PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE

Monday, February 10, 2025 - 9:30 AM

Kenneth Hughes, Chairperson

Ike Tyler, Vice-Chairperson

Chairman Hughes called this Public Safety Committee to order at 9:30 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Chris Clark, Robin DeLoria, Derek Doty, Kenneth Hughes, Steve McNally, Jim Monty, Favor Smith, Matthew Stanley, Davina Thurston, and Meg Wood, Mark Wright. Matthew Brassard, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington and Michael Tyler were excused. Cathleen Reusser and Joe Pete Wilson were absent.

Department Heads present: Judy Garrison, Michael Langey, Mary McGowan, Mike Mascarenas, Jack Moulton, Heather Sheehan and Matt Watts. Miriam Hadden, David Reynolds and Dan Woods were excused.

Also present: Josh Favro, William Tansey, Seth Celotti, Krista Moran and Jennifer Fifield.

HUGHES: Good morning everybody. I’d like to call this public safety committee meeting to order. It’s February the 10^th at 9:30, if we could all please rise to salute the flag. Good morning everybody. I hope you are all well. I would like to start our committee off today with the Veteran’s report. Anything from Veterans?

MCNALLY: They were going to present today but Sarah’s father had surgery so they will be reporting next month.

HUGHES: Wonderful I appreciate you very much following up with that. Thank you very much Mr. McNally. Moving onto the County Sealer, Dan Woods. Is he here today?

MASCARENAS: He is ill, his whole family is ill. He just let us know this morning.

HUGHES: He is excused. Thank you very much. Moving onto Board of Elections. I have seen Board of Elections in the house so come on down. Good morning Mary. How are you?

MCGOWAN: Fine, thank you. Good morning everyone. You have our report. Are there any questions?

HUGHES: So our agenda says we need to accept the 2024 Board of Elections annual report that you placed on file. We need a motion and a second for that.

RESOLUTION ACCEPTING AND PLACING ON FILE THE 2024 BOARD OF ELECTIONS ANNUAL REPORT. Smith, DeLoria

HUGHES: Questions or concerns about the 2024 Board of Elections annual report as submitted? Any highlights Mary that you want to point out?

MCGOWAN: No.

HUGHES: All in favor aye, opposed – carried. Thank you.

MCGOWAN: Thank you very much.

HUGHES: Thank you. Have a great day. Moving onto the District Attorney’s office.

LANGEY: I have a brief update. My update is there is not much changed. We are still short three attorneys. We’ve been advertising. I’ve called a lot of counties surrounding us, talked to a lot of private attorneys recently looking for potential attorneys to I guess poach is where I am at now because there is no one actively looking to come to the DA’s office so we are looking finding other attorneys in the area. That has not changed. We do have one staff that left that we hired someone to replace an administrative staff so that’s a good thing but we’re still looking for attorneys. I know DSS is in the same boat, they are down two attorneys. I’ve spoken to Michelle Bowen about what they are doing to find them and we are doing the same thing. The county is advertising everywhere you can advertise. The BAR Association posted something, the area BAR Association posted something and the State so still looking. That’s my update. Any questions?

MCNALLY: We are not offering a competitive rate?

LANGEY: No, we are. The salary is competitive. We are actually on par with other counties.

MCNALLY: Housing?

LANGEY: I think housing is part of it and I think just numbers. I don’t think there are a lot of young attorneys. When I say young I mean in their 20’s or 30’s that are in the North looking for employment. I’m the youngest person as an attorney at the DA’s office right now which is not a good thing but we don’t have anyone in their 20’s, 30’s or 40’s that are attorneys so there’s not a young group that is coming in behind us so I think over the next year or so recruiting, getting out to the law schools more we weren’t proactively doing that before but I think that we are going to have to go get the people because they are not just putting their name in like they used to and looking for a job out of law school anymore. We have not got someone right out of law school I would say in a decade so it has been a long time since that happened. That used to be what happened people would get out of law school, they would come to the DA’s office or Public Defender’s; every once in a while you would get an attorney with experience maybe ten or fifteen years that moved here but that has not been the case for a long time. We got lucky that Covid hit our office anyway because two people came from Long Island, the City area who came both of them and worked at our office, if not for that two other attorneys we probably would not have.

STANLEY: So this came up while we were talking at our shared services committee with the County Attorney’s office and it sort of sparked something in my head why are the people that are currently working here, working here? So, I don’t know maybe you guys already done this but sort of talk around the office and say why do you continue to work for Essex County? What makes this job attractive? I know a lot of the training and stuff we’ve been through recently is this generation really wants to sort of vacation now and not work their life and vacation when they retire so there may be some lawyers like hiking, mountain biking, living in this area and finding a place to work. It’s changing our mentality, how do we go find people? Yes, law schools are a great place but maybe looking at hiking groups there might be attorneys in hiking groups that want to live in this area because it is attractive to come essentially vacation while they are working.

LANGEY: Right. I think a lot of I guess issues in the last five years I guess was the raise in the attorney reimbursement the county pays, there’s more freedom in that. You can pick if I want to work three days a week and make that hourly wage you can do that. The DA’s office is obviously Monday thru Friday and then depending on what is happening in the week it’s more structured so I think younger attorneys are finding I can have my cake and eat it too I can work three or four days and not work this morning or not work that afternoon because of the increase in hourly wage we’ve seen over the last three years which basically doubled the hourly salary from the county so I think that has taken away from people coming into the office where they think I can make more money, I don’t have a retirement that would be a factor for me but obviously it isn’t a factor for the younger generation that’s the main reason a lot of people came here for the retirement and benefits and I feel like now that isn’t a big factor for people in their 20’s and 30’s as it used to be.

STANLEY: Once we can finally find a younger person to come in not that we want to hit them with every question in the world but why? Why are you choosing to come here? Are there other people looking to do something and be here like you are?

LANGEY: I think locals too. We used to have a lot of the attorneys like Kristy, myself we are people from the county that came back and we are not seeing that right now for whatever reason that’s not happening. I know Emily is semi local most of our office isn’t like that anymore that kind of stopped. The lawyers that graduated from Essex County schools don’t come back to Essex County the last I would say decade.

MONTY: Matt, I don’t disagree with you but I’m going back to my same old mantra housing. Housing in places that some of these attorneys may want to live, moving to Essex County, Keene, Wilmington, North Elba the housing market isn’t there and I think that is a huge factor in driving what we are trying to say in attorneys coming to the area. You’re not wrong Matt let’s try and find what makes people want to come to Essex County but if they’ve got no place to live and it’s not just attorneys, it’s doctors, it’s all professional staff, teachers, the labor force that we rely on again, back to housing too.

HUGHES: It’s a common theme across multiple departments and general affordability. There are things we can control and things we can’t control and we have to take a look at the things we can control.

MONTY: That’s something you can’t control.

DELORIA: In addition to what Jimmy brought up the cost to relocate is a huge factor with people. If they are uprooting the school that their children are in to come to either a comparable paying or a little bit more wage earning job it’s the cost to relocate is going to be a factor when they make that decision do I go to Essex County so in addition to having a place to live it’s what am I giving up and what is it going to cost me when I get there and that could be a deciding factor in why people aren’t coming.

HUGHES: Yeah to move this along I think for Meg Wood and Personnel, we talk about what is happening at Personnel and with recruitment and retention, this has been a common theme with recruitment and retention so potential there is something that that conversation can spur along and certainly going back to housing when we met, taking a look at how this is a common thing. What are the task oriented action items that we can potentially take based on what we’re hearing today because this is an issue an ongoing issue.

MONTY: Did I mention broadband?

HUGHES: That’s just a given. Broadband is just a given. Anything else for the committee this morning sir?

LANGEY: No. thank you for your help.

HUGHES: Thank you Mike. Continued successes on your searching. Good luck. Mr. Watts, come on up sir. Emergency Services.

WATTS: Good morning. You have our report, does anyone have any questions on it? I do have one resolution that came in on Friday, authorization to carry over $46,650.00, 2024 budgeted funds A3640.549924 hazard mitigation to the 2025 budget to fulfill the contract of ES-25-0010 with CHLOETA for the completion of the Hazard Mitigation Plan and I will get this to Judy as well.

RESOLUTION AUTHORIZING A BUDGET AMENDMENT IN THE EMERGENCY SERVICES DEPARTMENT INCREASING REVENUES AND APPROPRIATIONS IN THE AMOUNT OF $46,650.00, HAZARD MITIGATION 2024 CARRY OVER FUNDS. Wright, Stanley

HUGHES: Questions?

DELORIA: Mike, you good with that?

MASCARENAS: Yeah, you’ll see a lot of these come through this time of year because it’s really about fiscal years and how they don’t align. County fiscal year is January through December. State fiscal year is April to March. Federal fiscal year is October to September so you will often have carry over funds and grant programs that go from one budget cycle to the next really a house keeping thing.

HUGHES: Thank you. Any other questions? All in favor, aye, opposed – carried. Thank you.

WATTS: And then two other things was thank you for everybody that came to the Hazard Mitigation Planning meeting the other day. There was a lot of good interaction I thought. We got a lot of information out of it so I sent that all to CHLOETA to put into our plan to make the changes necessary and we’ll get a draft back from them.

And the last thing is our Tier III training that I proposed for you guys is going to be at the public safety building in the EOC upstairs on the 13^th of March from 9:00 to 12:00.

HUGHES: Can you remind me and maybe some others what the Tier III training is again?

WATTS: Basically it’s kind of your role and responsibilities in what you can do as the town supervisor during emergencies. What authorizations you have, what powers you have.

HUGHES: Got it. Great, thank you.

WATTS: You’re welcome.

HUGHES: Any other questions for emergency services this morning? Okay, thank you. Have a great day. Did anything come out of the EMS committee that needs to come before this committee?

MASCARENAS: No sir.

HUGHES: Great. Sheriff’s office –

GARRISON: Sheriff Reynolds is excused.

HUGHES: Great, thank you. Coroners – I don’t see Coroners here. Probation, Heather Sheehan good morning.

SHEEHAN: Good morning everyone. You have my report and I can answer any questions you may have.

HUGHES: Any questions for probation on this Monday morning? Thanks a lot, have a good one. Public Defender, Emily is here. Good morning Emily.

EVATT: Good morning. I’m here if anyone has any questions.

HUGHES: Any questions for Public Defender?

SMITH: How is your lawyer staffing going?

EVATT: We are fully staffed. We had some good success bringing people from out of the area from Buffalo, the city it’s just who is around and who wants a job and that’s only so much you can do.

SMITH: Are any of the issues like housing and things like that? Have you learned more about their transition here whether they found housing okay?

EVATT: We have members of staff that had houses here previously like vacation homes and then actually our youngest bought a house when they moved here. I think what draws some people to this line of work you know public service is loan forgiveness and I think I’m sure what will happen going forward with our Federal Government people are looking to make money instead of waiting ten years to be reimbursed for their loans. It’s hard to sell.

STANLEY: What is your average age of your new hire? Are you attracting younger lawyers?

EVATT: Well, compared to the District Attorney’s office sure most of the members of our staff are in their 30’s but we have not gotten anyone directly out of law school in over five years.

STANLEY: Excuse my ignorance but is working for your office and the DA’s office similar work?

EVATT: It’s two different sides of the same coin. It’s very similar academically.

STANLEY: But staffing wise would the same issues be for you acquiring lawyers as the DA’s office?

EVATT: Sure if we had openings we would have the exact same problems and have had them previously we’re just lucky at this juncture to be fully staffed.

HUGHES: Thank you for asking that question. Any other questions? Great, thanks a lot appreciate it. Our Conflict Defender, Miriam Hadden has been excused this morning. Is there anything else to come before public safety this morning? Okay then we stand adjourned. Thank you.

As there is no further discussion to come before this public safety committee it was adjourned at 9:50 a.m.

Respectfully submitted,

Judith Garrison, Clerk

Board of Supervisors