REGULAR BOARD
Monday, March 3, 2025 - 10:00 AM
Shaun Gillilland, Chairman
James Monty, Vice-Chairman
Chairman Gillilland called this Regular Board to order at 10:00 am with the following Supervisors in attendance: Clayton Barber, Matthew Brassard, Chris Clark, Derek Doty, Shaun Gillilland, Charlie Harrington, Steve McNally, James Monty, Cathleen Reusser, Favor Smith, Ike Tyler, Joe Pete Wilson, Margaret Wood and Mark Wright. Robin DeLoria, Ken Hughes, Matt Stanley and Davina Thurston were excused.
Department Heads present: Laura Carson, James Dougan, Judy Garrison, Mary McGowan, Dan Manning, Michael Mascarenas, Jack Moulton, David Reynolds and Heather Sheehan.
Also present: Josh Favro, William Tansey, Roy Holzer, Krista Moran, Jennifer Fifield and Margaret Bartley.
News media: None present.
GILLILLAND: I call this meeting of the Board of Supervisors to order if you would join me with the pledge of allegiance. We will begin with the roll call, please.
Thank you. I don’t think we have any guests this morning specifically to come to address us. I was just going to say one thing, I was gone for about a week, two, three weeks ago to Salt Lake City for an award ceremony concerning my farm and through the tremendous partnership we have as a farmer with Essex County Soil and Water they had put us in for a national award for a producer conservation award basically and then I actually received an email in January essentially saying, congratulations you won this award and I thought it was a spam email then I checked with Soil and Water and no, they put us in for it. So, an Essex County Farm won the national award as the top conservation producing farm in the United States and it’s pretty dam good with a county of only 4% arable land and not that many farms to be put in and get national recognition like that and it was a great trip out to Salt Lake City. There was an award’s dinner. There was over a 1000 people there. These are all conservation professionals all across the soil and water conservation districts and USDA. I talked to people from Samoa, Porto Rico, Virgin Islands, everywhere and unfortunately some new friends I met there are no longer employed with the Federal Government so, we are in a sad state. Anyway, we’ll go onto resolutions please.
MONTY: I just want to offer my congratulations Shaun, to you and your wife and your farm. You also have some recognition coming from New York State Legislative body it just isn’t prepared.
GILLILLAND: Thank you. I’m not here trying to blow my own horn, because we don’t do anything that’s unusual in the county and the groups of farmers we work with are the top performing people and very smart people trying to keep agriculture alive. Thank you.
RESOLUTION #45 – ACCEPTING, ADOPTING AND PLACING ON FILE POLICIES, PLANS, PROCEDURES AND ANNUAL REPORTS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Tyler, seconded by Mr. Doty, and duly adopted.
RESOLUTION #46 – AUTHORIZING BUDGET AMENDMENTS FOR VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Tyler, seconded by Mr. Wilson and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
RESOLUTION #47 – AUTHORIZING THE COUNTY MANAGER TO CLOSE THE COUNTY COMPLEX UNTIL 1:00 P.M. ON FRIDAY, APRIL 11, 2025, TO PERFORM AN ACTIVE SAFETY DRILL.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Clark, seconded by Ms. Reusser, and duly adopted.
GILLILLAND: Discussion?
TYLER: I just think maybe at some point maybe in the future we can do this on a day that the supervisors are all here so they can be part of that in case something happens here. To me, that would make sense too.
MASCARENAS: Sure. Yes.
GILLILLAND: Further discussion? Being none, all in favor, opposed – carries.
RESOLUTION #48 – AUTHORIZING VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS TO APPLY FOR AND ACCEPT GRANTS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Monty and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
RESOLUTION #49 – AUTHORIZING APPOINTMENTS TO BOARDS, COMMITTEES AND/OR COUNCILS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Wilson, seconded by Mr. Doty, and duly adopted.
RESOLUTION #50 – ACCEPTING AND PLACING ON FILE THE 2024 ANNUAL ACCOUNTING OF MONIES RECEIVED AND DISBURSED BY THE ESSEX COUNTY CLERK.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Wright, seconded by Mr. Clark, and duly adopted.
RESOLUTION #51 – AUTHORIZING THE CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT ON BEHALF OF ESSEX COUNTY WITH THE NEW YORK STATE OFFICE OF CHILDREN AND FAMILY SERVICES FOR THE 2025 RESOURCE ALLOCATION PLAN FOR YOUTH PROGRAM FUNDING AS PROVIDED FOR IN THE 2025 ESSEX COUNTY BUDGET.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Brassard, seconded by Mr. Tyler and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
RESOLUTION #52 – AUTHORIZING THE PURCHASING AGENT TO AWARD BIDS, ISSUE CONTRACTS/AGREEMENTS OR PURCHASE ORDERS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Barber, seconded by Mr. Tyler and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
GILLILLAND: Discussion?
MASCARENAS: Yes, Mr. Doty had asked me a question on the TwinState one at the last meeting. So, yeah, it is sole source. The original project that was bid out we ended up with a selected vendor once you have that selected vendor you end up married to them, right? That service goes on. So it’s just a renewal contract to provide support from that project that we completed in 2024.
GILLILLAND: Any further discussion? Being none, roll call please.
RESOLUTION #53 – RECOGNIZING LONG-TERM EMPLOYEES OF ESSEX COUNTY.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Gillilland, unanimously seconded, and duly adopted.
RESOLUTION #54 – AUTHORIZING SUBMISSION OF AN APPLICATION TO THE ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY FOR A PERMIT RELATIVE TO T-MOBILE’S MODIFICATION OF ITS ANTENNAS AND RELATED EQUIPMENT ON TERRY MOUNTAIN.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Monty, seconded by Mr. Doty and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
RESOLUTION #55 – AUTHORIZING CONTRACT AMENDMENTS/CHANGE ORDERS IN VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Clark, seconded by Mr. Brassard and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
GILLILLAND: Before we go to the next resolution point of order, I would like to give the floor to the County Attorney to give an explanation of this.
MANNING: So this resolution is a resolution appointing an Essex County Board of Elections Republican Commissioner and as I explained before there is a process Section 3-204 of the election law provides a step by step process to how this is to be done. It starts with each party at the committee level submitting a proposed name to this board to be appointed. That has to be done 30 days before January 1st that was not properly done. If that’s not properly done what happens then is then the members of the political party, the Republican members of the political party can appoint somebody but if they don’t, there is a 60 day period that runs and that 60 day period is a period if the party members don’t appoint there is a second round of submission by each of the committees the republican and democrat committee where they submit a name. If a name is submitted and not acted upon and 60 days goes by then at that time if a second certificate is not filed and the 60 day period has gone by then the members of this board that are Republican get to vote on who they want as their Republican Commissioner of Elections. The statue is very ambiguous and silent as to how it’s supposed to be done. It just says the Republican members of this board so I interpret that to mean so if we have transparency that it should be done at a full board meeting. You had already appointed Mr. Holzer or it had already run through ways and means and now it is here so I just feel although the statue is silent as to how it can be done, someone might interpret it as well, the Republicans can get together, I don’t know how you would get together as a group without violating many things which is a quorum in open meetings law so that’s why we are back again to have only Republican members vote on this resolution and I realize that it is unorthodox, the resolution will state this in it. I’m going to add just at the bottom that’s it is pursuant to the Election Law 3-204.
GILLILLAND: So this will be motion and seconds both by Republican members so I guess I will have a motion. Thank you. We will go to roll call of our Republican members.
RESOLUTION #56 – APPOINTING ROY HOLZER AS ESSEX COUNTY BOARD OF ELECTIONS REPUBLICAN COMMISSIONER.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Smith, seconded by Mr. Brassard and adopted upon a roll-call vote of Republican members as follows:
AYES: 1677 votes (Barber, Harrington, Reusser, Monty, Brassard, Clark,
Wright, Tyler, Gillilland, Smith)
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 34 votes (DeLoria)
GILLILLAND: Congratulations Mr. Holzer.
GARRISON: Resolutions from the floor, everyone has copies on their desks.
RESOLUTION #57 – OF CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION TO HON. TIMOTHY J. PIERCE TOWN OF LEWIS – JUSTICE UPON HIS RETIREMENT.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Monty, unanimously seconded, and duly adopted.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor please?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #58 – OF CONDOLENCE TO THE FAMILY OF SANDRA McQUEEN.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Tyler, unanimously seconded, and duly adopted.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor please?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #59 – SUPPORTING NEW YORK STATE CORRECTION OFFICERS AND CALLING FOR THE ELIMINATION OF HUMANE ALTERNATIVES TO LONG-TERM SOLITARY CONFINEMENT (HALT) ACT REGULATIONS.
This resolution was moved by Mr. Monty, unanimously seconded, and duly adopted.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor please?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #60 – DECLARING FULL CONFIDENCE IN ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR BARBARA RICE.
This resolution was moved by Mr. McNally, unanimously seconded, and duly adopted.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor please?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
MCNALLY: Shaun, can I speak on that for a second? I know that you don’t want to hear but I’ve been working in Government for over 20 years now and we, in the Adirondack Park have the least rights of anybody in the state when it comes to our personal property and our land being said, this limits our economic development, our available housing and I’ve been to many, many APA board meetings and Barb Rice and the current board right now have done a wonderful job. I’m sure everyone in this room has probably met Barb at one time or knows the board members. These people are accessible and they will listen to your concerns and going back years definitely I give Barb and that board my full support.
GILLILLAND: Thank you. Anything further on this issue?
REUSSER: I would just like to comment as a new supervisor last year shortly after taking office Barb Rice and Keith McKeever both came to my office and extended their help in helping the Town of Elizabethtown with all kinds of projects but especially our waste water and I have a huge amount of appreciation for the current leadership.
GILLILLAND: Thank you.
DOTY: I’d like to echo the same as far as full confidence. I have many different avenues of which Barb has helped me out over the years. We are very fortunate that in many instances I call it coming home for Barb so she hasn’t forgotten where she’s from or who she represents. So this is a great resolution. Thank you.
GILLILLAND: Thank you Mr. McNally for putting that together.
MONTY: I’d like to echo everything that everyone said here. She has not forgotten where her roots are Derek, you are extremely right. She thinks about what happens here and what we need here and I know there’s a lot of supposed turmoil up there but some of that turmoil is caused by her trying to hold people accountable which doesn’t necessarily bode well with some of the other interests at the Park Agency. Thank you.
GILLILLAND: Yes, I would echo that. I mean having an Executive Director up there and a board that actually recognize that those of us that live and work in the park have the greatest stake in the future of the park and are not just considered flotsam and jetsam in the way of a lot of agendas. Thank you very much for that. Anything further to come before this board?
GARRISON: We have one more resolution.
RESOLUTION #61 – INTRODUCING PROPOSED LOCAL LAW NO. 2 OF 2025 ENTITLED, “A LOCAL LAW TO RESCIND LOCAL LAW NO. 4 OF 2023 ENTITLED “ESSEX COUNTY LOCAL LAW NO. 4 OF 2023 – A LOCAL LAW RELATING TO THE CREATION OF THE INDEPENDENT OFFICE OF ESSEX COUNTY ASSIGNED COUNSEL”
This resolution was moved by Mr. Brassard, seconded by Mr. Clark and adopted upon a roll-call vote as follows:
AYES: 2448 votes
NOES: 0 votes
ABSENT: 405 votes (Hughes, Stanley, DeLoria, Thurston)
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor please?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
GILLILLAND: Discussion?
MANNING: Just a little background. As you know we have an assigned counsel department. The New York State Office of Indigent Services is the New York State body that oversees all this and as you know we’ve been getting a substantial amount of funding from them. The next three years we’ll be getting $1.2 million, $1.2 million and $1.3 million and Mike and I were on a call last week where they found another $400,000 for the next two years. This has helped us offset some of our expense but what the state giveth in one hand they take in another as Mike knows, they changed the assigned counsel rate which was needed to be changed to $158.00 an hour from the prior $75.00 but of that, we have to pay an additional $42.00 or around that.
MASCARENAS: Yes, half the increase.
MANNING: So what happened is when this started this local law, I put together this local law which structured how the assigned counsel program should work and the structure that I envisioned was an assigned counsel administrator who is Leah Burke right now would be the head of the department so to speak on a day to day basis, do all the work, do all the ground work, everything that is needed and then they make you have an assigned counsel supervising attorney and I felt that the assigned counsel administrator should be the head of the department and not the supervising attorney. So over the months, they didn’t like that. I put together the law, I wanted to get it going and they take a while to get things done so I put this law together the way I thought it should be done then as time has gone by they didn’t like it so what we have done is even though this was in place we have to submit to ILS our assigned counsel plan, the plan not this law and our conflict defender plan and local law so those were submitted, or no wait, I digress so they didn’t like the way I did this law so we had to change our plan to make the supervising attorney the person who is in charge but the assigned counsel administrator would be under he or she. It’s really more a title and some responsibility changes but because of that we prepared an assigned counsel plan which is the opposite of this. The plan was submitted, the BAR association needs to approve it, the BAR association approved it. This board approved it and it was sent to ILS for approval, they haven’t approved it, it’s going to take forever and so we are going to just operate under the assigned counsel plan. I know that’s a lot so what I’m seeking is to repeal this local law, the assigned counsel plan as we have it right now and the conflict defender local law has all this in it except for it’s flip flopped with the supervising attorney is in charge and the assigned counsel administrator is under that person even though the assigned counsel administrator, Leah Burke does the majority of the work.
GILLILLAND: Further discussion?
DOTY: Just to clarify, so who’s in charge?
MANNING: The assigned counsel attorney has the authority he has the general oversite of everything but he’s part time so he has performing duties, he makes sure all the assigned counsel people are qualified, he makes sure they get their CLE’s there’s a whole host of duties that he has however, the real nuts and bolts of the operation the assigning of counsel, checking bills which the auditors do the yeoman’s work of that is going to be done by Leah the assigned counsel administrator and that’s the way it should practically be I mean, even though he’s up here, she’s down here in the pecking order she’s doing the majority of the work.
MASCARENAS: Yeah, I think the state you know when they do these things and pass legislation, approved plans they are very cookie cutter and they are geared toward larger counties and I think Dan has brought up some really good points in terms of the way we operate is a little different but it’s about size and capacity as compared to other counties that may have full time attorneys that are working as administrators of this program. The majority of ours is being dealt with by an individual who does a substantial amount of work and she does a tremendous job so the state has a hard time understanding differences and plans based on county size and need and that’s where the conflict came in play between the two. So he did a really nice job of trying to do what the board wanted and what we should have done but not acceptable to them really.
MANNING: I don’t want to belabor this but they wanted the assigned counsel supervising attorney to be full time and make a lot of money.
MASCARENAS: I said absolutely not.
DOTY: Thank you.
GILLILLAND: Further discussion?
SMITH: I just want to weigh in a little bit, it’s also because they want to have disciplinary control over the person in charge of the lead representation program so it is the court of administration as an attorney subject to that kind of stuff too.
GILLILLAND: Further discussion? Being none, roll call please. Thank you. Anything further to come before this board?
WRIGHT: Yes, I would just like to offer a resolution of appreciation and congratulations to Ticonderoga Town Justice James F. O’Bryan on his retirement from the Ticonderoga municipal court after 30 years of dedicated service.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #62 – OF CONGRATULATIONS AND APPRECIATION TO HON. JAMES R. O’BRYAN TOWN OF TICONDEROGA JUSTICE UPON HIS RETIREMENT. Wright, unanimous
BRASSARD: I have one resolution, we were quite busy in sports in Moriah this past weekend. I would like to offer a resolution of congratulations to the boys and girls Basketball team they won the Section VII Class C championship and a resolution to the Lady Viking Cheerleaders they won the Class D section VII cheerleading sectionals and the overall CVAC champions.
GILLILLAND: Twelve to allow it on the floor?
GARRISON: Yes, we do.
RESOLUTION #63 – OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MORIAH CENTRAL SCHOOL BOYS VARSITY BASKETBALL TEAM FOR WINNING THE 2024-2025 CVAC SECTION VII, CLASS C CHAMPIONSHIP. Brassard, unanimous
RESOLUTION #64- OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MORIAH CENTRAL SCHOOL GIRLS VARSITY BASKETBALL TEAM FOR WINNING THE 2024-2025 CVAC SECTION VII, CLASS C CHAMPIONSHIP. Brassard, unanimous
RESOLUTION #65- OF CONGRATULATIONS TO THE MORIAH CENTRAL SCHOOL VIKING CHEERLEADING TEAM FOR WINNING THE 2025 CVAC SECTION VII, CLASS D CHEERLEADING CHAMPIONSHIP. Brassard, unanimous
GILLILLAND: Anything further to come before this board? Being none, we are adjourned.
As there was no further discussion to come before this regular board meeting it was adjourned at 10:27 a.m.
Respectfully submitted,
Judith Garrison, Clerk
Board of Supervisors