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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2014-8-11 minutes.pdf EXHIBIT 2015-037 with Revisions Minutes VILLAGE OF CAYUGA HEIGHTS Monday, August 11, 2014 Marcham Hall BOARD OF TRUSTEES MEETING 7:00 p.m. Present: Mayor Supron; Trustees: Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, Salton, and Woodard; Superintendent of Public Works Cross; Chief of Police Steinmetz; Clerk & Treasurer Mangione; Attorney Marcus. Absent: Fire Superintendent Tamborelle; Asst. Superintendent of Public Works Frisbie; Trustee Crooker. Call to Order: Mayor Supron called the meeting to order at 7:01 p.m. 1. Approval of Minutes: Resolution #7507 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Minutes of the July 14, 2014 Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees Meeting are approved as written in Exhibit FYE2015-028. Motion: Trustee Robinson Second: Trustee Friend Discussion: none Ayes: Trustees Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, Salton, and Woodard Nays: none Abstentions: Mayor Supron Motion carried 2. Report of Fire Superintendent Tamborelle (Exhibit FYE2015-029) Superintendent Tamborelle was not in attendance. 3. Report of Assistant Superintendent of Public Works Frisbie: (Exhibit FYE2015-030) Asst. Superintendent Frisbie was not in attendance. Superintendent Cross fielded questions on recent significant storm damage. It was categorized as having the widest range of impact to the Village in memory; it will require weeks of digging debris, sand, and gravel from approximately fifty (50) culverts which were affected. A report to this effect was submitted to Tompkins County Emergency Services for inclusion in possible relief from New York State. Additionally, Klein Road was washed out. The storm was on Sunday requiring emergency call-out overtime. A discussion on the possible duration and appropriate signage related to the closure of Klein Road followed. Chief Steinmetz will assess alternatives and discuss them with Asst. Superintendent Frisbie and Superintendent Cross within the next 24 hours. 4. Privilege of the Floor: Mr. Brian Eden, Village of Cayuga Heights Representative on the Environmental Management Council, also sits on the board of Solar Tompkins. He was pleased to report that a number of Cayuga Heights’ property owners have enrolled to install solar. His attendance at the meeting was to talk about storm water. A few years ago he presented a Cornell, CUNY, & Columbia University study on the effects of climate change in NY titled ClimAID. The effects of more frequent and more severe storms cannot be mitigated by digging deeper ditches and putting in larger culverts. There are other solutions such as greener infrastructure that will require budgeting in the upcoming years and cooperation between municipalities. Bio-swales and other small systems that will retain water and release it over time can keep water from causing destruction. Superintendent Cross pointed out that when a pipe/culvert fails then the water goes in whichever way is easiest for it. 5. Report of the Mayor a. The Village’s Procurement Policy needs to be updated; purchasing practice needs to follow the policy. The current document and a NYS template were distributed with the meeting packet. Clerk Mangione will review available documentation and produce a draft for discussion at the next board meeting. b. The Zoning Review Committee continues to meet bi-weekly. Each member of the committee has their area of expertise. They are ready to begin work on the section which addresses the commercial area. c. A letter to be sent to Comcast concerning their merger with Time Warner Cable and the lack of completed contracts with several local municipalities was discussed. A resolution authorizing Mayor Supron to send the letter was reintroduced. Resolution #7508 WHEREAS: Franchise negotiations between the Village of Cayuga Heights and Time Warner Cable are ongoing; BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights authorizes the Village Mayor to send a letter to Comcast opposing their merger with TWC until a new franchise agreement has been reached and entered into with the Village of Cayuga Heights. Motion: Trustee Robinson Second: Trustee Hamilton Ayes: Trustees Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, and Woodard Nays: Trustee Salton Abstentions: none Motion carried At this point, the passing of long-time resident, Cornell professor, and artist Jack Lambert was mentioned. Mr. Lambert’s drawing of Marcham Hall is used on the Village’s letterhead and website. He is known to have captured numerous scenes from around the area. Resolution #7509 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights recognizes the generosity and artistic ability of the late Mr. Jack Lambert who has gifted the use of his iconic drawing of Marcham Hall to the Village. Motion: Trustee Robinson Second: Trustee Hamilton Ayes: Trustees Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, Salton, and Woodard Nays: none Abstentions: none Motion carried d. An issue of the newsletter, Village Voices is in production. Additional articles are needed; ideas were suggested and articles will be forwarded to Clerk Mangione when completed. e. The Shared Services Committee is exploring lowering court costs. f. A letter to Senator O’Mara and Assemblywoman Lifton (Exhibit FYE2015-032) requesting their help in extending the Shared Services/Property Tax Freeze Credit beyond the stated look-back period of January 1, 2012 has been prepared. Discussion surrounding which date would be most appropriate for inclusion in the letter ensued. It was decided that the letter will focus on requesting the look-back date of 2008. Resolution #7510 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights authorizes the Village Mayor to send a letter to Senator O’Mara and Assemblywoman Lifton urging a look-back date of 2008 for inclusion in Shared Services computation. Motion: Trustee Salton Second: Trustee Friend Ayes: Trustees Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, Salton, and Woodard Nays: none Abstentions: none Motion carried g. The Bolton Point Water Commission Meeting last month was heated. A formula for adjusting/eliminating the minimum water use charge has been under review by the Commission. Since 95% of Bolton Point’s revenue is based on water billing and 75% of its costs are fixed, it is imperative that any change to the current calculation of charges provide for sustainability of the service. Voting came down to 5 to 4 against implementation of any change at this time. The Commission will continue to study the proposal. h. A proposal to (re)write the Village’s Emergency Plan has been received from The Empire Group. The proposed charge to complete the entire plan is in excess of $8,000, whereas a template for the Village to use would cost $3,500. Trustee Woodard, a member of the Public Safety Committee, will review the current plan as time allows. 6. Reports of Trustees Trustee Robinson shared topics under study by the Finance Committee which plans more frequent meetings going forward. Mark Kreydt, Executive Vice President and the Village’s agent at Tompkins Insurance Agencies, presented a Valuation Comparison Report of the Village’s insured properties. The report compares Historical Insurance Value to 2014 Insurable Value for each property. Although the change in value increased 10% and would translate to approximately $2,000 in additional premium, the valuations need further scrutiny. Superintendent Cross plans to review the report’s supporting documentation and advise the Finance Committee. Trustee Robinson also shared the Committee’s plans to monitor monthly bank reconciliations and fund reporting produced by the accounting software in more detail. Trustee Salton, one of the Village’s representatives on the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium Executive Committee, reported that an assumption of a 5% increase in premium has been projected. Private health insurance premiums will probably increase significantly more than 5%, however Trustee Salton feels that the Consortium should be striving to keep premiums flat. Don Barber has been hired by the Consortium to fill the position of Executive Director. 7. Report of Chief Steinmetz (FYE2015-033a,b,c) There were no questions on the Chief’s submitted report. a. The Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Mapping Layers and Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) Information (FYE2015-034) was presented by Chief Steinmetz. Both this document and FYE2015-035 had been sent to Attorney Marcus for his review. Modifications were made by Attorney Marcus with input from Chief Steinmetz and distributed to all parties involved. This MOU “specifically addresses law enforcement response zone boundaries and the sharing of information necessary to coordinate dispatch and response of law enforcement agencies that are dispatched by separate 9-1-1 Centers.” Other drafts will likely follow from the other parties. b. A draft Intermunicipal Agreement (Police Services) by and between the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office, Tompkins County and the Cayuga Heights Police Department (CHPD) was reviewed. Prior to 2004 all CHPD officer were sworn Deputy Sheriffs; this swearing-in is no longer performed. Now the officers are Citizens in Uniform if they respond to a call outside Cayuga Heights’ municipal boundary due to a shortage of Sheriff’s officer availability. In NYS under General Municipal Law (GML) any officer can respond if a crime has been committed. Therefore, currently CHPD officers have no jurisdiction if a violation has been committed. This MOU covers a loophole and protects the officers, police administration, and the Village financially and legally. Joint trainings and DWI checkpoints involving multiple agencies save money and are more effective. This MOU is a work-in-progress and the Board of Trustees can expect to see revisions. Trustee Woodard left the meeting at 9:00 p.m. 8. Report of Superintendent of Public Works Cross a. The Cayuga Heights’ website has verbiage regarding Drainage and Driveways. It has been the policy to perform work in the Village’s right-of-way at the homeowner’s request. Mayor Supron believes that this language should be removed from the website. Leading homeowners to believe that they have control over the right-of-way can invite problems. Stormwater management and drainage planning are part of a cohesive plan for the entire area. The installation of individual culverts that are not part of the overall plan can create fail-points. Resolution #7511 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: The Board of Trustees of the Village of Cayuga Heights authorizes removal of language related to Drainage and Driveways from the Cayuga Heights’ website. Motion: Trustee Hamilton Second: Trustee Friend Ayes: Trustees Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, and Salton Nays: none Abstentions: none Motion carried b. There is nothing to report on the NYS DEC phosphorus formal determination for the Waste Water Treatment Plant. c. The NYS DEC recently sponsored a public presentation of the data collected by the Cayuga Lake Modeling Project (CLMP). Brian Eden attended the meeting and believes the data is good news so far for municipalities that have wastewater treatment plants. It shows that the vast majority of phosphorus is coming from the tributaries. Any benefit gained from requiring municipalities to further reduce phosphorus output would have an insignificant result and be incredibly expensive. The bad news coming out of the report is the DEC, working with the EPA, seems adamant about doing a TMDL so somebody will be paying. None of the researchers is recommending this. Any action will be five years down the road. Most of the phosphorus is coming from Salmon Creek which passes through farmlands, which is exempt. Once the problem of phosphorus load has been identified, a corrective action should be formulated. There are hundreds of years of legacy phosphorus in the glaciated deposits. 9. Report of Clerk & Treasurer Mangione (FYE2015-036) Requests for late tax payment penalty waivers by Amelia and Oliver Habicht and Lisa Sahn were submitted to the Board. Following a discussion, no action was taken. The Clerk notified the requesters by mail. Resolution #7512 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Fiscal year-end Budget Journal entries for FYE2014 consisting of General Fund (A) entries 210-338, Water Fund (F) entries 042-053, Sewer Fund (G) entries 059-098, and Capital Fund (H) entries 018- 021 are approved for inclusion in the Village of Cayuga Heights Annual Update Document to be submitted. Motion: Trustee Salton Second: Trustee Robinson Ayes: Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, and Salton Nays: none Abstentions: none Motion carried Resolution #7513 BE IT RESOLVED THAT: Abstract #3 for FYE2015 consisting of Trust and Agency vouchers 13 – 21 in the amount of $16,127.65 and Consolidated Fund vouchers 102 - 183 in the amount of $166,449.31 is approved and the Treasurer is instructed to make payments thereon. Motion: Trustee Salton Second: Trustee Hamilton Ayes: Friend, Hamilton, Robinson, and Salton Nays: none Abstentions: none Motion carried 10. Report of Attorney Marcus No items to discuss. 11. Executive Session The Mayor convened an Executive Session of the Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees for the express purpose of discussing a personnel issue concerning the Business Advisory Committee at 9:32 p.m. Executive session was adjourned at 9:50 p.m. No action items resulted from the Executive Session. Meeting of the Village of Cayuga Heights Board of Trustees was adjourned by Mayor Supron at 9:51 p.m.