ESSEX
COUNTY UNITED WAY TASK FORCE
Monday, January
30, 2023
Chairman Monty
called this United Way Task Force to order at 8:30 am with the following in
attendance; Jim Monty, Ike Tyler, Mark Wright, Krissy Leerkes and Mike
Mascarenas (8:50). Shaun Gillilland, Noel Merrihew, Angie Allen and Jennifer
Mascarenas were absent. Stephanie DeZalia and Steve McNally had been previously
excused.
Also Present: Dina
Garvey
MONTY: Good
morning, we’ll start this Task Force meeting. I am going to come in next week
and talk to Department Heads. I want to bring posters in, February a local
supervisor is participating in kiss a cow contest.
LEERKES: So,
with, how is Essex County employees compared to, like counterparts, like
Clinton County and Franklin?
MONTY: You
don’t even want to ask that question. It’s a great question, back, probably
about 10 years ago, when John O’Neill was part of it. John, O’Neill, started
spreading the rumor that John Bernardi was making $200,000.00 a year as United
Way President, he was putting that out here to the employees, and of course,
that spread like wildfire, thinking they were paying his salary.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: When in
fact John does make $114,000.00, but it’s $200,000.00.
LEERKES:
Right, right
MONTY: And our
administrative costs at United Way, here, are 14%. You know, the big deal about
that was with the Wounded Warriors, if you remember?
LEERKES: Yup
MONTY: Theirs
was 80 some perfect, of every dollar goes to their admin costs.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: And the
beauty with the United Way donation, you can pick one of the 36 partner
agencies and 100% of your donation does to that partner agency with no admin
costs.
LEERKES: Yup
MONTY: You can
give to the United Way, but then that’s where 14% of your money would go toward
admin costs.
LEERKES: Right
and I think and I don’t know this to be a possibility, but you know, times are
hard for everybody.
MONTY:
Absolutely
LEERKES:
Whether it’s the working class, our employees, I am sure are struggling, as
well, I have a small department, but I hear mu staff.
MONTY: Yup
LEERKES: Has
there ever been any talk of in addition to the possibility of the payroll
deduction of doing, like maybe, every couple of months, like some type of fun
fundraiser, like, okay, you’re kissing a cow of whatever you’re doing.
MONTY: Yup
LEERKES: I
remember that Dave did, our Sheriff did that and I can’t remember what the
fundraiser was for, when they put him jail for overnight.
MONTY: Yeah
LEERKES: I’m
just thinking, we may not be able to get a really good percentage of county
employees do a payroll deduction, but they’d rather see like, Supervisor Tyler,
like have to clean the Public Safety Building a day.
MONTY: Shave
his head.
LEERKES: Or
shave his head or whatever dye his hair pink, but again, that’s probably way, I
don’t know.
MONTY: No, no,
that’s great, those are all great ideas. I was going to send those posters out,
because there is a QR code on it that you can make donations to the United Way
for the individuals involved in it.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: No,
these are all great ideas. We, last year, the number of people that donated
went down, but the dollar amount went up. Which is a win/ win.
LEERKES: Yup
MONTY: You
know, you would like to see more people.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: For the
8th year in a row, I’ve challenged the Supervisors to donate,
because I’m a firm believer that you lead by example. If we’re going to ask our
employees to donate, we should be leading the charge and donating, as well.
LEERKES: Yup
MONTY: That
hasn’t always gone as well as I would like.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: But,
again, that’s everybody’s individually choices.
LEERKES:
Right, I just, in having conversations with not just my staff, but some other
staff, like I said, they’re saying times are tough for themselves, groceries,
food costs, whatever.
MONTY:
Understood, fuel.
LEERKES: And I
don’t want this to come off on the wrong way, but if they saw something, like
you kissing a cow or putting you in jail for the night, I think that would be
just some fun.
MONTY: I know
Linda Beers, one year did a pizza party.
LEERKES: Yup,
we did that.
MONTY: And one
year, for depending on what the donation was, they gave a day off and stuff,
which you know, I think isn’t a bad thing and stuff, because United Way, one of
my goals when I got asked to join the Board was to bring a bigger presence to
Essex County and because a lot of times everything was Clinton or Franklin
County.
LEERKES: Right
MONTY: So, I
tried to bring it so we were getting some and I think we have. I mean they
stepped up big time when we had all that flooding, Schroon Lake, Crown Point.
Ti. We helped a woman down there in Ti. We put her up for a month because her
home was uninhabitable down there due to some, it wasn’t from the flood,
itself, it was a broken water pipe. We’re constantly doing stuff like that.
We’ve got the backpack programs that are coming, actually pride of Ti, applied
for a, one of the mini grants that United Way has and it doesn’t compared to
your $10 million, but they got $2,500.00.
We’ll adjourn,
because I know you guys have EMS. Thank you, for showing up and sharing your
thoughts, good thoughts and I’ll send that poster around, if people want to
post it.
LEERKES: Are
you going to put it in the mailboxes or are you going to just email it?
MONTY: I was
going to email it to Department Heads and they can post it.
LEERKES: Okay
MONTY: Thank
you.
AS THERE WAS NO FURTHER BUSINESS TO COME BEFORE
THIS UNITED WAY, TASK FORCE ADJOURNED AT 8:50 AM.
Respectively
Submitted,
Dina L.
Garvey, Deputy Clerk
Board of
Supervisors