, okay I did the install and that’s not my problem because we would have contracted directly with Motorola off a State contract and it would have been over.

DOUGLAS: Go ahead Roby are you going to follow up?

POLITI: No I don’t have a follow up. I guess I’m just dumb founded.

MORROW: Sitting here listening to reply to some of the things. When you go out to RFP of course you want the lower bid but you want the lowest most qualified bid that meets the specs. If they don’t meet specs then they are not the most qualified and you don’t go with them. That’s what an RFP is and when I listen to somebody else saying, well if Motorola doesn’t work with this company we should go to the Attorney General. You can go to the Attorney General. You can go to the President. It doesn’t matter. Companies who have products that they have certified installers that work for them do not have to work with another company. That’s done very day. It’s done every day. People have the certification to work for a different company. I know this by fact. Motorola does not have to work with Capital and I’ve seen letters where they won’t work with Capital so we’ve already heard from Motorola. I’ve seen the letters saying they will not work with Capital or anybody else that’s not a certified Motorola installer. Anybody can buy parts anybody, I can buy parts doesn’t mean I’m an installer. This is a unique radio system. This is not like Warren County’s or anybody else’s. I don’t think from what I’ve heard and following this, this radio system is not like the other ones, not like the State Police or anybody else. This is a separate radio system because of Essex County, because of the terrain of Essex County so I still can’t go for it.

DOUGLAS: Mr. McCabe do you anticipate if you were awarded the bid having any issues with Motorola?

McCABE: No.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else on this side that I haven’t heard?

BLADES: This is not a criticism of what Mr. Palmer said in regards to how RFP’s were evaluated. I just want to take you back seven or eight years when we were building the Public Safety building. I’m sure that much of the Public Safety building you put out RFP’s for the various components such as door locks, such as roof top heating and ventilation units. I’ve got to tell you if you take a trip down there and look at what is going on it doesn’t look too good.

PALMER: But they weren’t RFP’s Dave. Those were all public bid projects.

MANNING: The WICKS Law actually required it.

PALMER: WICKS Law was in place with that, we had no choice.

BLADES: I was just trying to make a statement that qualified what I think sometimes we go above and beyond based on what our perceptions are about various things and I just think that we have an RFP that we went out on, we have a low bidder and to be honest right now I’m still not sure which way I’m going to vote on this but I think it’s important that I vote on what I feel inside of myself is the right vote and that sometimes is not always the easy thing.

DOUGLAS: Dan has got some things he wants to share with us but I’m going to go to Maggie. Anything Maggie you want to share with us and then I’ll go to Dan and back to you Roby and then we’ll go to Dan and let Dan follow up.

BARTLEY: I just want to say that I know Wells has done a lot of work for us but Wells is not a monopoly and I like the idea of competition. I think it’s good for our county and I think often sometimes make it look like we always have a preferred vendor and I think the RFP process has helped clarify that for us. I assume the county will continue to work with Wells. Hopefully they are not going to hold any grudge against us for this one bid. If I do vote for Capital Digitronics because I think they are both fine companies and we need competition in this county and I think competition is good for all of us.

CONNELL: We have a low bid. I listened to all of the discussion and I’m going to vote for the low bidder.

DOUGLAS: Anybody have any last statements?

POLITI: Yes I just was told that a representative from Motorola was here. Does anybody have a question for him? We heard from Capital Digitronics. We’ve heard from Wells. Does anyone have a question that they would want to ask this gentleman if he would even speak given what is heard? If I were him I would have left by now but my understanding that our representative is here. We evidently have an agreement with Motorola.

DOUGLAS: Is there anybody here from Motorola that would like to come forward? If we offer the courtesy of the floor?

SCOZZAFAVA: I would move that courtesy.

DOUGLAS: I have to figure out who it is first.

SCOZZAFAVA: The guy with the Motorola sweater.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: If it behooves for me to speak. I would be happy to speak. I’m not with Motorola. I’m with Wells Communication.

POLITI: Never mind.

DOUGLAS: Is there anybody from Motorola specifically? Okay, nobody here.

Mr. Politi anything more?

POLITI: No

FEREBEE: I find it hard to believe that you know Motorola has got to be aware of this conversation. I mean everyone is reading it in the paper. I’ve got emails from other radio companies so it’s out there so I felt that if there was a concern or I feel that Motorola would have had someone here today to address the board. I agree I don’t think they want to get in the middle of who they are going to recommend or who they are not. I feel comfortable with Mr. McCabe. He said Motorola will communicate with him. We are struggling with a budget, with a 15% increase you know let’s start somewhere other than reducing the supervisor’s mileage or something. I mean it’s $26,000.

DOUGLAS: Mr. Manning is going to clarify some correspondence that he thinks should happen with Motorola too.

HATCH: Mr. Chairman it’s my understanding we already own the radios we bought them right? We have all the radios in stock?

DOUGLAS: Yes they are at the fire departments.

HATCH: Okay and I think Motorola has said what they want. They want an authorized dealer with a warranty service to install their radios. This is what they are saying here.

MARNELL: We have three options. We’ve got Wells. We’ve got Capital and we’ve got State contract now we did advertise and we did get RFP’s which are fine but we do have State contract if we chose to use the State contract price we have the right to accept to reject. How do these prices stand between Wells and Capital between the State contract?

DOUGLAS: I think Dan is going to answer that question too when we get to it. That’s a good question. Is there anybody else that has questions? Then I’m going to turn it over and let Dan Palmer go first and then I’ll let Dan Manning follow up.

SCOZZAFAVA: Just one quick question. I’m in favor of awarding this to the lowest proposal these weren’t bids, these were RFP’s the lowest proposal but the one question that bothers me is when this gentleman said if Motorola works with him. I mean that’s the question that hangs out there and I can’t believe that we can’t get an answer. It’s a simple yes or no question. If we award this contract to this company will you provide the necessary whatever to work with them? And I know the letter Mr. Morrow that you are referring to and that letter was kind of grey too the way that they explained it.

MORROW: I’m going to tell you something right now. I’m willing to hear from Dan and Dan but after that I’ll tell you right up front we tabled this last week so we could listen to Capital. You’ve got a good point Tom. I’m going to move to table after so that we can hear from Motorola. We’re not going to install these radios next week anyways so let’s table it after we hear from Dan and Dan from Motorola.

DOUGLAS: I was going to suggest the same thing Mr. Morrow. I think it’s a good point and I think Dan is going to get into it a little bit about the State contract and the letter that should probably come from one of the three of us sitting up here to Motorola with specific questions and concerns to answers so anybody else before I turn it over to Dan and then Dan? Does anybody want to hear from Mr. Jaquish?

SCOZZAFAVA: I do.

DOUGLAS: You do?

SCOZZAFAVA: Yes.

DOUGLAS: Let me go to Mr. Preston and then you can offer the courtesy of the floor. Okay I’ll come back to you.

PRESTON: I guess my last remark probably is going to be if we’ve spent a couple million dollars with Motorola I would like to think they would work with whoever this board directs as our installer.

CONNELL: Just a comment I made at the last discussion at the rate that we are going with this the warranty with Motorola is going to be over anyhow before we install these radios.

DOUGLAS: Okay so you’re offering the courtesy of the floor to Mr. Jaquish?

SCOZZAFAVA: Yes.

DOUGLAS: Nobody has any more questions for Mr. McCabe? Mr. McCabe thank you very much. You are free to go.

McCABE: Thank you Mr. Chairman.

DOUGLAS: Moved by Mr. Scozzafava. Is there a second? Mr. Morrow. All in favor signify by saying aye, any opposed – motion is carried.

Mr. Jaquish can you come on up please. You are free to make a statement first before you answer any questions.

JAQUISH: My concern again – for one thing I’d like to clarify something Mike Blaise is not configuring the radios. The template, the factory template we are going to look at tomorrow but that template is for a multicast system which is indeed different than other radio systems. In saying that the question is will Motorola work with another vendor and that I can’t answer right now. The letter to me says no. It says you have to be a Motorola service shop. My concern is strictly on a neutral basis that we install these radios. The system doesn’t work and you’ve got to remember these radios are like an orchestra. They’re not just the radios in the vehicles they are talking with the towers. This is like a tuned system and I don’t want to see Motorola point a finger at Capital Digits or Capital Digits pointing a finger at Motorola and that’s where my concern is. I do have a concern.

SCOZZAFAVA: As I think it’s obvious that many of us do. I mean and that’s the question. I don’t have the letter that we had here at Ways & means from Motorola but if I recall that paragraph it said an authorized Motorola or it was grey, it wasn’t definitive.

JAQUISH: I believe it said or they have an agreement. If Motorola has an agreement with another entity another vendor.

SCOZZAFAVA: Have you had conversations with Motorola? Whoever Motorola is? Who the hell are we dealing with? The CEO here of Motorola? Who are we dealing with?

JAQUISH: The only conversation that I’ve had via the request, via email for that letter.

SCOZZAFAVA: So why can’t you or the County Manager I mean, one phone call – you’re saying no?

DOUGLAS: What we are going to do if we table this we are not going to do it by a phone call. I will call a special board meeting in December if need be but at first one of the three of us will probably meet as we always do after meetings today trying to figure out what we want for wording in there and input from you guys to put in this letter to ask specific questions whether they work with whoever but it’s a good point Tom. We will clarify that.

SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else on this side?

HARRINGTON: If we had an option to utilize State contract why don’t we have some figures in regards to that? We certainly wouldn’t have any issues if we went on State contract as to who was qualified and who wasn’t.

DOUGLAS: I agree with you Mr. Harrington we probably should of went with Mr. Palmer’s suggestion back in April and we wouldn’t be sitting here right now but good point. We can still look into that. That’s a good point.

MORROW: The letter that Mr. Scozzafava and Mr. Jaquish is referring to I have right here and I read it last week. It’s not that grey and I will read it, Motorola does not warranty the installation, maintenance or service of the product by anyone other than Motorola or an authorized Motorola service shop or warranty center. That’s what Don just said. That’s pretty clear. They will not so that’s what worries me.

FEREBEE: But once the radio is out of warranty we can have anybody work on it anyway.

PALMER: No that has nothing to do with it.

FEREBEE: I know but that’s saying that they are not going to warranty the installation or the service.

PALMER: Again I think there is confusion there. It has nothing to do with the warranty for the radio itself. If you plug the radio in and it doesn’t work that’s a Motorola warranty issue all by itself. What Motorola is saying they are not going to warranty the installation if it’s not done by an Motorola authorized service center.

FEREBEE: I wouldn’t expect them to.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else? Go ahead Dan.

PALMER: And on the State contract I do not have the price for State contract. It is complicated to get a price on State contract because there are so many radios and there are so many things involved in it but I can do that. When the board told me not to go to State contract and to go out to RFP I didn’t do a price. If you want us to try and get a price on State contract we can do that.

HARRINGTON: Do you have a timeline on that?

PALMER: I don’t know I’d have to talk to Linda about how fast we can do it. At the time again you have to understand there’s 400 radios and they are all being installed in different vehicles and they are all being installed in different locations so coming up with prices is complicated.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else? Dan you have the last word.

MANNING: Oh boy, before you all fall asleep. Two points in my mind the two most salient points here are number one, what’s the RFP process involve and how should your analysis be structured? And number two, maybe two should be one get all the facts so you know what you are talking about. That’s what you need to do.

With a respect to an RFP there are a lot of things that have been bantered around while cost is the lowest cost; it’s the lowest cost that is not a determining factor with respect to the RFP process although it is an important factor. It depends how the RFP is structured and how the scoring is done. Often times if there are ties or if there are close calls then price does come into play but it’s not a determining factor. There are such factors such as and I’m not saying, I don’t have a dog in this fight but there are qualifications if you’ve got firm that’s highly qualified and a firm that isn’t qualified then that is assessed a certain number of points. So when you keep saying lowest bidder, lowest bidder, lowest bidder that’s important but it’s not the sole thing that you should use in making your determination.

The second thing is it’s very difficult to sit in this body and take in all this information, it’s complicated and make a decision as to which way to go so what you have to do is you have to rely on your people. You have to rely on Mr. Palmer, you have to rely on Mr. Jaquish and you have to rely most importantly in this case upon Linda. I’ve never seen Linda skirt an issue or shade an issue so you may want to speak to Linda or get some clarification from Linda as to why she determined that Motorola was the successful RFP awardee. She’s cognizant to the fact that the other group was lower but she scored it and her scoring resulted in the contract being recommended for acceptance to Motorola. If you’re going to second guess her you should have all the facts and again, I’m not siding with either on either side of this issue but those are the things that you need to consider.

Then secondly you need to get all the facts from Motorola. You need to have in writing from Motorola a clear, concise response to questions such as; can you work with this other organization? Will this other organization’s installation void any part of our warranty or affect any part of our relationship? Things of that nature. Get that information and then make your decision.

State contract it is a very complicated process you have to go through seven computer screens to see who’s on first so Dan can get that information that could have been used in lieu of all of this so this is important to everybody involved. It’s important to Motorola. It’s important to Capital Digitronics so I think you need more information.

Just as a point of order also this isn’t on the floor it was tabled so you don’t have to do anything. You know you don’t bring it off the table and then table it again. You can continue to have it tabled and then you can address it whenever you want to. If that is your desire.

DOUGLAS: So with all due respect to my colleagues what I would hope that by the end of today whatever questions that you may have that you can email it onto the three of us so we can compile a letter to Motorola outlying specifically your questions. Dan’s got some that he wants to throw in there. I know Dan does too. We’ll compile a letter and once we have a response back from Motorola we’ll call a special board meeting because I know it’s important to all of you and some of the outgoing supervisors I want to make sure that they have a say in this we can schedule a special board meeting after we have that response back and Don if there is any questions that you want included please email it to the three of us so that we can have that so we can compile that letter.

Is that fair to everybody? Is everybody on board with that? Okay. Anybody have anything else for Mr. Jaquish? Don anything?

JAQUISH: Again I believe in Linda’s point system and I’ll back Linda.

DOUGLAS: Thank you very much. You know what? We’re doing our due diligence on behalf of the taxpayers in Essex County. I will leave it at that. I don’t think anybody has any other guests that they want to bring forward? If not, we will move to resolutions.

RESOLUTION #352 – AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO PURCHASE PLAYGROUND EQUIPMENT IN THE AMOUNT OF $5,920.00, FOR A CREATING HEALTHY PLACES GRANT IN THE TOWN OF JAY – HENRY’S TRAIL PROJECT.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Douglas, seconded by Mr. Ferebee and Ms. Bartley and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2766 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 155 votes (Canon, Boisen, Montgomery-Corey)

RESOLUTION #353 - AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO APPLY FOR A NEW YORK HEALTH FOUNDATION GRANT IN AN AMOUNT UP TO $50,000.00.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Blades, seconded by Mr. Harrington and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2766 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 155 votes (Canon, Boisen, Montgomery-Corey)

RESOLUTION #354 - AUTHORIZING THE PUBLIC HEALTH DEPARTMENT TO APPLY FOR A NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF COUNTY AND CITY HEALTH OFFICIALS (NACCHO) GRANT IN AN AMOUNT UP TO $40,000.00.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Morrow, seconded by Mr. Harrington and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2766 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 155 votes (Canon, Boisen, Montgomery-Corey)

RESOLUTION #355 – AUTHORIZING BUDGET AMENDMENTS FOR VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Ms. Bartley and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #356 – AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN AND/OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE A CONTRACT WITH FRIENDS OF THE NORTH COUNTRY, INC.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Morrow, seconded by Mr. Connell and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #357 – AUTHORIZING APPOINTMENTS TO BOARDS, COMMITTEES AND/OR COUNCILS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Douglas and Ms. Bartley, seconded by Mr. Whitson and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #358 - AUTHORIZING A THREE YEAR AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE COUNTY OF ONEIDA AND ESSEX COUNTY RELATIVE TO ONEIDA COUNTY SHERIFF PROVIDING SECURITY SERVICES FOR ESSEX COUNTY AT THE CENTRAL NEW YORK PSYCHIATRIC CENTER FORENSIC UNIT FOR THE TERM JANUARY 1, 2014 THROUGH DECEMBER 31, 2016 AND AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY CHAIRPERSON AND/OR COUNTY MANAGER TO EXECUTE THE SAME.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Blades, seconded by Ms. Malaney and Mr. Marnell and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #359 - OF CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION TO DAVID JOHNSTON FOR HIS YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE AS THE EDUCATIONAL INSTRUCTOR AT THE ESSEX COUNTY CORRECTIONAL FACILITY.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Connell, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

DOUGLAS: Before somebody moves on that I would like to ask somebody to give courtesy of the floor to the Sheriff please? Moved by Mr. Morrow, second by Ms. Bartley. All in favor signify by saying aye, any opposed – motion is carried.

Sheriff please come forward.

CUTTING: Thank you. The reason we’re here today is to congratulate and show our appreciation to someone who has been very vital to the Correction Facility. New York State requires correctional facilities to provide educational services for anyone under the age of 21 who does not have a high school diploma or GED. Now in that process through the years we’ve had a lot of instructors come through the old correctional facility. At one point we were very fortunate to have Mr. Johnston show up at our door and take over the services in the old jail and any of you that had been there knew that was a drafty old building with a tiny room and he walked in with a few books and did the best that he could do with the inmate population we had. When we transitioned into the new facility all of a sudden we brought him in and said here is a big classroom. I’m not an educator. You are. Build me a program. He took the challenge and he ran with it. He did a great job. He did a phenomenal job. He not only took those kids that didn’t have their diploma he tutored the ones to keep them in school. He worked and ultimately we now have the ability to give GED tests in the facility and to give GED certificates, diplomas to these kids when they walk out the door which is huge in helping to reduce recidivism. He has built a program; he’s more than willing to work with the adult inmates that ask for help. He’s gone well above and beyond and it’s our loss that he’s decided to retire but through family circumstances his wife has retired. He runs a farm in Westport. He has a beautiful place down there. We understand while we may be able to fill the chair we’ll never be able to fill the shoes and what I wanted to do was have a resolution of appreciation for Mr. Johnston here today from the board and if possible I’d like to have him come up here and accept this.

DOUGLAS: Somebody want to move that resolution? Moved by Mr. Connell. Unanimous second. Do you want to read it Sheriff?

CUTTING: It says resolution of congratulations and appreciate to David Johnston for his years of dedicated service as the educational instructor at the Essex County Correctional Facility. Upon the recommendation of the public safety committee, with the approval of the ways and means committee of this body, and the same appearing proper and necessary. Whereas, David Johnston has been the inmate GED instructor at the Essex County correctional facility for the past ten years; and Whereas, David Johnston has built a phenomenal program to provide educational services to inmates with a GED or high school diploma; and Whereas, David Johnston has exhibited the highest degree of skill and competence in performing his duties and has conscientiously and with the highest degree of professionalism and integrity served the residents of Essex County. Be it resolved, that the Essex County Board of Supervisors, its Clerk of the Board, County Manager and County Attorney hereby extend their heartfelt thanks and appreciation to David Johnston for his dedicated, conscientious and exemplary public service to the people of Essex County, and wish him continued health and success upon his future endeavors. This resolution was unanimously seconded and adopted.

DOUGLAS: You are welcome to say a few words Mr. Johnston if you would like.

JOHNSTON: I would just like to say my appreciation from Sheriff Cutting and his entire staff for what was in deed an opportunity in addition to providing for the safety and wellbeing of his communities through the law enforcement functions he’s always understood that these young men and woman have not run out of a chance for a second chance and that they will return to our communities and that we owe it to them and to ourselves to return them better than they came and he provided me that opportunity to do that and for that I am thankful.

MORROW: Mr. Chairman I would just like to say something. It’s always good to put a face with a name and Dave just retired when you did a resolution of appreciate for his time serviced on the Essex County Soil and Water conservation district board. Dave just retired from there and I think the Sheriff put it very well, we filled the chair we are having a hard time filling the shoes because when Dave made most all our meetings and when he said something it really meant something to the committee. You know he really had heartfelt concern for Essex County landowners and farmers. He is a farmer as the Sheriff said so thank you and congratulations Dave.

DOUGLAS: Thank you Mr. Morrow. Mr. Johnston I had the privilege of riding with the Sheriff to St. Lawrence county two weeks ago on a trip down there and I want to tell you that he spoke very, very highly of you. Congratulations enjoy your retirement sir.

RESOLUTION #360 – AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN AND/OR COUNTY MANAGER TO NEGOTIATE A CONTRACT WITH ESSEX COUNTY SOIL AND WATER DISTRICT FOR A

TIMBER SALE.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Montgomery-Corey, seconded by Mr. Morrow, and adopted, as amended.

DOUGLAS: Discussion?

MARNELL: Yes last month we mentioned we were going to have him cruise the timber lot in North Hudson could that be included in this resolution?

DOUGLAS: Will you repeat that question Mr. Marnell? I’m sorry.

MARNELL: Last month or last week we discussed having Dave go down and cruise the lot in North Hudson, the Town of North Hudson wants to acquire. If we have him cruise it can we include it in this resolution or should we include it in this resolution so we don’t have to do it again?

DOUGLAS: It was tabled last week I believe.

GARRISON: The forest lot in North Hudson. Yes it was.

PALMER: I don’t know that he needs to do an actual timber review but he certainly can go in and do the review. I think if we just ask him I’m sure Dave would do that.

DOUGLAS: Any further discussion? Before we have the roll call –

MANNING: Do we know what the price is or anything?

DOUGLAS: Do you know the dollar amount Dan?

PALMER: I don’t. I don’t think he ever said.

MORROW: It’s still under discussion.

DOUGLAS: It’s still under discussion? Okay.

HARRINGTON: What was the question? What does he charge?

DOUGLAS: There’s no dollar amount within the resolution and that’s what we need to figure out. It should be in the body of the resolution but we haven’t got that so…

MORROW: We had a discussion at our soil and water meeting and Dave threw out some idears and the soil and water committee, board still hasn’t gave a decision of what it is going to be but you can bet it is going to be quite a bit cheaper than what we’ve paid in the past because these are tax dollars that are being used. We are looking to save money here and that’s what we are looking at.

MANNING: Right and that’s just my point. I mean how do we know we are saving money if we can’t compare it to something else?

MORROW: Well you will when you get the cost. When you get the price before he does the work, let me put it to you that way.

SCOZZAFAVA: We don’t have a contract with Phil Sarkowski?

PALMER: No we had one with Fountain Forestry. Actually we didn’t renew. We were actually due to go back out to bid but we didn’t because we didn’t think we had enough lots to do.

SCOZZAFAVA: Right okay.

MORROW: And Dave Reckahn knows what the Fountain Forestry is and he brought that up at our meeting and it’s going to be considerably less than that and to go back to North Hudson, he doesn’t have to like Dan said he doesn’t have to go in there and scale it all he can go in there and look and see approximately is there timber in there that’s worth salvaging or has it been logged which we heard in the last ten to fifteen years and it’s not worth it so that can be pretty easy not hardly any costs at all.

BARTLEY: I know I went through this same thing for our town and when I checked with Fountain Forestry it was prohibited expensive and then I’ve worked with Dave and it’s very reasonable.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions?

MORROW: I was just conferring with my colleague who’s also on the Soil and Water board there was, you can go back and look at the minutes of the meeting of soil and water there was a price per hour mentioned but I hate to say it because it is not set in concrete right now but it is much less, trust me than Fountain Forestry.

DOUGLAS: Without a dollar amount in there –

POLITI: It doesn’t make a difference.

DOUGLAS: It really does because I have a forester in my town who is going to have issues with this. I really believe that.

SCOZZAFAVA: Can we change execute, do an amendment to negotiate?

DOUGLAS: I think negotiate is fair wording.

SCOZZAFAVA: I would so move that amendment.

MORROW: I will second it.

DOUGLAS: All in favor of the amendment, any opposed – motion is carried. So on the resolution as amended all in favor signify by saying aye, any opposed – motion is carried.

RESOLUTION #361 – ACCEPTING, ADOPTING, AND PLACING ON FILE POLICIES, PLANS, PROCEDURES AND ANNUAL REPORTS.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Malaney, seconded by Ms. Bartley and Mr. Connell and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #362 – OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 AUSABLE VALLEY CENTRAL SCHOOL GIRLS VARSITY VOLLEYBALL TEAM ON WINNING THE SECTION VII, CLASS C CHAMPIONSHIP FOR THE FORTH CONSECUTIVE YEAR.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Douglas and Mr. Morrow, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #363 - AUTHORIZING PAYMENT TO HOLCOMBE ABSTRACT FOR ABSTRACT OF TITLE AND TITLE SEARCH OF ADIRONDACK MOUNTAIN CLUB FOR THE CONSTRUCTION OF ADIRONDACK LOJ BRIDGE IN THE AMOUNT OF $300.00, TO BE PAID FROM BUDGETED FUNDS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Politi, seconded by Mr. Ferebee and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #364 - AUTHORIZNG PAYMENT TO MOUNTAIN ABSTRACT COMPANY FOR ABSTRACT OF TITLE AND TITLE SEARCH SERVICES FOR ACQUISITION OF PROPERTY FOR CONSTRUCTION OF OTIS BRIDGE IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $2,821.78, TO BE PAID FROM BUDGETED FUNDS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Whitson, seconded by Mr. Scozzafava and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2736 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

ABSTAIN: 95 votes (Bartley)

DOUGLAS: Under discussion?

BARTLEY: I think Dan Manning said last week that that number was high?

MANNING: It is high and it says not to exceed and I didn’t want to belabor this but I will make sure we get the right price.

RESOLUTION #365 – SETTING THE DATE OF APRIL 30, 2014, FOR THE AUCTION DATE OF TAX SALE PROPERTIES FOR THE TAX YEARS 2006, 2007, 2008 AND 2009.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Politi, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #366 – OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF ROBERT R. PURDY.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Ferebee, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #367 – RATIFYING CONTRACTS FOR NORTH COUNTRY COMMUNITY COLLEGE.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Ms. Malaney and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #368 – OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF CAROLYN B. WHITE.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Malaney, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION # 369 – IN OPPOSITION OF THE USE OF ESSEX COUNTY’S NAME AND/OR SEAL BY NEW YORK STATE ON PISTOL PERMIT RE-CERTIFICATION NOTICES.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Mr. Whitson and duly adopted with Ms. Montgomery-Corey opposed.

DOUGLAS: Under discussion? All in favor signify by saying aye, any opposed?

MONTGOMERY-COREY: I’m opposed.

RESOLUTION # 370 – AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASE OF A MOBILE ASSESSMENT–GIS OUTPOST SYSTEM, SOFTWARE UPGRADE IN THE OFFICE REAL PROPERTY TAX SERVICE FROM SYSTEMS DEVELOPMENT GROUP A SOLE SOURCE PROVIDER, IN AN AMOUNT NOT TO EXCEED $11,415.00 FROM BUDGETED FUNDS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Connell, seconded by Mr. Politi and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #371 - OF CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION TO DAWN BELDEN FOR 35 YEARS OF DEDICATED SERVICE TO ESSEX COUNTY.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Malaney, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #372 – AUTHORIZING THE LEVY OF CHARGEBACKS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Mr. Morrow and Mr. Politi and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #373 – AMENDING RESOLUTION NO. 312 OF OCTOBER 1, 2007, AUTHORIZING THE DISPOSITION OF PROPERTIES ACQUIRED BY ESSEX COUNTY IN ALL TAX SALE PROCEEDINGS.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Politi, seconded by Mr. Whitson and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

DOUGLAS: Under discussion?

MANNING: Just for discussion purposes this is basically the verbiage of Resolution #312 of October 1, 2007, with the exception of paragraph c that says simultaneously and with the payment of back taxes by the owner, the owner shall execute all documents necessary for the conveyance of title form to the County of Essex to the property owner and shall also immediately record the deed of conveyance with respect to the repurchase in the Office of the Essex County Clerk and pay any and all transfer tax and recording fees relative thereto. Mike and I discussed this. He brought this up and this just streamlines the process so we don’t have any lingering deeds out there in the wind that don’t get recorded and become a problem later. I decided that this was best to add this to the resolution rather than just have an amended floating out there so then you don’t have to bring this piece and that piece and hook them together so this will be the resolution that controls.

SCOZZAFAVA: This really isn’t pertinent to this resolution but I guess it is in a way but some of these properties, the county has foreclosed on all of these properties correct? 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009.

MANNING: And 2009 yes.

SCOZZAFAVA: And I’ve got one piece in Moriah that people have been going into it and taking things off the property and so on, can we post these properties? Legally can we have the Sheriff’s department the county, someone?

MANNING: Post them for what Tom?

SCOZZAFAVA: No trespassing.

MANNING: Yes we can.

SCOZZAFAVA: I mean they are in there stealing copper and anything and everything else so I just think that can the Sheriff do that or the localities can go out and do it? But some of these properties you know are in out of the way places and I think we need to post them.

MANNING: All of them?

SCOZZAFAVA: No, no not all of them but we know which properties in our town that we are having issues with. The Town of Moriah doesn’t own it the County does I didn’t know if we can go in and post that or should the county go down and post it?

MANNING: The county would do it unless they authorize you to do it and everyone should make a list of property that they feel is being abused.

SCOZZAFAVA: Okay thank you.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions? Roll call vote.

RESOLUTION #374 - AUTHORIZING A SECOND AMENDMENT TO THE LICENSE AGREEMENT BETWEEN VERMONT ETV, INC. AND ESSEX COUNTY TO ALLOW ESSEX COUNTY TO ADD TWO (2) ICE SHIELDS TO THE TOWER AT GRANDPA’S KNOB.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Morrow, seconded by Mr. Preston and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #375 - OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF BILL DECKER.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Montgomery-Corey, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #376 – OF GRATITUDE TO THE MURDIE FAMILY OF MINERVA.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Montgomery-Corey, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #377 – OF CONGRATULATIONS TO PATRICK AND SHIRELY McNALLY.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Montgomery-Corey, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

RESOLUTION #378 - OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE 2013 MINERVA-NEWCOMB MOUNTAINEERS GIRLS VARISITY SOCCER TEAM UPON WINNING THE NORTHERN SOCCER LEAGUE DIVISION III CHAMPIONSHIP.

The following resolution was moved by Ms. Montgomery-Corey, who acknowledged that Mr. Canon had also requested the resolution, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

MONTGOMERY-COREY: Mr. Canon supports this as well.

DOUGLAS: Can you make a note of that as well Dan.

MANNING: Yes.

MONTGOMERY-COREY: He had asked me to take the lead on it. He definitely supports it.

RESOLUTION #379 – AUTHORIZING THE PAYMENT OF INVOICES RELATIVE TO THE ISSUANCE OF A $9,720,000 SERIAL BOND FOR THE RADIO PROJECT.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded by Mr. Morrow and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2831 votes

NOES: 0 votes

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

RESOLUTION #380 – OF GRATITUDE TO THE MANY VOLUNTEERS WHO HAVE COME TO THE AID OF THE 41 HORSES WHICH WERE SEIZED DURING THE RECENT ANIMAL CRUELTY CASE IN ESSEX.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Blades, who acknowledge that Ms. Boisen has also requested the resolution, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

DOUGLAS: Mr. Blades have you reviewed all the names on there to make sure we are not missing anybody?

BLADES: I’ve reviewed the names but I can’t tell you if we’re missing anybody but I’d like to have Sharon move this as a co-mover.

DOUGLAS: We will add some verbiage in there. I did talk to Sharon last night through an email and she has an emergency situation with her mom or last night and Mr. Manning will do some verbiage similar to what he did to the Minerva resolution.

BLADES: Thank you.

DOUGLAS: If you would too, if you could clarify it and make sure that we are not missing anybody.

MANNING: We’ll add a catch all in the end also. I did not do that.

BLADES: I mean I see my granddaughter on here. I never knew she was involved but it’s one of those things. There’s a lot of names here.

CONNELL: I was going to say I’m sure we are missing some names because there are people that showed up in the beginning that I don’t think ended up on the list but there’s no way you’re going to end up with every specific name that was there.

DOUGLAS: Thank you. Further comments or questions? If you see any names or if you don’t see any names that you think should be on the list please get that to Mr. Manning.

Resolutions from the floor anybody have any resolutions from the floor? Mr. Scozzafava can we do the tax one first? Is that which one you were going to?

SCOZZAFAVA: No I had one of condolences.

DOUGLAS: Can I come back to you? Does anyone want to move the one on the tax levy?

MORROW: I will. Resolution adopting proposed Local Law No. 4 of 2013 entitled, “A Local Law to override the tax levy limit established in General municipal Law §3-C”.

DOUGLAS: Moved by Mr. Morrow. Do I have twelve to allow that on the floor?

GARRISON: Yes you do.

RESOLUTION #381 - ADOPTING PROPOSED LOCAL LAW NO. 4 OF 2013 ENTITLED, “A LOCAL LAW TO OVERRIDE THE TAX LEVY LIMIT ESTABLISHED IN GENERAL MUNICIPAL LAW §3-C”.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Morrow, seconded by Mr. Politi and adopted upon a SIXTY PERCENT roll-call vote as follows:

AYES: 2730 votes

NOES: 101 votes (Preston)

ABSENT: 90 votes (Canon, Boisen)

DOUGLAS: Under discussion?

MORROW: Under discussion, people can vote no if they want to but I don’t see where we have a choice the way our fund balance has been dwindling down and if we use all of our fund balance to get it under the 2% than we are not going to have anything left. I don’t even know if we have enough fund balance to get under the tax levy cap?

SCOZZAFAVA: Yes what this is is just authorizing. It doesn’t mean you are going to vote to override the cap. This just authorizes the board to override it if that situation occurs and I’m not certain what the consequences are if you don’t have this local law in place? Do you go to last year’s budget? Is there a penalty? I think there is a penalty imposed on the following year’s budget?

PALMER: Absolutely. Yes you would have to set up a reserve account to cover the amount that you went over that you didn’t authorize.

SCOZZAFAVA: So again just for supervisors that may be uncomfortable with this, this just authorizes us to override the final decision will be made when we vote on the 2014 budget.

DOUGLAS: Wednesday we are meeting at 9:00 a.m. and if need be all day.

SCOZZAFAVA: Correct.

MANNING: It just gives you that option. We do it every year.

PALMER: Again the actual dollar amount of our cap would have been $398,757 the chargebacks from the towns makes up $288,966 so if you were in fact going to stay within the cap you could only raise the levy by $114,000 which equates to .07%.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions?

CONNELL: Before Dan’s presentation on the tentative budget I was going to vote no against this resolution after hearing that, looking at the materials we had to take over on this there is no choice from what I can see so I am going to vote for this even though I am uncomfortable with it. I don’t see any way we can put a budget together under the cap.

DOUGLAS: Anybody else? Further comments?

PRESTON: I was going to keep my mouth shut but like Jerry I normally can’t. I sat through months of the budget committee meetings and I will say that I was educated to the fact that we have people in this county that work their backsides off and I was also educated to the fact that we have people that may not. In my opinion when we started with a 9% increase that was talked about I think we could have gotten to the cap. I think it would have been painful. I agree I will say one thing I certainly do not want the personnel issues that were brought into it last year because I think we can do this and still play well with each other but in my opinion we could have gotten there. I don’t think it would have been easy. Everything that Dan Palmer has said is 100%. Where we differ is how we achieve to get there. I mean I would of went along with some further cuts and the other thing that was just eye opening to me was the fact of our contract agencies and how much duplication of services is out there. It was just totally shocking to me to find that out. In my opinion there was a reason this tax cap was put into place and there’s a reason why our State legislature won’t budge on it. The other thing that I will add in everyone else’s defense it mystifies me that last year I think we talked about a 26% tax increase and we had what, two people speak I think? This year 15% nobody come. It is just mind boggling to me so I understand where everybody is going but in my opinion and I will respect everyone else’s here I think we could have gotten to the cap. I thought probably I’m sure that would be a slim chance that anyone would go along with that because what would have to be done to achieve that but that’s my opinion. I guess I’m going to stick with it. Thanks.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions? Spending Dan I emphasize again spending in this year’s budget compared to last?

PALMER: Again the net budget is down $1.3 million from last year.

DOUGLAS: The difference is the amount of fund balance that we had available to utilize last year to offset the tax levy compared to this year? The six million down to?

PALMER: We used $6.8 million last year. We are only recommending that you use $3 million, $1.5 million out of Highway and $1.5 million out of general.

DOUGLAS: Further comments, questions? Anything?

MANNING: I just want to reiterate as Tom said and it is probably very clear but by passing this local law by does by no means mean you are going to exceed the tax cap threshold. This will just give you the ability should you want to.

HATCH: Question I have, do you feel that this budget, there’s no way that this budget will be passed without having to go over the tax cap? I mean there’s no sound way this is going to happen?

PALMER: Well again my opinion is the problem right now with the budget as the Comptroller’s have said to you is that it is structurally unbalanced. The net budget that we actually need to operate is so far off of what we are raising on the levy that until you correct it structurally you are never going to get out of the red.

HATCH: I mean if we vote for this and I vote for a 15% cap we are voting to give us a right to negotiate and see what we can come up with?

DOUGLAS: That’s correct. Wednesday at 9:00 a.m.

HATCH: No I will vote for it because I think we have no choice.

DOUGLAS: Further comments or questions? We will get in to it on Wednesday but I have received emails and phone calls and I have spent a lot of time with some of my constituents I would say like ten people and have answered back their questions in lengthy emails and phone calls. I had a forty-five minute conversation with two of my constituents last week on a conference call explained everything, where we’ve been since 2004 and where we’re going and it takes some time to educate our people. It is tough times. I’m not sure where I am going with this either on Wednesday but hopefully everybody will have a bunch of suggestions come Wednesday.

MORROW: Well in my opening statements was and that’s what gets me in trouble I don’t sugar coat things. I tell it like it is. There’s no way that we can get under the 2% tax cap. There’s no way. We don’t have enough – like Mr. Preston says we are going to go back and cut everything? We don’t have the fund balance. I’ve had people come into my office and talk to me. I’ve had people from Clinton County I’ve talked to when I meet them and I think the Public Hearing spoke for itself. People understand that there is a problem here and that’s when you said, explain it to your constituents. I explained it to my constituents. I’m not going to say that they are happy but they understand. There has got to be something done.

DOUGLAS: Another thing that I know we are going to get into on Wednesday but State mandates in this budget are what? Percentage Dan? 83%?

PALMER: 83% of the net budget.

DOUGLAS: Of the net budget which are somewhere around $24 million?

PALMER: Yes $23 million something.

SCOZZAFAVA: I’m going to support this local law which will at least allow us the ability to override if necessary but there are ways you can get to the cap and below the cap. There are ways that people aren’t going to like. He just mentioned chargebacks. I mean right there could have brought you well within the reason of getting within the cap. The solid waste system but we are going to have all this discussion on Wednesday I’m certain. So call the question.

DOUGLAS: I will as soon as anybody has any other comments or questions.

MORROW: You know I don’t want to get into a debate with Mr. Scozzafava but what got us in this position is his ways. You know if you want to keep going I don’t have a problem.

SCOZZAFAVA: I can keep going. I can point out every budget that we’ve adopted and I think you supported every one of them.

MORROW: I did because of your ways.

SCOZZAFAVA: Well I’m glad you listened to me.

DOUGLAS: Roll call vote please.

Further resolutions from the floor?

SCOZZAFAVA: Resolution of condolences to the family of Thomas Carpenter who passed away unexpectedly on Thanksgiving Day. He was a former school board member at Moriah Central School also a former Town Assessor and has many family members that actually work for Essex County. I’d like to move that.

DOUGLAS: Thomas Carpenter?

SCOZZAFAVA: Yes. Thomas Edward Carpenter.

DOUGLAS: Do I have twelve to allow that on the floor?

GARRISON: Yes you do.

DOUGLAS: Can I get a unanimous second? Thank you very much.

RESOLUTION # 382- OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF EDWARD B. “TOM” CARPENTER, JR.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Scozzafava, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

DOUGLAS: Further resolutions from the floor?

MARNELL: I’d like to have a resolution of appreciation for Justice Jean Strothenke who will be retiring December 31 of this year. She was the Justice of the Peace for twenty-five or so years for the Town of Schroon.

DOUGLAS: Do I have twelve to allow that on the floor?

GARRISON: Yes you do.

DOUGLAS: Can I get a unanimous second? Thank you very much.

RESOLUTION #383 – OF CONGRATULATIONS TO HON. JEAN R. STROTHENKE.

The following resolution was moved by Mr. Marnell, seconded unanimously and duly adopted.

DOUGLAS: Further resolutions from the floor? Any close in business Mr. Palmer anything? Mr. Manning anything? We are adjourned.

As there was no further business to come before this regular board meeting it was adjourned at 12:00 p.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judy Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors