FINANCE/TAX
REDUCTION/MANDATE RELIEF - COMMITTEE
Monday, March 20, 2023
- 10:30 AM
Thomas Scozzafava, Chairperson
Noel Merrihew, Vice-Chairperson
Chairman Scozzafava called this Finance Meeting
to order at 10:30 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Robin
DeLoria, Stephanie DeZalia, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington,
Roy Holzer, Ken Hughes, Steve McNally, Noel Merrihew, James Monty, Tom
Scozzafava, Matt Stanley, Joe Pete Wilson, Davina Winemiller, Margaret Wood and
Mark Wright. Clayton Barber and Ike Tyler were
excused.
Department Heads present: Michael Diskin, Judy
Garrison, David Reynolds, David Wainwright and Michael Mascarenas.
Deputies present: Laurie DeZalia and Chelsea Merrihew
Also present:
Joe Keegan
New media:
Alana Penny, Sun News.
SCOZZAFAVA:
I will call the Finance committee meeting to order. First report from Chelsea Merrihew. Good morning.
C.MERRIHEW:
Good morning. You have my
report. In February we collected
$241,000, transferred $145,000 of that to the Treasurer for local
retention. I do not have anything
additional today. I didn’t know if there
was any questions?
SCOZZAFAVA: Any questions?
MASCARENAS:
Chelsea, during the last meeting I think, Mr. Doty did you want to re
ask your question? Maybe she can give
you a better answer.
DOTY:
Well, Chelsea was good enough to come up and visit us a few weeks ago so
she briefed me on new hires for the Department of Motor Vehicles so I was
asking Jen where we are at moving forward with it. I was under the impression we had four
training but I guess you only have two right?
C.MERRIHEW:
We have two new hires. One just
hit a year, one other employee just hit a year in service so we have the two in
training right now and then one additional vacant position but until at least
one of the two are training are up to a certain level we don’t want to bring
someone new in there because we hit the max of trainers to train.
DOTY:
Any additional applications, anyone else apply?
C.MERRIHEW: Not that I know of. We got the last round in like the end of
January, February and interviewed off of that list and picked the best
candidate off of that.
DOTY:
When Chelsea did come to visit we both agreed that certainly an effort
to reopen the Lake Placid shouldn’t be warranted until there is adequate staff
because the frustration level is too high when you advertise you are going to
be open and then at the last minute have to put a sign. I’m sure Chelsea gets the calls, we get the
calls so we’re comfortable waiting until the staff is big enough.
C.MERRIHEW: Thank you. I appreciate you understanding that.
MASCARENAS:
So Chelsea too, I did inform the board so it is something that we
probably have to talk about at some point that when those satellite offices
were open they were opened with no increase to staffing levels anywhere so even
when we are fully staff it can create somewhat of a poor situation if we have a
call in or if we have a vacation or something like that because there was never
added positions to that.
C.MERRIHEW:
Yes, it is something I would like to look at potentially restructuring
how those are staffed.
DOTY: Thank you.
SCOZZAFAVA:
Do they generate enough revenue to warrant the cost of running those satellites?
C.MERRIHEW: I believe Ticonderoga definitely
does consistently we only have been open two days a week, they were bringing in
25% of the revenue. I think we draw in a
lot of people from Washington and Warren Counties. North Elba I don’t think ever realized its
full potential opening when it did during Covid so it kind of remains to be
seen but in visiting Mr. Doty up there it does seem like there is a need for it
or at least a want so I would be willing to at least test it out on a basis.
SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you. Any questions for Chelsea? If not, thank you. Laura Carson.
L.DEZALIA:
Laurie DeZalia
MONTY:
Open your eyes please.
SCOZZAFAVA: Oh.
L.DEZALIA:
Good morning. Included in Laura’s
report you have department head expense reports. Coroners had responded to 26 calls and funeral
homes handled 5 removals based on the vouchers submitted here to date.
We have the supervisor expense report. Invoice data collection summary. February is a very busy month for us as is
January and March because we had year end and we also are rounding up Assigned
Counsel. Mike can tell you because he
sees all the approvals in his box how busy we are there. We processed 1,740 and we had 304 errors
probably most of those were lawyers. YTD
overpayments we’ve caught $4,881.99 and YTD duplicate payments we’ve caught
$17,999.02.
Your auditor YTD budget report is
included. Assigned counsel monthly
summary and yearly comparison. We received 53 vouchers to process and we paid
195 vouchers totaling $95,029.61.
Your Assigned Counsel yearly to date budget
report for 2022 and your Assigned Counsel year to date budget report for 2023. She has a note here, admin. Costs only that’s
only on our side and she has a highlight on there for the assigned counsel
administrative portion and that’s it is only assigned counsel costs not like
supplies and printing and all the other stuff things that you’ve added in
positions and such since we started.
You have tax roll corrections, another busy
time for us for that. They get the bills
out and that’s when it hits us and then special prosecutor summary report is
your last one. Does anybody have any questions
on them?
SCOZZAFAVA: I guess not, thank you.
L.DEZALIA:
Oh, wait, Mr. Doty.
DOTY:
Well, I’m not sure if this question is for you or Mike can answer it but
under, you recognized 26 calls from our Coroners and I remember a resolution
just last session where we accepted mutual aid I believe it is like from
Clinton County are we dependent at all on Clinton County or is really just a
formality agreement we do back and forth?
MASCARENAS: I think they actually do utilize
that service across both counties on occasion, I don’t think it is often but I
think having that tool in the tool box for both counties I do think they use it
on occasion. It’s not regular but it
happens.
L.DEZALIA: I concur. If you have somebody on vacation or one or
two are sick you need to have a backup plan.
DOTY:
Very good.
L.DEZALIA:
Anything else? Okay have a
wonderful day.
SCOZZAFAVA: Thank you. Dave Wainwright.
WAINWRIGHT:
Good morning. Other than my
budget I have a request for a resolution.
I had to deny an application for a refund for water and sewer
taxes. It was sent to our office which
is typically for something that’s taxed on our warrant. This was not. This was town water, town sewer charges, the
quarterly charges. This individual
continued to pay those bills even though he was being charged as a two family,
two unit parcel when it is a single family so I did have to deny that. I sent it down to the Auditors but then we
have our resolution that says it has to come to the board for denials. There are copies of the bills that the
taxpayer received from the town in there.
MASCARENAS:
Authorizing a denial of the application for water/sewer refund for
Joseph Sinisgalli.
RESOLUTION DENYING A REFUND OF WATER/SEWER
TAXES, TOWN OF TICONDEROGA - JOSEPH SINISGALLI.
Merrihew, Wilson
SCOZZAFAVA: Discussion?
Being none, all in favor, opposed – carries. Anything else Dave?
WAINWRIGHT: Yeah, I just want to talk a little bit about
grievance day, board of assessment review training. The tentative roll comes out May 1st
and grievance day is typically the 4th Tuesday in May, unless your
assessor has more than one town. If you
have a sole assessor that has multiple towns then they have to stagger their
days. Grievance Day this year for the
majority of us is May 23rd.
We’ve got BAR training scheduled, live training again this year April 26th
which is a Wednesday. We’ll have it
right here from 6-9 p.m. We currently
have eleven members that are required to take the training, three of those are
brand new members so we have total of 20 people that we’ve invited for the
training. The extra nine are for the
three towns that are doing full revals this year we always send out letters to
the BAR’s just telling them you know, you may have more than normal volume this
year because it is a reval so if you’d like a refresher we are here, we are
giving a training at this time. If
anybody cannot make, any of your members cannot make that day April 26th,
they have the option to go to Clinton County, Franklin County, Warren,
Washington depending on where they are they can always get the training there
and they can contact our office, let us know that they won’t be able to make it
and we’ll tell them what other days are available from the other county
directors. Doesn’t matter, they do not
have to come to this one and anybody else that is interested if you’ve got BAR
members that just want to come for a refresher we open it up to anybody. That’s it.
HUGHES: Do the Board of Assessment Review members
that just want a refresher like you were just speaking about, pre-register with
your office or can they just show up?
WAINWRIGHT: It would
be better if they let us know that they would be coming that way if there are
any, every year the State hands out a little extra things having to do with laws and exemptions and
stuff so we’ll print those out and people can put them in their books that
they’ve already got.
HUGHES: Okay, great.
Thanks.
MONTY: Could you resend that email Dave, to us on
the dates and stuff?
WAINWRIGHT: Oh, sure.
MONTY: Thank you.
DELORIA: Dave are you going to send emails out to the
supervisors telling them which board members need it this year?
WAINWRIGHT: We can.
DELORIA: I would like that at least for me because
I’ve got two out of the three of my BAR members that don’t go on the computer,
they are old school so if you would let
me know I will let them know.
WAINWRIGHT: They do get letters from our office, the
members that are required to take it but I can certainly send you guys the list
as well.
SCOZZAFAVA: Okay anything further for Dave? I guess not, thank you. Mr. Diskin.
DISKIN: Good morning.
I don’t know if it’s a sign that I’m getting old but the first three
people you called all by their first name but you called mine Mr. Diskin.
SCOZZAFAVA: You’re
getting old.
DISKIN: Happy first day of spring. You can tell by looking outside. Let’s start with the sales tax. We are still
having good returns on our sales tax as you can see both payments that we got
this month were in excess of last year for the month, we picked up almost
$353,000 more than we did last year and the year to date for the first three
months we are $1,295,500 ahead of last year which is running good but it’s too
early to tell if that’s going to hold out.
A lot of things can happen, if the gas drops out like it did one other
time, we depend a lot on tourism and gas prices so we’ll see what happens as
the year goes along but so far things have been good. Any questions on the sales tax?
If not, on the
occupancy we’ve reported the first month actually you’ll see the month of
February but that is actually we start with February but we start with January
returns so we always list February 1st and end with January and we
were down slightly but not enough to really notice it. I think in March you
will probably see some good pickups because there is a lot of stuff going on in
the North Country in January and February so we should get those returns back
up next month but so far we’ve been doing alright.
The expense report
for my department and that’s pretty much all I have except I do want to briefly
give you kind of an update and maybe some of you know this, some of you may not
but I did send everybody out a copy of a paper that NYSAC did in conjunction
with the State Association of County Treasurers on the Governor’s proposal to
retain excess on foreclosures back to either owners or people who have
liens. Both of those by the way have
been rejected by the Assembly and the Senate at least for now neither the
Assembly or Senate included that in their proposed budgets which is good news
but I also think and what we’re hearing now is that it could be part of a
negotiation and maybe there will be some slight tweaks to this but something is
going to be more than this and also keep in mind in April, I believe it is
April 23rd this same thing is coming up in front of the US Supreme
Court from a case out in Minnesota in Hennepin County. Someone sued the county out there and
Minnesota law took it through their court system in Minnesota and is taking it
all the way to the Supreme Court so it will be interesting to see how the
Supreme court rules on this if they do basically it’s what you call the law of
the land and it could very well effect every state in the country whether they
sell liens or whether they do foreclosures. It is going to be an interesting
case to follow on that one.
The only other thing
I wanted to let you be aware of you may also be aware of it, the Governor had
proposed that local sales tax be kept.
That we not have to go back every couple of years or three years
whatever it is to ask for an additional amount of money and wanted to make it
permanent up to 4% for each county, that has been rejected by both Senate and
Assembly as well so we’re back to where we were before and our County Manager
may have more updates on this but I understand the eFMAP was both rejected by
the Senate and Assembly so far. They
agreed to put back the $624,000,000 at least for this year so we’ll see where
that goes at this point and that is kind of the legislation that I’ve been watching
as far as finance. That’s all I have.
SCOZZAFAVA: Any
questions for Mike?
WINEMILLER: Mike thank you for that. I was wondering if you would give us all the
updated STR list since we had new people sign up?
DISKIN: What we can
do we can run through what we have by the town and send one out to each
town. The only one that is going to be
pretty large again is Mr. Doty’s but he still wants it. He has the biggest share of them but we can
make one out for each town.
DOTY: That is still being debated how much I get.
DISKIN: I’m sure there is still more out there
probably but we are still getting, we had another, I just signed for new
registrations this morning so there are still registrations coming in and I
think it’s the fact towns that are starting to get into their local watch of them
and they are adding their own local review and these people are having to
report to us and get that before they can move on with the towns so it’s been
beneficial. We’ve had, I think we had fifteen again last month. We have a total so far this year of probably
a little more than 30, 35 so far new ones just in January and February and as I
said, it’s probably going to be the same amount for March if not more. I just got four new registration applications
in this morning but we will get out what we do have registered.
WINEMILLER: Thank
you. The reason I ask is because our
town is working on a STR local law so it would be great to have it.
DISKIN: And personal registrations in the town. I know that Schroon has done it and
Wilmington has done it.
HOLZER: Bless you and good luck.
WINEMILLER: Thank you.
McNALLY: We are in the process of working on one but
in all fairness with this program everyone should a STR law to make it fair to
people registering. I know it’s not
popular but all the towns in Warren County have now done it and I think really
in all fairness this everyone on this board should have one in their town so
that everybody is paying their fair share and the best way to monitor who is
paying that law and have some enforcement in it if they don’t register.
HOLZER: Well, to carry that even one step further
there is actually legislation proposed in Albany right now that would have the
State’s starting to oversee some of the STR regulations in registration so I’m
sure that they are going to want to have a bite of this STR occupancy funds.
DISKIN: They are
going to be looking for sales tax.
HOLZER: Get ready so North Elba.
DISKIN: Yeah, I’ve heard the same rumor out of Albany
that they are looking to pursue the STR’s and in all likelihood they are going
to be including them in sales tax coming down the road so far they haven’t but
watch for it because they are looking for additional revenue obviously the
State. I think they see this as a good revenue for sales tax which it could
help us as well because we get our 4% out of that sales tax.
SCOZZAFAVA: Okay
anything further for Mike? If not, thank
you. Mr. Mascarenas.
MASCARENAS: Yes sir.
I didn’t get a formal resolution request out but I did send an email
explaining what I’m going to ask for today last week to everybody regarding
student trainee program that Essex County had that ended sometime around
2009. When I surveyed the employees here
I was surprised, I knew of some of them but I didn’t know of how many and Mrs.
DeZalia yes, there’s 22. You are
absolutely correct there are 22 individuals that still work in Essex County
that were part of those original programs which says a lot being that we have
instituted it in the last 13, 14 years so I would a resolution from the board
requesting that we are allowed to put on ten student trainees for the summer
months and have those slots in the County Manager’s budget. We have the money to pay for it with our
vacancies. I’m not asking for additional
funds. I wouldn’t budget this going into
2024. I think I want to see how these
things go if we feel like it was successful I would bring it back to you on an
annual basis with the appropriate number of slots and ask that the board do
that at that time. There are other
departments that do have it in their budget that have a couple that have been
continuing but the large portion of the county does not so I would like to be
able to fit these individuals with a department of interest and see if we can
secure some young folks that want to have careers here in Essex County moving
forward.
RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING AN ESSEX COUNTY STUDENT
TRAINEE PROGRAM FOR TEN (10) POSITIONS FOR SUMMER EMPLOYMENT 2023. Wilson, McNally
SCOZZAFAVA: Discussion?
McNALLY: Is there an age requirement?
MASCARENAS: The way
we did it before we really didn’t have an age requirement. You have to be of legal working age. I think we would look at it more so with
somebody that has a specific interest so if we didn’t have enough applicants we
could kind of go the other direction. I
would like to see individuals that are either entering the workforce following
high school or are in some type of college situation where they might come into
the human services field not to say we couldn’t hire 16 year olds and 17 year
olds. I’d like to start with the 18 year
olds that are entering the workforce or have a specific program of interest
that they would like to look at in a career.
McNALLY: Would the pay be based on the position?
MASCARENAS: It is a graded position just like everything
else so if they are a student trainee title, I don’t know what it is exactly
Jen? $22.00 an hour?
J.MASCARENAS: No,
it’s a grade 2.
MASCARENAS: Oh, it’s a grade two. So I can get you that information. I don’t know, I’m guessing it’s right around
the minimum wage.
McNALLY: And the length of the program?
MASCARENAS: We are
going to operate until August, the end
of August so we’ll start probably in May and when those either go back to high
school and/or college or maybe some that are entering the workforce end up
staying and fill some of the rolls we have now and vacancies we have now.
SCOZZAFAVA: All in favor, opposed – carried. Anything else Mike?
MASCARENAS: That’s it
sir, thank you.
SCOZZAFAVA: Joe,
North Country.
KEEGAN: Good morning everybody, nice to see you. Tom, I’m glad to hear you’re not sick. Just a couple of quick updates for you. I wanted to thank you for the letters of
support that we received a number of you that we reached out to you we’ve got a
grant opportunity to compliment the work that’s happening in May to update our
science labs and nursing labs and so several of you were really quick and sent
them out. Davina, JoePete, Shaun thanks
so much. Derek thank you for the
support, Tom and the other thing I just wanted to update you on was just on the
bids for those science nursing labs. They have gone out, well they haven’t
actually we had a bid walk through today up on the Saranac Lake campus with the
architect and hopefully some bidders we got people that have drawn down plans
so that’s good. 24th of May
is the start and anticipated completion date is at the start of the full
semester so that’s exciting. And like
the county I think it was Mike that said, you’re waiting to hear what is
happening out of Albany we are too. The
one house bills for both the Senate and Assembly were very positive for SUNY
and for the community college. Our three
principal asks that the funding floor the 4% increase in base operating aid and
$75 million transformational fund to support enrollment initiatives all made
their way into those proposals and because the Governor had already put in the
funding floor that, we are cautiously optimistic and really pleased that we’ve
had so much support across all branches of Government.
I think that’s
it. Those are the only three things I
wanted to update you at this point.
Mike as I was
thinking, the career college has that college central network which is an
opportunity to put and post jobs if
you’ve got summer jobs we can get them out to students and if you want
to work with our departments we are happy to work with you on that.
MASCARENAS: Absolutely, thank you.
KEEGAN: I can take
any questions if there are any?
DOTY: Joe I would
just like to remind folks around the table here who haven’t seen it occupancy
tax funding our local Leaf Committee and board has located $734,000 toward non
for profits of which North Country was a recipient for I believe, $45,000 for
two sheds that will help continue sustain ability of both rugby and lacrosse. I believe that’s kind of targeted toward the
bowl right?
KEEGAN: It is,
exactly.
DOTY: I just want to thank you for your continued
support of both of those avenues and it brings tons of sales tax revenue and
short term rental occupancy tax so it was money well spent.
KEEGAN: Thank you for mentioning it Derek and we
appreciate the support that really helps. Those are difficult capital projects
to find funding for we are really pleased thank you.
SCOZZAFAVA: Anything
else for Joe? If not, thank you.
KEEGAN: Thank you Tom. Thanks everybody.
SCOZZAFAVA: Okay
anything further to come before this committee?
WRIGHT: Thank you Mr. Chairman. I’m not a member of this committee but I
understand there’s a vacancy on the Lake George Board of Commissioners. Michelle Jebb of Ticonderoga has expressed an
interest of becoming part of that board.
She’s worked in the boating industry for many years now on Lake George
and I think she would bring a good balance of boating experience and her family
is on the lake. Her experience in
boating industry and her understanding the necessity of the type of lake in the
future. I issued a letter of support on
her behalf last week from Ticonderoga and I would like to recommend that the
Essex County Board of Supervisors offer a resolution of support for Michelle
Jebb in that position and follow up with a letter of support as well.
RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF MICHELLE JEBB, TOWN OF
TICONDEROGA AS A MEMBER TO THE LAKE GEORGE PARK COMMISSION BOARD OF
COMMISSIONERS. Scozzafava, Merrihew
SCOZZAFAVA:
Discussion?
GILLILLAND: Just
point of fact of information for the board to look at this, there are two Essex
County residents have to be on the Lake George commission I don’t know who they
are at this time or who the other one is and these are Governor appointed
positions that’s why we rarely delve into them so the people from Ticonderoga
reached out to me and I talked with Mark about her and we have a citizen that’s
willing to step up and get involved in that board I support that.
SCOZZAFAVA: Further
discussion? If not, all in favor,
carried. Anything further to come before
the finance
committee? If not, we stand adjourned.
As there was no further discussion
to come before this Finance committee it was adjourned at 11:10 a.m.
Respectfully
submitted,
Judith Garrison,
Clerk
Board of Supervisors