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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2010-02-23-STB SPECIAL TOWN BOARD MEETING FEBRUARY 23 , 2010 * *Note the full discussion is available on the audio version posted at www. ulysses . ny . us . Present : Supervisor Roxanne Marino ; Board Members Liz Thomas, Lucia Tyler, David Kerness and Kevin Romer; Deputy Supervisor Sue Poelvoorde ; Deputy Town Clerk Patricia Halloran. Others Present : Mary Bouchard, Bookkeeper; Ken Zeserson, Planning Board Chairman and Bill Chaisian, Free Press Reported (arrived at 8 : 15pm) . Supervisor Marino opened the meeting at 7 : 30 p . m . Proposal from Ken Zeserson Citizens Advisory Board At the February 9, 2010 Regular Town Board meeting, Mr. Zeserson had proposed establishing a Citizens Advisory Board to assist the Town Board with following and responding to the Marcellus Shale gas drilling issue and Ms . Thomas has written a resolution that she read into the record as follows : RESOLUTION TO CREATE A CITIZEN ' S ADVISORY BOARD TO FOCUS ON DRILLING FOR GAS IN THE MARCELLUS SHALE Whereas extracting natural gas from the Marcellus Shale by means of hydrofracturing is a complex topic with potential negative effects on water, air, roads, community, and legislated land uses within the Town of Ulysses limits ; and Whereas according to Article IX of the New York State Constitution, it is the Town ' s duty to enact laws to protect the safety, health, and well-being of persons or property within the Town borders ; and Whereas without paid staff to work on this subject, the Town Board does not have sufficient information to make critical decisions . Therefore be it resolved that the Town of Ulysses appoint a Gas Drilling Advisory Board consisting of citizens from within the Town of Ulysses and Village of Trumansburg to assist in collecting information. Suggested tasks involve but are not limited to : • Providing the Town Board with background material specifically to explore road protection ordinances and driveway permits . • Explore protections for residents living in close proximity to wells regarding noise, light, air quality, water quality, and disposal of waste water from drilling activities . • Collect data on existing vertical wells , abandoned or active. Provide data on lease lands to keep residents aware of drilling activities within the Town. • Work with other municipalities to exert local control over land uses and watershed management. • Explore mechanisms to affect placement of pipelines throughout the Town. • Implement local education programs . Be it also resolved that Ken Zeserson will serve as chair of the Gas Drilling Advisory Board and Elizabeth Thomas will serve as Town Board liaison. The Advisory Board will attempt to include representation from the Village of Trumansburg in order to help advice Village Trustees on topics of concern specifically to the Village. The Board will consist of 5 citizens at most, with the following having been identified : Ken Zeserson Michelle Bamberger Robert Oswald Judy Abrams P 2 Special Town Board Meeting 02/23/2010 The Board discussed the resolution and made some friendly amendments and changes . Ms . Marino moved seconded by Mr. Kerness to allow the friendly amendments discussed for the resolution; the Board unanimously approved. Ms . Thomas moved the amended resolution seconded by Mr. Kerness the following : Ms . Marino aye Ms . Thomas aye Ms . Tyler aye Mr. Kerness aye Mr. Romer aye Adopted Mr. Zeserson left the meeting. Operating Statement 2009 Ms . Bouchard said that there area few accounts that went over budget such as : • Town Barn Capital A5132 . 2 — over expended so the budget needs to be adjusted up from the original $350,000 because the project was approved by the Board at a higher amount. This fund would be adjusted using funds from the Building Reserve Account. • Youth Programs CE A7310 . 4 — this is over by $7 ,000 and that is because the Supervisor paid in the December 2008 bill in January 2009 — the account is just off set by one quarterly payment each year - it' s just a minor adjustment • Social Security Account is also over and has to be looked at closer. • Planning CE B8020 .4 - the amounts spent is way over the amount that was budgeted . It seems that the budget was never modified over the year as money was charged for the Comprehensive Plan / Ag Farmland; it may be the $ 15 ,000 payment for the fly-over. This was never in the budget line for 2009 but it is in the revenue. A transfer needs to be made . Also , the monies spent for the Ag Farmland Grant (2/3 of money spent) have never been submitted for any reimbursement . So , there is around $ 10 ,000 missing in the revenue. • Interest earnings in every fund are lower then what was budgeted (reflects lower interest paid in 2009 .) • DA transfer to the A fund to pay for the building — originally in Building Reserve from in DA. • The Board questioned the revenue that was received in the Water #3 account and will ask Mr. Austic about this and other items . Ms . Marino and Ms . Bouchard are still working on the operating statement . Ms . Marino said that she has pointed out a couple of things that she has highlighted that they are still researching and if the Board has any other questions to get to her or Ms . Bouchard. Mr. Kerness asked Ms . Bouchard to make a summary operating statement . Ms . Thomas said the Board had received in the past a one page summary page with the totals on it. Ms . Bouchard asked if anyone had an old one that she could look at to make sure she could get what they were requesting. They explained what they were talking about and Mr. Kerness will get back to Ms . Bouchard. Ms . Bouchard left the meeting. Ms . Marino said she had some announcements and things to make sure are on the calendar. a 411C s.. Special Town Board Meeting 3 02/23/2010 • Meeting with the Town of Ithaca March 5th at 1 : 30 p . m . in the Ulysses Town Hall to discuss the water issues . Ms . Marino outlined the information that she has asked for from the Town of Ithaca and if there is other information that anyone wants let Ms . Marino know. • Advisory Board for Tompkins County Animal Control for Dogs when there is a Disaster (the Town of Ulysses is part of this because they contract with the SPCA) and the meeting is Thursday, February 25th at 11 : 30 a.m . at Ithaca City Hall . Ms . Marino said that there is no way she can attend that meeting because f she has another meeting with her full time job so she is looking for someone else to attend . Ms . Thomas said she would be able to attend this . • Disaster Management Hazards Mitigation meeting is scheduled for March 17th Mr. Romer will attend . • Workshop entitled Managing Emergencies in Tompkins County an overview for municipals officials and that will be at TC3 on March 30th, 5 : 30 p .m . -7 : 00 p . m . • Marcellus Shale Task Force Regional meeting March 4th — announcement came from TCOG. • Ms . Marino noted that the Board got an email from her on the proposals that were authorized to move forward for the RFP on the Energy Management personnel for community education that Ulysses is partnering with several other municipalities with Town of Dryden being the lead . • Fire contract public hearing is being set up with the Town of Covert and Hector to have the joint hearing on the Fire Contract with the Village of Trumansburg after receiving the updated contract back from the Village. The updated contract was mailed out and the Village mentioned at that time about the joint public hearing that should be scheduled on the Village and Town of Ulysses attorneys ' advice. Ms . Marino sent a letter to the two other municipalities (Covert and Hector) . The tentative dates are March 15th or 18th at 6 : 30 p .m . This will be worked out. • Ms . Marino received a request from a citizen from Jacksonville to have police protection extended to Jacksonville . Trumansburg Police got back to Ms . Marino pl and said it was possible . Ms . Hillman, President of the Jacksonville Community Association, contacted Ms . Marino through an email and said that she has not heard from anybody in Jacksonville who is interested in this . As the President of the Association she would be happy to try and organize an information gathering meeting for the people of Jacksonville to find out how much actual interest there is, i . e . if it is just a couple of people or if there is enough interest to have the Town take the next step of finding out the terms of a protection district and cost. Ms . Marino feels this is the next logical step . • The Board brought up the suggestion from Enfield about the thought of forming an Ethics Review Board jointly with the couple of Towns instead of using the Tompkins County Ethics Review Board. The general consensus was to stay with the County. The Board suggested that the two new Supervisors ' may want to attend the Ulysses training on Ethics when it occurs . • Ms . Marino read the resolution into record to authorize the Town to enter into an agreement with the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium. AUTHORIZATION TO ENTER INTO AN AGREEMENT WITH THE GREATER TOMPKINS COUNTY MUNICIPAL INSURANCE CONSORTIUM Whereas, the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG) is comprised of all the municipalities in Tompkins County and Whereas, (name of municipality) is a member of the Tompkins County Council of Governments (TCCOG), and Whereas, health care costs for Tompkins County and other local governments have been increasing each year at rates much higher than inflation, which can be addressed by pooling our buying power, 4 Special Town Board Meeting 02/23/2010 Whereas , in 2007 , the County, on behalf of TCCOG, accepted an incentive grant award under the New York State Shared Municipal Services Program to assist the municipalities in Tompkins County to create local municipal health care consort into, and Whereas, the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium developed health benefits coverage for all participating municipalities with the intent of providing a net savings to the taxpayers of Tompkins County, a goal the (name of municipality) supports , and Whereas, TCCOG encourages the signature of an inter-municipal agreement by TCCOG members, an RESOLVED, on recommendation of the Committee, the Chief Elected Official of (municipality) is hereby authorized to execute a municipal cooperative agreement effective April 1 , 2010, with the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium for the, New York State Shared Municipal ServicesProgram. Special note : In June-August 2009 , municipalities passed a similar resolution. However, most resolutions included the condition that the agreement could only be signed as written on that date . The- Consortium has revised the agreement language to comply with the intent of the. New York State Insurance Department ' s Article 47 , which governs municipal health consortiums . The substantive change to the agreement is the inclusion of a union/labor representative as a voting member of the Consortium's Board of Directors . Ms . Tyler attends the meetings of the consortium and reported briefly on the status . The resolution will come before the Board at the Regular Town Board meeting to be held on March 9 , 2010 . Ms . Tyler distributed the minutes of the Health Consortium ' s meeting and Ms . Poelvoorde will create a folder for these . • Ms . Marino reported that the Town is now under contract with Tompkins County SPCA but a resident had contacted Mr. Austin, the previous DCO, with a complaint of a stray dog on Route 227 that was transferred to SPCA. The response the resident got from the SPCA was that they would not pick up the animal unless the person says they could capture the animal first . Ms . Marino phoned the resident to be clear and also phoned the SPCA on their policy on stray dogs and all, and now she has the SPCA policy on stray dogs for clarification. Ms . Marino spoke several times with both the complainant and the SPCA. There seems to have been some miscommunication and Ms. Marino does not want the policy spread that only captured animals will be picked up . Ms . Marino said that may be a very short summary can be put on the Web site. All and all the situation was straightened out. • A meeting will he held March 2' " at 3 : 00 pm to discuss the Web site with Ms . Thomas (who has worked with the web designer) Ms . Marino, Ms . Poelvoorde and Ms . Georgia to review . Mr. Kerness said that Ms . Thomas has given her updates to the job description and the latest version was dated February 23 , 2010, on the Water Superintendent . Mr. Kerness said that if there are no other corrections or changes he would like to send it to Steve Estes at Tompkins County Personnel and get his input. Ms . Marino said that there were no existing water-related jobs that really fit what the Town needs done and so that means there has to be a new position . All the other positions that were anything like this were competitive positions and right now whenever you make a new position it is by default competitive and then competitive class means you have to take a civil service test and then there are constraints on hiring the person; i . e. you have to hire one of the top three tested people . Ms . Marino said that Mr. Estes has said that he will try and petition NYS to make the job non-competitive so it is less supervisory and administrative so perhaps they will allow it to be non-competitive . The normal procedure is that the Town would tell TC Personnel you would like this job and they would draft something up that you work with it back and forth . That is where the Town is at. Mr. Estes has seen a draft that Special Town Board Meeting 5 02/23/2010 Mr. Kerness has pulled together for this job . Ms . Marino said it makes sense to now give the draft to Mr. Estes and have him give it back if he has issues . After the description is finalized the Town would have to pass a resolution establishing the position and then there would be an established position and then the Board can try and fill the position. Mr. Kerness said that this only may be the tip of the iceberg because there are some other positions that have to go on the payroll certification. Mr. Kerness told Ms . Marino that he would take the lead on this and write the next one, so he wants to get the water superintendent out of the way so he makes sure he knows how to write job descriptions . Ms . Marino was surprised to have this part of the Supervisor' s responsibilities to have to certify payrolls to the County because she never heard anything in all the Association of Towns training sessions . Anyone on the Town' s payroll other then the unclassified positions , which are elected officials, has to have a job description at Tompkins County Personnel that has to be an approved position and then there is reporting that has to take place to the County. Ms . Marino said that there are several positions in the Town that do not have positions of the County. Mr. Kerness said that there are basic job descriptions but the Town has just not classified the person into a job description where there already is a job description. The County is working with the Town on this . The Board discussed the job description briefly on the water position and made some changes . Ms . Poelvoorde brought up the topic of new tables for the conference room and the tables there presently will go to the Town Barns . Ms. Poelvoorde described a table system that can be used with multiple uses using different size tables . Ms . Poelvoorde has received a price quote from Race Office, but they do think they may be able to do better on the price. The Town Barn does need tables . Ms . Marino said that in the bigger picture at the last Board meeting there was some discussion about not buying any tables or furniture as part of the new construction so Ms . Marino said the Board needs to decide whether they are okay with buying tables for the Town Hall and the Town Barn is happy to have the tables now in the conference room. Ms . Marino thinks it would be nice to have more movable, flexible tables so the conference room can be made bigger or smaller for different sized groups . Chairs were also discussed briefly. The Board is okay with pursuing tables and Ms . Poelvoorde will continue to investigate this . Ms . Marino said she would like to discuss briefly in executive session matters related to personal appointment but being late she does not know if everyone is agreeable. The topic goes to some of the things the Board is learning in regards to the positions to certify to Tompkins County Personnel . Ms . Marino moved to go into executive session to discuss matters related to the appointment, promotion, demotion, discipline, or removal of particular personnel . Mr. Kerness seconded the motion and the vote was taken . Ms . Marino aye I Ms . Thomas aye Ms . Tyler aye Mr. Kerness aye Mr. Romer aye Adopted Ms. Marino told Ms . Halloran, Deputy Town Clerk that they would not make any decisions in the executive session and at the last meeting the Board went into executive session they just returned into session so they could adjourn the present meeting. Ms . Special Town Board Meeting 6 02/23/2010 Tyler said that would be all the Board does after they return from the executive session and will turn the tape back on and adjourn the meeting. Ms . Marino told Ms . Halloran that Ms . Georgia was okay with that the time before and this way she would not have to wait for the Board to return. Ms . Halloran said she would be okay with that if they did not mind turning the recorder off The digital recorder was placed on pause and Ms . Halloran showed them how to continue and stop the recording. Ms . Halloran showed them the other recorder. The Board adjourned to executive session at 9 : 40 p .m . * *Note there is no taped record of the continued meeting or meeting adjournment . The Board only turned on the digital recorder at 10 : 30 p .m . Ms . Marino reconvened the Special Board meeting at 10 : 30 p . m. and asked if there was any other business to be discussed. Mr. Romer said that he has only been here a short time but what he would like to see happen on the basis of equality and fairness and the appearance to the public is that everybody be on the same floor level including the Highway Superintendent and the Town Clerk by joining the Town Board at the same tables and level the playing field . Mr. Romer made this a motion. Ms . Thomas seconded the motion . Ms. Tyler said that may improve communications . Mr. Kerness asked if Mr. Meeker would have to sit at the table or could he just sit in the audience . Mr. Romer preferred that he sit at the table as an elected official of the Town but if he chooses to sit in the audience that would be his prerogative . Mr. Romer rephrased his motion to be : BE IT Resolved that the Town Board of the Town of Ulysses approve that all elected officials of the Town sit at the tables . Mr. Kerness seconded that. The Board discussed where the Attorney and Deputy Supervisor sit and thought it may be possible to have a couple of smaller tables . Ms . Marino said the positioning of tables could be worked on and that the new tables may be better served for this purpose because they have wheels and could be moved around more easily. Mr. Kerness said he would speak to Mr. Meeker tomorrow . Ms . Marino called the vote. Ms . Marino aye Ms . Thomas aye Ms . Tyler aye Mr. Kerness aye Mr. Romer aye Adopted Hearing no further business Ms . Marino moved seconded by Mr. Romer to adjourn the meeting. The Board unanimously approved and the meeting adjourned at 10 : 37 p . m . . Respectfully submitted, ( • . Special Town Board Meeting 7 02/23/2010 Marsha L. Georgia Town Clerk PH : mlg 1 1 II